A brand-new year means endless chances to play, learn, and grow—help kids gain confidence and new skills with Melissa & Doug toys that make learning feel like fun!
For more than 35 years, we’ve inspired learning fun through open-ended toys that help kids build skills and confidence. We’re here to help you support your child through their ages, stages, and individual learning styles. We even devoted a special webpage so parents and caregivers can easily understand the skills kids are practicing while they play: Skills at Play!
Now that the calendar has flipped to 2026, it’s important for young kids to practice important developmental skills, and that’s where the toys from Melissa & Doug come into play—literally!
We’ve curated a special selection of our top learning toys from Melissa & Doug and spotlighted the skills they help kids develop, while also providing additional play ideas for parents and caregivers for each toy to engage even more with their kids.
Scroll on to learn more about our learning toys, and how they can help children learn new skills for the New Year!
Top Learning Toys…Plus, Our Play Tips!
Ages: 4+
Learning Toy Fun: Complete a puzzle to spell a word! This handsome wooden puzzle set helps children gain familiarity with the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, as kids develop an English sight-reading vocabulary. The letters are also wonderful for stenciling and lots of learning games. The puzzle includes 50 colorful wooden letters that fit into the eight two-sided cutout boards. Each one spells out three- and four-letter words. All this spelling and fine motor fun fits into one compact wooden storage case!
Skills at Play: Helps kids develop sight-reading vocabulary, spelling, and fine motor skills.
Playful Suggestions
✅ Sight Word Hopscotch: Draw a hopscotch grid in chalk; add sight words from the See & Spell Learning Toy; call out the sight word and have your child hop to its spot!
✅ Sensory Bin Sight Words: Fill a tub with sensory items such as dried beans, rice, play sand, etc, and add index cards with words from See & Spell Learning Toy; have your child explore to find the cards, then read the words they find.
✅ Sight Word Scavenger Hunt: Hide the letters for the various See & Spell Learning Toy words around your house; give your child clues and have them hunt for the letters to spell each word.
Ages: 3+
Learning Toy Fun: What is today? For a child, that simple question can have so many answers--and this daily calendar helps satisfy them all! Kids will feel a greater sense of control and responsibility when they help post the day of the week, date, weather, and special events on the large magnetic board for all to see. There's even a space to post their mood--an excellent way to open communication and encourage children to gauge their own emotions. Kids take a preprinted magnet from the lower magnetic board, which hangs below the calendar to keep magnets within easy reach, then place it on the calendar to fill in the information…or make a custom magnet by writing on one of two dry-erase magnet tiles! There are fields for day, date, season, weather, temperature, activities, holiday, and mood.
Skills at Play: Encourages communication and a reassuring expectation about the events in a child's life.
Playful Suggestions
✅ Sing Along Calendar Songs: Help your child establish a regular calendar routine, and use simple preschool songs to help them with days of the week, months, dates, etc. Search online for “preschool songs for calendar learning” for inspiration.
✅ Calendar Scavenger Hunt: Hide the various magnets with days of the week, months, seasons, etc, then give your kiddo clues to help them locate each target.
✅ Calendar Bingo: Create custom bingo cards (or fill in blank templates you can find online) using the days of the week, months, seasons, emotions, and more. Then put all the magnets in one bin, and play Calendar Bingo till someone says the magic word!
Ms. Rachel™ Wooden Learning Blocks
Ages: 18 months+
Learning Toy Fun: Stack, roll, match, and learn with Melissa & Doug® Ms. Rachel™ Wooden Learning Blocks! Inspired by Ms. Rachel’s popular baby and toddler videos, this blocks and activity cards set is made with love to support learning for littles, and is packed in a sturdy box, for on-the-go play and easy cleanup. These Melissa & Doug toys are toddler learning toys, designed by Ms. Rachel and developmental experts to support all children through their ages and stages. Ms. Rachel is a real teacher with two master's degrees in education. She is passionate about creating research-based videos and products to educate families and support learning for littles.
Skills at Play: Stimulate cognitive development with 26 blocks that help kids identify letters, numbers, pictures, and colors. Encourage language skills, turn-taking, and social skills with four game blocks, featuring animals, body parts, emotions, and movements, along with 14 double-sided activity cards for matching, counting, play ideas, developmental skill information and tips. Block play is great for boosting fine motor skills and self-esteem, as little hands grasp, build, and play.
Playful Suggestions
✅ Build a Block Tower: Construction toys help kids develop gross and fine motor skills; have them build the tallest tower they can to help them work on upper body strength, balance, and hand-eye coordination.
✅ Block Obstacle Course: Use the blocks to create an easy indoor obstacle course that gets your child to jump, climb, crawl, reach, grasp, and more.
✅ Block Sorting & Identifying: Call out different numbers, colors, shapes, animals, etc, and have your little one identify and sort all the corresponding blocks.
Wooden Shape Sorting Grocery Cart
Ages: 1+
Learning Toy Fun: This cheery, sturdy wooden grocery cart is filled with fun skill-building activities! Very young kids can sort colorful chunky wooden food shapes through holes in the sides of the cart, and place them in two wooden puzzle boards that store in the cart. Spin the built-in roller drum for sensory stimulation and matching games, and enhance imitative pretend play with a realistic coffee cup with removable lid that fits in a cup holder in the cart! As kids grow, using the cart as a push toy helps build motor skills and inspire imaginative play. A great way to encourage kids to explore problem-solving and cause-and-effect.
Skills at Play: Sort pieces through cart sides or fit into two puzzle boards that store in the cart; helps encourage fine and gross motor skills, problem-solving, color and shape recognition, sorting and sequencing, counting, and more.
Playful Suggestions
✅ Push Toy Taxi Service: Have you little one give rides to their plush toy friends around the house.
✅ Push Toy Obstacle Course: Set up a simple obstacle course using pillows, cardboard boxes, blankets, etc., then have your little one navigate it using their Wooden Shape Sorting Grocery Cart.
✅ Pretend Play Push Toy: The push toy is meant to simulate a grocery cart, but with a little imagination, it can also become a lawnmower, a vacuum cleaner, a wagon cart, and more!
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Like this blog post? For more great toy-themed content from Melissa & Doug, follow the links below:
Food is Love: Making Memories with Pretend Play Fun
Shop Melissa & Doug Shop Toys by Age
Shop Melissa & Doug Best Selling Toys
Shop Melissa & Doug New Arrival Toys
Shop Melissa & Doug Pretend Play Toys
Shop Melissa & Doug Learning Toys
