heidip2p Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Our little girl is turning 1 tomorrow. :001_wub: After 6 kids I am stumped on what to get her. We are trying to focos a little but more towards educational toys this year. Any ideas? She loves books so we will do a few of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iucounu Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 A few ideas (this is going to be a mishmash, with apologies for the format): Puzzles are of course a must. Melissa and Doug and a few others make a range of particularly nice wooden puzzles for that age, including simple jigsaws and peg puzzles, and there are also some beginner's cube puzzles that I'd check out. For beginning jigsaw-type puzzles these are great: Melissa & Doug Zoo Animals - Shaped Melissa & Doug Pets - Shaped (search on "shaped puzzles" for more like this). Skeleton Floor Puzzle Beleduc Your Body - Boy 5-Layer Puzzle Melissa & Doug Shapes Sound Puzzle Melissa & Doug Deluxe Standing Easel Melissa & Doug Wooden Tabletop Easel (I'm not a M&D shill, honestly :D ) Musical toys are another area to think about. What we did was buy our first son a decent polyphonic Yamaha keyboard, and both kids have gotten a lot of mileage out of it. Make sure to read reviews extensively on kid-oriented musical toys-- for instance, a lot of the best-looking xylophones have very poor sound. We tend to shun push-a-button-and-get-an-electronic-reward type of toys. Both of our sons began playing with Capsela before the age of two. It's an intriguing modular building mechanical set from Europe that can be found most easily on eBay and elsewhere these days. This next year is a good time to start playing with wooden trains. Again, eBay is a good place to buy cheap pieces. I'd start with some basic curves, hills and straight pieces, then add branching pieces. It's not necessary to buy a bunch of engines and cars, but there are some decent battery-powered engines (even if, like us, you can't stand Thomas :ack2: ). Other building toys include blocks, of course. There are threads here IIRC on blocks. HABA makes some nice and whimsical sets. Duplos / Quattros are another fave. Clay will probably be a big hit. We have found after some time that in the early days Plasticine or a similar non-hardening clay works better for us than Play-Doh, and later on Sculpey is higher quality for hardening clay. We bought tons of the little Fisher Price blocks and balls (can't remember the name off the top of my head) but I'd give them a miss today. They never got played with much, and they can't be stacked easily. We started using School Zone flash cards around that age. Leapfrog Letter Factory is engaging, though flawed because it focuses on only the upper-case letters. Littles tend to love it. Leapfrog Fridge Phonics can be decent too, if you get the lower-case letters and make sure all the sounds are accurate. Another educational video our kids have liked is Richard Scarry's Best Counting Video Ever! . Classic Wooden Abacus Wooden Shape Sorting Learning Clock Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Magnetic Pattern Blocks Set http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IE4B44 Melissa & Doug See & Spell Some game ideas: Tumblin' Monkeys game (one of the best games I've found for beginning turn-taking skills without complicated rules to master); Uno Moo; Ravensburger Can You Match It?. Melissa & Doug Mombo Snake Magnifying Glass Curious George Tin Keepsake Box with Latch by Schylling Plastic dinos and other animals are a big hit here. So are Little People-- the old style (which were discontinued because their heads occasionally popped off, but in our opinion they offer superior playability). These and similar toys stimulate role playing. There are a bajillion types of shape stackers and sorters, and I'm sure you've thought of that category already. I'm going to copy and paste here a list of $5-20 toys I put together for a colleague a while back: Kid O Matching Shades Puzzle (can be found elsewhere): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MCZ81U Latches Board http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NVBE1A Fish Colors Mix N Match Puzzle http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000067QC0 KID O Arranging Short To Tall Puzzle $10.56 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GIJOUM KID O Sorting Primary Colors Rings $12.15 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G77HP2 KID O Floating Ducks $10.78 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MCZ85G Basic Fun David Kirk Stacking Robot $11.25 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IPDSTE Basic Fun David Kirk Stacking Mongo Monster $11.19 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IPDST4 Green Toys Tugboat $10.86 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036WSVPK Plan Toy Geometric Sorting Board $15.08 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00000ITOY Plan Toys Cone Sorting $17.14 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006H4AXU Plan Toys Dancing Alligator $14.95 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I8SMZE Plan Toys Pull-Along Snail $15.13 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000A42YB4 Plan Toys Punch and Drop $18.11 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009YOQK Wonderworld New Stacking Rings $15.00 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00031XXAU Wonderworld Musical Tree $14.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045UBHTE Wonderworld Peek-a-boo Ball $9.07 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00031XUG2 Flapsi Rattling Figure $10.88 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007CSEYA Manhattan Toy Winkel $10.97 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BNCA4K Manhattan Toy Ziggles $11.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008XY4C Manhattan Toy Whoozit Icicle Rattle $17.49 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000J0III2 Baby Einstein Bendy Ball $6.99 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UF8BL4 Lamaze Freddie the Firefly $14.00 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I2Q0F4 Lamaze Jacques the Peacock $12.88 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I2MRLK Lamaze Musical Inchworm $15.70 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I2MRJC Infantino Activity Triangle $14.46 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040GJ0UG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heidip2p Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 WOW!!! This is awesome. Thank you sooooooo much :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iucounu Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) You're very welcome. I love game and toy threads... always learn something. :bigear: I know I've left a ton out, but it's hard to even remember all the types of toys off the top of my head. :) I hope that some of the links spur helpful ideas for you. Some of the last links may be a little on the young side. Here's a girl version of that "your body" puzzle: Hape Beleduc Your Body - Girl 5 - Layer Wooden Puzzle ETA: Magneatos are another building-toy idea. DS2 got a set of the jumbo size shortly after his first birthday. Magna-tiles (horridly overpriced at the mo) are another idea. Edited January 18, 2012 by Iucounu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristenR Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I love introducing the Leap Frog alphabet magnets at an early age. My girls learned their letter sounds early on from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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