The best toddler toys help your child to develop. Mobility and new motor skills take to the fore, as well as the beginning of pretend play. I like to focus on kid-powered toys where possible for this age group. Though kids are drawn to flashing lights and toys with battery powered beeps and buzzers, parents often find these gimmicky and annoying. My first question: Is it still a good toy even when the batteries are removed?
Toddler Toys
Fat Brain Play Tab ($45.70) In a year where most toys look like things we've seen before, the new Play Tab system is easily one of the most creative, innovative products of the year. You get a base that holds up to six tiles, and then you can add more, a la carte. Each tile exercises different tactile skills. There are buttons, switches, and rollers to touch, press, and click. Parents will love the no battery, no annoying amplified sound. Your kids will love the variety of options to play with. What more could you ask for? Play Tab offers great design and is full of opportunities for kid-powered, open ended exploration. Marked 12 months & up, it will be enjoyed well into your child's 2s.
Fisher-Price Wooden Stacking Rainbow ($19.99) We love that Fisher-Price has introduced an extensive line of wooden toys this year. They are beautifully crafted with smooth wood and vibrant color. Wooden Stacking Rainbows are not new concepts but a welcome addition to mainstream toyland. They're ideal for exploring alone or with other blocks. You can talk about colors while stacking them. Also fun for having cars go underneath the two bigger pieces. Marked 18 months & up. Consider their new Wooden Ring Stacker as another option for toddlers.
Here are some selections from previous years that are still great choices:
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Baby to Toddler Toy, 4-in-1 Farm to Market Tractor Ride On with Pull Wagon & Smart Stages ($34.99) Once your baby "graduates" into toddler-hood and is becoming "vertical" they will appreciate ride on toys. This one comes with a tractor and a wagon that can be pulled by the vehicle or separately. The movement is all child powered, but the toy is jazzed up with a lot of sound and activity producing buttons.
Ravensburger Rainy Ranch – A Cooperative Game for Toddlers ($19.99) In this cooperative board game the object is to get the farm animals in before the rain comes down. Players take turns rolling a big die that determines whether they retrieve a cow, sheep, pig or horse - or a raindrop, instead. Play continues until all the spaces on the raindrop board are filled in. It is marked 2&up.
Fisher-Price Little People Toddler Playset Light-Up Learning Garage with Smart Stages Plus Toy Car and Ramp ($44.99) The garage from Fischer Price has a lot of props for pretend automotive play. Cars get to the pretend car wash via an elevator, and there are places to "fill'er up", and pretend tools to fix the supplied car. (Safety note: These might be too tempting to go into a toddler's mouth and be a possible choke hazard. It might be better to put those away until your child is past the stage of exploring by putting things in her mouth.) Two play figures are also included. This toy has lights and songs - I'm not sure that is a huge benefit, and some parents might find the noise pollution downright annoying.
MEGA BLOKS Fisher Price Sensory Building Toys Playset, Musical Farm Band with 45 Toddler Blocks and 6 Music Sheets ($23.49) Mega Bloks are building bricks for toddlers. This set comes with 40 bricks including fun animal shapes and 10 special bricks that belong in the percussion section. There are drum bricks, cymbal bricks, even a small xylophone. The set even includes color coded music sheets that work with the xylophone.
STACKIN' Fruit Cars ($16.99) Three different fruit shaped rolling toys, each with a distinctive feature. The watermellon has popping seeds, the banana has a pull-back action, and the orange makes a clack-clack sound. 1 year & up.
