If you are currently doing quiet time or are wanting to start quiet time with your kids. You may be wondering what some good quiet time toys are that will help entertain your kids during quiet time. These quiet time toys for kids are great to have in their bins so when quiet time rolls around they have things to play with!
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Don’t forget to check out my post When and How To Start Quiet Time With Your Kids!
The Top 8 Quiet Time Toys For Older Kids
1. Audio Books
I think audiobooks are amazing! Even when kids are playing they are still listening to the book and you are killing two birds with one stone. You may feel like if you give your child a tablet to listen to audiobooks on they would just end up playing games instead. Janssen from Everday Reading shares 5 ways to keep your child from playing on the tablet while they listen to audiobooks.
Now you may not allow electronics (such as phones, Ipads, or computers) in your kid’s room during quiet time.
What you could do is get an iPod and download a whole bunch of audiobooks that way you don’t have to worry about your kids watching Youtube videos or playing games on an electronic device during quiet time.
There are a ton of great places to get audiobooks for kids for free! So you don’t have to stress too much about buying a lot of audiobooks for your kids to listen to. One of my favorite book apps is Epic it has a whole bunch of great kid books and audiobooks!
2. Pattern Blocks
I remember doing these types of patter blocks when I was little and they sure have come a long way! I put this in the older kids section but kids of all ages love these pattern blocks. Two and a half years old loves these blocks (mostly for stacking the blocks) but they keep her quiet for a long time.
These are fun for older kids too since they can follow the patterns and even come up with there own!
3. Adult Coloring Books
Not only are these coloring books fun for adults they are fun for kids as well! I don’t know what it is about them but they are soothing and help you to really relax. These coloring books are full of intricate designs that make them perfect for kids, teens, and adults!
Plus these markers are great for these types of coloring books. Now if you don’t like your kids having markers, then these coloring pencils work great as well!
4. Magnetic Fun Tins
Have you seen or even heard of these magnetic fun tins? They are super cool! Each one comes with different backgrounds and characters then your child can create their own stories and games with each magnetic fun tins!
Plus they are easy to transport since they already come in a case. I will put the ones that are not for quiet time in the diaper bag so when we are out and about Bobbie can play with them when she gets bored.
5. Cars
These are kind of a given, most kids love cars and car tracks. The only thing I would avoid is having any car that makes noise or has lots of flashing lights on it be in their quiet time bin. These types of cars can stimulate kids and that is the opposite of what quiet time is supposed to do.
Remember that quiet time is a place for your children to relax, expand their creativity and help kids get into a state of flow.
6. Boogie Board
You may not see how these are much different from pen and paper. But something about a cool LED light board makes drawing and writing way more fun. These can be taken anywhere and you can clear the board by a push of a button.
Needless to say, these boogie boards are freaking awesome and they will defiantly keep your kids entertained for a long time!
7. Design & Drill Activity Center
This is a great way for your children to practice their fine motor skills. Preschool-age children will probably like this toy as well but for older kids, they can make a more intricate design. This is a very well rounded toy for kids of all ages! The drill does make a little sound but this toy elicits a lot of concentration which leads to a long time of having quiet kids!
8. Action Figure Toys
Any action figure toys like dinosaurs, action figures, animals, and hatchimals are great toys to add to your kid’s quiet time bins. They will have fun setting up different scenarios and may have a great battle of villains vs heroes!
Top 8 Quiet Time Toys For Toddlers
1. Puzzles
Not only are puzzle super fun quiet time activities, but they are also great to help your child develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. We are big puzzlers in our home and even the toddler puzzles are fun to do as well!
Here are a few of our favorites:
2. Picture Books
There are some picture books that Bobbie will look at over and over during quiet time. One thing that is important is to not have a huge selection of books where your child has their quiet time. Pick 4-5 of your child’s books and every other week rotate the books out.
Now, why is it important to not have too many books? Well, let me give you an example. How often have you felt overwhelmed by the choices on a restaurant’s menu?
I know I have! You sit there looking at the front, middle, and back trying to decide what you want to eat. Finally, you pick one that sounds good and then all of a sudden you find another one that you may want to consider getting.
It’s no wonder why it takes people 5-10 minutes to order their food! Because there are so many choices. One of my favorite restaurants has three “main” food topics. Salad, burger or sandwich and there are only 3-4 choices within each food topic.
It makes it so easy to pick since I am not so overwhelmed!
The same goes for books. If there are too many books your child will have a hard time picking which one to look at. They may give up entirely because they get so overwhelmed by different books they could choose from. Another reason why you don’t want too many books is when children don’t have a lot of books they tend to go deeper into the books. Meaning every time they read that same book they notice something they never noticed before.
I am not saying to not have a lot of books. We have a ton of books for our kids. But we keep them stored away except a few and we will rotate them out every 2-3 weeks!
Here are a few of our favorite picture books:
3. Lace & Trace
These are another great toy for quiet time since they also help with fine motor skills. We also pack our lace & traces in our church bag so that Bobbie can stay quiet and entertained during church. There are so many cute ones out there like Lacing Doll, Lace & Trace Pets and Ocean Theme Lacing Cards.
4. Dolls
Make sure they are simple, the simpler they are the better! If natural to think that if a doll is able to poop, pee, be fed, fake cry or blink that our children will want to play with them more.
That is not always the case. When dolls or toys work in a way that tells a child “this is how it played with” it not allowing children to be creative. These types of toys that have specific instructions on how to play or a toy that is only played in a certain way. Those toys are called structured toys.
They limit children’s ability to be creative on how they want to play with that toy. There was a study that showed that children who were given a structured tasked when asked to create an animal out of tissue paper. Their animals were not as creative or colorful as the other good that was given unstructured playtime.
Remember. simpler the better!
5. Cars
Tucker’s mom gave a whole bunch of Chevron cars. Do you remember those!? my kids love to play with them. Cars are great toys to add to your toddler’s quiet time bins!
6. Magnet Tiles
Have you seen these before? I think they are the COOLEST blocks ever. Not only are these fun toys for toddlers but for older kids too. You’ll be amazed at what your children create and build with these magnet tiles. The options are endless which is why this toy is so much fun!
7. Blocks
Regular building blocks are fun too! We have the soft blocks which have their advantages and disadvantages. What I love about them is well they are soft foam blocks. So I don’t have to worry about anyone being hurt by a block.
The disadvantage is that Bobbie likes to bite them so we have teeth marks in a lot of our blocks and I feel like you are limited by what you can create with the block we have.
Honestly, we just got the wrong type of blocks but that is beside the point. They are still played with very much during quiet time.
8. Water Wow
For Christmas, we got Bobbie one of these and it was one of the best gifts we gave her. She loves watching the color come when she colors on it with the water pen and then watching the color fade away. Plus on the one, we got her it lists objects to find on each coloring page. And Bobbie loves Ispy books that is why these books are a big hit toy for her.
Plus if you don’t want to worry about your toddler coloring on the walls with crayons or markers these water wow books are the way to go! They are mess-free which is like every mom’s dream toy.
Final Thoughts
Remember that kids don’t need a lot of toys to keep them entertained during quiet time. For Bobbie, she has three bins. One is cars, blocks, and books and she does quiet time for 2 hours. She has gotten so creative and even when she is not in quiet time she tends to play with toys by herself which was really hard for her to learn how to do.
But now she can do it no problem. As you are consistently doing quiet time every day you will notice that the benefits you children get from quiet time roll over into their daily routines as well.
If you haven’t had a chance yet. Make sure to check out my post When and How To Start Quiet Time With Your Kids for more resources!