1. Wooden & Sound Puzzles

Our daughter loved the big chunky wooden puzzles. Bonus, the chunky pieces double as individual play toys. Her favorite was the baby shark sound puzzle, she loved to play with the sharks on her own and would carry them around the house singing baby shark.

She also liked the Melissa & Doug puzzles. Great quality and our daughter also played with the pieces on their own, but she also liked doing the puzzles too!

2. Books

One can never have too many books! We do a book advent calendar for our daughter each year. You can read more about it and learn how to make your own budget-friendly book advent calendar in this post here.

You can also find a list of the books we used in my Amazon shop.

3. Plastic Dinosaurs (or animals)

Our daughter became obsessed with dinosaurs around the age of 2, and we found a big bag of them at a thrift shop for $7. She loved them and we have added more since! They quickly became one of her favorite toys. She loves to make "dinosaur castles" with her wooden blocks and try to feed them with her play food and dishes.

Plastic animals in general just tend to be a huge hit with kids, they are so much fun to play with!

4. Wooden Blocks or Mega Bloks

I mention Mega Bloks in my gift ideas for a 1-year-old post, but our daughter still plays with them now that she is almost four, so if your child doesn't have any yet, totally recommend it!

We also have a bunch of wooden blocks, as that was another amazing thrift shop find! She definitely prefers those over the Mega Bloks now but does play with both.

5. Wooden Train Set

I haven't met a toddler yet that doesn't love playing with trains on the wooden train track! Our daughter loves making her own tracks and playing with her trains.

6. Play Food & Dishes

Our daughter loves her play food, cookware, and dishes! She loved serving her toys pretend food and us too. While we do have a play kitchen, which I managed to snag on clearance at Target after the holidays one year, I don't believe it is necessary. Young children will have fun just playing with plastic food and dishes.

7. Rocking Horse

Luckily my parents held onto one of the wooden rocking horses we had growing up, so we were able to pass it on to my daughter. She loves to ride it. Perfect for any horse-loving kid!

8. Art Supplies

At around the age of 3, our daughter started to love art! She started with crayons, then markers, and then moved on to paint. We went through quite a few coloring books and then eventually she wanted to draw things on her own, so we got some cardstock paper for her.

9. Board Games

There are actually board games for younger kids and our daughter started playing Candy Land and Count Your Chickens a few months before she turned 4. These games are great for beginners and also help her practice colors and counting.