Every parent has stood in front of a shelf — or a search bar — wondering whether a toy is actually worth buying, or worth keeping. This free guide answers that age by age, using guidance from the organisations that study child development for a living rather than the marketing copy on the box.

What's inside

• Age-by-age sections from birth to six: what's developing, what play supports it, and which toy categories fit
• CDC milestones for each stage, so you know what you're actually looking at
• A safety note per age bracket, including the small-parts rules for under-3s
• A checklist for secondhand and swapped toys
• A one-page quick-reference table of toys by age
• Full sources, so you can read the original guidance yourself

One idea holds the whole thing together: the goal is never to own the most toys, or the newest ones — it's to have the right kind of play available at the right stage. That's exactly why swapping works so well. A toy that's done its job for one child is often exactly what another child needs right now.

It's free. If you find it useful, pass it on to another parent.