Essential Educational Toys For 1 Year Old

In this article I am going to share with you the educational toys that I recommend for 1 year olds. Now these children love to play with these toys and most importantly these toys are going to be great for their development. When we go through the list you might be pleasantly surprised that a lot of these toys are very simple and cost effective, what I have found over the years. I am going to show you the toys that your little one will actually play with.

So, Let’s talk about the toys which are going to be great for your little ones fine motor skills. Working on their ability to use their hands. Now, what you will notice is that around 12 months of age children tend to stop mouthing toys so much and they start to work on fitting toys together. How they fit inside each other and then that precise placement of toys. These top rated toys are the best developmental toys for your 1 year old baby.

Educational Toys For 12-18 Months

1. Stacking Cups (Fine motor skills)

Great toys at this age for their fine motor skills are actually the nesting cups or stacking cups. And what these are great for is that initially your little one will start to put the cups inside each other, but they will also use the nesting cup to place one block on top of the other or one circle on top of the other which is that precise placement of toys. What you will find out is that the circular nesting cups are better than these ones which are the square ones that’s simply because a baby who is 12-18 months finds it really difficult to put square cup inside the other square cup. They are going to be able to succeed with the circular nesting cups. And they won’t be able to do this until they’re around two years of age, I would get a circular nesting cup.

2. Ring Stackers (Fine motor skills)

Ring stackers are also another popular toy at this age. Initially your little one would have just been pulling the ring stackers off but now what we’re wanting is that they will start to put them on. Instead of sucking these toys what they are doing is actually using is for its purpose and putting the rings on and then taking them off and then putting them back in again they do lots and lots of repetitive play. Therefore ring stackers are in the list of essential educational toys for 1 year old.

3. Pop-up Toys (Cause-and-effect understanding)

Pop-up toys are also another great interactive toy at this age. They are working on the finger pointer to activate the button then the item will come up and then they use their pointer to push it back down. But it’s also working on other types of grips like pincer grip, slide and most importantly at 12 months of age they learn the skills to be able to turn a button, so it will pop that up. That’s a skill in itself which is quite exciting.

These Montessori educational toys are the best for 2 year old bubs to achieve their development milestone.

4. Shape Sorters (Problem-solving)

Shape sorters are another great learning toy for 1 year old. Initially they would have just been putting all the toys in and then dumping them out. But at 12 months of age they have extended on this skill and, they can now use that shape sorter for its purpose. You can put the lid back on and they’ll be able to put the circular shape into that circle hole. It takes them a little while longer to be able to put in the square and the triangle shapes and that’s simply because those shapes require the little one turns their wrist to manipulate it. It fits through the slot whereas the circle doesn’t require much turning of the wrist. At all they can just pick up the circles and then it slots straight into that hole.

All the toys in this list is important for develop your baby’s cognitive skills. So continue reading until the end then you can decide which activity you should do first.

5. Ball Runs (Hand-eye coordination)

Ball runs are also another great toy at this age. It works on that precise release but it’s very much cause and effect so your little one drops the ball and then it rotates all the way down and then they’re watching it comes out obviously. That’s another great motivator for them to crawl or to walk to go get that ball.

6. Inset Puzzles with Knobs (Fine motor skills)

It’s a puzzle piece that slots into a kind of groove. However, you want to have some that have small knobs on the top. They can work on baby’s pincer grip. They would just generally pinch it and then pull that puzzle piece out. It’s going to be hard for them to put it in particularly if the puzzle pieces are all these different shapes. But if you can find an inset puzzle that features shapes like a circle, square, and triangle, your child will most likely be able to fit the circle into that puzzle before moving on to the other shapes.

7. Toy Blocks (Spatial awareness)

It’s really quite fantastic your little one will also like playing with blocks at this age. Generally they’re just the smaller size blocks you could use the blocks that come in the shape sorters or if you have got a push trolley that came with blocks. What you are looking for in modeling to your baby at this point is that they can put one block on the top of the other. Just two blocks and you build it up and that something that they will constantly do, they’ll build up a tower and then they’ll knock it over and then you can keep playing.

8. Balls (Gross motor skills)

Kids at this age also like balls of any type. Because they’re going to throw it, they are going to chase it and they’re going to crawl or walk after it. It’s really handy if you can get a ball that makes some noise or has some lights. When they throw it and it makes contact with the floor then it lights up and that again provides them with some motivation to keep playing with the toy. These developmentally appropriate toys are essential for 1 year old babies to improve their motor skills.

9. Banging Toys (Hand-eye coordination)

One to one and a half years olds also like playing with any toy that they can bang. Any hammer kind of toy or musical toys are amazing educational toys for 1 year old. Particularly the xylophone but there’s a really handy toy out there at the moment. It has balls and you bang then balls down and then they run along the xylophone and make some noise. You can also remove that xylophone so they can play with it.

10. Drawing (Fine motor skills)

Children at this age also really enjoy drawing. Generally they will use a fisted grip but their accuracy isn’t amazing so what you want to do is ensure that you are getting toxic free material and also ones that are washable or wipeable. I tend to really like the mess-free mattes. And other things that I like are larger size crayons. But not pencils. That’s simply because when you are using a pencil you have to get it on a particular angle and often that too difficult for babies. So they are unlikely to make a mark with that pencil so then they’ll stop playing with it whereas they’re going to have more success with large crayons that they can hold.

You can also use a whiteboard with non-toxic whiteboard markers at this age as well, because it’s something that is really easy to clean up when it goes off the whiteboard and onto the table or the floor.

11. Books to Stimulate Communication Skills

Now, let’s move on to what type of books you can get for 12-18 months babies which is going to help facilitate their communication skills. When you’re looking at books for 1 year olds, what you want to look for are board books and they are books with really thick pages and this ensures that when the little one is playing with them they aren’t going to accidentally rip them. You can get a touch and feel board book where there’s different types of material and the little one touches it and what you can do when they’re reading these books or you’re reading them to them is start to label what the different material is, so you might say it’s fluffy, it’s smooth, it’s bumpy and that can help them recognize what those words mean.

The other types of board books you can get are the books that have flaps. I tend to really like the books that have animals or noises. Purely because when they lift that flap I can label what that animal is and I can also make that animal noise. And, what babies start to do is they start to make the animal noises when they see the picture. This is a great way to teach them what all the different animals are and what noises they make. So, they can start to communicate that to you.

Lastly you can also get kind of books which are musicals. It will make music when you turn the page. This will help work on that pincer grip and it will also help to keep them motivated and engaged and there’s also generally buttons on there but it plays music which kids at this age really love and they start to bop around when they hear it.

Educational Toys For 18-24 Months

12. Toys for Pretend Play

1 to 2 years of age you can also start to get some toys which is going to promote your baby’s pretend play. They are not really engaging in a whole lot of pretend play or joint play at the moment they will play beside another pier but what is amazing is they’ve moved on from just exploring your toy, so looking at the texture of it and the taste and the look of it to actually using the toy for its purpose.

Vehicle Toys

At this age they really like playing with vehicles of any sort. Generally I would prefer to get the larger vehicles that are quite sturdy and quite easy to clean.

Generally there is some part of the toy which you can activate and it would make a noise. it’s something fun and interactive for the little one.

Animal Toys

Animal toys are also great educational toys for 1 year old. Just be aware that there are some toys out there that are quite heavy animals, so they’re quite high quality but because that they’re really heavy and they hurt when the little one drops it on themselves. They are also going to throw the toy because that is how they initially paly and explore.

If you are looking at animal toys do try and get the ones that are bit lighter weight.

Stuffed Toys

At this age I also like to give a little one a teddy bear or a doll and a pretend little play kit inside that it has generally a bottles, some bibs, plate and spoon and may be a blanket. Now initially your little one is going to actually use those on themselves. They will start to brush their own hair, they will give themselves the bottle but them they will progress to giving the bottle to teddy bear or the doll.

13. Toys to Encourage Crawling and Walking

Toys which encourage a little one to crawl or stand and walk are fantastic. Therefore string toys are really great at this age. Kids often like pulling them along when they’re crawling up walking. What I find is sometimes some kids and their temperament means that they get frustrated when the toy that’s attached to the string falls over. If that’s your little one you might want to go towards the toys where they’re on the end of a stick and they get push them along and they make noise as they push them along.

Push and go cars are also really great at motivating a baby to continue to crawl and get up and walk around. The other amazing educational toys for 1 year old is actually the push trollies. These are fantastic because it gives a baby a bit of confidence when they’re not yet walking to move around but also as they are able to walk they start to use them as trolleys and place lots of different things in them. There are several types of push trollies with the pros and cons of each.

If you want to know what milestones your 12 months old should be achieving then make sure you check on this free pdf document to get the developmental milestones for the first year of life.