1. Berenstain Bear books and videos
2. Arthur books and videos
3. Beanie Babies (I have three boys and they've all loved these. They don't play with them like girls would. They put them in the Rescue Hero cars and have wrecks with them or have them have battles with the G.I. Joe stuff, etc. Beanie Babies are always getting killed around here! LOL!)
4. stamps and ink pads
5. flashlights (my kids love to play with them)
6. ride on toys (doesn't have to be the expensive ones)
7. fun preschool workbooks
8. homemade musical instruments
9. Christian Book distributors has a lot of fun educational games that teach various skills. I used them a lot when we homeschooled.
10. music CD's and books on tape or CD (my kids loved to follow along with the books) The Dollar Tree usually has some of the classics like The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, Call Of The Wild, etc. For the music CD's, the kids just liked to dance around the living room with me...burns off restless energy and it's healthy too.
11. Clean food boxes and containers with play money to play store. I also agree with the play kitchen idea. My middle son loved to watch Emeril as a preschooler and wanted to be a chef so we got him a kitchen to play with and he loved it! So he cooked a few dinosaurs in the pretend microwave...so what?