MadeForMums Toy Awards 2024 Winners: Best sustainable, sensory and wooden toys

From engaging your child's senses to eco-conscious picks and timeless wooden classics, these toys have proven themselves to be the best of the best.

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• Best sensory toy
• Best sustainable toy
• Best wooden toy

Best sensory toy

If your child is never without a sensory toy, you’ll know that some offer a lot more than others.

Our child testers spent hours testing the best fidget toys, sensory bags, soft toys and more to help pick our 2024 award winners.

Perfect for engaging your child’s senses, whether that’s sight, touch, smell, taste, hearing or movement, these sensory toys really impressed both child testers and their parents when it came to quality, kid-appeal, versatility and value for your money. Here is the best of the best.

Gold: Clementoni Soft Clemmy Sensory Cube

My 15 month old can say a few words and this toy has been great for practising words like: ‘cube’, ‘in’, ‘out’, ‘open’, ‘close’, ‘block’, ‘pull’ and ‘push’. She has requested her ‘cube’ several times and carried it around the house putting things in and then taking them out! She will definitely keep playing with it – and hopefully will get something out of the other features soon, once she can do the poppers properly. Because of its different features, this toy will grow with the child – it has different features that will be fun for a child at different ages.

Joint Silver: Tobar Scrunchems Cool Cactus

My son Gabriel couldn't wait to get his hands on this toy. As soon as he saw the box, he poked the cactus and said ’Oooo squishy!’ He enjoyed stretching the toy into different shapes and was excited to show me what he’d created. His favourite shape of all was of course ’a green poo’ which he found utterly hilarious. Gabriel liked that the cactus had a face, saying 'He has eyes, Mummy, that’s funny'.

Available from tink'n'stink (£3.49)

Joint Silver: Glo Pals Light Up Sensory Toy

My little boy is 3, and he was very happy when presented with the toy! He enjoyed us telling him about the character and used it to play with his other toys figures. He also likes playing with it in the bath as he can see it under the bubbles where he forever loses his toys. He has asked for more of the collection and it would be interesting to see how these toys weather in comparison to other bath toys.

Bronze: Taf Toys Pop-up Tissue Box

My little one is 12 months old and so unable to speak, but she enjoyed playing with it for a little while - especially playing peak a boo with the tissues and playing with the bunny.

Editor's Choice: Kinetic Sand SquishMotion Playset

I liked the different colours of sand in the separate boxes and the pillow. Nice and squishy! If I didn’t have to go to school, I’d play with it all the time!

Best sustainable toy

If you want to buy new, it’s still possible to make eco-conscious choices when buying toys. As brands take steps towards creating more sustainable toys and games, there’s never been as much choice to shop in a planet-friendly way for your child.

Our community of parents took a close look at just how sustainable each toy was, considering eco-friendly production, whether they used recycled and/or recyclable materials, as well as considerate use of packaging.

Our child and parent judges focused on the essentials – how fun the toy was and how likely they were to play with it again. These are our winners.

Gold: Spirograph Eco Design Set

My daughter Sophia, 8, has really enjoyed playing with this Spirograph set. She had loved exploring the different shapes and patterns each disc produces, and has made some lovely pictures that she has stuck on her bedroom wall! The product states that it is made from 100% recycled materials, which is fantastic for a product like this.

Available from Play Monster (£11.99)

Silver: Build Your Own Christmas Eve Box

My son loved the excitement of getting a box to open up himself and investigate. He enjoys problem solving and the different pieces to put together really appealed to him. It’s fantastic that it is fully recyclable made from paper and card, and I would really look for products like this rather than any more unnecessary plastic at Christmas time.

Available from Build Your Own Kits (£14.99)

Bronze: Quiet Books, My First Bicycle

My 2-year-old daughter was very curious when we first unpacked the book, asking ”what’s that?” She quickly embraced it and explored it with curiosity. Since we received it last month, she’s come back to it a few times, asking me to open ”her present.” She’s also adamant about putting all the elements back when she’s done playing with is fairly unusual for her! It’s absolutely lovely and the level of craftsmanship is great. It looks like it’s completely handmade, there was no plastic packaging or plastic in the product and even the tag was brown cardboard. Definitely top marks for sustainability!

Available from Jolly Designs (£76.36)

Editor's Choice: cuddle+kind - Amelia the Cow

My daughter was absolutely ecstatic with this toy. Everything from the dress, flowers and character are amazing and add to the overall toy. My little one loved that she had a name and a birthday too. Amelia the cow has been her new best friend, being taken everywhere (even tried to take her to the swimming pool). All materials have been ethically sourced and are recyclable, which is fantastic!

Available from cuddle + kind (from £71)

Best wooden toy

A classic wooden toy never goes out of fashion. Perfect as a special birthday or Christmas gift, as well as the kind of toy built to be loved and passed down, a wooden toy is a traditional addition to any nursery or playroom.

Our little testers tried out a huge range of wooden toys, from activity tables for busy toddlers to tool sets for budding DIY-ers, before decided on our worthy winners.

While our mini-testers were all about the fun and play potential, our community of parents and carers looked at quality, durability, eco-credentials and longevity of use.

Value for money was also a key consideration and only those really worth the money made the list. Here are our 2024 winners.

Gold: Melissa & Doug Sort, Stock, Select Wooden Vending Machine Play Set

My daughter was so excited to play with this toy and was able to have solo play as well as play with me or her friends. She has loved playing with the vending machine, sorting the food and drink into categories and restocking the machine. I love that the toy is made from wood rather than plastic and is well crafted, and came in a recyclable cardboard box.

Silver: Melissa & Doug Ice Cream Puzzle

Lara loved this wooden toy from the minute she saw it, she quickly showed interest and started asking questions to understand how to play with it. It is easy to play and create with so Lara showed great interest and showed she was proud with her finished product once she put the ice cream and cones together. We loved that it's made of wood - highly sustainable and great value for money!

Bronze: Fisher-Price® Wooden Stack & Sort Animals

My 15-month-old daughter enjoyed tipping the pieces off. She also engaged with the animal characters, in particular the crocodile. The toy is made with wood from well-managed, Forest Stewardship Council-certified forests and arrives in plastic-free packaging. The carboard packaging was also easy to recycle.

Editor's Choice: My 1st Years Personalised Ultimate Wooden Tool Gift Set

My 23-month-old daughter was very smiley when initially playing with this toy. She demonstrated high levels of focus and concentration when trying to use some of the more challenging parts of this toy and enjoyed putting the tools into the different slots and carrying around the toolbox. All of the packaging, bar a few items, are able to be recycled. The toy also arrives in beautiful sturdy green boxes that are perfect for reusing as toy boxes/storage boxes.

Available from My 1st Years (£145)

Read more:

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• MadeForMums Toy Awards 2024 Winners: Best dolls, pets and soft toys
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• MadeForMums Toy Awards 2024 Winners: Best playsets, role play and character toys
• MadeForMums Toy Awards 2024 Winners: Best classic toys