From two to three, your child will make incredible progress with their hand skills (known as fine motor skills). At two, most children can build a tower of six of seven blocks. By three they can build complex shapes with bricks and building sets. Building boosts fine motor skills, as well as encouraging your child to see "what happens if ...". Building toys help creative thinking and confidence by encouraging your child to try out their own ideas.

Place and push

Your child's rapidly improving precision makes this the perfect time for a wooden train set. Your child will enjoy placing, pushing and crashing wooden trains around a track. They can add their own sound effects. Help your child experiment with track pieces too, such as making a long snaky shape. This encourages thinking skills as well as being great fun.

People play

As your child's fine motor skills improve, they will find playing with small figures - moving people and animals in and out of buildings - more and more satisfying. Bringing little people to life and creating their own little story world a great launchpad for your child's imagination, and helps them start to understand the real world around them.

This play idea is great for...
	Fine motor skills enable your child to dress themselves and later on help with handwriting.
	Instils confidence Open-ended toys such as building sets enable your child to try out, and learn to trust, their own ideas
	Imaginative play Feeding your child's budding imagination with inspiring toys helps expand their creative thinking skills.