15 Great Educational Toys for 2-Year-Olds

Learning doesn’t stop at bathtime! This bundle includes five pipes, five cogs, and three tubes, so your 2-year-old can engineer their own systems for bath water to flow and spin through. Each one has a suction cup on the back, ensuring they stay stuck to the tub during playtime, but can also be easily moved to experiment with cause and effect.

A classic for decades, LEGOs are known to encourage imaginative play, hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and more. The storage box is packed with 65 bricks (that can be used with other Duplos), including two figures and 1-2-3 number-learning bricks, plus pieces such as moving wheels and flowers. A prime example of an open-ended toy, there’s no limit to how the Duplos can be built together.

A favorite of kids and parents alike, these magnetic tiles make learning about shapes, colors, engineering, and problem-solving exciting. There are 60 tiles in the set, with seven shapes and six colors. Your 2-year-old can build on their own, or work together with you to construct everything from rockets to toy car garages.

Tripping over your toddler in the kitchen while trying to cook? Give them one of their own and let their imagination run wild. This play kitchen brings the farm-to-table experience to life for kids. It features planters with vegetables and chalkboard labels. Adding to the realism is an ice maker that dispenses play cubes, a cooktop that lights up and sizzles, and a faucet that lights up with running water sounds.

Keep your 2-year-old away from your kitchen cabinets with 26 alphabet tiles for your fridge that sing and talk when inserted in their magnetic school bus. With one press, you’ll hear Tad say the name and sound of the letter, and with two, he’ll say a word that begins with the letter and that word used in a sentence. Phonics skills are obviously strengthened, and by moving the tiles around the fridge, fine motor skills are as well.

A toy that encourages imaginative play and teaches your child how to help out around the house? Yes, it exists. This six-piece cleaning set includes a broom, mop, duster, dustpan, brush, and storage stand. Everything is perfectly proportional for a young child, and also helps with fine motor skills.

Found in many Montessori classrooms, this sorting and stacking puzzle is a multi-tasker that uses shapes, colors, and sizes to promote cognitive and spatial intelligence. The 20 pieces can be fit onto the base’s pegs, stacked from largest to smallest, threaded together, and more, which helps with fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

A preschool must-have that can also be used at home, these tweezers are just the right size to help toddlers develop all the fine motor skills. The finger placement grooves encourage a pincer grasp, so kids can properly hold pencils when they’re a little older, and the subtle resistance builds hand strength. Plus, they’re ideal for sensory bins and sorting, which have their own benefits.

It’s a cape, it’s a blanket — it’s a playsilk! The only limit to this colorful (35” x 35”) square is your 2-year-old’s imagination. As something that a child might wear, the sensory experience matters, and the smooth texture glides on the skin without a single bit of irritation.

This activity center/desk has it all, including a writing pad, projector, chalkboard, and art station. The interactive desktop is one of the best features, which comes with five pages that have over 200 touch-and-learn spots. To make it feel more like an office, there’s also a stool, picture frame, days-of-the-week roller, clock, weather slider, and music player.

Designed specifically with color recognition and sorting in mind, this set includes 25 pieces of play food, five baskets, an activity guide, and sticker labels. In addition to the skills built categorizing the fruits and vegetables, it also gives your 2-year-old the chance to expand their word bank and indulge in imaginative play.

More than a regular magnetic maze that helps improve fine motor skills and concentration, this teaches the alphabet at the same time. Every letter has its own lowercase-labeled parking spot, which your toddler is tasked with matching to its uppercase-labeled car. And if they want to just drive the cars on the road, they’re still working on hand-eye coordination and spatial orientation.

Versatility is the name of the game with this bowl-shaped toy. It can be whatever your 2-year-old decides, from a spinning seat to an army helmet. Bilibo is made from high-density polyethylene, which means it’s food-safe, weather-proof (so it can be used outdoors!), and shock-resistant.

Take Montessori learning on the go with a busy board that features a handle, lightweight wool design, and 25 different activities. From a Velcro puzzle to zipper practice, your 2-year-old gets a little bit of everything — it helps with learning the alphabet, colors, shapes, life skills, and more. The best part is, there’s so much to do that they’ll be entertained by the busy board for the rest of toddlerhood.

The child version of an iPod and a portable speaker in one, the Yoto Mini uses physical cards and their easy-to-use app to play songs, stories, podcasts, soundscapes, and more. (They have hundreds of options for the 0-2 age range alone!) A standout option is the Make Your Own card, which gives you the freedom to do things like record bedtime stories in your own voice.