Toy Problems

By hazardous I am assuming you mostly mean a choking hazard? If your son is done with the putting everything in his mouth stage then I would not worry about that too much (the exception being small magnets). Go ahead and get him those older toys, monitor him the first few times to see how he handles it and to teach any safety rules. My son started playing with much older rated toys by 2.5 yo. He much prefers things rated for about 2-3 years older than he is. Especially board games. He was bored with games like Cariboo and Candyland by the time he reach the suggested minimum age. Now at age 5 he prefers games like Mastermind, Risk, etc. Don't feel limited by the age. If the child is interested in games give lots of different things a try.

Some favorites the past few years:
collages with shells, colored paper, noodles, buttons, etc (big into those from age 2-3)
play dough
easel with paint pots
wooden trains and more wooden trains
Wedgits
Snap Circuits, Jr.
homemade science experiments (Usborne books has 2 pocket scientist books that are fantastic)
lots of make believe action toys (pirates, soldiers, knights, etc combined with reading lots of books about history)
vet kit
cooperative games made by Family Pastimes (a Canadian company)
building toys (Legos, K'nex, etc.)
Blokus
dominoes

Things that were a waste of money:
anything LeapPad (used for only a few short times, then bored)
most talking toys (he much preferred providing his own sound effects)
closed ended toys, anything with just a single purpose was abandoned quickly

We have Twilight Turtle. It's a stuffed animal with a hard shell on its back. When you turn it on, it projects the stars onto the walls and ceiling of the room and you can change the color to make it blue, yellow, or green. It kind of sort of replicates real constellations as best it can and comes with a guide to what you're looking at on the ceiling. So...not exactly a ceiling projector of the universe but it's highly little kid-friendly and does a respectable job of representing some things you see in the sky. Plus it's cute and cuddly

I got DD this for her birthday back in September after we spent hours on our backs on the lawn last summer looking at stars and constellations. It's been too cold to do that for a while now! :

Well, my ds played with SMALL legos before he was 4.

But the bigger size is safe for babies after 1, and has been very popular for all ages at my house as well (I mean the duplo size).

Also brio train tracks, tinker toys, Lincoln Logs.

Lacing cards from 18 mos on, but you have to look in the preschool section.

Wooden puzzles

paper and crayons and pencils.

Scissors from age 2 (with no pointy end, round end).

Play dough of most kinds (supervised).

Stamps.

Little characters: dollhouse dolls and furniture, Fisher Price little people and cars, Polly Pockets, Lego people, etc. Little characters.

Oh yes, and sticks (shaped like guns and swords) which must stay outside at our house.

Quote:
: My gifted 3-year-old plays with real things (flowers, plants, bugs, rocks, sticks, pots & pans, food, paper, pens, etc.) far more than toys. It is sort of rare that she bothers with toys that are suited to a particular age. The toys she's gotten the most mileage out of so far are cups, blocks, and musical instruments--all things she could have played with as a baby and (hopefully) will still be fun for a few more years.

...she does love my computer, though, so I'm not sure how that factors in...

Ditto the personality thing. DD isn't into "toys" per se (she's a bit over 3 yo). Things we have that have been big hits:

Nature baskets--nuts (she's currently hiding nuts in her megabloks basket for daddy to find), seashells, rocks, pinecones

Fabric scraps for capes, forts, dress-up, etc.

Scleich animals

Kaleidescope

Old spices that can be shaken into a bowl of water to make "soup"

Her play kitchen with lots of "real" ingredients, like spice bottles filled with dry pasta, crystals, wooden beads, real cinnamon for grating

Lauri peg boards

Lots of different block sets

We don't watch TV so dd comes up with some very creative things to do (as in, she isn't acting out a cartoon story-line or anything but developing her own games).

Quote:

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/g...e/viewall.html

Check out the nationalgeographic online store. They have a few ceiling type solar systems and moon/space items. Their stuff is carried in a lot of stores including Target and toysRus for less than the online store. Also we have a wall type projector from viewmaster, the company that makes those little viewers with the slides.
http://www.allaboardtoys.com/fisher-...e-control.aspx
It projectors things on the wall and has a remote to move the slides. All viewmaster slides work in it, we were able to find several planet solar system ones and other non-cartoon type ones. Ebay and auction sites are great for finding some of the out of print ones or vintage ones.

Quote:
Absolutely Brilliant. I've been struggling with my 21 month old, and I think all of these are going on my 'try' list.

aaaargh i can understand your frustration.

it took me quite a while to figure out what my dd meant as a toy and what i meant as one. as an infant she prefered my pens, all kinds of bottles, boxes. she ALWAYS wanted 'toys' to figure them out. once she figured them out she was done. a week after her bday party most of her toys are given away. about the only thing i feel is worth the money is books. she reads them consistently enough adn long enough that i feel i havent wasted my money - since it is so scarse.

here is a thing about putting things in their mouth. my dd stopped putting things in her mouth as a choling hazard as an infant. BUT she still and even now puts certain things in her mouth. its a sensory thing. she loves feeling the texture with her mouth. it is not v. often though - but still there.

so the 'toys' my dd has liked since she was younger has been
- rice, bean sensory bowl
-magnets
-blocks
- all kinds of equipment she can take apart
- anything miniature
a bunch of stuff from home depot, kitchen aisles like
- the 'flower' steamer
- measuring cups and spoons
- flour sifter
- tool kit
- gloves
- different kinds of screws and hooks

rubber bands,
candles
paper clips
rocks
beads
balls

she didnt get into dolls and soft toys till she was almost 4 and now she just loves and adores them.

she is a water child and loves anything she can take into the bathtub. i got her those ketchup mustard bottles when seh was going thru a i want a penis stage and she filled them with water and held them like a penis happily singing i have a penis now, watch me pee. i wasted money on water toys. tupperwear, different kinds of bottles, spray bottles, and freedom to take anything in the bathtub.

she loooooved her sand box AND sand table.

at 3 her favourite favourite thign to do was mix. a whole bunch of textures. baking soda, flour, my old make up with liquid soap, oil, vinegar, toothpaste, shaving foam. at that age she looooooved bath fizzie balls.
even today at 6 1/2 i always seem to find a rock in my purse. these days its no longer a 'rock' but a basalt or sedimentary rock. even now though my house is full of leaves, sticks, acorns, cedar roses and acorns.

she is an outdoorsy girl and we have never really stayed indoor much. we basically come home to sleep.

We've had some great toy ideas from here:
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/smart_toys.htm

also got mileage out of things like a big empty tube and balls to roll through it (propped up the tube on a chair, or the fisher price garage)

water play - a bucket, some empty containers and spoons, funnel etc. - esp good or floor washing days or hot summer days - they will get soaked. LOL

a tricycle - we brought ours in over the winter, washed the wheels and she rode it around and around and around

also at that age a doll stroller and shopping cart, tonnes of mileage putting stuff in and wheeling it about

Kapla - it's been a hit here from us grown-ups, through the baby (a yr tomorrow) and dd (5 in a few weeks) - Very cool stuff (though very expensive - my sister got us our set as a present for the whole family)

Blokus - recommended previously, also makes a great mosaic making type toy

get some card holders from Discovery Toys (or as part of a Leap Frog game set - ours were really cheap this way) and a dck of cards and there are many, many games you can play! Go Fish and War are great for starters.

take care,
Kerry

A soon as all DS's teeth were in (around 2.3 yo, but YMMV) I stopped being paranoid about chocking hazzards. He only ever put stuff in his mouth while he was cutting a tooth. (though reccently he has taken up nail biting .) The 3 and up warning on toys is b/c the toy has a small part that might pose a choking hazzard, so since DS wasn't putting anything in his mouth any more he got many "3 and up" toys at 2 1/2 yo.

Many of DS's favorite toys are things he has stolen from my kitchen. You would believe all the possible ways a 2 1/2 yo can use a salad spinner.

It's hard to answer w/o knowing WHICH toys are causing WHICH problems for your ds. We didn't honor ages marked on toys and I didn't worry too much about choking hazards except for a little while w/dd#2. Dd#1 never put anything in her mouth.

Dd#2 is 2 yrs. 2 mos. and plays LOTS of board games, some marked as high as 8+ years. LOL. She loves to play and would play six hours straight. Usually I insist she take a break at some point.

Other toys:

blocks
wooden train tracks
lego/duplo
puzzles
balls
playsilks
instruments
art
gross motor: bikes, scooters, stilts
fine motor: bead stringing, sticker books, lacing boards, mosaics/tiles
stuffed animals, dolls, dresing
cars, tops, wind-up toys
card games
goobets
playdoh
doctor's kit, play kitchen
sports: swimming, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, ballet, etc.