Never run out of ideas again

Activities for toddlers and preschoolers with minimal set-up that your child can enjoy independently. Get your FREE module.

Welcome to 100 Toys

Discover the power of play for the under 5s. Watch your child become a creative self-starter and learn how to offer just the right experience to guide their learning. All with fewer, if any toys. 

Read our manifesto

Our Courses

Learn with 100 Toys

What if you didn’t have to trawl the internet for play inspiration? What if your child’s freely-chosen activities were simple to set up, educational and deeply engaging?

How would that change things?

Our coursesA Year With My Child and Get Set Five are designed for parents of toddlers and preschoolers and they’re packed full of fun and sensible advice.

A Year With My Child

It’s hard coming up with new things to do with a toddler. And checking Pinterest for inspiration leaves you drained. Yet more things to buy and an elaborate set-up for something your child may never engage with.

A Year With My Child is here to help.

Learn how to get more play with less stuff with our weekly email course. Read more here.

Get Set Five

Do you have a preschooler?

Would you like them to develop some key skills before starting school?

How wonderful to go in on that first day feeling like you belong.

Get Set Five is a week-by-week plan to get your child ready for school.

Learn more.

5 Plus

Keep screen time to a minimum with five years’ worth of fun and free activities for your child to explore and enjoy.

Learn more.

The 100 Toys Method

Simplify

Our introductory guide will help you declutter and get back to basics

Learn

Understand how children learn and the key changes they go through.

Play

Introduce open-ended activities that encourage independent play.

Learn about play and development for the under 5s

A child playing independently

All about play

The four types of play, the six stages of play, the sixteen types of play! Independent play, sensory play, heuristic play… What does it all mean? Which one is best for your child?

Read our guide to all things play.

Arts & crafts

Visit any Early Years classroom and what do you see? Busy children, engaged and happy. But busy doing what? Arts and crafts. But why? What’s so special about art and craft activities that leads teachers to prioritise them over more formal learning?

Read our guide to arts and crafts.

A child printmaking with a potato
Two girls with bowls of dried pasta, preparing for positioning schema play

A ‘toy box’ of everyday things

Your home is full of challenging and engaging toys that you may never have considered offering at playtime. The are hiding in plain sight.

Make a toy box of everyday objects.

Fine motor skills

Fine motor skills are crucial to your child’s development. Handling objects from zips to pencils takes great control. Help your child develop the necessary hand and finger strength and dexterity with these fun activities.

Read our guide to fine motor skills.

A child developing fine motor skills with stickers
A set of wooden blocks

Learning through block play

In our guide to all things blocks, we explore the kinds of play blocks are good for and look at some of the best toys to put in your toy box.

Read all about blocks.

How many toys do children need?

Not as many as you think? Fewer toys means fewer distractions and better thinking.

Read more about why fewer toys is better.

Toys arranged in baskets

Starting school guide

Starting school is a big event in your child’s life. She is proud and excited – and perhaps a little apprehensive. 

How can you prepare her for the transition? What skills will she need to develop before that first school bell rings? How can you make sure she walks in on that first day happy and ready to learn?

Read more about starting school.

Play with purpose

We believe children need fewer toys. They learn through discovery, using open-ended materials to play in the most imaginative ways. As well as guides to how children learn, you can also read about the best educational toys, simple classics like blockssorting materials and small world figures.

From birth to five

Would you like to know why doll’s house play is so important? Or perhaps you’ve heard of schemas and are wondering how they guide your toddler’s play? Then take a look at the 100. Think of it as a roadmap from birth to five. Created by our founder, Alexis Ralphs, you can think of it as 100 good things to do before you’re five. See the 100.

Start with our FREE age guides

Vanquish boredom and maximise fun with our FREE age guides. What’s the right activity for my child’s age?

Baby

The most important thing you can give your baby is your time and attention. Provide a safe and interesting environment to explore, sing songs and play peekaboo. Toys should be simple, if you offer them at all: balls, bowls, boxes. This is a time for discovery.

See the roadmap for baby development

Toddler

As they grow out of their babyhood and into a toddler, the activities and stimulus they encounter at home and out-and-about can have a huge impact on the way your child approaches life. Curiosity, determination, focus and an appetite for learning (and fun!) can all be fostered and developed at this flourishing time

See the roadmap for toddler development

Preschooler

These are the years when our children go out into the world, to nursery and then eventually to school. They want to do things themselves, from putting on shoes to writing their name.

See the roadmap for preschooler development

What people are saying about 100 Toys

A really thought-provoking course that has your child at the centre. Some great ideas but also the theory behind the ideas which allows you to adapt to your child and environment easily. Highly recommend!

Megan

A Year With My Child is great – informative, interesting and gratifyingly level-headed. I recommend it to everyone.

Kirsten

Read more 100 Toys reviews and testimonials.

We used to sell toys

100 Toys has changed. But play is still at the heart of all we do.