14 Best Wooden Toys For Toddlers & Preschoolers: Ages 3, 4 & 5
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Toddlers and toddlers are tired of just grabbing large blocks, they now want to do things with them!
Puzzles and building blocks are the most fun, the sweetest with challenging games like these wooden stack animals from Le Toy Van. Really great at this age and something they can also use perfectly in pretend play.
In this article I will take you through the best wooden toys for toddlers and preschoolers.
Let's take a look at the top options first. Then I'll dive deeper into each of these choices.
Best stack of toys
A stacking set made of sturdy wood, suitable for hand-eye coordination and dexterity, but you can also use the pieces in pretend play.
Most colorful pile of toys
Grimm's is the inventor and maker of the original rainbow stackers. It is made of very strong wood and you can feel it.
Best wooden toddler toys
A handy take-away box that also serves as the zoo. Very handy set to take on holiday or to grandpa and grandma to play.
Overall best wooden train set
The train track is a fun challenge to assemble and with the help of supporting pillars, the rails even go up. Very spectacular!
Most creative hammer toy
Pirates and their wooden and cardboard accessories hammer on a cork board. Very nice to make creative scenes.
Best wooden cause and effect toys for toddlers
Cause and effect because you press the toaster for a delicious toasted sandwich, but it is also very good for fine motor skills.
Overall best wooden workbench
This toy consists of many nuts, bolts, blocks and of course the workbench with which they can build a lot of things.
Best Wooden Toy Vacuum Cleaner
It doesn't really have suction, but it's more like a game where you have to “suck” the popcorn, pretzels and more by going over it with the machine.
Overall best wooden role play toy
The house has two floors and is painted in a delicate complexion. Very stylish and with many windows with shutters.
Best wooden cooking roleplay
Great wood and sturdy oven knobs that actually click give it a very real feel.
Overall best wooden dinosaur toy
The 8 pieces are made of sustainable wood and it feels like it will last a long time. Perhaps even for the grandchildren.
Overall best wooden toy cars
These are the kind of classic vehicles in soft pastel colors that I want my child to play with. No, I want to play with it myself!
Best wooden game for toddlers
The Haba animal feed game is already suitable for your 2-year-old child. Your child must find out what the cat, turtle or mouse is eating.
Best wooden toddler toys for gross motor skills
Balancing is a fantastic way to stimulate children's physical and mental development, but also offers countless play opportunities.
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What we discuss in this comprehensive post:
- 1 Wooden toddler and preschool toy buying guide
- 2 Best Wooden Toys for Toddlers & Preschoolers Reviewed
- 2.1 Le Toy By Petilou Stacker
- 2.2 Grimm's Rainbow Bows
- 2.3 Haba At The Zoo Playset
- 2.4 BigJigs Alpine train set (BJT016)
- 2.5 Small Foot Pirate Hammer Art
- 2.6 Hape Toaster
- 2.7 Melissa & Doug Workbench
- 2.8 Melissa & Doug Tasks Game Vacuum Cleaner
- 2.9 Melissa & Doug Fold and Go Dollhouse
- 2.10 New Classic Toys Bon Appetit Play Kitchen
- 2.11 Tender Leaf Dinosaurs Playset
- 2.12 Le Toy Of Retro Subway
- 2.13 Feeding Haba Animals
- 2.14 Kinderfeets Kinderboard Natural
- 3 Conclusion
Wooden toddler and preschool toy buying guide
They develop so much in this phase of life. But few toys remain fun from toddler to preschooler. When they first go to school, they change very quickly.
The first thing I looked at is therefore the age. Does it suit their development and interests?
In this overview I have arranged the sets by age category:
 Age from |  Best age |  Age to |
Replayability
Is it fun to play with? That has to do with the ease of play without frustration and the accessories that come with it.
I've rated each set for replayability on a scale of 1 to 5 to give you an idea.
Sustainability
Once you have a set that your child likes and is age appropriate, you want them to be able to play with it for a while.
That's why we've rated each set for durability. How long will it last without breaking.
Some sets, such as the Melissa & Doug workbench, are quite sturdy, but not sturdy enough to handle 6-year-old children's hands.
Other sets are made to last a little longer, such as Le Toy Van or the Tender Leaf dinos.
Sustainability is also rated on a 5-point scale.
Best Wooden Toys for Toddlers & Preschoolers Reviewed
Le Toy Van Petilou Stacker
- Sturdy wooden set
- Stacking and pretend play in one
- Animals are smaller than they appear in the picture
A stacking set made of sturdy wood. These types of toys are suitable for hand-eye coordination and dexterity play, but you can also simply use the pieces in pretend play.
There are 9 cute animals, here more in the forest theme than wild nature as the Crocodile Creek animals.
Children can play with it quite early, but stacking becomes fun from 3 years old.
It is quite a challenge to balance the animals on each other, and I actually enjoy doing it myself. You can come up with the craziest combinations.
Grimm's Rainbow Bows
- Great natural wood that you feel when playing
- Challenging toys that stimulate creativity
- Expensive, very very expensive
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From 3 years
-
Best: 4 – 7 years
-
Until: 8 years
- Material: Wood, FSC Hardwood
- Learning objective: Cognitive development, pretend play
- Play Mode: Cooperative
- Portability: Low
- Sustainability: Sustainable production
- Production: Handmade
- Storage: Tricky
- Safety Components: Non-toxic material
- Playtime: Extended (30+ min)
- Gender inclusiveness: Gender neutral
Grimm's is the inventor and maker of the original rainbow stackers. It is made of very strong wood and you can feel it.
It is pricey though. Very pricey. But it's good wood and you can feel the wood and the grain through the paint. This helps with children's sensory experience.
In addition, the raw wood helps when stacking the bows, because that is still quite a challenge. It is also not immediately clear what you can do with it. However, the open-ended game is endless and the shapes and colors really appeal to the imagination.
There is also the possibility of social interaction because there are several arches, they are large and they can be combined with any kind of toy.
Due to these characteristics, the play value is very high. It is also an award winning toy as winners of the Spielgut seal for its educational value.
This is the kind of toy that gets picked up again and again and will last for generations.
Haba At The Zoo Playset
- Handy take-along suitcase and zoo in one
- Sturdy construction
- Suitcase is smaller than it appears in the photos
A handy take-away box that also serves as the zoo. Very handy set to take on holiday or to grandpa and grandma to play.
It is suitable for ages 18 months and older and includes an elephant, hippo, giraffe, camel, flamingo, monkey, tiger, lion, polar bear, penguin, crocodile, zebra, and some accessories.
It is a sturdy set made of sustainable beech wood from Germany.
The box itself is made of cardboard but also very sturdy. Even playing vigorously won't destroy it.
BigJigs Alpine train set (BJT016)
- The train is right on a slope to drive down
- Very nice details for the landscape
- big set
- Pricey
- Higher rails on supports are not for the little ones
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From 3 years
-
Best: 4 – 6 years
-
Until: 7 years
- Material: Wood, MDF
- Theme: Vehicles, Train
- Play Mode: Cooperative
- Price at time of writing: €100,95 – $123,99
- Sustainability: Sustainable production
- Production: Manufacturing
- Storage: Tricky
- Safety parts: Rounded corners
- Playtime: Extended (30+ min)
- Gender inclusiveness: Gender neutral
The play value of this mountain set is extremely high. The degree of open end is enormous due to all the accessories supplied. You can build the train track, play with it, there are dolls for fantasy play and everything appeals to the imagination.
For example, there are children and a grandpa and grandma, and my son plays that the children go to visit by train. The possibilities with the set are endless, but it is also easy to combine with other train tracks. For example, I expanded it with a Brio track. In addition, a train set can also participate in almost any other fantasy game. That also makes the replayability high.
Only when the ease of use was higher could the set have an even higher play value. Building with the bridge pieces and the mountain is fun, but playing with it is difficult because the bridge often collapses. Sometimes this causes frustration, but luckily it usually becomes part of the game.
Social interaction is high. I like to play along and because it's such a big set, friends who come over can always join in without getting in each other's way. Furthermore, there are some interactive elements such as the crane that can hoist, and the figures have a nice appearance.
The crane construction is all wood with a simple turning knob that allows you to wind up the rope. It also has a small magnet that you can use to pick up the train's accessories.
The set comes with three train carriages with freight designations such as sugar, milk and grain. These can be lifted off the wagons with the magnet and swung aside.
It's not for nothing that they have already won the Independent Toy Awards, and with a versatile set like this you can't miss for hours of fun.
Small foot Pirate Hammer Art
- Hammering is done nicely and the wood is sturdy
- Many objects to come up with creative things
- Plate is very small
Maybe more of a creative game than a hammer game, but it's a lot of fun to do and hammering straight is also fun for kids.
You have to hammer pirates and their accessories from wood and cardboard onto a cork board. Very fun to do and you can make a lot of creative scenes.
It is really hammering and therefore suitable for children from 6 years.
Some parents give it to younger children, but they can hammer their hands.
There are 4 examples included so you can get through them quickly. But it's also just as fun to come up with things yourself. You could also add commands for them to perform.
A big minus is the cork board. Not really big enough to lay out everything you can think of and even making the examples is very difficult.
Still a very nice set that can keep them busy for quite a few creative hours.
Hape Toaster
- Very sturdy wooden construction
- Cutting butter and a jar of honey are a nice addition
- Bread doesn't go all the way in
- Bit of a strange set in itself
Cause and effect because you press the toaster and a delicious toasted sandwich pops out.
But it is also very good for fine motor skills. There are 10 accessories included. Bread, but also butter for cutting.
Such toys are great fun for the play kitchen or eating other toys. I don't know how much fun it would be if this is the only food toy you have. Then it's a bit of a strange loose set.
Hape toys are always very sturdy and this is no exception.
It is suitable from 3 years, it says on the box, but there are actually no small parts, so a younger child can also play with it.
The buns don't go all the way into the toaster, so it's not 100% just right. That might be a bit of a shame.
But a very nice addition to your play kitchen.
Melissa & Doug Workbench
- Complete set with tools, bolts, nuts and screws
- Good wooden set where many of this kind are made of plastic
- Pushing too hard quickly leads to screw threads becoming paralyzed
If you want to take the construction game a little more literally, you can go to Melissa & Doug's workbench.
It includes 4 tools and a vise to play pretend play for woodworking.
The set has a total of 62 parts. In addition to the tools, there is a lot of building material such as rings, screws, nails, planks and blocks.
There is a lot to do with it, and the creations also often participate in fantasy play such as running police and building bridges.
With the vise you can clamp the wooden pieces to attach nuts or pretend you are sawing a piece of wood with notches.
There are holes on top of the worktop where you can hammer wooden nails in and then loosen them with the back of the hammer.
The Melissa & Doug Workbench is a fun toy for kids somewhere between 2 and 5 years old and the most fun between 3 and 4 years old.
There is a lot to build with and the quality is good, but the age limit is really the age limit. If your child is older, they will probably break it.
Melissa & Doug Tasks Game Vacuum Cleaner
- Game and vacuum cleaner in one
- Great wooden construction
- quite heavy
- Maybe they still want to help with the real vacuum cleaner
Suitable for: from 3 years
The Melissa & Doug vacuum cleaner is quite different from the others on this list, but that is also a lot of fun!
So it is made of wood if you like wooden toys this is also a nice choice.
It doesn't really have suction, but it's more like a game where you have to “suck” the popcorn, pretzels and more by going over it with the machine.
As soon as your child does that, the piece of dirt, which is also all made of wood and looks very cute, will be picked up by the bin.
Melissa & Doug Fold and Go Dollhouse
- Many accessories in a handy carrying format
- Sturdy wooden construction
- No closure on the house so that it falls open
This beautiful, fold-out Melissa & Doug Wooden Dollhouse is suitable for children from three years old.
The house has two floors and is painted in a delicate complexion. Very stylish and with many windows with shutters.
There are a lot of accessories such as a sofa, easy chair, cupboard, bed and a TV furniture. Plus 2 dolls to play with.
The folding construction and the sturdy carrying handle make it a very handy set to take with you. Only a closure is missing from the house so that it remains closed.
Now you have to wear it very hard or make a closure on it yourself.
A very nice set that they can play with for a long time.
New Classic Toys Bon Appetit Play Kitchen
- Solid wood construction, not laminate
- Oven knobs really click and feel very solid
- Rotary knob microwave does not click and tap is also less sturdy
The nicest wooden children's kitchen I've found is this one from New Classic Toys, and not that expensive at all, which makes it the best price-quality ratio choice.
There is plenty to play with with the included pans, ladle, spatulas, pepper pot and salt set and even plates. A whole lot of accessories that you don't see in every kitchen, and all made of wood (except for the removable metal sink).
The tap can rotate and the metal countertop is removable. There are storage compartments for the plates at the top plus room for more. In addition, there is a microwave with magnetic closure and rotary knob.
The hob is plastic and may glow red and make noise. Below that is the oven with rotary knobs and more compartments for storage space.
Where the kitchen excels in particular is in the solid rotary knobs of the oven that actually click so that you have the feeling that you are actually setting an oven setting.
Not too big, fits in a corner of the room like ours against the couch. This way it gives your child a lot of fun.
It also doesn't take too much space around it because everything happens at the front of the kitchen. You just need some space to open the oven, which folds down.
A very nice set for a good price. I think they saved on the right things and gave the most important thing a lot of attention.
Tender Leaf Dinosaurs Playset
- Good size for toddlers
- Very sturdy and durable rubber wood
- Very pricey
What a nice set for children from 3 years old. A little younger is also possible, but then I would stick with it.
Pretend play starts at about 2,5 so before then they will be walking around or sucking on it on their own anyway.
Due to the sharp corners, it is slightly less suitable for this.
The 8 pieces are made of sustainable wood and it feels like it will last a long time. Maybe even for the grandchildren :)
Tender Leaf is a good brand that makes wooden toys from renewable rubber trees, so that's definitely another plus.
The size is just right for toddlers to play with.
Le Toy Van Retro Subway
- Sturdy wooden construction
- Wheels run fine
- Paint scratches quite quickly
This is the kind of car I want my child to play with. No, I want to play with it myself! Beautiful classic vehicles in soft pastel colours.
Especially with such an outspoken model it is good to have a set to be able to play with it together.
Sure, other cars often join the game, but they often end up together in one way or another.
They are an Independent Toy Award winner, painted with non-toxic paint and made from renewable rubber trees.
Just the right size for small children's hands. Great quality for an affordable price.
Haba Feeding Animals
- Nice short game for the short attention span
- Made cute
- Not infinitely replayable
The Haba animal feed game is already suitable for your 2-year-old child. Your child must find out what the cat, turtle or mouse is eating.
The animal cards, the wooden pieces, the shapes and color cards must be properly sorted by your little one.
Children have to appeal to their memory with this game to make as many sets of animal cards and color cards as possible. This game promotes their speech and animal knowledge.
The game comes with 5 wooden pieces - 1 carrot, 1 sod, 1 fish, 1 piece of cheese and 1 bone - and 5 animal cards, 5 shape cards, 5 color cards and 1 a manual.
Children therefore tell each other which different types of food, animals, colors and shapes there are and which ones match.
The cards are mixed up and at each turn one is turned over, the children tell which animal it is or what color the card has.
Whoever finds both the correct color and the correct animal card with his own food card wins the game.
The game can be played with up to five people and only lasts about five minutes. I also like to play it with my toddler.
The game is made of beech wood and cardboard.
Children's parties Children's board Natural
- Sturdy wooden construction
- Can be used in many different ways
- Stimulates gross motor skills
- Quite pricey
- Great for lots of pretend play
Kinderfeets has great wooden products and the Balance Board is one of them, the other a very nice cargo bike balance bike for children from 2 that I will treat in a bit.
They have kept the wood quite natural and feel a bit rough, perfect for kids who are sensitive to different textures and also useful for them to get to grips with.
Many of you may have heard of a other balance board, and it does have the option for a felt bottom while it doesn't, so if you have wooden floors you might want to go for this wobbel board.
For the rest, the wobbel boards are slightly smoother and finer, but also slightly more expensive. For me, the choice would mainly come down to price and the option of a felt base for wood floors.
Conclusion
For good toys for toddlers and preschoolers, you do not only look at the age, but also whether it is safe and educational. After all, those are the toys they enjoy the most.
Always something to do for the holidays or rainy day?
Play Choice now has the ultimate activity book collection, with over 60 pages of fun coloring pages and educational puzzles.
Joost Nusselder, the founder of Speelkeuze.nl is a content marketer, father and loves trying out new toys. As a child he came into contact with everything related to games when his mother started the Tinnen Soldaat in Ede. Now he and his team create helpful blog articles to help loyal readers with fun play ideas.
