Puppets!!

In The Monkey's ECFE class, our instructor recommends all toys that do not limit creativity - so anything where kids can be creative and explore their imaginations. Art projects, blocks, Legos, music toys, books, a box of recycling, etc... Less of the toys that limit imaginations like a princess Wheelie set or a Princess set of dolls. We do puppets in class and The Monkey really enjoys them (plus there's a song to sing with them and she LOVES music and singing, did I mention that she jams along to Tom Petty, Hugo, and Britney???).

The puppets below were like $12 from Amazon - I think they're sold by the Oriental Trading Company though. Cheap, good old, imaginary fun. I did buy one expensive one from Lake Shore Learning (it was $12) but it's large and fits my hands better than the Oriental Trading Company ones.

The general idea: play pretend with puppets, make up stupid songs, make the same animal noises over and over and over and over again to learn different animals (which I do in French and English)