Creativity has become something I am always thinking about for Calli, our toddler. Our toddler has been two for over a month now and don’t ask me where the time has gone. But here we sit with a tiny human who is two going on twelve. She is funny, sassy and a natural-born leader. Which may or may not make her my mini in personality.
This year we really won the birthday and Christmas lottery and got some amazing gifts from friends and family. Seeing that imagination come out of this tiny brain is amazing and we want to continue to push her creativity. Finding toys that encourage that is so important and I wanted to share the toys we have that really help Calli grow that we also love as parents.
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Callie’s kitchen is as messy as ours is!
KidKraft Toy Kitchen – This kitchen is used daily at our house. We put it up in the living room and Calli cannot get enough of it. She walks around calling grandma on her phone. Calli feeds her Woody and Jessie dolls soup and bologna. She makes us tea with her tea kettle. It is the cutest thing watching her pretend to make dinner and washing dishes. This kitchen will be played with for a long time in our house.
Magna-Tiles – Magna-Tiles are not something a lot of parents have heard of but trust me, every kid needs a set. Calli got a set for Christmas and these are a toy she enjoys now and she will enjoy more as she gets older. Our niece and nephew who are 8 and 6 still play with their sets. You can buy more sets to build bigger and bigger projects. This is another gift that will keep growing with your child.
She thought she was adorable.
Color Wonder Markers and Coloring Books – Coloring is Calli’s absolute favorite. She can sit at her table and color for hours. I love the fact that she wants to color and draw and be creative. I will always encourage it. But, it’s stressful trying to keep an eye on her with regular markers, even when they are washable. What parent wants to have to clean markers off of everything? Or, having to give a bath after they draw with a purple marker all over their belly. These Color Wonder Markers only draw on the Color Wonder paper. The regular markers are hidden and these are the only ones she has. She also has crayons but she would rather use the markers any day. They are piece of mind so I don’t have to hover over her or be mad when she draws somewhere she isn’t supposed to.
TeePee by Pillowfort – Calli doesn’t have this specific teepee, she has a homemade one. She also have this amazing tent from Ikea too. If you aren’t as into making your child a teepee-like me-I thought I would share a great option to buy. Calli loves having this space. She will bring one of us in there with her and we will read. I could see as she gets older we will put a chair in it and she could read herself. I love that it gives a her a space to express her creativity.
Reading Penguin and Pinecone.
Books – In my mind you cannot have enough books. That’s probably overboard. You probably can own too many, but books are such an amazing brain builder. We read books constantly around our house and here are a few of Calli’s favorite books right now. She loves these Disney sets of 12 books (she has two different ones and there’s so many other ones), Goodnight Moon, Penguin and Pinecone, Little Blue Truck, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
Creativity is a trait I want to nourish in my child. I want to help her dream, invent and learn. A big part of that is giving her the time and space to do that. Another part of that is to give her tools that help her express them. I believe a select number of toys can help a child do that. Are there any great creative toys I don’t have on here that your kids loved?
