Today’s Gray House Studio favorite things post is all about toys, specifically our favorite high-quality toys for 3 year olds. I’m excited to share about one of our family’s favorite brands – Lovevery.
Lovevery offers a stage-based play kit subscription service. A new box is delivered every 3 months and is filled with high quality toys, books, and a play guide with additional activities that support the growth of developmental skills.
*Lovevery gifted our family with the Lovevery The Observer Play Kit. All opinions are my own.
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Our Favorite Toys for 3 Year Olds
My kids LOVE playing with Lovevery toys. What I love about their toy designs is they encourage open ended play which means my kids don’t immediately grow out of the toys. My 3 and 6 year old still enjoy playing with several of the toys from The Babler Kit. The games and pretend play with the toys have just evolved to more complex ideas.
My kids love getting anything in the mail so when the big Lovevery box shows up at our door filled with surprise toys and books they are pumped. Half the fun for them is the unboxing and discovery process.
Our youngest just turned three last month and with that came the new challenge of helping her recognize and process new “big feelings” in a positive and helpful way. The Observer Kit could not have come at a better time and was right on target with what a three year old needs emotionally and developmentally.
The Observer Kit includes emotional support dolls that help build emotional literacy as well as a guide to why and how these dolls can help three year olds make sense of what they are feeling.
I like this as a toy for 3 year olds because is educational, sometimes silly (we like to play a game called copy the face), and also is a practical parenting tool during times of melt downs.
When I can tell our daughter is feeling “big feelings” we look at the emotional support dolls and I ask her to just hold the one she is feeling. My daughter (3) also randomly likes to pick up the wooden faces and ask my son (6) how he is feeling and name off all of the emotions.
The Observer Kit also includes three books that further explain emotions with main characters that are also around the age of 3. I think seeing the pictures in the books of kids who look similar in age to her doing similar things as she does and feeling similar ways she feels is why she always connects so quickly to the books in the Lovevery play kits.
If you have a 3 year old then you have probably heard the phrase “I can do it myself!”. The need for independence is strong right now for our daughter. Which is why I thought it was so clever that this box included shoe stickers to help 3 year olds with putting on their shoes on the correct feet. They help her get off on the right foot to independently putting on her own shoes – pun intended. 🙂
I think I was the most excited about the Plan Ahead Weather Board included in The Observer Kit. We home school so I am excited to use the board to go over the season, weather, day of the week each morning.
It is a beautiful, well made toy that can have multiple purposes. My 3 year old really enjoyed just playing with the knobs and levers while my 6 year old tried to teach her what the symbols and pictures meant. Then they both pretend played they were delivering the weather on the news!
By far the show stopper toy for my kids in The Observer Kit was the modular playhouse. Pretend play is the preferred style of play in our house and the playhouse set along with the little car and people was a fantastic set up that lended itself to over an hour of continuous pretend play.
My 6 year old loved it as much as my 3 year old and they actually played together for over an hour with this set. Magic.
They laughed and laughed together as they rearranged the pieces making the little people roll down the slide.
3 year olds love keys and locks. The cute little wood house included has real lock and key which really intrigued my daughter. She is naturally curious to how things work and loves keys so she really enjoyed practicing unlocking the door with “an actual real key”.
Her brother made up a game where he would hide a toy animal in the house and she would have to unlock the door to rescue it. Pretend play and fine motor skills!
So why are Lovevery toys our favorite toys for 3 year olds? They are high quality, well researched and thought out developmentally appropriate toys.
The best part – they just show up at your door right when you need them. It takes all of the guesswork out of finding the right toys and even provides supplemental material and activities to make sure you are able to make the most of the toys.
The play kits are also a great gift idea. If you are like me you constantly have a grandparent asking for gift ideas for their grandchild. A Lovevery play kit subscription is a gift that keeps giving all year.
The play kits start at 0-12 weeks and you can start your subscription up to age 4.
Have any questions? Ask us in the comments and shop all Lovevery toys here.
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