21 of the best toys for 6 year old boys and girls in 2024

From Playmobil to Polly Pocket, and from an educational to creative, discover the toys kids won’t want to put down

A selection of the best toys for six-year-olds, including a trainset and a doll's house
(Image credit: Future)
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This article has been updated to reflect the latest price information. We have also added some new product recommendations, checked that the items featured are in stock, and improved the layout so the article is easier to read.

The best toys for six-year-olds will help encourage interaction with family members and friends, put their cognitive functioning to the test, and help them further develop the skills they have already. 

Whether you're looking for one of the top Christmas toys, or are just after a treat for your youngster, at the age of six, the best toys are those that help boys and girls develop bonds and nurture their friendships. So any toys that encourage interaction and sharing with other children are a good bet. 

Your little one might be six going on 16, but they are still very young. So baby dolls and pretend play sets are toys that are still super popular with this age group. Children at the age of six also love problem-solving and really like to have structured games or tasks, like Lego, they can get stuck into, as parenting expert, Amanda Jenner, tells us. ‘Lego is a really good toy following visuals on how to overcome the task of building wants in the picture. Dolls become popular as role play skills will set it and they love to become a mummy or daddy in their imagination.’  Also screen-only toys can be a winner, like the popular audio boxes Yoto or Tonie.

A good board game will help encourage interaction with their friends and family members, along with encouraging a healthy dose of friendly competition. ‘Jigsaw puzzles are great as they tend to have a longer attention span at six and love a challenge and this is really good for their cognitive skills and helps them to play independently,’ Amanda adds. 

With all this in mind, we’ve pulled together a list of the best toys for six-year-olds after recruiting little testers to really know if these products tick all the boxes. Despite many of these products coming in a stereotypical blue and pink colorway, all the toys we've included in this guide are, in fact, unisex. From arts and crafts to card games and sensory toys to role-play sets, these are the toys that are worth their weight in gold. 

Best toys for six year old boys and girls


4 things to consider

Louenna Hood, Norland Nanny and founder of The Nanny Louenna app, shares with us some of the toys and activities that she finds particularly effective for entertaining six-year-olds:

  • Make your own storybook - "Plan and design the beginning, middle, and end of a story, then draw illustrations to match each page."
  • Organise a treasure hunt - "By the age of six children are often able to read simple instructions so you can write out some riddles to get them to the next clue and leave a small prize at the end."
  • Get painting - "I often set up watercolour painting stations outdoors and ask children to paint what they can see. It could be a landscape or an object. Painting by numbers is always popular at this age too."
  • Make your own play dough - "You can make this with simple ingredients, just flour, baking soda, water, and olive oil, and it is super fun. Mix the ingredients together, make shapes, and then when you think all the fun is finished, make the dough into a pizza base and enjoy homemade pizzas for lunch."
  • Don't underestimate the power of an empty box - "Kids will find ways to be creative and often if you give them an empty cardboard box they will have hours of fun," adds Heidi Scrimgeour, mum of three and Deputy Editor of GoodtoKnow. "They can turn it into a playhouse, put their bedding inside, colour the outside etc. It's free, after all, and many of us remember the box our gifts came in being more exciting than any expensive toys!"

How we review

For this guide to the best toys for six-year-olds, we drew up a short list of suitable items based on our product knowledge and extensive research. Where possible, we called those products in and put them in the hands of six-year-old testers to try them out. 

Read more: How we test

What are good activities for six year olds?

Coming up with activities for kids can be exhausting, especially as they get slightly older and have more energy, more questions, and a greater ability to do more in a day.

By the age of six, many kids have mastered independent play and are ready for a little more freedom - so not every one of their games and activities has to include you. However, that doesn't mean a child won't want you to be involved all the time!

Good activities for six-year-olds include games that encourage physical activity as well as toys that can hold their attention and keep them occupied without eliciting cries of ‘I’m bored' within moments. Try these activities for occupying a six-year-old:

Outdoor play - riding a bike or a scooter (£129.95 at Amazon), playing a simple ball game, or visiting the local park to play on the swings and slide.

Games - six-years-old is a brilliant age to introduce children to simple, age-appropriate board games like The Floor is Lava (£12 at Amazon) and card games from Uno Junior (£7.99 at Amazon) and Happy Families (£3.98) to Monopoly Junior (£14.99 at Amazon) and Junior Scrabble £9.99 from Amazon).

Crafting and creative play - encourage the development of those all-important fine motor skills (essential for important tasks like holding a pencil and eating with cutlery) with some drawing, colouring books, or simple crafts like junk modelling using glue, paints and the contents of your recycling bin! 

How many toys should a six-year-old boy have?

The number of toys is up to you (and your little one, of course) and there is no exact number as to how many kids should have. But according to one study, when little learners had fewer toys in their environment it allowed them to play more creatively, focus and play with each toy longer. 

The study tasked toddlers to engage with four toys, followed by 16 toys. The results showed that with fewer toys, participants had longer durations of toy play and played with toys in a greater variety of ways, therefore putting their creativity skills to the test, supporting their development and promoting healthy play.

What is the 20 toy rule?

As its name suggests, the 20 toy rule involves asking your child to select the 20 toys they want to play with over the next week or two weeks and carefully stash away all others. 

Along with helping keep your living room or playroom clutter-free and tidy, the 20 toy rule gives your little one a chance to really play and engage with their toys and do so in a more focused way. This should hopefully benefit their creativity levels and kick start their imagination at the same time. 

Why does my six year old not play with toys?

One of the reasons why your six year old might not play with toys could be because they have too many to choose from and don't know where to start. 

Like us, kids can get overwhelmed and overstimulated and this can happen if they're surrounded by too much choice and left wondering where to start. 

If you find that even some of the best toys for six year olds aren't piquing their interest, then why not try the 20 toy rule as mentioned above? Kids don't need piles of toys to be happy, they just need a handful of the right toys for their interest, imagination and creativity to flourish. 

Featured experts

Curated by
Profile picture of Goodto Consumer Editor Heidi Scrimgeour
Curated by
Heidi Scrimgeour

The toys in this round up were chosen by Heidi Scrimgeour. Having been a freelance parenting journalist for 16 years before joining GoodtoKnow in 2021, there's not much Heidi doesn't know about the best toys for six-year-olds. Heidi is  also a mum of three children aged 18, 17 and 10 years old, so she's learned a thing or three about the kinds of toys that kids - and parents, for that matter - really love.

Louenna Hood, Norland Nanny and founder of the Louenna app
Louenna Hood

Louenna Hood is a qualified Norland Nanny and Maternity Nurse who has cared for over 100 children over the past two decades, travelling the world with families, including high-profile and royal families. She created the award-winning Louenna App in 2020 to help families - not just those who employ her - on their most important journey … parenting! 


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Sarah Handley
Consumer Writer & Money Editor, GoodtoKnow

Sarah is GoodtoKnow’s Consumer Writer & Money Editor and is passionate about helping mums save money wherever they can - whether that's spending wisely on toys and kidswear or keeping on top of the latest news around childcare costs, child benefit, the motherhood penalty. A writer, journalist and editor with more than 15 years' experience, Sarah is all about the latest toy trends and is always on the look out for toys for her nephew or Goddaughters so that she remains one of their favourite grown ups. When not writing about money or best buys, Sarah can be found hanging out with her rockstar dog Pepsi, getting opinionated about a movie or learning British Sign Language. 

With contributions from