Educational Gift Guide for Preschoolers

The Holiday season is here and I'm sure many of you have already started your Holiday shopping. If you are still looking for ideas, this post is for you! I've put together a list of my favorite educational toys and gifts for preschoolers and young children. All of the products featured in this post are products we own or have been recommended by family and friends. Some of them are on our shopping list this year!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Letter Learning:

1. Fisher Price Little People A to Z Learning Zoo Playset
An adorable play set with 26 animals, one for each letter of the alphabet, plus an interactive zoo habitat. This toy has many fun features and will get a lot of use! Learn letters & letter sounds, animal names & sounds and more! Capital letters only. 
2. Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD
This movie is a must-have for children learning letter sounds. Each letter is a character with their own unique personality and sound, which makes them very easy to remember. Capital letters only. 
3. Leapfrog Letter Factory Phonic and Numbers
This is a fun, interactive bucket of letter and number tiles that go along with the Letter Factory movie, although you don't need the movie to be able to play with it. Each tile teaches the name and sound of the letter or number.  Capital letters only. 
4. Melissa & Doug Alphabet Sound Puzzle
I am a big fan of wooden puzzles, and this one is unique in that it says the name of the letter and an object starting with that letter. Also has pictures of each object inside the letters. Capital letters only. 
5. Melissa & Doug Upper & Lower Case Alphabet Puzzle
This puzzle does not make any sounds but is unique in the fact that it has both uppercase and lowercase letter pairs! It is quite a large puzzle and will keep kids occupied for a while matching 52 letters.
6. Alphabet Soup Sorters
Love this alphabet sorting set! Teaches both upper and lowercase letters, sounds, words, and builds vocabulary.  Includes 26 cans with lids where kids can sort 7 cards for each letter. This is a great learning tool and there are many ways to use it - includes activity guide.
7. Letter Construction Activity Set
These are just so cool! Kids can actually build large letters by snapping together the different pieces. Both uppercase and lowercase letters. Includes cards for each letter showing how the finished letter looks like and the child figures out how to build it. Great hands-on way to learn letters! 
8. Alphabet Cookies (lowercase)
A fun and yummy way to practice letters and building words! Comes with 4 progressive games that work on letter recognition, letter sounds, building words and early vocabulary. Will grow with your child. Can also be used for pretend play! Lowercase letters only.


Math:

9. Melissa & Doug Numbers 1-20 Sound Puzzle
Just like the alphabet sound puzzle, this one says the number as you place the puzzle piece in. Also has pictures of objects inside the numbers that you can count. 
10. Melissa & Doug Big Button Number Fun
This activity set features large colorful buttons of different shapes that kids place in the correct spots on the wooden boards to complete the pictures. Then count the buttons and place the correct number where it goes. This is great for learning shapes, numbers, counting, and the buttons can be used separately for shape or color sorting!
11. Bead and Pattern Card Set
This set includes colorful beads of different shapes, 2 lacing strings, and cards that shows kids how to make patterns, from simple to advanced. Great for fine motor skills and learning patterns!
12. Tangoes Junior
This is a large Tangram magnetic "tablet" that includes storage of the 7 magnetic pieces and 12 double sided puzzle cards. Comes in 2 difficulty levels so it will grow with your child. Great for spatial thinking, problem solving, math and reasoning skills!
13. Super Sorting Pie
This large "pie" includes 60 colorful fruit pieces that kids can move around using the included jumbo tweezers. There are so many ways to play and learn with these! Great for fine motor skills, counting, sorting, patterning and early math skills.
14. 1-10 Counting Cans
These are 10 large cans, similar to the alphabet soup sorting cans, that includes colorful fruits and veggies that kids can sort in the different containers while practicing counting, numbers and vocabulary.
15. Three Bear Family Sorting Activity
This huge set of 96 adorable bear counters come in 3 sizes and 6 colors, and include 22 math activities such as patterning, sorting by size, color, and more. These bears are so versatile and useful for many learning activities. 

Geography:

16. Big World Map
It's never too early to get started on learning geography and the world around us! This large felt map is beautiful and includes 60 removable felt pieces such as world animals and labeling pieces. 
17. Leapfrog Interactive World Map
For those of you that own the Leapfrog Leapreader, this is a large interactive map that speaks over 300 things, such as countries, continents, landmarks, fun facts and even different languages.
18. Montessori USA Wooden Puzzle
Large, hands-on wooden puzzle with small knobs to learn the US states. Also includes labeled and unlabeled control maps. 
19. Hug-a-Planet
This is a large huggable, lovable plush planet that kids will love to play and learn with!
20. Safari Toob Around the World
Learn and play with world landmarks! Includes 10 famous structures: Leaning Tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Arch of Triumph, Statue of Liberty, Temple of Inscriptions, Pyramids of Giza, Empire State Building, Big Ben, and the Parthenon. The name of each landmark is printed at the bottom of each piece. 
21. Safari Toob World Landmarks

Another set of 7 world landmarks, including Mount Rushmore, Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, Buddha of Lantau, Easter Island, Sphinx and Colosseum. The name of each landmark is printed at the bottom of each piece. 

Architecture & Construction:

22. Picasso Tiles
I have heard amazing things about these magnetic tiles and will be buying some this year for sure! Picasso tiles are the same as Magna-tiles but a little cheaper, that's why I have them listed here. Kids can easily build beautiful, amazing structures. Encourages creativity, geometric and spatial thinking and learning about magnetic polars.
23. Lauri Pegs Building Set
Build structures out of pegs and platforms in this set that includes 100 pegs, a pegboard, and 17 different shaped platforms. Great for fine motor skills too!
24. Bristle Blocks
A great alternative to traditional blocks or legos, these bristle blocks are chunky, flexible pieces of different shapes and sizes that connect together by their bristles. Some bristle blocks actually move or spin to create vehicles, robots and other objects with moving parts.
25. Gears! Gears! Gears!
Another highly recommended product! Kids can create moving mechanical structures in this 95 piece set. Includes pillars, connectors and cranks. Great for many ages!

For tons of more gift ideas, visit the annual Gift Guides for Kids where you will find all the kid blogger gift guides sorted by category!

Also check out our collaborate Pinterest board:

Follow Erica • What Do We Do All Day?'s board Gift Guides for Kids on Pinterest.