10 Items Your Playroom Desperately Needs
Having a designated playroom with quality toys is essential to a child’s growth and development. When you have an organized playroom with carefully chosen toys, it allows your child to engage in creative, independent play. It has positive effects on the brain by helping their ability to learn by doing, it encourages sharing and cooperative play, and helps them learn about their emotions and how to gain self-control.
Here are 10 playroom items that your child will benefit from playing with.
Activity Table from Fat Brain Toys
This is not your everyday run-of-the-mill activity table. It’s the perfect height for little ones who want to open doors, spin gears, move beads, and so much more! It is durably made of high-quality wood, Every side is packed with fun experiences to explore! Although this product is designed for ages 2+, our 18-month old loves it and I find that it is even safe for her micro-preemie size. This activity table from Fat Brain Toys encourages fine motor skills, sensory exploration, cause-and-effect learning, and experimentation. I am in love with this activity table and I know you will be too!
Magnetic Tile Building Blocks by Picasso Tiles
Magnetic tiles are a big deal and I am here for it! Every time we went to a library or Play Street Museum that had magnetic tiles, our kids always chose them over other things to do/play with. I knew we had to add them to our play room essentials ASAP. The benefits of kids playing with magnetic tiles is endless! They improve critical thinking skills, problem solving, imaginative play, creativity, geometry, patterns, concentration and focus, and the list goes on and on. When searching the internet for the best magnetic tiles, we chose Picasso Tiles based on reviews and how the tiles were made. There are a handful of brands I would recommend but do your research and find the best brand for your family!
Macrame Swinging Chair
We have been through a few swings in our house. We started with a pod swing, then we switched to a silky sensory swing, and now we are at the macrame swing. I got the idea for an indoor swing when I started following GrOH! Playrooms on Instagram. (You’ll want to follow them too, I promise!) Having an indoor swing can enhance a child’s focus and attention, increase body and spatial awareness, help with sensory integration, build hand-eye coordination, and really, truly, it is just a mood booster! I mean, who doesn’t love to swing?!
Montessori Stepping Stones from Bunny Hopkins
With children who like to play The Floor Is Lava with my couch cushions, these stepping stones are a no-brainer. These colored, wooden disks offer endless imaginative fun for kids of all ages! Bunny Hopkins offers the widest wooden disks on the market and as you continue to read this post, you will find why we choose them time and time again for all of our wooden play toys! This simple toy stimulates creativity, promotes physical play (my favorite!), and helps develop gross motor skills while giving your kids the freedom to make it whatever they want it to be! We also love to use these for color-sorting school lessons. Use code ‘Fierce Mama’ for 10% off your order!
Rock Climbing Wall with Polyurethane Molds by Metolius Climbing
This was my first big idea to upgrade our kids’ play room! I wanted this so badly because our boys would climb anything and everything… I cannot emphasize this enough. They. climbed. EVERYTHING. Honestly, I did not care about the extra benefits of rock climbing for kids. I just wanted them to stop climbing on tables, furniture, and up the walls (literally). But the benefits of an indoor rock climbing wall are pretty great: builds confidence, increases strength, endurance, and flexibility, improves hand-foot-eye coordination, and enhances problem solving skills. It was really easy to make the rock climbing wall but in our next house we plan to get a little crazier with a slightly angled rock climbing wall. Be sure to use soft molds instead of the hard plastic ones you can find just about anywhere. Metolius Climbing offers great molds for kids!
Balance Board from Bunny Hopkins
The balance board is a simple concept with big rewards! Because of the sturdy, rocking design of the balance board, your kiddos will learn to support their own physical development, practice spatial awareness, and strengthen their coordination. They can balance on it one minute and climb on it the next. The possibilities are endless when they are practicing pretend play! Out of all the balance boards on the market, we chose Bunny Hopkins because they are made here in the US and are made with such a high-quality you can’t find anywhere else. Remember to use code ‘Fierce Mama’ for 10% off your order!
Anything and Everything by Lovevery
Every now and then I get asked if our Lovevery Play Kits are worth the money. If I could, I would scream my answer from the rooftops, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”. My honest opinion is that it is not expensive for what you get. Some people just look at a price tag and think, “WOW! I’m not spending that much money on x. y. z!” but what they are forgetting to look at is what is included. I absolutely love the high-quality products (safe and durable) that Lovevery offers. I believe that these are toys that make parenting easier because they have experts researching toys for each stage of life. This ensures that my kids are getting the right toys for their developmental stage of life. Also, I knew of a fellow NICU mom that wasn’t sure about which Play Kit was right for her baby based on adjusted age and development. She reached out to the Lovevery team and they curated a Play Kit just for her medical needs baby. I about cried when Reagan’s OT told us this story! THIS is a company that I want my money going to. They truly care about children and that’s all I can ask for.
Personalized Name Puzzle from Fat Brain Toys
You can’t get any cuter than a toddler trying to learn their name through a colorful name puzzle! This simple learning toy is a great gift idea for any occasion! According to Fat Brain Toys, these name puzzles encourage logic abilities, fine motor skills, letter recognition, name spelling, and early self-esteem. Fat Brain Toys offers high-quality customized name puzzles for your kiddos and we love them around here! I will recommend Fat Brain Toys for everything possible, if you haven’t figured that out yet! Haha!
The Nugget Couch
The Nugget Couch… AKA the holy grail of play time. It took us awhile to jump on board with splurging for these couches. Overtime, I realized that purchasing two Nuggets (we will probably purchase a third soon) is way less expensive than having to replace our sectional. Our boys frequently make forts and play The Floor Is Lava with our couch cushions and pillows. Our sectional… looks pathetic and sad now. I wish I bought The Nugget much, much sooner. The Nugget Couch is so versatile! Your kids can build forts with them, use them as actual couches for movie night or a reading corner, you can even create stories with felt people and shapes (you can find pre-made sets on Amazon or Etsy)!
nuLOOM Kids Area Rug
If you want to make your playroom bright and welcoming, I highly recommend adding a colorful rug! I am a HUGE fan of nuLOOM rugs and have them in most of the rooms of our house. They offer washable rugs, outdoor rugs, textured rugs, plush rugs, beautiful woven rugs, and the list goes on-and-on! These rugs welcome children to play on the floor and get creative. I am completely obsessed with our playroom nuLOOM rug because it adds a beautiful touch of playfulness, adds comfort for floor play, and offers a comfy place to lay and read books.
Whether you are upgrading your playroom essentials or purchasing a gift for someone else, these 10 playroom staples help children grow emotionally, physically, and mentally. I, wholeheartedly, believe in quality over quantity, and these items are quality.
I have so many more staples that I absolutely love having in our playroom! Didn’t see your favorite? Let me know what you can’t live without by commenting below!
Photos provided by the following Instagram accounts: @nuggetcomfort, @lovevery, @fatbraintoys, @nuloom, @bunnyhopkinstoys, @picassotiles, and @grohplayrooms
