As soon as the pandemic hit and everyone was stuck indoors we realised everyone needed ideas to keep their kids busy. Books were not enough. As parents we need to constantly mix it up. So we all pitched in and created an amazing thread on engagement activity recommendations. Asha’s note to the community read like this,
“Dear Parents,
Though we are a reading & writing community, we understand that you all are facing the biggest challenge of keeping your kids, especially toddlers, productively engaged as they can’t play downstairs or cycle downstairs. So there is no way to channelise their energy properly.
Let’s all get creative about this. Let’s share what has worked well for your child? While we encourage kids to read, being a parent myself I know how important it is to mix it up with creative activities, which i still encourage my childoo to do apart from reading.”
Finger Puppets for babies, toddlers and older kids!
Skillofun are some of the earliest learning activities for young toddlers recommended by everyone!
SKILLOFUN SEWING TOYS ARE SUPER DUPER HITS WITH OUR TODDLERS! there are new additions in this series!
Melissa & Doug Wooden Tool Kit
GoAppuGo Creative Activity Toys
SNAPTRON Magnetic Blocks for Kids 3+ Years Tiles -40 Pieces Set
Snaptron Magnetic Tiles 60 pcs with Storage Box
Snaptron Magnetic Tiles 100 pcs with Storage Box
Melissa & Doug Re-usable Sticker Pads – bestsellers at kbc – every 2yo+ has at least one!
Melissa & Doug Water Wow – popular for 2 yrs+
ALL THINGS MELISSA & DOUG come highly recommended by our parents!
Look and Find Activity Books by Dreamland are perfect for 3 years+. Mostly everyone has them at kbc!
Creatives Pre-School Story Telling Card Games for 2 years+ Girija highly highly recommends these story telling game sets. Excerpts from her review:
There came a phase when M absolutely did not want to read her books. She stopped picking them up on her own and when we tried to get her to read one, she point-blank refused and moved on with her day. The first couple of weeks were difficult for me. I could not understand how she went from devouring books to THIS! But when I stopped pushing my will and insecurities on her, I realised she had found a new love- stories! And no, she did not want to read them from any sort of book. For hours and hours she would sit with whoever was available and we had to concoct stories for her. While my dad can spin stories out of thin air, I was quickly running out of my limited creative abilities. Then this wonderful story telling set came to my rescue. I could now catch a break and replenish my creative stock while M was busy with this. Each box has two stories and each story is made up of 6 large cardboard picture cards that you can sequence. The non-book format instantly attracted then 22 months old M. For the initial month we read the stories and arranged the cards for her; we then progressd to M narrating and us arranging the cards; now she does the narration and sequencing on her own. (Narrates in her mother tongue).The box says the set helps in observation, concentration, logical thinking, sequencing, verbal skills, reconstructing stories. It helped us tick all these boxes. Do get this if your child also loves stories or is rejecting books left-right and center
Toyshine Time and Seasons Game Educational Wooden Clock Toy Calendar Board – Arundhati recommends this big time. Quoting her,
What better way to teach them time, date, day and month along with the season and weather. Both of my children loved it and they are busy adjusting the time along with the clock. Keeps them busy for a long time.
Toyshine 3 in 1 Wooden Clock Numbers and Shapes Recognition, Time Learning (recommended by other parents as well)
Trinkets & More Calendar Educational Clock Toy For Kids Learning (Frog Stand)
Trinkets & More Calendar Clock Toy For Kids Learning (Hanging) Multicolor
MetClap Learning Board Game for Kids – Vini Gupta has shared a video in the fb group here.
Toyshine 120 pcs 12 Color Wooden Dominos Blocks Set – this gets ordered very often!
StepsToDo Pack 100 Unifix Cubes in 10 Colours (Multicolour). 2CM Size | 100 Interlocking Counting Cubes
Doodle Pro – really really helped Asha’s child when she was little. Most single kids need creative outlets and this one is non messy
Stamping Art – very popular with our kbc childoos
Shumee Wooden Stamps Craft Set for Kids-DIY Educational Block Print Kit
Play-doh – for many many years Asha’s child found playdough very therapeutic and would sit for hours making us breakfast or cutting hair, etc etc, etc – but only 3years+ when your child stops putting things in the mouth.
Trinkets & More: Geometric Shape Sorter Clock – someone once asked about telling the time – this is a very creative activity! for 3 years+
Trinkets & More – TRINKETS & MORE SEEMS TO HAVE LOTS OF AGE APPROPRIATE ACTIVITIES!
Jaykal Double Sided White Board And Chalk Board
Things That Go – Coloring And Sticker Activity Book
Magnetic Shapes Asha and Aarini loved them so much!
Blue Orange Games: Spot it! – Animals Jr. this looks so cool!
Imagimake: Activity Puzzle Kit – 58 Piece Puzzles
Sliceable Plastic Fruits And Veggies
Hand Painted Crafted Matryoshka Wooden Dolls (Russian Nesting Doll)
AmericanElm Pack of 3 Alphabets Tracing Boards for Kids, Wooden Learning Toys for Alphabets (English Lower Case, English Upper Case, Numbers)
Clever Cubes: Stringy Trail – Weaving Colourful Images
Skillmatics Educational: Boredom Buster Senior – Write And Wipe Activity Mats
Creativity HUB: Rory’s Story Cubes
Einstein Box: Ultimate Science Kit for 4 years+ Quoting Amardeep:
“When we came to my parents place, I ordered a science kit to keep Neil busy. I didn’t expect it to be so amazing that it would fill our holidays with fun and learning. The kit comes with everything you would need, including the test tubes, chemicals and instructions for 100 experiments. There are experiments on colour mixing, basic chemical reactions, underwater volcanoes, glowing names, and so much more.
If you have a child who is curious to know more about everything, and learns best through doing, do get this.”
Genius Box – Art And Murals 5+
PIDELITE DIY ACTIVITY KITS – these come for different ages like 5+ or 8+. Very affordable and fun to do. Achira highly recommends them!
A bird house! This is the Build your own bird house from Pidilite. It is a diy activity kit that comes with all the cardboard pieces, colours, paint brush, Fevicol and a rope! We spent our afternoon building this lovely bird house, colouring it, talking about different kinds of birds and what came out is this .
Kyds: Wipe And Clean – Flags Of The World FOR TODDLERS!
IMAGIMAKE MAPOLOGY IS HUGELY POPULAR ACROSS THEIR PRODUCTS AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
IMAGIMAKE MAPOLOGY IS A HUGE BESTSELLER AND BEST WAY TO INTRODUCE COUNTRIES + CAPITALS
UnikPlay Geografika Map Game with Illustrated Map & 40 Game Cards
KNOW INDIA FLASH CARDS has been recommended by Achira to teach India’s geography.
Flag Frenzy Game with Flash Cards has been recommended for learning about countries and their Flags
Chalk and Chuckles Smart Sticks Countries of The World, A Super Fun Learning
CocoMoco Kids Country Trump Cards Geography Game
Urbancart Kids Building Block Activity Table with 2 Chair and 4 Storage Box Set. Age 1 to 6
Hunk Shopper Balloon Powered Cars – keeps kids happily engaged for at least 30 mins at a time!
For older kids
Chalk And Chuckles Art and Craft Keychain Dolls – Make Yourself Activity Kit for Ages 8+
Skillmatics Guess in 10 – very popular and highly recommended by many of our parents.
Skillmatics Card Game – Train of Thought, Fun for Family Game Night, Educational Toys, Ages 6, 7, 8, 9 and Up
Solobolo Madhubani Painting Kit Tea Coasters with Stand | Art and Craft Kit
Solobolo Mandala Art Kit Coasters with Stand-Craft Kit with Dot Mandala Art Tools Kit for Beginners for 10 years+
KAADOO GAMES
KAADOO CARD AND BOARD GAMES – are very popular with our kbc kids especially the older ones!
[Note from Team Kids Book Café: For your convenience, affiliate links (MARKED IN PINK) to some of the book titles & images have been added to enable you to buy the books from AMAZON, should you wish to! A very small amount of money comes to kidsbookcafe.com when you purchase a book via the amazon affiliate link provided (at absolutely no extra cost to you!). Do let us know if you need information about other children’s books by writing to asha@kidsbookcafe.com.]
