Share your favorite toys for 1 yr old

[TheyCan]

Can anyone share their favorite toys for a one yr old (he's 11 mo now)?  I've been spending days researching what to buy.  He's seems inbetween - either too old for all the baby toys (he's been walking since 8 mo) but too young for most of the educational wooden toys (mostly montessori toys) I've looked at.  The best thing I've gotten so far is a hammer/pound toy with balls that he does great with.  I also just ordered the Rody horse.  Any suggestions??  Thanks!!

[PY]

My daughter loved for her first birthday the leap frog Learn & Groove® Musical Table, you can buy in in wallmart for $46 I guess. is bilingual( spanish/englisg) teaches colors,shapes,numbers,abc's. It is fun.
And the other one she likes it is the leap frog Letters with Lulu, It is so cute and has abc's music, letters, I like it because is really easy for the kids at the age to play with ,they just have to press the monitor of the stomach.

My daughter is 16 months now and she can still play with them.

[momtomany]

These are the favourite things that my 11 month old likes to play with:

Right now he is absolutely engrossed with an empty cookie bag. (cost $0)
He loves balls and blocks; empty plastic containers (cleaned of course); spoons, bowls, funnels, pots & pans, things from the kitchen; baby board books (durable ones!); anything that doesn't belong to him; the list is endless..... the one thing to describe all the 'toys' he likes to play with is "anything new that he has never or rarely played with before".  Don't spend too much money on toys at this age because they have such a hunger for learning new things that they quickly get bored with the same stuff.  Just let him play with anything you can find that is safe... remember that his favourite, favourite toy is YOU (Peekaboo and dancing together).  When we're out and about, if he is fussing, then my car keys will keep him happy... it's not so hygienic though-- maybe he'd love his own keychain with real keys!  I have a little box of Duplo that he plays with for quite a while whenever I get it down (about once a week or so)... lego will be great when he is older.  I always say that if I was only going to buy my kids 3 toys (toys that get the most play value!) it would be water, sand, and lego.... nothing keeps them engrossed in their play as much as water, sand, and lego.

[TheyCan]

Thanks so much for the replys.  Yes - you summarized my son exactly!  I guess I just feel like I've run out of new stuff he hasn't seen before!  He's totally explored the kitchen and our whole house.  He even seems bored after 5-10 minutes in the bathtub and is ready to get out.  Now I just try to keep stuff away and have it "reappear" - as in not letting him have a spatula for a week and then giving it to him so it's new again and that works great.  I'm just thinking that we have a full year until he's old enough for all the age 2 toys and I'd something to him occupied without me from time to time.  I agree with the sand suggestion - we went to the beach recently and I've never seen him so "busy" for so long .  He LOVED it. 

[TheyCan]

Momtomany - I just ordered a box of Duplos !!  I think my husband will be very excited - .   

I've had my eye on this track - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002HYFF2/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A2G0WH1IUUFRW9&v=glance.  It's ridiculously expensive, but it has great reviews.  I also read somewhere that these ball mazes help the eyes with reading - the going back and forth.  Waste of money and stick with more household stuff???  Any thoughts??   

[kizudo]

Household stuff - that's pretty much what my 15 month old plays with and has been playing with for months - his toy box hardly sees any attention at all.  Right now he is consumed with my spice cupboard.  They have been checked (and are continually checked)to be sure that he won't be able to open them, but, boy, does he love it!  Lately it's been the cumin, but last week it was the parsley.  He "sniffs" it and says "mmmm..."  Yesterday he wouldn't take his nap without it - he was quite upset when I tried, finally I caved and gave it back to him - he was out in 2 minutes!  So funny watching him walk around with his spice bottle in one hand and the spatula in the other!

Keys - I made him a key ring of his own - but that was a no go.  He knows that they aren't important and always wants mine anyway.  Be careful though...one day I let him hold my car keys as I was putting him in the carseat.  I walked around to my side of the car, got in, took the keys from him and then realized that he easily could have pressed the automatic lock button while I wasn't in the car!!!!  Yikes!!!  I hate when I do one of those "stupid parent" things!

Anyway, when he was oneish he LOVED a xylophone that we borrowed.  It was used probably every day for about two months!  (We had to return it) Now he loves the cymbals that we bought him (3-4 inches in diameter) and shakers of any kind.  I'd like to get him a drum next...(call me crazy)

[TheyCan]

Awesome idea with the spices!!!!  I hadn't thought of that and it's probably great learning activity for their senses!!  Thanks for sharing!

The musical instruments have to be great as well.  My son has a wooden clacker he likes and I just got him some small bongos. 

[momtomany]

Other ideas for obtaining toys that are less expensive (it hurts to spend a bunch of money on something and they are bored of it within days!)....

Thrift stores and garage sales.... ebay or other bargain online buying.
When I was living in town, there was a toy lending library.  Another spin on this would be to swap toys with friends for a while.  Keep it fresh!

Yeah, their interests change quickly as they are developing their skills.  Right now one of his favourite activities (11 months old) is to put a 5" flexible magnetix stick (his older brother's toy... it's about the size of a short pencil).... he likes to put this thing into an empty DVD case and close the case, and then open it and take it out, then put it back... over and over again.  Or similar, he likes to put something in my hand and then I give it back.... back and forth, he loves it.  But they don't need some toy from the store to develop these important skills, do they.... they are so driven to learn that they will find it if you are allowing them to explore things in your house.

When I am trying to buy a toy for a little one (like birthday or Christmas... mostly because I get everyone else something, not because I think they need more toys!) I always try to look for the classic toys that I remember from childhood.... I figure that if the toy is still around after all these years, then it must be a good seller for a reason.  Fisher-Price comes to mind... my little ones like the Fisher-Price we have, and (unlike when I was little) now they make the people chunky so they are safe for the 1 year olds too.  Another criteria that I use for buying toys is that I don't want to have too many battery-draining toys or noisy toys.... yeah, kids love them, but there's only so much that adults can take!  And another criteria is that I like to keep things simple to organize, so for the little guys we now have a big box of wooden train (Thomas the Train mostly), a Duplo box, a Fisher-price box, and only a small drawer in the family room with miscellaneous toys like rattles, matchbox cars, baby blocks, or small stuffies.  Oh, also we have quite a collection of those Schleich animal figurines because every time we went to the zoo, instead of spending hours in the gift shop and coming home with a smorgasbord of cheap toys, we always allowed each child to pick out one of those animals.  When it's time to go shopping for a gift, I always prefer to buy something that will go into one of those boxes... (or the bookshelf of course!)... and that way it is always easy to clean up and keep things organized.  I prefer to buy a small amount of quality toys rather than a large amount of cheaply-made toys.

And those are a few more of my toy-buying thoughts...

[nohayo]

I was just at this course for children development where they gave us a list of the 10 most important toys that every kid should have for their developmental skills - I only remember 5 now in no particular order:

1. blocks (the wooden classic ones)
2. puzzles
3. books
4. Lego
5. ball

I'll find the list and post the other 5

[mumof1]

Cannot resist to share this 9 month old child favourite toy..

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/cXXm696UbKY&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/cXXm696UbKY&rel=1</a>

I love this one..

[Kappasweet]

Um, mine has always been into empty water bottles.  He used to wave them and chew them a lot, and hold them up to look through them at the light.  He eventually advanced to rolling them, crushing them, and lining them up.  Now he takes the caps on and off, and just learned how to screw it down and back up.

Out of his toys, he likes his musical table, nesting cups, and baby recorder quite a bit.  Nesting cups hold his attention for a surprising amount of time, and they are like $2 at Walmart.  He likes them better than his blocks.  He likes the recorder a lot, but he prefers me to blow into it, then he'll blow into it, turn it upside down and have me blow into it.  He could do this for a good 20 minutes, I'm not sure why he turns it upside down for me to blow into it, when you blow into that end there is no sound.  Maybe he is just developing his sense of humor.

[kizudo]

First of all, that video was hilarious!

Secondly, I wanted to mention that we have an old, old fax machine the size of an apple carton that we let him play with - that gives me at least 10-15 minutes to check and respond to emails   He also has a computer wire that makes wonderful noises as he "scratches" it against the floor, the fax machine, the treadmill, the rug, etc... 

As for blowing the recorder upside down, my son has taken to the whole "blowing" idea, too.  One of the first things he does when he picks up his computer wire is get me to blow on the end of it.  It is, apparently, the funniest thing in the world to him! 

Also, something I've discovered - spoons and floor vents don't go well together

So intriguing watching them develop, hey?

[LDSMom]

That 1 yr old age was really hard for me, just because my boy was so active and very little attention span and just wanting to do so much but wasn't physically able to. We played with: uncooked rice, beans, or elbow noodle pasta in measuring cups/bowls/jars, (keep careful eye on child if so they dont put them in their mouths or other places) sometimes we'd use flour because of the texture although it makes a big mess! We'd also make pudding and play in that for a while, anything fun and messy we did a lot! When we'd do the beans or rice we'd lay out a sheet under us to make it easier to clean up.  Water and sand are always good too. My kid loved texture.  He also loved playing with paper, like if we showed him how to fold a newspaper, he got a kick out of unfolding it and refolding it. He also loved playing with magazines.

Now my baby is 22 months and has a much bigger attention span, thank goodness :o)  So we've moved on to other activities like playing cars and other toys which keep his attention for a long time now. Occasionally we'll bring out the above mentioned activities and still have a great time!

As far as toys to buy, I think it all depends on the interests of your kid. We got a special marble game where you set it up and roll the marble down the ramps, he's only allowed to play it with an adult present, obviously, but he just loves doing that, also my son is really interested in music right now so for his birthday i want to get him a harmonica or little drum set or something.  And one of these days, i'll take the plunge and actually buy him a Thomas the Train engine. :o)

[qisdhi mom]

mumof1,the video is reallllyyyy cuteeee                

[luckylucy]

My baby always loved:

Anything with cause and effect such a dropping a ball in a shoot and then hearing a bell ring, turning the light switches on and off, pressing an button on a toy or dvd player and watching some happen like the dvd open and close.

Playing with a ball

drumming on tupperware or anything

She was intensely interested in small mechanical things and sticking click it type legos together

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