Gift Guide for a 3 Year Old Toddler

All the best toys and activities for a 3 year old toddler in one list!

My son is almost 3 and I have started looking into what to get him for his birthday, based on some of the things he has been really interested in lately.

I have found that a lot of the things I have been putting out for him are not challenging enough anymore. So I am on a mission to challenge him again!

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This age can be difficult because they are so busy and on the move! They want to learn so bad and it is such a great age to really lean into their interests.

Some of the things my 3 year old is interested in right now are:

Imaginative play – he loves pretending and making up stories with his toys!
Cars and trucks – always.
Any type of responsibility – he loves to feed the dog in the mornings, help sweep or vacuum and help with making food.
Sensory play – anything that makes a mess! I feel like this is a big one for any kid at any age!

Based on these things I’ve come up with a list of toys and activities that my 3 year old is drawn to, and that your 3 year old would love too!

(This post contains affiliate links, meaning I make a small commission from any links you click and buy from. I only recommend products I love and appreciate your support! Find the full disclosure policy here.)

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Toddlers

9 of the Best Educational Toys and Activities for Toddlers

How to Reduce Your Toddler’s Picky Eating

Play Kitchen

We got our son a play kitchen for his second birthday and it is still a hit to this day. He finds new creative ways to use it, and loves it even more now that he is more into pretend play. If you haven’t bought one for your kiddo yet I highly recommend this be high up on your list!

Toddler Scooter

I have been seeing these toddler scooters everywhere and decided to get one for D’s birthday. It has three wheels instead of two, a nice wide space for their feet, and even an attachable seat! This one comes in so many different colors you’ll definitely find the perfect one for your toddler.

Responsibility Chart

Toddlers crave and love any kind of responsibility and a little bit of independence. It’s not a bad idea to start the idea of chores young, with respect to their age of course. Our son loves the responsibility of feeding the dog every morning and in the evening before he goes to bed. And lets be honest, for those things they don’t necessarily want to do (like brushing their teeth, going to the potty) a reward system helps.

That’s why I love this responsibility chart. It is magnetic so it is reusable, and gives them a visual representation of what is expected of them during the day.

Daily Calendar

This Daily Calendar is a fun way to teach them the months of the year, days of the week, the seasons and the weather! It’s a fun way to start each day and gets their little brains moving. It even has holidays and a little feelings chart to introduce emotions during the day.

Take Apart Truck

I don’t know about your child but mine loves to take anything and everything apart to see how it works. He loves using his tools and seeing how things go back together too.

That’s why this Take Apart Truck with a Drill is perfect. There are various ones with different levels of difficulty according to your child’s age and ability, so take a look!

Interactive Playhouse

Because my son is into all pretend play right now, he loves his doll house and little people. I thought it would be really fun to get him an interactive playhouse.

This Fisher-Price Little People Interactive Playhouse comes with 50 different sounds, a whole bunch of little people and animals for your child to play out anything they can imagine.

Playdough Kits

What toddler doesn’t love playdough?? It’s a fun and creative sensory experience for everyone. There are so many different playdough kits out there to keep your child entertained and engaged and let their imagination run wild. We love this food playdough set!

There are also lots of awesome homemade playdough recipes online to make your own with your child for another fun activity. Check out this Jello playdough recipe we use! It makes the playdough smell amazing!

Sensory Table

If you don’t have a sensory table already it is a must-have in any toddler home. You can put literally anything in it and it’s a fun activity. Things I’ve used in our sensory table include:

Water
Felt
Water beads
Pompoms
Kinetic Sand
Cotton balls
Shaving cream
Jello
Amazon Sensory Kits

Throw any of these in with some different animal toys, blocks, some scoops and little buckets and let them go wild!

Sensory Bin Kits

You can find a bunch of different versions of these online but one I love is Green Kid Crafts. They come with 4-6 different Steam based activities for ages 3 up to 10! It takes the work of planning out activities for your child and delivers thoughtful and developmentally appropriate activities right to you.

You can either sign up for a monthly subscription or pick out a themed box to try. Seriously, check out the different types of activities they have, they’re so good!

Plus for every box ordered a tree is planted, how awesome is that!?

Toddler Learning Activity Sheets

For toddler activities sheets I highly recommend the Salty Mamas Activity Packs. They have so many different themed activity packs to choose from, from animals to on the farm sheets, to scissor skill packs.

They also have 60+ page potty training planners to help you and your toddler get started, and easy no stress toddler schedules to help you figure out what to do with your toddler all day!

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