15 Best Wooden Toys Kids Love Playing With

These classic toys aren’t just for the ‘gram. Wooden toys encourage creative play, promote sensory development, and tie kids to the natural world. Plus, they're often more durable and safer.

Our child-tested list of the best wooden toys for kids:

Melissa & Doug Abacus

How many ways can your little one count with ten rows of ten beads? Kids will play with this brightly coloured abacus for years. It's a tactile toy for toddlers, an introduction to counting for preschoolers, and a fun way for older kids to solve simple math problems.

Wooden Stacking Building Blocks

These eco-friendly wooden blocks are naturally dyed using cranberries, blueberries, wild indigo and beans. Their organic shapes are perfect for building, balancing, stacking and sorting.

Choose from various palettes like rainbow, blue, pink & green, and natural. Or mix and match your favourite sets to create a multicolour collection of handcrafted "stones."

Fisher-Price Wooden Mandala Puzzle

Put this gorgeous puzzle together in a variety of different ways. Kids can play with the individual pieces to make patterns on any surface or the colours can mixed up on the puzzle board. Create a circular rainbow or a fun mosaic.

12 Wooden Rainbow Peg Dolls

Two moms, single dad or triplets? Young kids will love seeing their family reflected in their own unique wooden family set. With a beeswax finish, these adorable peg dolls are built to last. Choose natural wood or coloured (non-toxic acrylic) for a keepsake item that's plenty of fun to play with, too.  

Melissa & Doug Stack and Sort Board

This pretty peg board has stackable shapes that are ideal for supporting the development of your little one's fine motor skills. It can also help kids practice sorting, shape identification and counting.

Battat Wooden Activity Cube

AlexBrands designed this five-sided wooden activity center for toddlers 12 months and older. But we think it could easily engage preschoolers and kids in early elementary school. Its turn-and-learn ABC, 123 and first word tiles are educational and fun for kids of any age. This toy grows with your little one for a worthwhile return on investment, providing smiles year after year.

Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Clock

Versatility is the biggest draw of this cute puzzle from Hape. Preschool-age kids learn shapes, numbers, and colors as they grow familiar with the practice of telling time.

SainSmart Jr. Wooden ABC Blocks

Wordplay is the most fun when it's tactile and sensory. These beautiful all-natural letter sets are hand-crafted.

Each is made with a small birch tree slice, kiln-dried and lightly sanded. Then the block is wood-burned with a matching upper and lowercase letter on each side. A Keswick-based kindergarten teacher and toymaker handcraft each set.

Melissa & Doug Farm Wooden Cube

If you're worried about the short shelf-life of some puzzles, this 16-piece cube set keeps boredom at bay with six different farm animals. The shape adds a tactile element and means this puzzle can double as a set of blocks, too.

Wooden Rainbow Stacking Toy

Let imaginations run wild with this beloved and iconic open-ended wooden toy. The arches can be stacked, flipped, and rearranged to create towers, bridges, car ramps, fairy houses—you name it. Hand it over without any instructions and watch the magic happen.

Kinderfeets Wooden Balance Board

Promote physical play with a durable balance board made from beech plywood. Watch as this Waldorf toy easily doubles as a slide, extra seat, step stool, seesaw, pirate boat, or rocket ship. Kids love it, but it's sturdy enough that even grownups can take a turn.  

This is one of our favorite wood toys for older kids, too.

Fantasia Block Castle

This set of 22 uniquely shaped blocks can be arranged to create a whimsical castle straight out of a fairy tale. Kids love matching, stacking, and designing while working on their fine motor skills.  

Schylling Classic Wood Xylophone

The gift of music keeps on giving as it grows with your child. This cute wooden xylophone from Plan Toys engages kids through sound and colour. Recycled rubber tree wood and water-based dyes make this a safe choice.

Gentle Monster Wooden Stacking Board Games

This stacking tower from Grimm's, the lauded Germany-based natural and sustainable toy company is adorable and educational. It teaces colours and shapes or helps older toddlers develop spatial awareness and fine motor skills.

Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

Little artists everywhere will love this set of colored wooden tiles. Ten template boards let kids design their own bunnies, butterflies, flowers, and suns by mixing and matching 120 wooden tiles in six different shapes. Tired of the templates? Craft a one-of-a-kind, freestyle mosaic instead.