If you want to get your 3-year-old baby used with a laptop, you should definitely opt for a toy laptop created for this exact purpose.
Babies love toys and toy laptops make no exception. Especially if they see you working on a laptop constantly (or simply using it), they will want to do the same. While putting them in front of the blue light screen of a real laptop is not recommended at such a young age, a toy laptop can really satisfy their needs and keep them entertained for a long time.
Today, we are here to talk about that: what’s the best toy laptop for 3 year olds. These are created specifically for babies and toddlers, they are safe and durable and, as a bonus, they introduce your little bundle of joy to the world of technology.
There are voices claiming that kids who are introduced to technology – including toy laptops – from a young age will learn faster as they grow older. They will have better eye to hand coordination and won’t be put off by the tech advancements that will surely follow.
With these in mind, let’s check out below the best laptop for a 3-year-old!
We’ll start with a table below, in case you’re in a real hurry and just want to see our recommendations. But you can read on afterwards for even more details about each of our recommended models.
Please note: Our blog gets commissions for purchases made through links in this article.
| Toy Laptop | Recommended Age | Features |
|---|---|---|
| LeapFrog 2-in-1 Editor’s Choice Check Price | 3 – 5 Years | 5 Learning modes (ABCs, numbers, games, music and messages),Touch Screen |
| Lil’ SmartTop Check Price | 18 month – 4 Years | Teaches letters, phonics, music, shapes, and stories. 20 Songs. 10 Activities. |
| Lexibook Toy Laptop Check Price | 3 & Up | 124 Total activities. Learn English and Spanish, Mathematics, General knowledge, Logic, Music, Clock. Play Games |
Best Toy Laptop for 3 Year Olds – Reviews
If you want to find out more about each model and why they made it onto our list, read on!
LeapFrog 2-in-1 – Editor’s Choice
This is our top pick for various reasons. It’s entertaining for the little ones but also helps them learn by playing, it can be turned into a touch-enabled tablet and it is just perfect, offering an amazing price/quality ratio.
It is also one of the most popular toy laptops among parents, who are extremely satisfied with it, just like we were. For example, at the moment of writing this article, it has almost 9,000 reviews on Amazon and an average score of 4.7 out of 5.
It’s pretty obvious that everybody who got this was really pleased! Let’s see why!
A highly customizable toy laptop for children, the LeapFrog 2-in-1 features a screen that flips to convert from keyboard to tablet mode. This way, your little one will get used with both using touch screens, as well as a traditional keyboard.
The keyboard itself features all the letters of the alphabet, as well as all the numbers from 1 to 10 for easy learning.
Learning activities are included and interactive. Your little one can learn letters and numbers on this laptop, but also includes some songs for them to learn and sing-along, as well as some various games.
But the little ones will love to pretend play and “type” on the keyboard as they see you do. It will make them extremely happy, believe it or not. So for this purpose only, it’s a great buy. All the rest is extra gravy, which comes in handy.
This toy laptop is also ultra-portable and easy to handle. It is light and has a handle for the children to hold it and carry it around. It’s also pretty durable but have in mind that the body is made of plastic, so it won’t really take a massive beating.
But it’s made for young kids and it can handle a punch or a bit of a drop.
All in all, this is a really good laptop, with heaps of fun activities for the little ones, all of them stimulating their intelligence and encouraging them to learn by playing. This prepares them for school and for becoming responsible, educated adults without taking away the fun aspect. Highly recommended!
Click here to check price on Amazon
Lil’ SmartTop
Apart from a really cool name, this toy laptop from VTech has everything you need to keep your 3-year-old happy. It is actually similar with the model above, with only some minor differences.
It has four different modes of play, all of which can help your little one learn some new things. These include letters, phonics, music, shapes, and stories.
The keyboard doesn’t have numbers like the previous model, but it has some piano keys to help your child have some fun singing, but also a paw-shaped joystick to the side for navigation.
An interesting feature about it is that you can download for it additional content, including 10 e-cards, 20 animated stories and 30 songs. This will provide them with hours of entertainment!
But, like with all laptops, you will be surprised to find out how much the children will actually enjoy pretend play. They will “type” as they see you doing and this will keep them extremely satisfied. All the other activities are bonuses that they will love.
This toy laptop also has a handle to make it easier to carry it around. The laptop itself is very light, yet made from a durable plastic, so it can handle a bit of a beating. But don’t expect it to take a lot – teach your child to be careful and take care of his laptop instead.
Finally, don’t expect this to offer performance similar to that of a regular laptop. It’s not meant to do so (and we have the price to keep our expectations low). But you will see that kids will actually love it!
Click here to check it out on Amazon
Lexibook Educational Bilingual Laptop
Last but not least comes a toy laptop that’s perfect for your 3-year-old (and older kids too) and there are plenty of models available, especially in partnership with Disney. But for today I chose something more generic for showcase. But you do have more options on Amazon.
This model offers a total of 124 activities (62 in English and 62 in Spanish). So, yes, if you want to raise a bilingual kid, this is a great place to start!
We had absolutely no problem with our 36 months old toddler getting everything from it and we don’t think it would be too difficult for a 3-year-old to use it, while at the same time it will remain fun to try for older kids also – but probably not older than 10, I would guess.
This brightly colored laptop is perfect for your children to learn while having heaps of fun. The activities in each language are divided into 5 main learning categories: words, math, music, knowledge, logic and games.
It also has a special mode to teach children how to read the clock. I really loved that and found it extremely useful!
To make it look even more like a real laptop, this one has an external mouse you can connect (and use), as well as a full keyboard with numbers and letters and various other buttons.
The activities on this laptop are a bit more advanced and demanding for the young’uns, but without being frustrating. They are equally fun and kids will love learning and playing at the same time.
This models doesn’t have a handle to make it easier to carry around, but it has the advantage of looking a lot more like a traditional laptop, which will keep the kids happy.
All in all, this is a bit more advanced than the other two, with a higher selling price, but with the additional features totally making up for it.
How to choose the right toy laptop for your 3-year-old
As you see, the toy laptops that you can purchase are all pretty similar in terms of features and even design.
They are made with minimal tech advancements to keep the price low, but they still offer major opportunities for learning and especially pretend play. For these reasons alone, a toy laptop is a perfect buy for the little ones.
When deciding which toy laptop to get, consider the layout of the keyboard: do you want your child to learn the QWERTY key placement or make it easier for them with an ABCD keyboard?
The latter will help them learn the alphabet, but the former prepares them for the actual keyboard of a real laptop.
Advantages of Toy Laptops
3-year-old toddlers can have many advantages of using toy laptops:
- They help them develop their motor skills, especially eye to hand coordination
- They learn letters, numbers and songs by playing and having fun
- They encourage memory development through singalong melodies and short stories or poems
- They help them get more creative through pretend play. This will make them extremely happy, especially if one or both parents work a lot in front of a laptop
- They learn to take care of their belongings (this is something that parents should teach them).
Conclusion
You can’t really anticipate how happy your little one will be with their new toy laptop until you buy one for them. Being able to do what mommy and daddy do will boost their morale by a ton.
Then they will have a lot of fun using the toy laptop and also learn a new thing or two in the process. It’s really a win-win situation here.
Our personal favorite was the LeapFrog 2-in-1 thanks to all of its features, but if you prefer a toy laptop with a traditional. QWERTY keyboard, the final recommendation on our list is a better choice.
Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with us and let us know which of the three recommended models is your favorite!