35 Best Toys and Gifts for 4-Year-Old Boys Who Are Curious About Everything

This Spider-Man is ready for action! He can light up his eyes, shoot a web dart, or do a cool backflip. “Shooting a ‘web’ is truly thrilling for my 3-year-old,” one parent tester said. “He screams with excitement and has built a whole storyline around playing with it.” Ages 3+

Kids love how this game involves an actual trash truck, which kids deposit their “rubbish” into and press a button to load it into the truck. But watch out! Sometimes the back of the truck opens and a “surprise spill” sends trash everywhere. “My kids loved the design of the playing board, and the rules of the game,” said one mom of a 4-year-old. “We love Bluey, and the familiarity with the subject matter definitely added to the fun and humor of play.” Ages 4+

Kids who are curious about science, nature, and the world around can learn real facts about plants and animals with this talking microscope. It comes with more than 60 images on its slides, which easily store inside the microscope. There are also different modes of play, including Fact Mode for learning and Quiz Mode to see if they've absorbed the knowledge. If they're really into STEM, you can also get them the new GeoSafari Jr. Talking Telescope. Ages 4+; three AAA batteries required

Kids can practice early math skills in so many different ways while playing with this pretend supermarket, inspired by the Numberblocks TV series. They can count the fruit in the crates, add the value of the coins together, or count the boxes on the shelves. "My 3-year-old loved putting the coins into the register slot, and my 6-year-old did math, adding up how much two products would cost together,” one parent tester said. Ages 3+

This behemoth has so many cool features to keep car kids entertained: First kids can put their cars into the dino’s mouth and use it as an elevator to bring them up to the top. Then, kids can launch the cars and see which path they take: the spiraling orange track, or down the T-Rex’s back! “It's impressively massive, with tons of different tracks for cars to drive on, and my son has spent hours racing his favorite Hot Wheels cars,” one parent tester said. It also has storage for 50 cars. Ages 4+

Fore! He'll have to work on his control and focus to hit the golf ball on this set, and then he'll get all his energy out chasing the balls to put them back in the feeder again. It comes with 15 golf balls, along with three club heads (a left driver, a right driver, and a putter). Ages 3+

Kid testers loved this picture book, and the way it explains phrases and expressions that haven’t been invented yet. To readers living in the present, it all sounds very silly. This is one of the rare children’s books that achieve the balance of being clever and funny for adults but not going over the heads of kids,” said the mom of one tester. “I have never heard my son laugh at a book like he laughs at this one.” Ages 4 to 8

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After seeing The Mandalorian and Grogu this year, they'll be saying, "This is the way." The body of this Grogu is soft like a stuffed animal, but press its head and it'll come to life like an interactive animatronic. “My son loved the interactive features,” one parent tester told the Good Housekeeping Institute. “He often had Grogu involved in other play—i.e., taking turns with other games as if he was another friend—or he was snuggling with him during downtime.” It has more than 50 different sound and action combinations all together. Ages 4+; three AA batteries included

Tester kids flipped for this outer-space set from the popular brand Magna-Tiles. "My kid loved the spaceman and the shuttle. He also said he loved that he could build his own space station," a mom told us. The 32 magnetic pieces all fit back into the shuttle for storage, a feature our tester parents loved. Ages 3+

Here's a buzzy toy—literally. Kid testers really enjoyed seeing this bug climb up the walls, with one parent even saying their daughter "fell in love with it" as they played. Kids can control the fly with the remote control, or put it in auto mode, where it wanders around on its own. Ages 3+; two AAA batteries included

Kids can feel different textures and sensations while imagining adventures for their friends from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. It comes loaded with moldable sensory sand, character finger-puppets, and a scooper too. “[My child] loved the characters and the texture of the sand,” one parent said. “She liked how it could be rolled up into balls and then slowly separated.” Ages 3+

This fast-paced board game is great for preschoolers who are working on their pre-reading skills. Every player gets a card not unlike a Bingo card, with a grid of words and pictures on it. Then the "zinger" starts dispensing tiles with words and pictures on them, and whichever player fills up their card first with the most matches wins! Ages 4+

A physics lesson has never been so much fun as it is with this 100-piece set of plastic gears that fit together. Kids can build however they want, and then turn a crank piece to see which direction the different pieces spin. It's perfect for his newfound dexterity, curiosity, and fine motor skills. Ages 3+

With this set, the friendly Spider-Man leaves the neighborhood and takes to the high seas. Kids can build the ship, Spider Island, and two small boats, then have adventures with the Spidey, Ghost-Spider, Spin, Green Goblin, and Trace-E figures. They can reel in a fish, shoot the cannon, or send the treasure chest down the slide. Ages 4+

Both kids and their adults love this Lincoln Logs building set, since earlier generations might remember playing with this building set in their own childhoods. The set includes 111 pieces made of real maple wood that can be used to build structures like a cabin or two small houses with a bonfire. There are three different guides in the manual, but kids might have even more creative fun by building their own ideas. Ages 3+

This one fosters both imaginative play and motor skills: Kids use a toy, battery-operated drill to build and disassemble these play sets, getting a feel for how to take things apart and put them back together again. There are lots of different play sets, including a recycling truck, a race car, a fire truck, and a barn set, among others. Each one comes with two "buddies" who also act as screwdrivers. Ages 3+; three AAA batteries required

It’s a pickle with a mustache—who wouldn’t laugh? And, at 12 inches, Charles is just the right size to squeeze. If he’s not into pickles, though, there’s plenty of other Squishmallows to choose from. Ages 3+

This is a surprise-reveal toy for dino lovers, a big dino skull stuffed with more than 50 smaller toys, stickers, slime, and more. "This was a huge hit. My son loved the treasure map and the many things to open, play with, and put together," a parent told us. "He loved discovering the battling dinos and everything else, including the skull that cracks open and can be put together to smash again." Ages 3+