Indoor play. Outdoor play. Arts & crafts. Fine motor play. All kinds of play!

We’ve rounded up our favorite fun & functional toys to play with and seasonal books to read. Engage with baby, toddler, and preschoolers both inside and outside to celebrate the spring season!

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Wheelbarrow & Gardening Tool Set: This interactive gardening set is perfect for your toddler’s imitation skills. The age-appropriate sized gardening tools and wheelbarrow will allow your toddler in increase their independence while working with you outside.
Garden Cart: Engage in pretend play with this flower cart. It’s great for developing gross motor strength and coordination in order to pick up and move the cart around.
Gardening Gloves: Work on dressing skills by putting the gloves on and taking them off again. These gloves are a great addition to your gardening set so your little one can dig & get into the dirt without getting too dirty. We have these for Paul & P and they love helping to dig!
Green Toys Watering Can: Toddlers love to help and water the plants! This is a perfect age appropriate skill that works on increasing independence, wrist rotation, motor strength and coordination, and following directions.
Pretend Play Flower Bed: Practice identifying flowers by their colors and organizing the flowers tallest to shortest. Great for toddlers to practice functional hand grasps (to put flowers in and out of bed).
Toddler Gardening Set: A cute set with all you need to start a little garden of your own!
Flower & Herb Growing Kit: Teach your preschooler how to garden with this kit! Decorate the pots together, plant, and watch them grow!
Garden Blocks: These smaller blocks are perfect for increasing fine motor control and coordination by stacking with one hand. Babies 18+ months will love to help stack the blocks to create different flowers and garden scenes.
Raised Garden Bed: Head to the nursery and pick out a couple of flowers or plants to plant with your little one. Practice caring for others and building responsibility as you check on and water your seeds and plants every day.
Vegetable & Flower Garden Toy: Engage in pretend play, while increasing fine motor skills. Your toddler will love “sell” you food and flowers as you come to their pretend garden stand. They can tend to their garden by planting & watering, too!
Gardening Tools: Dig, rake, scoop, and pour with these handy sand and dirt tools. Perfect for toddlers to engage in sensory-rich play while developing fine and gross motor strength and coordination.
Herb Garden: A way to combine art and gardening together! Let your preschooler decorate the pots, then plant the herbs together. Once the herbs are ready, cut them and let your child meal prep with you to add flavor to whatever dish you make!

Who is in the Garden?: A great book for little hands. Read which animals are in the garden and model the animal sounds. Pause and wait for baby to imitate you!
From Seed to Plant: This nonfiction book is great to introduce your preschooler to gardening and planting! You can simplify the words depending on the age of your little one.
Garden Time: A colorful and fun introduction to gardening you can read to your toddler! The illustrations are so nice.
Up in the Garden & Down in the Dirt: Geared toward preschool and older, this book talks about planning a garden and when it’s the right time to plant.
Plant The Tiny Seed: Another book with beautiful illustrations that allows little ones to interact with the pages - press, wiggle, count, and more as you plant a tiny seed together.
The Little Gardener: A board book with only a few words per page and large flaps for your little one to lift. It introduces gardening vocabulary!
My First Book of House Plants: If you love house plants, this is a great one to introduce to your little one! Fun illustrations and simple facts and vocabulary on house plants.
Nana’s Garden: Join a little girl in her Nana’s garden! This one introduces colors and adjectives within a garden.
You Grow, Girl!: A great book with positive play on words, full of affirmations for girls! We love to read this book together!
Lola Plants a Garden: With help from her mom, Lola learns to plant a garden. Great for sequencing, she plans, goes to buy seeds, and plants!
Planting a Rainbow: Brightly colored illustrations and rhyming throughout as little ones learn about planting all the colors of the rainbow!
Peek-a-Flap Grow: We love these peek-a-flap books! The flaps are engaging, and they’re easy to simplify when reading depending on the age of your child.

Bee to Hive Fine Motor Toy: Manipulate the tongs to work on increasing fine motor strength and coordination as your little one picks up the different colored bees, and drops them into their corresponding colored spot in the hive.
Pull-Back Bug Cars: Just push down, pull them backward, then watch them go! These are great motivation for a baby learning to crawl, or just to play with and race back & forth on a hard surface!
Jumbo Insects: Perfect for insect lovers of all ages. Have your toddler describe the insects to you. Then, practice gross motor imitation skills by taking one insect and having it do various things (fly, jump, sit on your head, crawl up the wall, etc.) and wait for your toddler to imitate your actions.
Counting Ladybugs Puzzle: Great color matching & counting puzzle for your toddler. Use the colors to match the ladybugs onto the puzzle, then (if your child is 3/4+ yrs.) count the dots to determine how many. This puzzle will grow with your child as they learn more counting skills!
Quick-Release Bug Catching Tool: Trap bugs and inspect them through magnifying glass. Great for kids who are showing interest in bugs and insects and wanting to see them up close!
Wooden Bug-Catching Puzzle: Great for toddlers 2+ years old. Work on matching pictures and completing puzzle, then practice taking turns and working on motor control as you hover the net magnet over the bugs to pull them out of the puzzle.
Bug Playground Ball: Get outside and watch for bugs as you kick, roll, or throw the ball together!
Hello Bugs Sticker Book: We love these sticker books! Increase fine motor and writing skills by peeling and placing the stickers and coloring the pages. Great to keep in the car and pull out at restaurants or other sit-down events.
Lacing Bee: Work on using 2 hands together and increasing fine motor control by holding the bee steady in one hand while the other hand manipulates, pushes, and pulls string through the bee’s body!
Bug Bungalow: Catch and study your favorite bugs in your own yard. This toy is great for promoting independence as your little one catches, houses, and studies their favorite insects.
Fine Motor Bug: As your little one picks up and aligns the colored pegs, they are working on using their functional writing/coloring grasp and strengthening their finger and hand muscles.
Bugnoculars: This bug catcher has magnifying binoculars on top for your little one to look through and see the bugs close up!

Never Touch the Bugs: Great for sensory exploration and the little one who’s interested in bugs.
Hank’s Big Day: Perfect for a preschooler, join Hank the pill bug for a very big day!
The Bug Box: A series suitable for preschool and up about bugs and their differences - teaches about the beauty of differences!
Butterfly: A story about butterflies with colorful pages and flaps to lift!
Bugs: Super interactive with flaps, wheels, and tabs to pull!
Buzz, Buzz, Baby: We love a book by Karen Katz! Colorful with lift the flaps, this is a fun book for baby and toddler!
Backyard Bugs: Read this book to find out who lives in the backyard! The Hello, World Series has colorful and engaging illustrations.
The Very Lonely Firefly: The firefly is lonely and searches for other fireflies, but he finds candles, fireworks, and other bright things.
Bee: A beautiful peek-through board book for toddlers filled with rhyming!
Backyard Bugs Touch & Feel: Great for baby and toddler with touch and feel aspects and beginner bug vocabulary!
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!: A colorful book for toddlers that pairs nouns and verbs to incorporate movement!
ABC Bug Book for Kids: Go through the alphabet with bugs that start with every letter! This one has real photos of bugs, simple facts, and lots of bug vocabulary!

Classic DUPLO Set: Test those imagination skills by building play scenes with your toddler. Also a perfect first toy for color sorting!
Montessori Shape Sticks: A hands-on way to learn about shapes and colors with your preschooler. Practice following directions by instructing your little one to “sort the circles first,” then help them find all the circles to place into the toy first before moving to the next shape.
Hape Dollhouse: This is awesome for imaginative play. It’s wooden, colorful, and comes furnished. Paul absolutely loves his.
Stacking Spinner Toy: This toy is so motivating for little ones! It’s great for stimulating the visual sensory system, working on fine and gross motor skills, and has plenty of opportunities for functional language.
Shape Puzzle: Help your little one complete the puzzle by handing them one shape at a time. Label the color and name of each shape as you hand them the piece. Have them request “more please” before handing them the next puzzle piece. Perfect for toddlers 3+ years.
Magnetic Blocks: Build, stack, and create with these magnetic building blocks. Younger toddlers (2.5-3 years) will like these blocks because their success rate for stacking and building is high because of the magnetic pull. Your older toddler/preschooler will love all of the different structures and scenes they can build with these blocks!
Rainbow Color Cones: Challenge your little one to hold the ice cream cone in one hand, then use the other hand to stack the colored cones on top of each other.
Pikler Triangle Set: Increase gross motor strength and coordination, as well as incorporating some sensory heavy work as your little one engages with this fun indoor climbing structure. Perfect tools for creating a fun obstacle course!
Silicone Rainbow Stacker: This rainbow silicone stacker is great for color sorting & identification, stacking, teaching big vs little, and open-ended play. Pretend the arches are a smile on your face or a hat on your head, then PAUSE and see if your little one to imitate you. Great for ages 12+ months.
Crawling Tunnel: A great toy for working on crawling on hands and knees! Make an obstacle course, use it for hide and seek and peek-a-boo, or roll a ball back and forth through the tunnel.
Geometric Stacker: Great for shape sorting, stacking, and color sorting. You can introduce this toy as a basic ring stacker around 1 year, then progress to sorting the shapes and identifying the colors as your little one gets older.
Foam Climbing Blocks: The five different shapes in this set are great to use for working on crawling and climbing over obstacles, walking up and down inclines, and stepping over, too! The foam challenges balance more than walking on solid ground.

Stir, Crack, Whisk, Bake: We absolutely love this book! It engages toddlers the whole way through as you “make cupcakes” together. Great for working on functional language and would be perfect to read through as you make real cupcakes in the kitchen!
Babies Love Colors: Lift-the-flap books are our favorite! There are chunky flaps on each page as you start introducing your little one to colors.
Where is Baby’s Belly Button?: A bright and silly book with lift-the-flaps you can use to start labeling body parts and more.
Love Goes a Long Way: Alicia’s boys have this one. It’s a book all about love with engaging and colorful illustrations.
Poke-a-Dot: What’s Your Favorite Color?: You know we love a Poke-a-Dot book! Your little reader can poke the dots and hear a POP! And practice finger isolation, too.
My First Emotions: In this book, there are colors that represent different feelings and emotions - love, confidence, worry, sadness, peaceful, anger & happiness. Each page talks about one feeling and gives little ones time to reflect on when they’ve felt that way.
We Can Get Dressed: Help your little one learn to dress themselves with this book! It has lift-the-flaps and a wheel to spin, too.
Colorful Cars & Trucks: Every type of car and truck and all the colors, too. This is a great book for little ones who love all things transportation. You can label colors throughout the book, too.
ABC of Nature: Jenna loves this one. The illustrations are beautiful, colorful, and some are raised for sensory exploration. Label plants, animals, and trees while learning about them.
Peacock’s Rainbow Feathers: Petey the Peacock shares his different colored feathers with friends in this touch and feel book.
See, Touch, Feel Colors: We love all the books in this collection! The pages each have a few words and there are lots of touch and feel elements to explore with baby and toddler.
Chameleon’s Colors: This one has sequins on each page that moves two ways, so you can change the chameleon’s color as he moves to different places.

Popstick Puppets: A fun and simple craft for preschoolers that you can use for pretend play after you finish!
Inflatable Easel: How fun is this outdoor inflatable easel?! Let your little one paint and get messy, then just hose it down!
My First Chalk: Great for gripping/grasping and starting to draw & create! Short, thick writing utensils are recommended for toddlers as their hand strength increases and fine motor skills develop!
Jumbo Coloring Pad: Melissa & Doug makes the best coloring pads! The pads themselves are large and filled with dark-outlined pictures to color. It may be just as fun for you as it is for your child!
Sponges: Spring is a fun time to get outside and play with chalk! Mix it up and use these sponges to create a “chalk sponge paint” - dab it all over the driveway! These are also fun to use painting with water! Practice dipping, soaking, and squeezing them!
Spring Sticker Sheets: Work those fine motor skills as you peel the stickers off to make the faces of these spring animals!
Paint a Birdhouse: Comes fully assembled, so you don’t have to worry about using tools and making it yourself. Your toddler can decorate using included paint, and help to find a special spot outside to welcome a bird family!
Paint Brushes: Again, great for gripping and grasping a utensil. I like to use paint brushes for “water painting.” Dip the brush in a bucket of water and paint on the sidewalk with no mess! Try using different shapes and types of brushes (or sponges) for more creativity. Great for 18 months +
Created By Me: Butterfly Magnets: Celebrate the spring season by painting butterflies to hang on the fridge!
Animal Stamp Set: Take stamping to the next level with this deluxe stamp set. Work on categorizing the animals based on where they live (e.g., the ocean, zoo, farm) as you create your picture!
Sidewalk Chalk: Embrace your child’s creative side with this ultimate chalk collection, which includes special colors and glitter chalk! Design outdoor games, draw your favorite characters, or even practice writing numbers and letters.
Sidewalk Stencils: These can be fun to use when drawing with chalk! They have smooth edges and are washable to be used again and again. Great for 2 years and older!

Montessori Stick Sorting Toy: This toy is great for increasing fine motor manipulation skills as your little one maneuvers, aligns, and slides the colored sticks into their corresponding colored hole on the mushroom.
Fine Motor Flower Pot: Count, stack, and work those fine motor skills with this flower pot, so festive for spring!
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Puzzle: Identify each animal as you pull them off the puzzle board and hand them to baby. Then point to matching animal on the puzzle board and help baby place the puzzle piece back in.
Sorting Pie: Sort the fruit pieces in each section of the pie! When your little one is older, use the tongs to work on fine motor skills as you make the pie together!
Snap & Learn Shape Snails: Practice using two hands to pull apart and push together as your little one looks for the matching colored snail pieces. Great to introduce colors and shapes!
Flower Stacking Toy: This toy works on hand-eye coordination as your little one works to line the pieces up and stack them on top of each other, creating a beautiful flower garden!
Woodpecker Worm Toy: Use pincer grasp to slide colored worms into their holes. Increase coordination skills by aligning magnetic hammer to the worms then bringing them to the birds mouth to “feed the bird”.
See & Say: You know I love this toy! It’s perfect for using two hands! Encourage your little one to hold the handle with one hand, then use the other to pull the lever down to make the wheel spin and hear the animal sound! Imitate all the animal sounds together, too!
Peekaboo Learning Farm: Practice using two hands together by taking barns apart to reveal the animal inside. Push them together again to make the animal ‘go to sleep’ for the night.
Melissa & Doug Cutting Fruit: This cutting set is a great, functional toy that works on bilateral coordination skills (using two hands working together) as your little one holds the food steady with one hand while they use the knife with the other hand to ‘cut’ the wooden food.
Picnic Sorting Surprise: These sets are so fun! Work on matching the basket tops and bottoms, opening and closing them, and finding the tiny surprise in each of them!
Flower Pot Puzzles: Increase functional puzzle skills as your little one works on using two hands together to fit the matching flower and pots together.

Wooden Cutting Puzzle: Practice cutting with this interactive puzzle. Great for matching as your little one matches the food pieces together. Let them explore knife cutting skills safely as they problem solve how to cut food pieces in half again.
Melissa & Doug Sound Puzzle (Farm): Model taking puzzle pieces off of puzzle board with pincer grasp. Listen to the animal sounds the puzzle makes, then model the sound - PAUSE - and wait for baby to try.
Melissa & Doug Jumbo Knob Shape Puzzle: A great first puzzle for baby! Let them try to grasp and remove pieces, them help guide them to fit the pieces back onto the puzzle board.
Melissa & Doug Chunky Puzzle (Pets): Lay puzzle piece close to its spot on the puzzle board and help your little one problem solve fitting puzzle pieces into slot. Help slide pieces into their appropriate spot if needed. Label the animals and the sounds or movements they make, too!
Pearhead Wooden Shapes Puzzle: Engage with chunky puzzle pieces by stacking them to make a small tower. Model “one, two, three…crash!,” and encourage your little one to knock tower over. You can also use this puzzle to introduce shapes!
Farm Cube Puzzle: Best suited for preschool and up, this cube puzzle offers more of a challenge with 6 different puzzles (each side of the cube). For younger littles, simply engage with the puzzle through stacking blocks!
Bug Puzzles: These cute bug puzzles are each 4 pieces and come in a larger size for little ones to manipulate. Help your little one problem solve how to fit them together by talking about what’s on each piece and how they might fit together.
Produce Peg Puzzles: With spring comes fresh produce! These fruit and vegetable puzzles are great for working on pincer grasp and introducing vocabulary!
Jumbo Knob Shape Puzzle: A fun and colorful puzzle to talk about colors and shapes! Work on taking the puzzle pieces off and putting them back on the puzzle board.
Melissa & Doug Touch & Feel Puzzle: Model petting the soft parts of the puzzle pieces, PAUSE, and wait for baby to imitate you. Then help baby slide puzzle piece into appropriate spot.
Animal Puzzle Sets: These are a great introduction to jigsaw puzzles and an awesome price, too! My kids love them.

Bubble Wand Set: With this set you can blow bubbles, or see bubbles form when using your arms to swing the bigger wands back and forth! This set is also fun for color and shape labeling. Model “ready, set, go” as well as “blow” and “pop!” Perfect for all ages.
Fubbles Multi-pack: I love Fubbles because they don’t spill if it tips over! Practice blowing and finger isolation - encouraging your little ones to use their pointer finger to pop the bubbles (a milestone we expect by 15 months).
Bubble Leaf Blower: This is fun for the little one that loves to help in the yard. Let them engage in pretend play and “blow the leaves” while also having fun with the bubbles. Perfect for a seasoned walker, so 18 months and older!
Fubbles No-Spill Bubble Bucket: No-spill and a couple different wands to use. If you have multiple kids, they can each use it at once! Fine motor skills develop after the first birthday for your little one to dip the wand themselves!
Bubble Wands: You can’t go wrong with bubble wands! I love that I can swing the wand back and forth to create bubbles, too. Pro tip: refill the wands with bubble solution from the Target Dollar Spot. More affordable!
Spike Bubble Blower: This is AMAZING for teaching the concept of blowing. By simply exhaling into the mouthpiece, your little one will make bubbles! Then the blocker in the mouth will stop the liquid from going into the mouth when your little one breathes in. Genius!
Bubble Gun: These offer another fun way to play with bubbles - and save your breath! Use it to play freeze tag - take turns trying to make the other person freeze by getting them with the bubbles! Then practice “Ready, set, GO!” to unfreeze each other!
Dino Automatic Bubble Blower: Work on isolating pointer finger to press and maneuver the on/off switch. Use the wand to practice imitation skills by waving the wand above your head or down by your feet, then wait to see if your little one imitates you. Great for 2+ years.
Bubble Lawn Mower: This is a great fun outdoor activity for pretend play. Practice “mowing” and “water the lawn” with the bubbles that come out! Perfect for a new walker, so about 12-18 months and older!
Bubble Machine: We have this bubble machine and love it - it just adds playfulness to outdoor fun. When Paul was 15 months, we would practice finger isolation and pop the bubbles together. Perfect for a sitting baby and older!
Mini Bubble Wands: These are so fun and great to practice pinching the tiny wand and blowing little breaths to see the mini bubbles appear!

Binoculars: Binoculars made specifically for little ones! They have a comfortable design to fit your little one’s face and great for exploring!
Rocknoculars: Find a rock, shell, or other piece of nature and put it under a magnifying glass to examine it! Great for the little explorer who loves details!
Bugnoculars: This bug catcher has magnifying binoculars on top for your little one to look through and see the bugs close up!
Scavenger Hunt Cards: Get outside and give these cards to your toddler/preschooler. They will be able to see the picture on each card to know what to find!
Botanical Press: Get outside! Have a seek and find with your toddler to look for flowers, grass, and other items in nature. Collect and bring them back to press in this kit. Model “I see…” and fill in the blank with items you see around your yard.
Bug Bungalow: Catch and study your favorite bugs in your own yard. This toy is great for promoting independence as your little one catches, houses, and studies their favorite insects.
Explorer Vest & Hat: This is perfect for dressing up to play pretend! Send your little one out to explore their world - at the park, in the backyard, or on the trail!
Scavenger Hunt Set: Amazing activity for problem solving, matching, and looking around the environment. Pick out 6 cards and help your little one look around outside (or indoors!) for the same items in real life! After a few go-arounds, you can have a race to see who can find their items the fastest.
Kaleidoscope: These are so fun and great to take outside when it’s sunny to look at the beautiful patterns and colors. Ask your child what they see, or even play pretend with it. Paul loves taking mine (from the 90s) outside to “explore.”

See, Touch, Feel Spring: We love Priddy Books and this one engages baby with touch and feel elements and ways to interact throughout!
Baby Loves Spring!: Colorful illustrations and lift the flaps for baby to read about spring!
Spring Sings for the Grouchy Ladybug: The Grouchy Ladybug is happy because spring is here! Read about all the animals she sees coming out during springtime.
A Little Book About Spring: A sweet and simple book about all the spring season brings.
Little Yellow Bee: Small and chunky board book with lift the flaps for baby to engage with. Follow the yellow bee through the garden!
You’re My Little Sunshine: We love this series of books with raised illustrations and sweet, rhyming sentiments.
What Is Spring?: Shaped like a tree with bright colors and a rhyming text, this is a fun and festive book about springtime.
Little Chick’s Springtime: A super cute book about chick’s springtime - rhyming pages and lots of ways to encourage imitation!
Slide & Seek - Cheep Cheep!: This one is cute! We know finger isolation should develop around 15 months of age, and this book has sliders to isolate pointer fingers! Engage with the sounds in the book and wait for your little one to imitate as you look to find the chick on each page.
Peekaboo Farm: This series is so engaging with slide and find elements, tabs and wheels - perfect for working on finger isolation!
Little Green Frog: Another chunky board book with lift the flaps. Go down to the pond with the little green frog!
Garden Friends: A touch and feel book with animals and animal sounds to imitate with your little one!

Very Hungry Caterpillar’s First Spring: Come along with the Hungry Caterpillar as he explores nature during springtime!
Each Peach Pear Plum: It has a storyline, but only contains short phrases and rhyming words that keep your little one engaged. The pictures tease what comes next, making it fun to read!
You’re My Little Cuddle Bug: We love this series of books with raised illustrations and sweet, rhyming sentiments.
Five Little Ducklings: A cute sing-along book with sliding tabs to keep it interactive - perfect for spring!
Eating The Alphabet: Vibrant illustrations of fruits and vegetables from A to Z!
Dr. Seuss’s Spring Things: Join Thing 1 and Thing 2 as they explore all the spring things!
Spring in the Forest: A lift-the-flap on every page following a deer and her baby as they explore the forest in springtime!
Little Blue Truck’s Springtime: This series is so cute - Little Blue Truck drives around the farm and sees all the baby animals that were born!
Worm Weather: A book with many rhyming sounds about rainy weather - when the worms come out!
Don’t Touch That Flower!: One of my springtime favorites! There are so many sounds and movements to imitate and make it interactive with your little one!
A Spring Surprise: Peter Rabbit and his friends are gathering for a picnic! Read to see what each of them will bring!
Bear Sees Colors: We love these books, too! Join Bear and his friends as they wander through the forest and see all kinds of colors in this sweet rhyming book.

Curious George, Curious About Spring: A tabbed board book all about what George does on a beautiful spring day. Spring cleaning, baseball, going to the park, and more!
Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit: This book is all about weather, the changing seasons, and what certain animals do in those seasons!
Little Raindrop: With spring comes rain! A fun and animated book about weather and springtime.
It’s Springtime, Snoopy!: Snoopy and his pal Woodstock love the spring! Follow along to see what they do on a perfect spring day.
Spring Is Here: Mole and Bear are ready for the changing seasons! I love that this book has lots of repetition for readers.
How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow: The sun and the clouds are in a fight, but the crayons come in to save the day!
Spring Stinks: Everyone in Soggy Hollow is excited for spring and all the smells it brings - except for Bruce the Bear.
Kite Day: Mole and Bear build and fly a kite, but wait until you see what they find! I love the repetition and verbs in this book!
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Worm: “…And she started to squirm!” If you didn’t know already, we have been loving this silly series of books and this one has some spring flair.
Grumpy Monkey Spring Fever: Jim the Monkey isn’t grumpy…but why? He has spring fever!
Bear Wants More: Bear wakes up from hibernation to springtime, and hunger! Go into the forest and see what he finds to eat!
And Then It’s Spring: The storyline follows a boy and his dog who are tired of the brown winter and plant a garden. They watch and wait for it to grow in the spring!