Best Learning Toys for Toddlers

Toddlers are full of energy and excitement as they explore the world around them. Young children learn best when they are playing – engaging joyfully with new experiences and caring people.

By Learning Through Play, young children build key developmental skills and grasp new concepts faster and more instinctively – and have fun doing it!

Turn education into playtime with these great sets designed to perfectly fit the hands of a toddler and get them started on their journey.

What is Learning Through Play?

We are seeing more and more research supporting the idea that children learn best through play.

What adults see as “play” is important work for kids, helping them to develop key physical, creative, cognitive, social, and emotional skills. From their earliest years, children are learning, whether they are a baby looking in a mirror during tummy time or a toddler pretending to play veterinarian with their favorite stuffed animal.

Even as they grow older, playful learning is still necessary. By making connections between joyful experiences and education, kids will grow to become life-long learners with a love of exploration.

To help them on their way, we’ve chosen some of the top LEGO® DUPLO® sets designed to help toddlers launch into a world of playful discovery.

LEGO® DUPLO® Classic Cars and Trucks Brick Box

Delight your vehicle-loving toddler with this Cars and Trucks Brick Box. Kids aged 18 months and up can build their own wheeled wonders with this set of 80 large, brightly colored bricks, 3 wheelbases, and 2 LEGO® DUPLO® figures.

This set engages young children’s passion for vehicles while helping them develop fine motor skills through building. Kids can practice focusing and following the simple picture instructions to build a speedy race car and podium, a tow truck, or family car with a countryside scene. Toddlers can also exercise their imaginations by building their own creations, and play out fun stories with the included mechanic, child, and bee figures.

LEGO® DUPLO® Peppa Pig Supermarket

Kids can take Peppa Pig, George, Mummy, and Daddy on a shopping adventure with the LEGO® DUPLO® Peppa Pig Supermarket playset! This build-and-rebuild toy is perfect for preschoolers ages 2 and up. They can roleplay the familiar scenario of going grocery shopping by taking Peppa’s family to the buildable supermarket in the iconic red car from the TV show.

Preschoolers may recognize familiar details from their own grocery store experiences, including a self-scan checkout, shopping cart, chiller cabinet, and food elements. Kids can practice their fine motor skills while they play pretend, taking LEGO DUPLO figures of Peppa, George, Mummy, and Daddy on a trip to the store. Families can also join in on the play, using the set to help toddlers explore their feelings around shopping trips. Adults can spark conversations with kids about behaviors in store settings, or learn new words for the things that they notice there!

LEGO® DUPLO® Caring for Animals at the Farm

This Caring for Animals at the Farm playset is the ideal gift for any little animal-lover. Kids can build a barn and chicken coop to house the 8 LEGO® DUPLO® animals, including adorable horse, sheep, cow, cat, and chicken figures. They can roleplay taking care of a farm with the included adult and child figures. Adults can engage with kids and show them how to perform daily farm activities, from collecting eggs to brushing and feeding the horses to cleaning out manure from the stalls!

The large, colorful, and durable bricks are designed to fit easily in small hands as toddlers develop their fine motor skills. Building the playset also helps them work on their problem-solving abilities as they work out how to create their dream farm.

For more farmyard fun, check out the Caring for Bees & Beehives (10419) set (sold separately). Preschoolers can learn all about taking care of honeybees and how they help our farms and gardens grow.

LEGO® DUPLO® Town Visit to the Vet Clinic

Teach young children about caring for pets with Visit to the Vet Clinic set. Toddlers can roleplay taking their pets to the veterinarian’s office with this set, helping them develop the social-emotional skill of empathy while exploring this real-world scenario.

The playset comes with 2 cute LEGO® DUPLO® animal figures of a dog and a cat as well as a veterinarian figure. Taking a beloved pet to the vet’s office can bring up a lot of feelings for children, and adults can help them work through those feelings by roleplaying what happens at the clinic. Together, kids and adults can pretend to help the vet take care of the animals. Kids can weigh pets on the scales, listen to their heartbeats, and then wash and groom them.

LEGO® DUPLO® My First Animal Train

Little ones aged 18 months and older will love this fun and creative My First Animal Train toy. This set features 4 buildable animals: a rooster, a sheep, a giraffe, and a cow. Toddlers can follow the instruction cards to find the pieces to build the animals and then match them to one of the three brightly colored carriages.

The fun doesn’t end there, though! Kids can also build their own unique animal creations by mixing and matching the pieces. The set also includes 2 extra bricks to help them express their creativity even further. Fun details like the flexible piece for the rooster’s neck and the moving carriages offer opportunities for sensory play and fine motor skill development.

LEGO® DUPLO® My First Daily Routines: Eating & Bedtime

The Daily Routines: Eating & Bedtime set is a fun way for preschoolers to practice these everyday activities and explore their feelings with 4 relatable animal toys.

Both bedtime and mealtime often come with big emotions for little ones. This set can help adults spark conversations about these routines with toddlers. The set includes 2 cute animal families in their homes – a cat family and a bear family! Both families come with a grown-up and a child. The kitten and bear cub figures come with face bricks showing 2 expressions. One side is happy, and the other is sad, allowing toddlers to express their feelings even when they don’t have the words to say so!

Adults and kids can roleplay together, acting out the routines and working through feelings and behaviors in a fun and joyful way. Toddlers also work on their problem-solving and fine motor skills through building each animal home. The routines are even color-coded, making building and learning a breeze.

Continue the learning with the Daily Routines: Bath Time (10413) set (sold separately), featuring an elephant family in a little blue bathroom!

LEGO® DUPLO® Town Alphabet Truck

This Alphabet Truck is a fun and creative introduction to the ABC’S! This early literacy learning toy teaches kids ages 2 and up to recognize letters and colors all while building and playing. Toddlers can connect the truck and trailer and help the 2 LEGO® DUPLO® figures load the colorful letter blocks onto the truck bed.

The set also includes a colorful LEGO DUPLO ABC book and a stereo element so kids can sing or say the ABC’s along with the included figures! This imaginative set encourages preschoolers to practice letter and color recognition, learn to compare items, and observe and imitate, helping your little one build confidence and excitement in learning.

Keep the fun going with the LEGO DUPLO My First Number Train – Learn to Count (10954) set (sold separately), designed to support early numeracy.

LEGO® DUPLO® Town Buildable People with Big Emotions

Preschoolers can design their own cute characters with this Buildable People with Big Emotions set. Explore new and big feelings with 5 different face bricks, each with two different expressions. Children can develop their social and emotional literacy skills by exploring what each expression means and the feelings associated with the facial expressions.

This set includes 71 bricks for kids to make their own buildable characters, including 5 wig bricks and 1 wheelbase. They can mix and match toy bodies, faces, legs, arms, and hair to design their own friendly folks! People come in all shapes and sizes and have lots of feelings, and this fun set helps kids learn that while we are all different, everyone is still awesome.

This set pairs well with the LEGO® DUPLO® My First Big Feelings & Emotions toy (sold separately). Featuring 4 cute characters, this playset helps kids understand different expressions like happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, and more!

Discover more LEGO® DUPLO® toys to support your toddler’s learning

There’s more to discover in the world of LEGO® DUPLO®! From space adventures to cool vehicles to adorable animals, there’s a set for everyone. And they can continue to build as they grow with LEGO sets designed for kids and adults of every age and interest.