Favourite toys & activities

[Brenda]

Hello Lovely Mums,

I was wondering what other bubs around the 1 year age group (give or take a few months) favourite toys and activities (indoor & outdoor) are?

DS will turn One in less than a week and I'm always looking for new ways to entertain & keep him out of mischief. He will also get some birthday money from relatives in other States and with soooo many toys on the market its always hard to know what to buy so I thought getting ideas from the Bubhub Mums backed by hours of research and testing by other bubs would be a good idea :) .

DS's current favourites are:
* Books - he is slightly obsessed with them, which is awesome but you can only read so many books in a day!
* Baby Einstein Animals DVD - I only put this on once a day in the arvo when he wakes up from his afternoon nap and is still a bit sleepy and grumpy.
* Ride on / push along toy - he has just mastered walking with and manouevring it though doorways etc and hoons around the house with it.
* Balloons - I have several blown up and floating around the house but the novelty is starting to wear off now.
* His Dad :) - but unfortunately he goes to work for 9-10 hours a day.

[Brooke's Mum]

My little girl is one in a couple of days. Her favs are:
- large ball - sitting opposite her and rolling to her. She then picks it up and throws it back
- orange tennis ball - same trick as above
- pegs - loves playing and sucking on clothes pegs
- saucepans - banging lids and putting pegs in for the sound
- boxes - large boxes like apple boxes. She gets in and out of these
- small "hankies" in an old tissue box. Pulling them out seems to be endless fun.

hope that helps.

[Brenda]

Thanks for your reply Brookes Mum. Jack loves pegs too, I had to buy a new packet last week cause half of my pegs are in the house instead of on the clothes-line :)

I love the tissue box idea, I'm forever moving my tissue boxes out of his reach so he doesnt pull all the tissues out but if I gave him his own special one stuffed with some old scarfs I'm sure he'd love it!

[Chickadee]

I tried the scarves-in-tissue-box. DD wasn't interested. But at that age she loved 2 packs of playing cards in a tissue box. Many hours spent emptying the box out, looking at the cards and posting them back into the box.

One year might be a bit early but you can start thinking about shape sorters and simple wooden puzzles.

Can also start on some musical instruments if you haven't got them already. Shakers, drums, toy pianos and other durable instruments that will take a beating.

[WeThree]

i find my little ones love anything in a box/bag/container etc. i just put all sorts of things in them and they love to pull it all out. its so cute to see tilly leaning in to see whats in there, i put balls, toy cars, books, rattles, old remote controls, whatever in there, they love it! :)

[Artemis]

My daughter's favourite activities and toys were always just pretty basic stuff... she loved getting the pots, pans and spoons out of the cupboard, playing with the sheets on the bed, stacking the tupperware containers, making a rice pit for her to play in, she has always loved helping me in the garden and walking around picking up rocks and getting to know the flowers, making rice shakers with empty water bottles and filling them up with rice or small pastas, having some water play on the deck with heaps of cups and plastic bowls... lots of great simple stuff.