Best Gifts for 3-Year-Olds

No matter what your toddler is interested in, you’re sure to find something they will love on this list of the best gifts for 3-year-olds!

Free-Standing Slide: What a cute way to get some energy out inside or outside! This slide offers just that and more (including a basketball hoop) to free-stand in your play area or backyard.

Radio Flyer First Bike: This traditional bike is a great way to start independent play outside. Giving your child their first mode of transportation seems like you gave them the world! Before you know it, they will be riding off into the sunset.

Modern Playhouse: Children often need a space to escape at this age. This adorable modern playhouse will allow them to retreat away and calm down at times. It is a chic addition to your backyard and inviting for tea parties, house play, and more!

Green Toys Dump Truck: This adorable truck is exceptionally durable and made of recycled plastic milk containers. Sturdy, strong, and colorful dump trucks are engaging, classic toys that do everything from helping kids transport toys and dirt to serving as a great prop in construction pretend play.

Tunnel and Ball Pit Play Tent: If you’re looking for an easy-to-assemble, outdoor-friendly activity set, this play tent with a tunnel and ball pit will give little ones hours of active fun. It’s made of durable, washable polyester material and comes with 100 multicolored balls.

My First Anywhere Chair: Allowing our toddlers to feel like they own something is essential at this age, so give them their own seat! The name explains itself — these Anywhere Chairs allow your child to have a personalized seat for media time, storytime, and relaxation when they wish.

Doodle Board: This dino-shaped drawing and doodle board tablet allows unlimited drawing and creativity on the colorful screen. It’s the perfect quiet-time toy!

Lace and Trace: This simple game is a perfect activity to start around this age. It will help grow fine motor and problem-solving skills. It is also a great activity to promote independent play.

Super Sorting Pie: This incredibly multifaceted toy looks pretty educational, which it is. Trust us, though; every toddler loves it so much. They will keep asking to play.

Busy Board: Busy 3-year-old kids have extremely busy hands. And they sure like to use them. A lot. This adorable busy board comes in vibrant primary colors and provides plenty of snapping, buckling, threading, and zipping opportunities. Your preschooler will get a head start on some valuable skills to help them with specific skills, like getting dressed, and abstract skills, like problem-solving.

HABA Fantasy Blocks: These blocks are fun, colorful, and enchanting. Kids can create countless fantastical buildings with squares, steps, cylinders, and other shapes designed to encourage creativity and imagination. This pack even has a swinging bell, glitter, and mirror foil. The blocks are made of quality, solid beech wood.

Mr. Potato Head: A classic toy never goes out of style! Kids will love playing with the parts and pieces of this Mr. Potato Head Silly Suitcase toy.

Zoo Crew Memory Game: Introducing the concept of a game at this age can be challenging, but this fun and memory-enhancing game will get your toddler jumping for more.

Lego Duplo Train: This new-age train is perfect for perfecting their fine motor and building skills. I love how fun it is to add to this set and create all things Duplo from now on!

Jumbo Floor Puzzle: This jumbo floor puzzle will excite your little one. After all, they’re creating a picture as large as they are! Also, it allows them to work on their problem-solving and gross motor skills simultaneously.

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game: This is one of the best-selling preschool games, five years running. Who can resist adorable squirrels and colorful acorns? It’s a color-matching game that promotes strategic thinking, matching skills, and taking turns. Kids can help a new fun forest friend to find some snacks!

The Ladybug Game: Fun for the whole family! The Ladybug Game introduces your child to basic math concepts as they learn addition and subtraction. They will even learn some cool stuff about bugs.

Chutes and Ladders: This is a classic board game for kids that involves moving your pawn up the ladders and down the chutes until a winner reaches the top first! It can help kids practice their numbers and identify good and bad deeds.

Don’t Break The Ice: Players take turns tapping on the ice blocks using the small mallets. The goal is not to let the penguin fall! This is a fun game that you can play repeatedly.

Animal Crafts: This arts and crafts kit includes 20 animal-themed projects, including paper bag puppets, plate puppets, and tube animals. We love that it comes with all the materials needed for each craft.

Dot It! Dino Sticker Activity: Here’s a mess-free craft that involves stickers! It comes with colorful dino pictures that leave space for kids to fill in with their choice of stickers.

The Dough Project All-Natural Dough: Let their imagination run wild with six jars of all-natural, plant-based playdough in rainbow colors!

Reusable Sticker Pad: This is genius and the perfect on-the-go toy. These reusable stickers allow your child to create and recreate over and over. Coming in multiple themes, it is sure to be a favorite.

Color and Cuddle Washable Pony: Color, wash, repeat! This machine-washable pony is the perfect art activity your child can do repeatedly!

Pom Pom Pictures: This toddler craft kit is designed with little fingers in mind. Promote sensory development with a preschool activity that is easy to complete and encourages independent, quiet-time play!

Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Collection: Start their love of reading early with this book collection! This set comes with several classic Dr. Seuss books, including “The Cat in the Hat,” “Hop on Pop,” and “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Little Blue Truck: This little truck’s adventures and his good friend, Toad, will make you smile. It is a classic with multiple themed editions and is the perfect addition to your library.

Grumpy Monkey: Learning emotions at this age is hard; expressing them is even more challenging. Having books on hand that help identify emotions and guide our children to understand them will help in their daily lives of toddlerhood.

All by Myself: If you do not hear your little one saying this phrase repeatedly, they are about to. This classic series is fun to read, so why not help your toddler navigate their independence at the same time?

Wild Zoo Soundbook: This book teaches kids about wild animals and includes buttons that play the sounds these animals make. The set also includes 13 realistic animal toys, such as a giraffe, panda, elephant, and lion!

For more great books for kids, check out these articles:

• Best Books for 3-Year-Olds
• Must Read Children’s Books
• Classic Books to Read to Your Child
• Books for Teaching Children About Diversity
• Books Your Kids Should Read This Summer
• 20 Great Books to Read to Your Kids
• 20 Books About Gratitude for Kids

Magna-Tiles: These trendy magnetic tiles allow for such creative play. Start with a simple starter kit, then add on to it with their multiple different themed packs. Children will play with these for hours, creating so many different things.

Design & Drill Robot: This take-apart robot toy allows your child to develop their fine motor skills and exercise their creativity. It comes with colorful bolts and a kid-size screwdriver.

Take-Apart Dinosaur Toy: Here’s another take-apart toy that’s perfect for dino lovers! This set includes three movable dinosaur toys that kids can put together, an electric drill, and screwdrivers.

Design & Drill Bolt Buddies Rocket: With everyone taking flight into space, our children may be more interested in rockets than ever. This fantastic toy will allow your child to build their rocket ship and create an adventure of their own.

GeoSafari Jr. Talking Microscope: Kids are natural scientists. They love to ask questions, explore, and observe. So, give your 3-year-old something fascinating to look at with this starter microscope for kids. It’s perfect for fine motor skills, and little ones can look at specimens on slides with exciting pictures as part of a homeschool program or just for long days at home.

Flower Garden Building Toy: These build-a-bouquet craft kits allow young children to build, match, and sort. They can mix and match pieces to create different flowers and creations. Great for both indoor and outdoor play!

Basketball Set: We love that this basketball hoop’s height is adjustable, so you can later raise it and make it more challenging as your child grows. This set also comes with three kid-sized basketballs.

Early Fun Swingball: This tether tennis game is perfect for toddlers. It comes with swingball bats made specifically for small hands. The ball is attached to the base, which doubles as a case for easy storage.

My First Bowling Set: This is so cute, and the best part is it resets the pin for your little one. Let the strikes begin! I love this as an indoor winter sport idea!

Golf Club Set: Perfect for indoor or outdoor play, this set will introduce your child to a realistic, challenging, and fun sport. This golf toy will also help promote your child’s physical development, concentration, and patience.

Melissa & Doug Toy Chest: Now that you have a 3-year-old, where are you storing all their things? This quiet yet effective toy chest is perfect for your play area or their rooms to store personal toys out of sight!

Superhero Dress-Up Kit: Who doesn’t want to be a superhero? Creating an area of imagination and dressing up as characters is so much fun for our children. Encourage it with this adorable set, which features Marvel and DC characters.

Shopping Cart: This easy and convenient toy promotes gross motor skills and helps with learning responsibility and modeling the behavior they see us, as parents, do at the grocery store. It’s a great way to promote cooking in their kitchen and may even help with picky eating.

Mine to Love Doll: This lovely doll is perfect for encouraging behavior that we hope to teach before or during the new arrival of a sibling. You don’t have a baby on the way? That is okay! It still acts like a great friend for your child and helps with play.

Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Scoop and Serve: Who doesn’t want ice cream? This crowd-pleaser is a sure hit, creating a sense of ownership in our toddlers and teaching manners, colors, flavors, and more. They will serve you a cone daily, which is a fun treat!

Cutting and Cooking Play Food: These look good enough to eat. Fresh veggies, burgers, ice cream, fruits — it’s a cornucopia of color! Made of high-quality wood, this set lets kids participate in culinary pretend play with various healthy foods and fun snacks. They can engage in all sorts of imaginary play by shopping, making up recipes, cooking, and presenting weird meals. These yummy morsels are a great addition to a pretend kitchen.

Dust, Sweep, and Mop Set: 3-year-olds love to imitate grown-ups. They love it so much that they’ll even clean up without being asked! Take advantage of this golden spot in their development with cleaning supplies that help with independence and confidence, resulting from a job well done. The set is made of wood and comes with a play duster, broom, mop, brush, and stand.