What toys did your 1-2 year old like to play with?

[nearlynarly]

We are moving abroad, to quite a remote location and will not be able to get much for dd whilst we are living there, so I need to buy toys in advance to take with us which will last the year. Can you recommend toys that your LO's enjoyed playing with at this age range? Good for development etc...

Thanks very much.

finger puppets
small toy piano
plastic food/cups/saucers (best toy ever)

Stacking cups. She also has a set of stacking hutches with animals which she adores. It was a gift, though, and turns out it was quite a generous one.

Pram. Pushing this about and loading and unloading it is the dream for any toddler. A friend has a buggy, which is equally popular and might be easier to take abroad.

My 1 year old is currently making me a cup of tea with his tea set.

He also likes wooden puzzles, stacking cups, wooden train sets, wooden building blocks, the noisy bastard toy guitar, wooden click clack track, anything Happyland.

But the best thing of all for him is lots of paper and colouring pencils. That can keep him occupied for hours.

Stacking cups
Musical instruments (drum, maracas, tambourine etc)
Small animal figures
Happyland vehicles
Board books

That Tomy eggbox thing with the squeaky eggs inside. My DD got it for her first birthday, immediately loved it, and it's still going strong seven months later. Locating all the bits of toy egg scattered around the house of an evening can be a faff though

YY stacking cups and toy pram (or something to push about)
be sure to take something for the bath, like a mini watering can

My almost 2 year old loves his Thomas wooden train set and trains. He also plays with his tea set loads. And scoots around on his elc wooden ride along like nobodies business. The biggest hit with him by far though is his duplo/Lego.

stacking objects
water play
push alongs/prams
duplo
simple two peice puzzles (well he prefers to try harder ones, but gets frustrated if he cant do them!)
'cleaning'
tea parties with DDs bears and DD herself.
running after balls
boxes
furniture to climb on

megablocks, they go through loads of stages/games with these - my 26m old has had a big box of these for a year and still likes to build towers with them, put them in and out of boxes, pick each one up and name the colour and more...
crayons and lots of paper/colouring books
books especially ones with buttons they can press as well
balls
old fashioned train sets or garage with cars
xylophone toys and keyboards
shape sorters

My 17 month old really doesn't 'do' toys so I've been delighted to see him sit and play - for ages- with mr potato head, he loves it. Also loves his harmonica. Definitely not traditional toddler toys but he loves them and comes back to them over and over again.

The oven dials
The washing machine buttons
The toilet
The cat food

He's a BEAST.

Lol Equestrian...I have one of those as well!

Literally the only thing will keep him still for more than 30 seconds is one of those bead maze things and some Fisher Price Little People animals.

Other than that it's everything he shouldn't be touching and playing with!

At that time dc was totally besotted with Thomas the Tank engine. Literally spend hours playing with wooden railway (we had to build it though) whilst listening to Thomas the Tank engine CDs, playing with Thomas books, watching Thomas dvds. Also duplo, wooden bricks, one of those teletubby things you push in and they start turning round and it makes music. Around one, we also had one of these activity centres (child sits in little seat in the middle with lots of buttons etc around it). I would take quite a few books, including play books, dvds and CDs.

My first was a lovely textbook toddler who would play with wooden blocks rahter than launching them at people's heads, and who would scribble with crayons rather than hiding them in the oven [hmmm] so DS2 was something of a shock!

nearlynarly if you have any outside space, both mine love going round the garden on their little ride-on car things.

Stacking cups (still plays with them in a vast variety of ways)
Dolls/teddies ie anything that can be characters in her games
We have a v small house so have to be v selective and found that letting her collect things like shells/sticks/leaves is good as she will use them in games for weeks

Box sets of board books, a megasketcher, a few soft toys, stacking cups, tea set, stacking rings, blocks, fridge magnets, my iphone, a piano, a shape sorter, pen and paper. Out of those the essentials for DD would be her puppy and some board books.

Toy pushchair.
Playmobil 123.
Duplo
Train set
Peppa pig anything!

Funnily enough Equestrian DS1 was a textbook toddler as well lol! He'd quite happily play with his toys and actually sit still for 15 mins or so to look a book or even watch tv...but DS2 is like a little mini whirlwind so I completely get the shock factor!

The vTech Play and Learn Funfair (not sure if you can still get them new, but they must make something similar?)

www.amazon.com/Tech-Play-Learn-Fun-Fair/dp/B000231FNQ/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

I lived in fear of this breaking or the batteries running out as DS LOVED it.

Fisher Price do something along the same lines:

www.elc.co.uk/Fisher-Price-Topsy-Tumblers-Twirlin%27-Whirlin%27-Fun-Park/131915,default,pd.html

Also:

ELC Lights and Sounds Activity Table
Happyland Firestation
Toy kettle and toaster
Thomas Sodor Adventureland
Melissa and Doug Latches Board
Toy cars...and more toy cars...preferably those with opening doors.

An iPad ;)

real pots and pans - for piling up, fitting lids, clanging lids (!!) and pretend cooking. Lasted from 1 yr til about 4 yrs to be honest, though far frequent at 4. Also enjoyed short storybooks, Hairy MacLeary series especially, Brown Bear Brown Bear, what do you see?By Eric Carle and similar.

DS is 16mo and likes

• Megablocks and Duplo
• Anything kitchen/cafe related- we don't actually have a mini kitchen in our house but he loves the one at playschool
• shape sorters/stacking cups/simple jigsaws etc (basically stuff that fits together)
• Cars and trains
• football

This is brilliant people, thanks so much! I'm planning on doing one big amazon/ELC order rather than scanning the shops. Any other recommendations?

A silicone pastry brush, a spatula and a pot from the cupboard.

Megablocks and duplo are endlessly versatile. Fisher price little people are also favourites. But my toddler's real joys are remote controls, my alarm clock and my iPhone...