As parents, we're always thinking about how to make learning fun with games, puzzles, books, and instruments.
Educational toys are not only super fun but also an excellent way to develop perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills. Our reviews are divided into three sections:
Full disclosure: Some of these educational toys, including the b.Toys, Little Bits, and ThinkFun products, were sent to us as free test samples by the manufacturer.
Games help children develop social skills and reciprocity, puzzles help develop spatial and logical skills, baby books foster language and cause and effect learning, and instruments help kids learn pattern recognition and rhythm!
Here are the Best Learning Toys of 2022!
Rather than spending hours battling Bowser or fishing in Animal Crossing, parents can take advantage of that free time to help their child learn new skills and gain new knowledge. To find the best educational toys of the year, we tested over 40 different educational toys, some electronic and some not, and came away with some awesome options!
Best for Infants and Toddlers (3-18 mos):
When we consider educational toys for babies, we're looking for toys that promote multi-sensory exploration (textures, colors, sounds), pattern recognition, and learning cause and effect relationships.
Examples include toys with bright primary colors, varied textures, fun sounds, consistent causal events (push the button and pop goes the lid!), and high contrast visual features and shapes. Here are six fantastic options ranging in price from about $15 to $65.
Be sure to also check out our list of the best unisex baby gifts of all time, where we have more learning toys to consider.
Once your child begins walking, they are officially a toddler! Once they reach this developmental milestone, it opens up exciting possibilities for toys and games that they can use while standing, walking around, and hopping!
Best for Toddlers and Preschoolers (18-48 mos):
From about 18-48 months, children are learning all about the world around them.
They will soon master letter and number recognition, growing their vocabulary, stringing words together into clauses and sentences, learning basic shapes, counting, and sorting. Here are 6 of the best educational toys for toddlers to preschoolers! Note that these are in addition to more obvious learning toys like LEGO sets, building blocks, and arts and crafts supplies.
From ages 2-4, children are preparing for the new social and mental demands of preschool, coming together with other kids to work together in problem-solving, pretend-play, creative discovery, and building and stacking. These educational toys are perfect to prepare children for preschool! Most importantly, all of these games are totally fun, high quality, and will last your family for years!
Be sure to also check out our list of the best gifts for 3 year old boys, and best gifts for 3 year old girls, where we review several more learning toys.
Best for Big-Kids (4-7 years):
Between the ages of 4-7, children are building on the foundational skills they have learned through the preschool years and leveraging them for elementary school learning. Children will be developing several core academic skills, including more complex word decoding and reading skills, counting and simple arithmetic, logical thinking, turn-taking, and instruction following with increasingly lengthy sequences. The toys we picked out below provide practice for all of these emerging skills, while keeping the toys fun and engaging.
Have an idea for something we should review for possible inclusion on this list? Send us a message on email or Facebook!
