1 year old - what toys??

[LŠuren]

Just wondering what types of toys you have given your 1 year old to play with that keep them amused and works on their development.   I think Calum is bored of his toys and needs something to stretch him again.

At the moment he favours chasing a ball rather than his electronic toys, which previously he LOVED!

[aisling]

Hi Lauren,

I set up an obstacle course for Nello with baskets of surprises and many things are from around the house.  I change it every week to keep it fresh.  I made the living room in a circle, so I use chairs to block out openings so he stays in his course.  It contains this:

Book area: On our coffee table I put books with flaps or pop ups, he loves opening and closing these flaps.  He stands and does this with the books.

Ball area:  I put small plastic balls, a semi deflated beach ball, a large rubber ball and a plush ball.  Different tactile experiences with balls.

Wheel area: Cars, trains, wheel barrel, small plastic wagon--he loves wheeling these or just playing with the wheels

Basket #1:  Lids from yogurt containers, spatula, wooden spoon, an old VCR remote control, an old phone that doesn't work, an empty washed out shampoo bottle, skipping rope, sheer scarves, plastic measuring cups (this weeks play stuff!)

Basket #2: Plush toys, building blocks, plastic numbers and letters, stacking toys, a fisher price doctors kit (he loves this and I highly reccomend it-it has a stethoscope, tweezer, needle, fake plasters etc... all baby proof and nothing to swallow, he mostly just chews them and handles them, but loves crawling/walking around with them for some reason.)

Cruising area: The couch with the lambskin, towels, blankets, pillows on it.  He cruises around and loves to pull these things on and off of the couch.

Activity Table:  This is an old toy passed down from friends with an older child.  It is a play table with various "bells and whistles" things to turn and play, has music etc...I include a pic of him with it below.

He loves the baskets and mostly enjoys, taking things out an putting back in.  I get involved and play too or just let him get to it and take advantage of being able to tidy etc...

I made one outside too- A toddler slide and climbing thingy, a wagon that I pull him around with or he mostly plays with the straps and the wheels, my exercise ball, a kiddy pool filled with balls or sometimes I put a wee bit of water -not much and let him have a splash with various sand/water plastic toys I got at Woolies back in June-like a spade, pail, rake etc...

HTH,

Have fun, isn't this age great for play?

Aisling x

[Ennypen]

Wow thats really impressive... Nello is one lucky boy!!!

Youve made some fantastic suggestions there.. I do lots of what you do but in not such a well organised thought out way...

Can William come round and play? lol xxxx

Helen xxx

[aisling]

We would love that Helen!  Now, if only I could organise my cupboards and closets as well!   

You should see the obstacle course once Nello is finished--what a mess!  I am shocked I put things back in their exact place at the end of the day, I am not usually that rigid, but it bugs me if I don't.  Last week DH threw a Maraca in the wrong basket and I shouted: "That goes in the music basket!"  He looked at me and said:  "Sweetie, you need to get out more often!"  We laughed, he is right!

Glad you liked it, enjoy.

Aisling x

[Ennypen]

Lol xxx

Right.. where do William and I head to? lol xxx

[Mom to M&M]

My DD got a FP Laugh & Learn Home for her birthday and LOVES LOVES LOVES it. And supposedly it lasts a long time - my friend with 2 year old twins said they still play with their's. She also really likes her FP Stride to Ride walker. And she can spend a good 15-20 minutes looking through her books - I leave them on a bookshelf that is baby proofed and that she can get to.

[EmMUK74]

Rachel adores balls, balls, balls and balls.  and then she loves boxes which she can put balls into and then take them out of again.  she also like noisy toys like maraccas and rainmakers and things.  and books, they are always great.

I found this fantastic list of toddler acitivities - I will post it separately

[Gage and Sophie's Mom]

Hi lauren, I have the same prob. It is funny Gage loves balls too. He also loves things that make noise when thrown His favorite toys are metal measuring cups and spoons and a big stainless steel bowl to bounce them off of. He chases little tupperware cups and empty milk jugs around the kitchen. Also, I just bought him a tent with tunnels attached. He Looooves throwing his ball in the tunnel and climbing in and out of it.  Here is a link http://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=playhut&origkw=playhut&f=Taxonomy/TRUS/2254197. It also folds up really small and is light enough for travel.

[Two mummies]

Hi Lauren,

We have a small box (like a shoebox only sturdier) with a lid, each day we fill it with different bits and pieces from the kitchen (measuring spoons, plastic cookie cutters, napkin rings) and her toy collection. We put a funnel in it yesterday and she spent the next half an hour crawling around the house making trumpet noises through it!

Riley also has her own toy basket of board books and she will spend lots of time taking them all out one by one and flicking through them. We have yet to get her to put anything back!

The only other thing we do to try and prevent boredom is rotate her toys.

[Marisa's Mom]

I recently got that Leap Frog alphabet fridge magnet toy thing, it has all the alphabets in lower case & upper case. Even though it is rated for 2+ yrs, I gave it to her last month (when she was 17 mos), and she figured it out pretty quickly. She can get the letters in the "reader" and push them to hear it sing about the alphabet and how it sounds. I try to spell words on the fridge with the letters.

DD never liked toy versions of adult items. She seems to know that it's a "toy" if it's plastic and very colorful.  She has a toy phone she doesn't like as much as our real phones. We recently got cell phone upgrades, so the old cell phones are now her toys. She figured out how to open it (flip style cell phone), and which button to press & hold to turn it on. We also gave her an old remote to play with. She has her own laptop too (one of our old "retired" laptops that we won't mind if it gets thrashed)  ... and has figured out how to turn it on. We installed Webshots, copied a bunch of pictures (mostly of her) so that the wallpaper and screensaver cycles through them.

She has real pots, utensils (spatulas, whisks, ice cream scoopers, bottle brushes, spoons, etc), containers with lids, plastic pitcher, plastic bottles of various sizes, plastic bowls/cups, etc to play with while I'm trying to do stuff in the kitchen. These are not toy items, but the real thing. She likes containers with lids, and has figured out how to put lids on. Yeah, I end up washing a lot of containers, lids, utensils, etc, but I figure she could be finding more dangerous items to "play" with.

[Christa]

Wow great ideas. I don't much new to add, just wanted to say that Harrison also likes balls a lot, putting things into boxes and takin them back out, anything that makes noise, and giant stuffed animals (he never was a fan of normal sized ones so not sure why), blocks, and a simple puzzle (3 pieces and they have pegs so easy to pick up).

Aisling - your place sounds so fun, I;d love to see a picture of it!

[Idahomom]

we have asked family not to give DS too many "tech" toys, not because they are annoying, but I just think he enjoys and learns more from a ball or blocks.  DS loves wooden alphabet blocks, he has a shape sorter and he figured out his blocks fit in all the shape holes.  Fisher price has tons of "little people" that DS likes.  He has all the farm animals, as well as a few people.  He likes trying to put these in the shape sorter also.  He has his own cupboard and drawer in the kitchen with safe items (pans, spoons, towels, etc.)  He also has his own drawer in the bathroom with stuff in it that he can play with.  The one "tech" toy he has and really enjoys is the Leap Frog that sings the ABC song.  This stays in the car and he plays with it on trips and errands.  He actually kisses this frog and says "hi" to it.  He doesn't even kiss me 

[Marisa's Mom]

I understand how you feel about those "tech" toys, they certainly have a lot of them. And oftentimes it's the simplest toys that they enjoy playing with most. Smoething as simple as an empty plastic soda bottle, plastic straws, plastic spoons. A while back I decided to get one of those classic toys, the corn popper. I was surprised to  find they had a "tech" version that made noise and had blinky lights. I opted for the old fashioned plain corn popper. She loves it. Not everything has to light up or sing a song! lol.

DD likes to play with her blocks, although it's not necessarly the way I imagined her to play with them.    She also discovered the rolling properties of balls. And she recently figured out how to say "ball" and "bowl" which sound pretty much the same out of her mouth.

She does have her own laptop though. It's one of our old ones, we just reinstalled the OS, installed Webshots, and copied a bunch of pictures (mostly of her). We set the wallpaper and screensaver to cycle through these pictures, and she just loves seeing the pictures change. That's about all she does with the laptop.

[LŠuren]

I will have to post pic of the toys he was given. I agree that there should be a balance of tech toys and blocks, etc - luckily Calum loves both.

[Erin M]

Fisher price has tons of "little people" that DS likes.  He has all the farm animals, as well as a few people.

My DD LOVES those little people too.  Our newest one is a boat that goes in the bathtub.  As for the tech toys, we've got a few which don't bother me -- and then we've got some more that I never got around to putting the batteries in (on purpose of course) -- oops