Toys for a one year old

[mydailymailhell]

Looking to hear your must have / failsafe toys for one and up! DS is 13 months and getting bored of his current crop of toys

Oh, Hi!

Thank you, have a good night

Looking back through old pics the ones that seemed to be getting the most use 12-18 months were the shape sorter, wooden blocks, pram and wooden cars. But the clear winner is the Duplo train set. That has been brilliant value. We’ve added to the duplo over the years and he still plays with it regularly now at 3.5.

Mine likes to attempt to commit suicide on whatever the older ones have dropped (fucking tiny parts!)
She also likes to carry shoes. Any shoes.

Honestly I'd just get a basket and chuck some pots, pans, interesting textures etc in. Pineapples are good for that! It's all discovery

I would say toy cars, water play, shape sorters, stacking rings are all good at that age, but tbh at 13 months my ds went through a stage of totally losing interest in toys and only wanting to play with real stuff, mainly involving pulling everything out of cupboards, chucking the remote about, taking my phone etc.

Thankfully he started to get in to role play toys somewhere around 18 months which is so much more fun, so if you want to buy ahead favourites were:

Play kitchen
Happy land stuff from elc (esp. houses with doors to open and close)
Cleaning supplies - pretend hoover, dust pan and brush etc.
Train set
Little cars, helicopters, diggers etc. And rug with roads on
Dolls - pretending to feed them and put them to bed
Duplo building blocks
Balls - lots of different types soft ones, bouncy ones
Magnetic drawing board
Crayons
Tool set
Sand pit/water table

Got loads of this stuff second hand at baby sales so doesn't need to cost a bomb.

HTH

If you were talking about a birthday present I would invest in stuff they'll still be playing with in years to come - stacking blocks/shape sets will take you from simple two-three block towers at this age to elaborate cityscapes in a couple of years time. Duplo is brilliant. Anything with wheels.

However presumably you've just had a load of birthday gifts and you want to keep him entertained here and now?

To be honest it is a funny age - they're past being mesmerised by something shiny, but probably not quite mastered the skills to play with a shape sorter (though it won't be far off).

I find at this age they're developing their understanding cause and effect and into, on top of and through. You can facilitate this without forking out on toys. Letting them lose with the contents of the Tupperware drawer allows them to practice stacking and putting things inside other things. Balls and a cardboard tube to roll them down. Make holes in a cardboard box band give them a selection of objects that can be posted through.

squash we are at the 'emptying everything out of cupboards' stage and I forgot how infuriating it is!

Yes definitely agree, Bubbins, it's no fun at all. Thankfully it didn't last too long. Best thing I did (not soon enough!) was put all the plastic/wooden stuff in one cupboard, baby proof the rest and let him get on with it

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. @squashpocket my LO is currently obsessed with the house phone, remote and oven timer. Spends all his day pressing buttons on these. Glad to know it’s normal!

100% normal!

Probably the bought things we got most value out of were a block toddle truck, jumparoo, musical instruments and a box of pretend eggs (I think Tomy?) that squeeked. I also did a ' treasure basket ' full of household bits they could pull out (e.g pegs, spoons, different textured materials etc). Your question reminds me if this blog though - basically the best toy is anything they are not meant to have! www.theuglyvolvo.com/a-ten-month-olds-letter-to-santa/

DH was throwing out one remote controls from old electrical the other day - I stopped him and my 1yo now has a new favourite toy