What Are Some Fun & Educational Toys for 2.5 Year Old Boy?

I HIGHLY recommend the game Hullabaloo! It is great for learning basic shapes, colors, and other categories like animals, food and instruments. The game is something that can be played solo or with others. It is a great game for indoors or outdoors and a bonus is that it gets kids moving. It is a fantastic game! It says that the game is for 4 and up, but I gave it to my niece when she turned 3. There are large pads that you toss around the space randomly (like lily pads) and then the voice machine says to hop to an animal, twirl to a color etc. If you show your son how to do it the first few times, there should be no problem with him doing it himself. Also, it sounds like it takes up a lot of space, but it really takes up as much space as you allow it to.

http://www.amazon.com/Cranium-16518-Hullabaloo/dp/B002KN1...

Have fun!

My son has a vtech alphabet apple that he loves. It teachers facts about animals, spelling, letters, time, music, and a few other things I'm not able to recall at the moment. It is wonderful. My son who is 4, nonverbal and autistic has blossomed with it so I highly recommend it to all children.

There are so many things.
But, it will only be fun or educational for the child, IF they like it.
Kids are fickle and each one has their own interests.
What is your child, interested in?

At that age, my kids had a Leapster. Which they loved and could use it by themselves. It is fun and educational and grew with them.

For learning ABC, 123:

Other than puzzles, and CD's you can get:

My little Leap Pad laptop. You can download his name, it plays music, teaches ABC and phonics. (Also get the fridge magnet with the little green puppy)

If you don't want to spend allot of money, and if you have the time, go to youtube and use this site http://keepvid.com/?url=chrome%3A//chromewebdata/ to download some of your child's most favorite songs, as well as other educational songs, burn a couple of dvd's and reserve them for TV time or quiet time. This way YOU are in control of what your kid watches.

Get him a leapfrog drum, that lights up and counts and sings ABC.

Leapfrog also has a set of maracas, one just makes noise while the other one plays music, names colors and counts to ten. You can set it to english or spanish. The colorful lights at the top keep them entertained while they learn motor skills while shaking the toy and at the same time learn to count, and learn colors. Also have a fun setting where you can shake it to make sounds as the music plays.

For Sensory Stimulation:
Sensory Balls (with spikes, or those that light up)
Rainmaker (A clear tube, with colorful plastic beads that swirls up and down the tube as you turn it over)

A trampoline - while he jumps, play a game with him while you watch the news.. say lets jump our abc

let him say abc as he jumps
play simon says as he jumps (simon says, touch your nose - and let him touch his nose, even if he can't say it yet, do the same with actions.. simon says.... sit down! Simon says... Clap your hands! Etc..) Teaches to follow direction, as well as body parts.

Balance beams.. you can make some from 2 x 4's or let him walk on your garden's brick borders. Teaches coordination and balance.

There are so much out there, and we spend so much money on stuff, where in the end, it is really the simple things that help us teach our kids.

Keep doing what you are doing, don't fret too much and go buy all the best toys in the market, you might find that he would rather play with the box it came in.

One thing I can tell you is to get a busy cube, maybe with an abacus on one side, and blocks on the other side where you can teach him the ABC's and animals.. Target has them and I think they are about $50 - yikes! Or look for something similar.

The important thing is to think about what skills you want him to learn and what types of things he enjoys. He's going to learn a lot more if he's excited about playing with the toy than if he feels like he's learning.

I sell Discovery Toys and everything we sell is educational, but it's also all fun. Kids don't realize how much they are learning because they're just playing. Please visit my website at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao to see what's available. I would love to come do a party at your house so you can get your toys for free!

For a 2.5 year old boy, look at the following:
Giant Pegboard - with activities for toddlers through school aged children, he'll play with this for years to come. Learn colors, patterns, shapes, and strengthen other math skills like counting and sorting. Use later for graphing, angles, creating shapes and more

Measure Up Cups - another toy with a great activity guide to keep them learning for years. Use it for stacking, nesting, counting, patterns, telling time, number recognition, stamping, playdoh, and so much more. Cups are volumetrically correct so they can use them for basic addition or subtraction skills

Block It - a great set of wooden blocks to build exploration, motor and thinking skills

ABSeas - fish for letters. Teach letter recogntion, matching uppercase to lowercase and use later for spelling basic words and reading

Busy Farm - learn pre-reading skills and improve reading comprehension with a cute set of farm animals. Also teaches colors, patterns, sorting and more.

There are so many more. It's really a fantastic company. I hope you'll check it out!
K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao