The term ride on toys refers to any toy that can be ridden on. This includes ride-on cars, scooters, trikes, balance bikes, animals and even electric vehicles.
Ride-ons
For most people when they think of ride on toys they think of some version of a car, tractor, or animal that a child sits on and uses their feet to propel them around the room.
In fact, children may have to sit or stand on ride on toys and they may be powered by them, pushed or pulled by you, or nowadays they may even be motorised. Rocking toys, like a rocking horse, can also be considered a ride on toys. How the toy is powered is an important factor as different styles are more suited to children at different stages of development.
Ride-ons with a handle so a parent or sibling can push are great for little ones who haven’t yet figured out how to propel their vehicle themselves. Some will even double as a walker for babies that are just learning to walk. The Indigo Jamm Bernies Ride On Bus is great for this.
Self-propelled toys could be foot-powered or pedal-powered and children will generally be able to use a foot-powered toy before they are strong and coordinated enough to use a pedal-powered toy.
The Indigo Jamm Scoot toys are brilliant for indoor use as the small wheels are multi-directional meaning it’s easy to make tight turns. This means little ones can have loads of fun racing about even in quite small spaces. And the retro design means they look super cool as well.
Once they are a bit bigger and confident on their feet you will almost certainly want a scooter or a balance bike to add to the collection. These are generally not ideal for using indoors unless you have a big space but they are great fun for outdoors and can make your toddler a lot faster and happier to travel further.
Are ride on toys worth it?
We’ve all been to toddler groups and seen how popular the ride-on toy cars and tractors are. Every child wants to be playing on them, racing up and down the hall, and fights can easily break out if fairness isn’t ensured.
However it can also be hard to determine whether these same toys would get the same love at home.
Most of us don’t have a village hall sized space for children to race about in and if we do it’s either outside or full of stuff that makes navigation by a toddler tricky at best, so you need to choose wisely when it comes to ride-on toys.
However they do provide a lot of fun, some great developmental benefits and many can be used outside.
RELATED: The Benefits of Ride-On Toys
