20 Best Simple Toys for Kids

After some experience with one goofy toddler who chooses to play with wooden spoons instead of dolls EVERY TIME, I can say that I truly believe that sometimes, and maybe even often, less is more.

Here is the list of best simple toys for kids that my daughter can play with for hours. If you have something cool to add, please leave the comment. I would love to hear your ideas.

Best Simple Toys for Kids

1. Balloons

Even without helium, an ordinary balloon can keep a child busy for quite a while. It moves slower than a ball, so it’s easier to catch and to bounce. Perfect simple toy for kids!

2. Blocks

Big wooden ones are the best, but if you don’t have blocks, you (by “you” I mean your kids 🙂 ) can play with shoe boxes, plastic cups, etc.

3. Cardboard Box
Oh yes, the simple cardboard box is the toy number one when it comes to simple toys for kids.

The best thing about it is that empty boxes feed their imagination. It can be a hiding place, it can be a bed for dolls or a garage for their cars. It can even be a chair.
Our cat likes it too.

4. Old gadgets.
It’s good to have things for kids to take apart. This will help give them an innate sense of how things work. Give them things like old clock or some other stuff with lots of gears and connected parts.

5. Bubble Wrap
Free and fun! It’s the best to step on it in your bare feet and make it pop!

6. Water.
Splashing in it. Blowing into it. Pouring it from container to container. “Painting” with it. You can do anything with water and it’s completely free.

7. Play Doh
You can spend hours making different animals, tools, people…

8. Uno
This is our favorite family card game. We can play it for hours and it never gets boring.

9. Stuffed animals
They can keep them for years and even save them for their kids! Isn’t that cool?
The stuffed toys often become a medium to interactive play, a real friend. Playing with stuffed animals helps them to learn and master social skills, and so much more.
My daughter has her little bear and she is not going anywhere without him. She sleeps with him, plays with him, talks with him…
Simple and fun!

10. LEGOs
Legos are just the best simple toys for kids and I don’t think there is a kid that doesn’t like playing with them. Even my husband plays all the time. You will never get bored of it.

11. Balance Bike
A Balance bike is the most practical way to teach your child to ride a bicycle. Traditional bicycles with training wheels teach your child very little about the balance that it will require to ride a “big kid bike” later. These balance bikes are the very best way to give your child practice stabilizing their own weight. I love them!

12. Wooden toys
Wooden toys are our favorite type of toys. Wooden houses, trains, animals.. Sometimes the old fashion toys are the best simple toys for kids.

13. Puppets
Sock puppets are so simple and can inspire the imagination of every child. The best thing is that you can make them yourselves so you can have double fun!

14. Puzzles
What kind of puzzles will you choose depends on the age of your kid, but those are the best simple toys for kids.

15. Connect 4
This is the classic game I remember from my childhood. I played it all the time with my brothers and sister and we all loved it. It’s really a simple toy – when you get four discs in a row you win.

I still love to play it today, but this time with with my daughter. She doesn’t get it yet, but soon she will beat me and her dad every time. One of those simple toys for kids that can make you smarter, I guess.

16. Rubik’s Cube
This is at the same time an intriguing, educational, and frustrating toy! It’s a perfect simple toy for kids that will make their brain cells work hard.

17. Jenga
Another classic! You don’t know how to play it? Pull out a bock without crashing the stack to win at Jenga. Good luck and have fun!

18. Sand
Playing in sand is extremely entertaining for children and we should let them to that. Children have the opportunity to expand their creativity and imaginations through the designs of a variety of buildings and castles.

19. Blowing bubbles
Babies often love to watch their parents blow bubbles and think they are so interesting, and toddlers and bigger kids love to play with them. Blowing bubbles can’t be any simpler and it’s definitely one of the best simple toys for kids. They just love it, no matter how old they are.

20. Rocks

My daughter just loves to play with rocks. Yes, I said rocks! Don’t underestimate a rock, like I did before.
You can do so much with them: arrange them in piles, move them around, collect different shapes, paint on them.
Just let your kid go crazy! I guarantee you they will have so much fun with rocks! You will be surprirsed!

Let’s try putting down our tablets and smartphones and let’s be creative with the fun and simple toys for kids! There are endless possibilities of simple toys for kids (and you) to enjoy! Just put on your thinking hats and let your imagination out!

*And just for full disclosure, there are affiliate links in this posts. This means that I’m sharing something that I think is helpful, and if you make a purchase through the link, I earn a little bit back. No extra cost to you, and just a little help for me to pay for the blog expenses.