I was watching my 2 year old play with our chess set a couple days ago. She was carefully putting the figurines to bed on beanbags and whispering Shhh to anyone who came by. It got me thinking about true multi-tasking toys. I don’t know if anyone is familiar with Alton Brown from the Food Network… Good Eats/Iron Chef host but he has an abhorrence of any single-task kitchen utensil. I’ve tried to apply a similar criteria when considering which toys take up room on our shelves.

One of our best investments has been this King Arthur Chess set shaped like actual knights, kings, queens, etc. So many ways play with that toy. My son got is last year for Christmas when he started showing an interest in chess and it has become almost a daily play item. Chess of course, but paired with a set of Haba blocks the perfect sized characters for castle play. They are a bit more fragile than say Holztiger or Kathe Kruse dolls so I try to have the kids keep them in the carpeted rooms to reduce the chipping from falls. But overall this has been a super hard working, multi-tasking toy for us. I just thought I would throw it out there for anyone looking for holiday shopping ideas.