Top 5 Toys For My One Year Old

Between Christmas and his birthday, Superman has recently received more toys than I can count.  When I was looking for toys to buy him I found that there just isn't a whole lot of help out there.  If you go on Amazon, you can't search for toys for a 1 year old.  The closest you can get is birth to 24 months...really, Amazon you need to rethink this.  Do you not understand how different a 3 month old is compared to a 12 month old compared to a 24 month old?  Craziness.

There are a few good lists if you do a Google search, but really I didn't even know what I should be looking for in toys for him.  I wondered:  What skills am I trying to foster in him through play?  What toys will grow with him?  What skills should a one year old even be working on?  Well I gave up trying to figure it out. We got him a big gift for Christmas (see below) and a big gift for his birthday (a wagon) and we called it good.  And it was great because everyone else knew better than I did and he ended up with some great toys and books!

Before I get to what he actually plays with, I was really grateful that some people gave us toys targeted for 18 months so he wasn't given all his gifts to play with at one time.   One of the cool toys for 18 months and older that I can't wait to see him play with is the Fix N' Learn Speedy (amazon says it is 6 months - 3 years but that isn't what the box says).

So what did he get?  Along with the toys I mention below, he got a bunch of new books (which I am really grateful for since we do story time 3x a day), bath toys, plastic beads, music, and stuffed animals.  There isn't a single toy that he doesn't play with on a daily basis...seriously, not a single one.  

So without further adieu, here are the top five toys Superman has gotten in the past month.

5.   B. Sugar Chute - Basically this looks like a big gumball machine filled with different colored balls.  Superman is obsessed with plastic balls that fit in his hands to begin with (thanks to the Playskool Explore and Grow Busy Ball Popper which we have had for some time, but is still one of his favorite toys).  I love that this provided him some challenge.  Of course, he could just reach in the top and grab a ball, but we were able to put it on the coffee table and teach him how to get the balls to drop and then how to pull them out of the little door at the bottom.  He struggled with this quite a bit, but once he learned to use two hands he was on a roll.  He also loves throwing the balls into the top after he has retrieved them from below. 

4. Count and Learn School Bus - The bus comes with 4 colored balls that have sensors in them.  When you put the ball in the special hole it tells you the color or the animal that is on the ball.  The top is also open so if they can't get it in the hole, they can still put the balls in the bus.  It took him a little bit to learn how to do it, but Superman loves to push the ball through the hole and watch them roll down the bus and out the door (the door opens and closes).  He does this over and over and over.  Downside to the toy? Both my husband and I have the song it plays stuck on our heads at this point. 

3. Mega Bloks Maxi Tub with 140 pieces - I wasn't sure if he would know what to do with the blocks and, frankly, he doesn't know how to build anything yet.  However, he loves to pull the pieces apart and to wreck anything we build.  The big thing that surprised me was how much he likes to open the lid, take out a piece, close the lid, put the piece on top or on the ground and then repeat the process over and over and over again.  It was the first toy that he really "played a game" with by himself.   

2.  Mega Bloks Cat Large Vehicle Dump Truck - It is so big that he can push it around the living room while walking.  He loves to throw blocks into the back, pull them out again or tip the truck over to get the pieces out (he knows that they are supposed to "dump" but he hasn't figured out how to unlatch the bin so this is his version of it 'dumping').

1.  Smart Trike - He loves this thing!  I bundle him up and we go for a walk and he literally sings the whole time.  I have never seen him happier than he is on that trike.  While he is still too little to pedal it, the pedals disengage so they don't move as you push it and there is a little platform that drops where he can rest his feet.  There are also rails on either side of him that keep him from falling off.  The push handle, rails, and sun shade remove so that it grows with the child. (I am proud to say that this was actually our gift to him from "Santa"!)



Note:   Although I am willing to do product reviews upon request, I was not asked to do these reviews nor was I given anything in return for my opinion in this post.  These were truly gifts given to Superman from our friends.