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21 Quiet Toys for Toddlers & Tips to Create Your Own Quiet Corner

These quiet toys for toddlers are perfect for church, a wedding, travel, or even just quiet time at home!  They are also great to transition older toddlers out of nap time and into quiet time. These toys are not only quiet but many of them are also small and portable so you can avoid being the loud family on the plane or having the screaming toddler in the middle of the wedding vows. These toys have truly been game changers for me and I hope they are for you too! 

This post is all about the best quiet toys for toddlers! 

Quiet Toys for Toddlers

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Quiet Toys for Toddlers

What occasions are these quiet toys for toddlers for?

One of the biggest struggles moms face is trying to keep young kids quiet in public places that warrant it. Places like church, weddings, funerals, waiting rooms, etc. can be so hard unless you have the right toys. Finding good quiet toys for toddlers can be a total game changer for moms! 

Our family keeps a whole bin dedicated to quiet toys so we can grab a few whenever we have to be at a quiet event or the baby needs a nap. The list below are some of our absolute favorite quiet toys for toddlers. 

1. Spike the Fine-Motor Hedge Hog

Spike the fine-motor hedgehog is a great toy for toddlers of any age to work on fine motor skills and can even help older toddlers work on counting, patterns, and colors. Even though it’s got the little spikes to account for, I’ve found this toy to be great for travel since the spikes store inside of it. If you want to make this toy even quieter, we have started putting pom poms through the holes for the spikes instead! 

2. Locks & Latches Puzzle

This wooden Locks & Latches Puzzle from Melissa and Doug is great for curious and mischievous little toddlers who love to get into everything. Just make sure that you don’t have anything off limits in your house with these locks on it before you let them learn how to use all of these locks! 

3. Buckle Toy

Not only are buckle toys like this one big hits with any toddler, they are also great tools for helping kids learn to buckle things on their own. They help develop fine motor skills and even color matching. This buckle toy is extra great for travel cause it can easily clip onto any stroller or bag. 

4. Caterpillar Gear Toy

My son got this Melissa & Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy for his birthday and he’s loved it since. It’s also been a great tool for my toddler to start learning colors and matching. While this toy is a little harder to take on the go, you can easily toss the gears in a bag together if you want to take it with you.

5. Custom Name Puzzle

These wooden name puzzles are fully customizable. You get to pick the color scheme and the color of each letter. You can even have a message engraved on the back for your toddler to have later on. 

6. Plush Fishing & Count Game

This Plush Fishing Game from Melissa & Doug is easy to use with both younger and older toddlers. You can simply fish with it at first and then start practicing matching, sorting, and counting with your toddler as they get older.

7. Maisy Pop Up Books

The Maisy pop up books are one of my toddlers absolute favorites. As the book opens, a whole scene folds out of it. It also comes with characters and props that have paper stands you can connect them to for play. I’ve been amazed at just how long my toddler can independently play with one of these pop up books. Best of all, this toy has some pretty darn easy clean up.

8. Fabric Books

There are tons of fabric kids books out there and they are all great quiet time toys for toddlers. The “My Quiet Book,” is one that is also a great learning tool to help toddlers learn to tell time, tie their shoes, button, zipper, and match shapes and colors. It also comes with a free washing bag so you can pop it in the washing machine whenever something gets spilled on it (because we all know it’s inevitable). 

9. Dimpl Toy

This super simple dimpl toy is great for any age toddler, baby, or even adult if we’re honest. It’s super small for on the go but the perfect size to make it easy to manipulate for little hands. 

10. Boogie Board

The boogie board is a more compact and should I say sophisticated version of the magnetic drawing board. They can draw with the pend the clips on or their finger and erase with a single click of the button. Best of all, it looks like a phone which makes them like it even more. 

11. Melissa & Doug Puffy REstickable Stickers

It’s honestly amazing how well the Melissa and Doug’s Restickable Stickers work! We keep them in our diaper bag at all times! They will keep your toddler entertained for a lot longer than most toys and they can easily slide into the diaper bag without taking up too much space. They also work great as a quiet toy for toddlers in church! 

12. Wooden Lacing Toys

This apple and worm wooden lacing toy is great for your toddler’s hand eye coordination and fine motor development. It is one of our favorite on the go toys in the diaper bag because my toddler will literally play with it for an entire church service.  

13. Water Wow "Painting" Books

If you have never bought one of Melissa & Doug’s Water Wow Coloring Books, you definitely need to! All you do is fill the pen with water and then your toddler gets to color mess free anywhere that you go! Once the page dries, it’s ready to be colored again! It’s better than a regular coloring book because you don’t need to have any crayons or markers with you, there’s no mess or marker stains all over their body, and they can color their favorite page over and over again!

14. Color Blast Books

A relative of the water wow book, the Melissa & Doug Color Blast Coloring Book is another amazing quiet toddler toy for at home and on the go. This one comes with an invisible ink pen that reveals the color of the page everywhere it is used to color. The ink can’t stain your carpets or furniture and only shows up when it is used on this special paper!

15. Bristle Blocks

These bristle blocks are not only quiet, but they are great to increase your toddler’s fine motor skills and creativity. They connect together at any angle and are so easy to use for even the smallest hands. These blocks also come in a cannister for easy storage. You can easily throw some blocks in a sandwich bag to take with you on the go too! 

16. Suction Cup Building Toy

These suction cup building toys are a super compact quiet toy that you can take just about anywhere. They can be suctioned to just about any flat surface to build too.

17. Chunky Wood Puzzles

These chunky wooden puzzles are great starter puzzles for toddlers. Plus, the pieces are big enough that they won’t get lost if you decide to take one on the go. 

18. Lift a Flap Books

Lift a flap books are great quiet activities for toddlers at home and on the go. We actually keep multiple different Fisher Price lift a flap books in the car at all times because they pass SO MUCH TIME on car rides.  Just make sure you also have a book light ready if you plan to travel later at night! 

19. Mr. Potato Head Super Spud

We recently bought this Mr. Potato Head Super Spud and added it to our quiet toys collection. This set is a ton of fun because it comes with so many different pieces and accessories to choose from! While you probably don’t want to take this whole set with you when you go out, you can easily take part of it since it comes with two regular sized and two small potato heads. 

20. Shape Sorter

This take along shape sorter has soft sides which makes it a whole lot quieter than a lot of the other wooden shape sorters. It’s a great quiet toy to teach shapes and the handle makes it easy to carry on the go. 

21. Roll & Play GAme

This Roll and Play Kids Game is a great quiet toy that you and your toddler can play with together. It’s also a great game to play as a family as it works for kids of all ages! Simply roll the cube and then pick up a card with the same color the cube landed on. Each color card is a different category. The blue ones work on colors, the green ones practice animal sounds, the red ones are fun actions, the purple ones work on identifying body parts, the orange ones are counting, and the yellow ones teach the different emotions. My toddler has learned tons playing this game and we’ve made a lot of fun memories too! 

Bonus Section!

Creating a Quiet Corner

Creating a quiet corner in your home can be hugely beneficial for both you and your toddler! I recently created a quiet corner in our house in preparation for a newborn hopefully getting some sleep. But a quiet corner can also be a great way to help your toddler transition out of naps or transition to shorter naps. Not only does teaching your toddler to have quiet time benefit their development, but it also gives you a moment to breath. 

A Cute Place to Store it All

The first thing you’ll need to start your quiet corner is a cute place to store all your toddlers new quiet toys. I personally loved the look of  this Toys Tote! And if you happen to have a lot of puzzles like we do, a wire puzzle rack can be a great way to organize them all. If you prefer to store your puzzles upright in a bin or basket, you can also check out my puzzle storage mom hack.

Plenty of Books

Books are a must have for any quiet corner. Set your toddler up with lots of different types of books on lots of topics to help them both learn and expand their interests. My article on Reading Books to Toddlers has a huge list of all our favorite books and tons of interactive ones your toddler will love too! 

Quiet Time for toddlers

A tent

While a tent definitely isn’t a must for a quiet corner, it can be a fun place for your toddler to read and play with their quiet toys. This teepee tent would be an adorable addition to any playroom or quiet corner. It will help quiet time feel special for your little one.

A comfy Place to Sit

If you choose not to get a tent, you may want to consider looking at a comfy toddler chair or a bean bag for your toddler to sit in. Quiet toys and books are far better when enjoyed in comfort! 

This post was all about the best quiet toys for toddlers. I hope it lets both you and your toddler have a little bit of peace and quiet today.

-Beautifully Busy Mom

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