Most worthwhile big toys

[Anonymous]

Table and chairs and play kitchen now.
Balance bike in 6 mos. to a year.
Learning tower and indoor tent never.

Consider also a Rody, train tracks and easy dress-up items for indoors, and a kids’ size wheelbarrow or Radio Flyer wagon for outside.

[Anonymous]

Our little table and chairs and play kitchens got daily use. I say “kitchens” because my kids destroyed the PBK and Kidkraft ones and we ended up with a Step2 one which has been indestructible.
My kids never got much use from a learning tower(it pretty much just sat in the kitchen) or the balance bike. They went straight from a tricycle to a two wheeler at 3 and 3.5.

[Anonymous]

The item my child plays constantly and her friends gravitate to when they visit is still the play kitchen.

[Anonymous]

The water table, play kitchen, and tricycle get the most use in our house.

[Anonymous]

play kitchen was used forever (we had it in the dining room which worked great!)

kids table and chairs - my 9 & 12 year old still sit at them sometimes

Buy a parachute instead of an indoor tent. You can use it like a tent but it also has so many other fun uses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boy or girl? People will argue with me on this. But I have two boys and they only ever climbed on the kitchen.

Bike got daily use!

My son plays with his kitchen almost daily, he's 3 and has had it for a year with no sign of losing interest in sight. He climbs on everything else, but not his kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Indoor single trampoline, haba wood blocks.

[Anonymous]

Instead of a tent, take a look at the "Nugget couch." Simple, likely stupidly expensive for what it is, but great for flexibility/creativity if you have the money for stuff like this.

[Anonymous]

Yep, play kitchen and table/chairs are the most versatile and will get tons of use. For outside, consider a sandbox (e.g. the Little Tykes turtle or crab) instead of a water/sand table which my kids never got into and always made a huge mess. Also consider a mini picnic table with an umbrella (also little tykes). Mine kept trying to fit at ours way after they couldn't! Someone also said Cozy Coupe and that was another huge hit with my kids.

[Anonymous]

We love the Nugget. That gets a lot of use out of my 3.5 and 1 year old DD's. It also makes the play room more comfortable for us!

[Anonymous]

I don’t think you need the kid table and chairs. I’ve bought that and a “workbench” and really didn’t get much use. We always have had Tripp trap chairs though and eat together, so the kitchen table or basement coffee table are the kid work surfaces.

I’ve had the learning tower and love it although it takes up way too much space, it’s used daily for washing hands and helping cook (but my husband and I both cook and bake a lot)

Play kitchen is a must, agreed. Balance bike a micro scooter also I think are musts. Sand box and water table with plenty of buckets and scoops. I think a really good block set is one of our most used indoor toys(Bekka blocks)

I have two boys, 4 and 18 months (at home, no daycare but 4 is in preschool)

Throw in some balls, a couple cars and dress up stuff, good crayons and water colors and that’s all they really love, everything else could be thrown out tomorrow and they wouldn’t care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you need the kid table and chairs. I’ve bought that and a “workbench” and really didn’t get much use. We always have had Tripp trap chairs though and eat together, so the kitchen table or basement coffee table are the kid work surfaces.

I’ve had the learning tower and love it although it takes up way too much space, it’s used daily for washing hands and helping cook (but my husband and I both cook and bake a lot)

Play kitchen is a must, agreed. Balance bike a micro scooter also I think are musts. Sand box and water table with plenty of buckets and scoops. I think a really good block set is one of our most used indoor toys(Bekka blocks)

I have two boys, 4 and 18 months (at home, no daycare but 4 is in preschool)

Throw in some balls, a couple cars and dress up stuff, good crayons and water colors and that’s all they really love, everything else could be thrown out tomorrow and they wouldn’t care.

Same poster - holy crap I just read about the nugget and I need it now, thanks to this thread. My couch is disassembled daily to be a fort/animal cave/spaceship and I basically go insane but tolerate it because it’s deep imaginative play. Going to rearrange and buy the nugget, like today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in process of making up a Christmas list for my 18 month old (over eager grandparents!) and I am trying to decide which of the larger toys are most worthwhile. i am considering:

Table and chair set
Play kitchen
Tricycle
Balance bike
Water/sand table
Some sort of indoor play tent
One of those learning towers for the kitchen

I do not want all of these items in my house. Of the above, which will get the most use, both now and in the years to come? Anything I am overlooking that I should also consider?

Not a table and chair set, indoor play tent or learning tower. Either a balance bike or a trike but not both. Play Kitchen and Water/Sand Table will get lots of use. You can use sand table in the winter with moon sand set up somewhere there is relatively easy cleanup.

[Anonymous]

A VERY LARGE cardboard box. Several, if you can get them.

Nothing else was worth it, ultimately.

[Anonymous]

Water/sand table gets a lot of use at my house. In the winter, we set up the water table in our walk-in shower! When not in use for water/sand it's a table for playing play-dough.