For three year olds
Books and games:
Amazing Machines books are fun for kids and interesting for adults. Or, they are sold as individual books if you want to make a theme gift with another toy… or they have activity books as well.
Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game is great for multiple players. Count Your Chickens is great cooperative play. And for fans of Richard Scarry, the Busytown Board game is fantastic.
Dress-up:
Astronaut helmet and suit are good for everyday, not just Halloween. Superhero capes can either be generic for anyone or a specific comic book or movie hero. Melissa and Doug offer a variety of role play costumes for most common professions. Or consider an open ended dress up box collection.
Building:
Tegu magnetic blocks come in a variety of sets. Some of them have little felt pouches for travel, which are awesome.
Duplo blocks are chunkier legos that are great for this age. Construction set, Farm set with a chicken! and Fire truck (comes with a person of color – a rarity!) are all favorites.
Puzzles:
Puzzle trucks are vehicles that are also puzzles! A win win!
Vtech Switch & Go Dino comes in a couple different configurations, depending on the dinosaur or vehicle the child likes best.
With some help, giant floor puzzles can be fun: farm/barn or ocean. As well as smaller puzzles they can accomplish alone.