Our Favourite Toys for 2 to 7 Years Old

**Contain affiliate links**

We don’t have a lot of toys at home.  Mavi just like two kinds of toys: LEGO and dinosaur/animal figures, that’s just it.  All through the years, I don’t splurge nor buy toys as we don’t have the budget for it. I consider them as luxury so I just gave toys to Mavi as presents on his birthday and Christmas.  But because we “home” school, I purchase learning materials that my kids see as “toys” but in reality they are NOT really toys.    And because I am frugal, I buy toys that they can grow with, MULTIPURPOSE and something that they can play together.   So let me share with you the kids’ favourite things in the house.  These are the toys that we have in the house, except for the ones in my “wishlist and basket”.  These days are being played day in and day out by the boys.

NOTE:  ALWAYS SUPERVISE YOUNGER CHILDREN WHEN USING ANY OF THESE TOYS.  Do not leave them unattended.

FAVOURITE TOYS

LEGO, DUPLO and PLAYMOBIL.  Need I say more? These are the favourite in the house. We have plenty of LEGOs as this is Santa’s favourite present EVERY Christmas for 4 years!  And Vito’s Duplo and Playmobil were brought from the local store when they were on 50% off. I would never get them for a whole price! Vito is now snapping bricks together and loves the Playmobil people.  Both of my boys spend hours and hours playing with these toys.  They never get tired of them.  Perfect toy for creativity, concentration and developing fine motor skills!

For Playmobils, we have castles and pirates. They’re Mavi’s favourite toy and can play with them for hours!

My son loves the LEGO CLASSIC Bricks.  He doesn’t really like those with premade designs as he always wanted to design his own thing. So I highly recommend that you buy the basic LEGO BRICKS especially if you are getting you’re first Lego.  Having a plate is also good. 

 

 

miniLUK and BambiniLUK.  Mavi and I looooves this! We can’t get enough of answering all the booklets, especially those tricky ones!  I bought the Starter Pack and bought the advanced booklets separately.  There’s a version for younger kids, the BambiniLUK and some friend in Instagram said that they like it. Mavi is like “Mom, its making my brain tired LOL”

 

Montessori Botany  and Zoology/Insect Puzzles, Montessori Puzzle Maps.  I invested on these this year and it was worth it! I have puzzle loving kids, and Vito is currently addicted to them.  Aside from educational, these puzzles are also perfect for pincer grasp practice.  Mavi on the other hand is obsessed with my Asia and Europe puzzles.  He loves geography, loves to learn about countries and their locations.  Tower High Learning is my favourite Montessori shop as of the moment and this is where I purchase my materials.

 

Schliech Animal Figures and Safari Toobs are also an all time favourite in the house. The uses of these figures include imaginative play, learning about animals, habitat play, exploring landmarks and just about anything!  You see these mostly in my post!  When Vito was younger, he just uses Schleich are they are bigger since he’s mouthing things. Mavi is obsessed with dinosaurs, and he uses them now as characters for his homemade videos LOL.   Now he uses both types for play and learning.

 

 

Hape Uppercase, Lowercase and Number Puzzles.  With Mavi, I used the Melissa and Doug Magnetic letters (I still have them) and they were really really loved.  Now the problem is Vito mouths things and I made Vito use it, the sticker of the letters were removed.  So I looked for an alternative alphabet toys for us to use and I discovered these amazing puzzles from Hape. They are WORTH-IT! We love using them in anything, from learning letters, puzzles to stacking! Yes, Vito loves to stack these together! We also use it to sort out colors!  Multi-purpose indeed!  But if you have older kids, Melissa and Doug Magnetic Letters are as good as well. 

   

Because I love to cook (Asian and Italian), the boys also love to pretend cooking with me using these Melissa and Doug cooking toys.  They can play for hours with these!

M-cro Maxi Scooter.  And I just have to include this!! Because they with this scooter in and out of the house! Mavi uses this to school and Vito uses this indoor for scooting practice. I love that it is sturdy and kids can easily balance!

And of course, nothing beats classic toys like balls, cars and PlayDoh!  My boys wouldn’t complain if they receive any of these this Christmas.

WISHLIST

Magnatiles. Rave reviews everywhere but I just couldn’t bring myself to purchase these toy or can’t even justify it   Maybe when they’re 50% I would probably get one for the boys!

Unit Block.  I know that the boys will love this as well.  They can built and create so many things with this but the price is just too much for me.  I still have to think about this a million times.

Beleduc Puzzles.  My puzzle loving kids will love these, especially the Your Body Layer puzzles!

Layers of the Earth for Kids

I went home one day with a bunch of avocadoes for Vito and I to eat.  Then as I was slicing it, Mavi saw the huge seed inside and blurted out that it looks like the Earth’s core!  And just like that, I whipped a brief activity on the layers of the Earth!

For the book, we had this since 2 years ago that Mavi really really loves to read.  It’s an easy read for young kids and the good thing about it is that it’s like an adventure book that takes its readers into an adventure of digging a hole down to the Earth’s center!  So I am HIGHLY recommending it to those who are interested.

Get the book from:

• To the Core from Amazon
• To the Core from Book Depository (FREE shipping anywhere!)

After looking into the avocado and discussing how it looked similar to the Earth’s layers, I took out some coloured rice (we already have this and stored in ziplocks) and have Mavi create the layers in a piece of cardstock in the way it is described in the book.

 

And this is what he came up with. He completed this with a little assistance from me. Well actually, my work only includes getting the rice and beans for him LOL.   He added some space shuttle and man in suit.  The book indicates that it is impossible to reach the center of the Earth as no machines or human can stand the pressure and heat.  But the book allows the reader to imagine and pretend, that if it’s possible, a super duper powerful digger and super suit is needed for humans to reach the  Earth’s core.

And since Mavi is now 6 yrs old, I am “training” him to discuss to me what he has learned from the book.  So he narrated what he learned using his artwork.  Okay, this is like reporting or project presentation in school, but it is at home and you’re doing it with your Mom :D  Mavi actually loved doing it and wanted to do it again!

After which, we took out some stuff at the kitchen and put up together the elements that made up the Earth.  Now, the CRUST is soil (we don’t have any so we used oatmeal for representation), MANTLE is made up of thick hot rocks, OUTCORE is made up of hot molten metal (we used ketchup!) and the INNERCORE is made up of a huge solid metal, a ball of iron (seed of Avocado).

See how spontaneous we are at home! My son enjoyed this activity and so do I! Hope you find this helpful :)

Pin this for later use! 

Warm and Cool Colours

We are doing a lot of artworks at home.  Just the other day, we were looking at the masterpieces of famous artists like Monet and Van Gogh.  We talked about the techniques the artists used and how they set the mood of their paintings.  In particular, we talked about the colours they used during the daytime and night time.  In effect, we ended up talking about warm and cool colours which eventually brought us to this activity.

So Mavi and I practiced mixing paints to create our own warm and cool colours.  He was even more excited that we get to name our own colours!

Warm colours are colours of fire and sun, yellow and colour tones of red and orange.  Can you see the  names of his colours?  Yellow Golden Sun of Heavens and Lobster Bloody Red!

Cool colours are those of water, violet and colour tones of blue and green.  Love how he created his names:  Gods Light and Coral Sea Blue.

This is a simple activity that you can do with your kids anytime of the day! Less preparation but with much to learn.  Now with this knowledge, we can create paintings with proper mood settings! 

By the way, about the coloured tempera paints we are using. The brand is Gouache Liquide Tempera Paints. I am very particular with the paints we use at home because Mavi has asthma.  This brand has negligible smell and I love how strong and vivid the colours are.

So start making you colours now and have fun naming them!

Pin this for later! 

Warm and.cool

We are doing a lot of.art works.at home. Just the other say, we were.looking at the.paintings of famous aetist.like .... we focus on how the artist set the.modd.of their paints. One in particular is the difference of the daytime and.nighttime.paintings. we started talking about thedifferen x e of the colours used and it hit me that we havent talked.aboutbysing colors to set the mood of being wsrm.or cool.

So the next fay mavi and i practice mixing.paints to.create warm.and.colours. mavi was even.more.inspired as we try to give ourcoours a name.

Here are thr warm.coloursbof amci.  Warmcolurs has sowmthibg todo with fire. So it is red and orange

The coxolours

Letter ‘a’ Sound Activities

We've started our letter sound of the week activities a few weeks ago. Vito is 18 months and based on my observation, he is ready to learn letter sounds as he started to say a few words and can mimic letter sounds as I say it to him. 

This letter of the week curriculum is basically not new.  There are a lot of variations out there on teaching one letter a week.  However, I have come up with my own activities and method of implementing it.   I have used this curriculum with Mavi and it has worked for us so I am using it again with Vito.  The order of the letter sound that I am going to introduce to Vito by default is from a to z (with emphasis on the small letter) but of course it may change as we progress depending on his needs, interest and availability of materials.

For those who are new to this, the basic idea is to focus on only one letter sound at a time (a week or more). Instead of having a specific theme that corresponds to a letter sound, we will try to use all the objects in our Letter Sound Basket in our activities to add variety. I also added tray works that introduce basic concepts like colours, shapes and numbers.

Okay some of you might ask me how we do this? Well on a daily basis here’s our schedule we work most of these in the morning, after reading books.  One to two activities a day for about 15 minutes in the morning and if he’s into it in the afternoon, then we do another one.  Afternoon activities are sometimes skipped, as he prefers playing with big brother. What is mostly achieved in the afternoon is reading books as we do it all together, while cuddling in bed.

*** I added links to all the materials we are using here so you will have an idea where to get it.  They are affiliate links, no extra cost on you if you decide to purchase them. ***

 

Letter ‘a’ craft.  I made a small letter a on a piece of cardstock and have Vito stamp it with Do-a-Dot markers.  Once dry, I cut it out and form it into an apple.  I pinned this in our learning wall.  By the way, these markers are really really good! We’ve used them in so many ways and they were still Mavi’s! Can you believe that?? It lasted for so many years without drying!

Note:  Vito enjoyed this activity so much.  He can stamp more letter a’s than I could have imagine LOLApple 1:1 correspondence.  Using the IKEA Ice Tray and Learning Resource Fruit Counters, this 1:1 correspondence teaches little ones basic math concept.  I count as Vito places a green apple in the moulder.  

Note:  This is one activity that stayed in the shelf for two weeks. Vito loves putting the apples into the moulder and putting them back again in the container.  Sometimes he would spill them and put them back again. We do this activity almost every day to introduce counting.

Alligator peg board.  Because alligator have sharp teeth, we use this FantaColor peg board to practice fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.  Can Vito really insert the pegs in the hole? Well it is a hit or miss! And that’s what’s good about it, he keeps on trying :D  Our version is the portable one that comes with a bag and with different peg sizes.  I chose this so both Vito and Mavi can use it.

Note:  As mentioned, this activity is a hit or miss. There were times he loves doing this because he can easily pin the pegs… but he gets impatient and lose interest when he can’t pin them in the hole.

Circle shape sorter.  The shape for this week is circle, since it is the closest shape to an apple.  We used our Playskool Shape Sorter  (this was Mavi’s) and we only use the circle shape. As I mentioned previously, one at a time.  So here, just the circle shape so he can easily identify which hole and will not be overwhelmed. 

Note: This technique has worked with Mavi and it worked with Vito as well. 

Gluing circles.  I’m hitting three birds in one stone here, sensorial activity while learning the circle and red colour.  We did this a couple of times, first using liquid glue and the other glue stick.  He doesn’t like both LOL But he loves putting the cut-out circle shapes in the big circle. 

Note: While doing this activity, I would say “this is a circle”, “let’s stick the red circles in the big circle”.  Mention the key words like “circle”, “red”, “stick” or “glue”. As mentioned, Vito doesn’t like the feel of blue or something sticky. But that’s okay, Mavi was like that too.  It’s part of learning right?

Eating apples.  Of course, snacks include apples!

Note: What could say? He loves eating!

Green and red colour. I’ve been introducing colours since Vito turned 1, and even though we still work on our red basket, I still include colour sorting in our weekly activities so he can differentiate the two colours.  Here I used craft pompoms to be sorted out. He doesn’t sort, I do most of it.  I’ll try first, showing what to do and let him try a few. 

Note:  Again, hit or miss here.  There were times he’s doing it right, and sometimes he randomly puts them anywhere.  He loves our green and red apples the best though :D

Ambulance prints.  Vito loves paints and we do painting as much as possible.  We are using Giotto Bebe fingerpaints, which I totally love because it doesn’t have a smell! And I love how creamy the paints are. 

Note: Another favourite in the house!  He can do this for around 30 minutes uninterrupted. But be sure to keep an eye on the kids. Even if the paints used is non-toxic and washable, these still are not edible!

Recommended books that will go along with it:

My ‘a’ Sound Box

Are you an Ant?

Baby Alligator

How to make an apple pie and travel the world.

Now, see them all in action!

Don’t forget to pin this for later!

Letter ‘a’ Sound Activities

 

We've started our letter sound of the week activities a few weeks ago. Vito is 18 months and based on my observation, he is ready to learn letter sounds as he started to say a few words and can mimic letter sounds as I say it to him. 

This letter of the week curriculum is basically not new.  There are a lot of variations out there on teaching one letter a week.  However, I have come up with my own activities and method of implementing it.   I have used this curriculum with Mavi and it has worked for us so I am using it again with Vito.  The order of the letter sound that I am going to introduce to Vito by default is from a to z (with emphasis on the small letter) but of course it may change as we progress depending on his needs, interest and availability of materials.

For those who are new to this, the basic idea is to focus on only one letter sound at a time (a week or more). Instead of having a specific theme that corresponds to a letter sound, we will try to use all the objects in our Letter Sound Basket in our activities to add variety. I also added tray works that introduce basic concepts like colours, shapes and numbers.

Okay some of you might ask me how we do this? Well on a daily basis here’s our schedule we work most of these in the morning, after reading books.  One to two activities a day for about 15 minutes in the morning and if he’s into it in the afternoon, then we do another one.  Afternoon activities are sometimes skipped, as he prefers playing with big brother. What is mostly achieved in the afternoon is reading books as we do it all together, while cuddling in bed.

*** I added links to all the materials we are using here so you will have an idea where to get it.  They are affiliate links, no extra cost on you if you decide to purchase them. ***

 

Letter ‘a’ craft.  I made a small letter a on a piece of cardstock and have Vito stamp it with Do-a-Dot markers.  Once dry, I cut it out and form it into an apple.  I pinned this in our learning wall. Apple 1:1 correspondence.  Using the IKEA Ice Moulder and Learning Resource Fruit Counters, this 1:1 correspondence teaches little ones basic math concept.  I count as Vito places a green apple in the moulder.   We do this activity almost every day to introduce counting.

Alligator peg board.  Because alligator have sharp teeth, we use this FantaColor peg board to practice fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.  Can Vito really insert the pegs in the hole? Well it is a hit or miss! And that’s what’s good about it, he keeps on trying :D  Our version is the portable one that comes with a bag and with different peg sizes.  I chose this so both Vito and Mavi can use it.

The ‘circle shape.  The shape for this week is circle, since it is the closest shape to an apple.  We used our Playskool Shape Sorter  (this was Mavi’s) and we only use the circle shape. As I mentioned previously, one at a time.  So here, just the circle shape so he can easily identify which hole and will not be overwhelmed.  This technique has worked with Mavi and it worked with Vito as well. 

Gluing circle shapes.  I’m hitting three birds in one stone here, sensorial activity while learning the circle and red colour.  We did this a couple of times, first using liquid glue and the other glue stick.  He doesn’t like both LOL But he loves putting the cut-out circle shapes in the big circle.  While doing this activity, I would say “this is a circle”, “let’s stick the red circles in the big circle”.  Mention the key words like “circle”, “red”, “stick” or “glue”.

Eating apples. Of course, snacks include apples! The green and red colour. I’ve been introducing colours since Vito turned 1, and even though we still work on our red basket, I still include colour sorting in our weekly activities so he can differentiate the two colours.  Here I used craft pompoms to be sorted out. He doesn’t sort, I do most of it.  I’ll try first, showing what to do and let him try a few.  Again, hit or miss here. 

Ambulance prints.  Vito loves paints and we do painting as much as possible.  We are using Giotto Bebe fingerpaints, which I totally love because it doesn’t have a smell! And I love how creamy the paints are. 

Recommended books that will go along with it:

 

Now, see them all in action!

Don’t forget to pin this for later!

Top Five Favourite Books (April)

I asked Mavi for his top 5 favourite books for this month (he keeps on brining these books in school for show and tell) and tell me why.

 

1. Follow the Drinking Gourd 

   "Winter's story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper). A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song's directions. Rich paintings interpret the strong story in a clean, primitive style enhanced by bold colours. The rhythmic compositions have an energetic presence that's compelling. A fine rendering of history in picture book format."--(starred) Booklist.

   "I like it because Peg Leg Joe became a hero by saving the slaves and bringing them to Canada for freedom".  - Mavi

2. Grandfather’s Journey

   Lyrical, breathtaking, splendid—words used to describe Allen Say’s Grandfather’s Journey when it was first published. At once deeply personal yet expressing universally held emotions, this tale of one man’s love for two countries and his constant desire to be in both places captured readers’ attention and hearts. Winner of the 1994 Caldecott Medal, it remains as historically relevant and emotionally engaging as ever.  - Goodreads

   "I love it because the he and his grandfather loves to travel, just like me." - Mavi

3. The Life of Ferdinand

   A true classic with a timeless message, The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. And he does just that, until the day a bumblebee and some men from the Madrid bullfights give gentle Ferdinand a chance to be the most ferocious star of the corrida—and the most unexpected comic hero. This cherished hardcover is perfect for those who love Ferdinand, and those who have yet to meet him. - Goodreads

   "The part where he sat on a bee makes me laugh, and because everyone thinks he's super strong but actually not.  All he ever do is smell the flower and he's really funny." - Mavi

4. Marvel Storybook

   Life stories of Spiderman, Thor and Ironman.

   "Spiderman is in it and he is my favourite superhero." - Mavi

5. The Glorious Flight

   "This book...recounts the persistence of a Frenchman, Louis Bleriot, to build a flying machine to cross the English Channel.... The text is succinct, caption-like in its directness and brevity....The paintings...add the necessary testure and tone to this marriage. This is vintage Provensen" – School Library Journal

   "Because it is the story of the first airplane to fly in France and England. The pictures are so funny too" - Mavi