The Perfect Outdoor Toddler Toys

We spend a LOT of time outdoors! We bought 6 acres before we got married (in fact, my husband proposed to me on the front step of our new house on closing day)! I was shocked! And although that 6 acers didn’t exactly come with my dream house per say… we do LOVE the backyard! Other than a barn, and now a chicken coop, we have a huge, fairly flat, all grass area to play! Once we found out we were having a boy, I was even more ecstatic that we bought this house because I knew he too would come to love playing outside in his big backyard! So with a big backyard, has come a lot of toddler toys!

I’m always on the hunt for the BEST outdoor baby/toddler toys. These have been our top _ so far! Reach out if you have others I need to check out too!

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1. Toddler Golf Set

My husband’s favorite thing to do in the backyard is hit golf balls. To his credit, it’s just a long, straight stretch of grass, so it does work really well for this purpose. I appreciate it, because it keeps him home and he doesn’t have an excuse to go to the driving range! (hehe :))

I blame my husband who is always swinging a golf club for the fact that my son’s all time favorite toy has been his toddler golf set. I’m sure there are other ones out there, that are maybe more aesthetically pleasing colors, but you really can’t go wrong with Little Tikes! A true toy brand staple. We’ve loved this set. Pretty soon, he’ll be wanting/needing a non-plastic set. But I’m trying to hold-off on him growing up too fast anytime soon!

2. Basketball Hoop

While we’re on the topic of Little Tikes still making the best toys, I’ll go ahead and throw this one towards the top of the list.

My husband played basketball in college, so I half expect him to prioritize teaching our son basketball over anything else, but he hasn’t been too pushy yet! The Little Tikes basketball hoop comes with three perfect toddler sized basketballs, that he tends to play with by themselves too. This is one toy that he still requires parent engagement on, not one he usually plays with by himself. But when we DO play with him, he really loves shooting hoops. Especially all our clapping any time he scores!

3. Garden Set

Not to do a total 180 from the sports trend, BUT our son absolutely LOVES all of his gardening tools and sets! We started a little garden this year (sweet potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, and peppers!) and although he’s not quite old enough to help much, he does LOVE playing in the dirt! We’ve found this gardening set and a good set of metal gardening tools to be one of the easiest ways to keep him entertained for the longest period of time when we’re outside! The spray bottle and bucket that come with the gardening set is clutch!!

4. Play Kitchen Sink

I’ve had PLENTY of naïve first-time mom fails, but one of the top ones has been when I bought the play kitchen sink that has the running faucet and thought it was an INSIDE TOY. LOL… it is NOT!! Luckily the first time we used it, I did have it outside because it was a nice day, and thank goodness I did, because he made a very big, wet mess!

However, he loves this toy so much! It keeps him entertained for a long time, just playing with the water, pouring it in and out! The only downside is that it often gets left “ON” and then the batteries die… I have had to change those batteries more times than I would like… BUT it’s worth it for the enjoyment it brings him! 🙂

5. Playhouse

To be honest, I thought our 16 month old would be too young for one of these. But when I saw him playing with one at daycare and loving it, I knew we needed one too! It wasn’t the easiest thing to put together (my husband did most the work!). But we do get a LOT of enjoyment out of it and it is really high-quality. You can tell it will last a long time! It comes with some plastic kitchen utensils, a phone, and a working doorbell (which he loves!). I admit the black and white color we got might be considered a little girly, but it matches our house, and he doesn’t seem to mind! 🙂

We added a few special touches to the house like these solar panel lights on the side (the light up so well at night!) and these pots for the pot holders (because it doesn’t come with any!). We also got this adorable white Adirondack chair to sit next to it and that’s where mom or dad usually sits while he plays. Makes for a really cute pair!

6. Push Car(s)

Step2 is another classic toy brand that we still love! This car was a Christmas gift, but we’ve been loving it during the summer! We have a pretty long driveway, so we have a great time pushing him around on that, but we also tend to take it “off-roading” quite a bit. It’s definitely not made to take off-roading, but it still does the job ok! We push him in this from the house to the backside of our barn where he has his Mud Kitchen and more toys.

At his Granny’s house, he has this push truck that he loves too. We really didn’t want to end up with two of these, because they’re honestly so similar, but JUST different enough to make it worthwhile to have them both! (Haha I’m such a sucker, yes, I know! My husband reminds me often!). This truck has a removable footboard, which is great because when they’re really little, you can keep that in and just push them and then remove it when they can use their feet to push themselves! It also has a working truck bed, which he tends to have his cousin sit in and both get pushed by Grammy! How fun!

7. Bubble Mower(S)

Surprise, surprise… we ended up with two of these too!! And he plays with them both!! This bubble mower has a button you push and the bubbles blow constantly while it is on and this one you have to push to get the bubbles to come out, which is supposed to be more motivating for them to push! At first, I didn’t like the one that constantly blows the bubbles that much, because the spot where you pour the bubble solution is exposed and my toddler kept putting his hand in it or spilling out all the bubbles!

This bubble mower has a top cover for where the solution goes, but I don’t like the fact that I can’t just turn it on and have the bubbles come out to entertain us both! There are pros and cons to both… so that’s how we ended up with two! If you have an example of one that meets both the needs of having the solution cover AND automatic on/off… let me know!

8. Toy Leaf Blower

This Leaf Blower has been such a fun find! Brings him and us both pure entertainment! It’s so fun to watch him “blowing” leaves off the driveway and follow along dada as he uses the real leaf blower! He also loves the sounds it makes.. almost as cool as the real thing! It does blow a little bit of air, just enough to keep him entertained!

9. Toddler Playhouse and Slide

I feel like this toy is another classic, but it’s still one of his favorites! We have this Step2 Slide Set and he loves being able to climb up the ladder and yell “hi” to everyone from the top! It took him a little while to get used to the slide, he was afraid at first, but now he loves it! This thing holds up really well in all types of weather too. Worth the investment for long-term enjoyment!

10. Rollercoaster

The Step2 Toddler Rollercoaster. Now this was truly one that I did NOT want to end up getting, it takes up a LOT of room and I really didn’t think he’d enjoy it that much… BUT after being to several birthday parties where it was his favorite toy.. we ended up with one too! I don’t even bother trying to store it, we just leave it outside and it actually holds up really well in the weather! We have a long driveway, so it makes it even more fun that he can keep going even once he’s off the “track.” He loves climbing up and getting on the coaster himself and saying WOOO and clapping at the end! We get a lot of enjoyment out of watching him on it too and doing it *more* times over and over again! I’ll admit, I’ve even ridden it a few times too! 🙂

Anything Missing from the List?!

Did you already know all of these? Is there anything missing from my list? Feel free to reach out to me on my contact page and let me know! 🙂