Toys for Babies, Toddlers and Beyond
As first-time parents, when buying gifts for my daughter we noticed that sometimes we were way more excited about a toy than my daughter in the end. And some other times we didn’t think of a toy much, but my daughter really loved it and played with it for a long time. The best trick was to meet up with other parents at someone’s house and see what toys my daughter wants to explore and play with. Quite a few of the toys came to our house after spotting my daughter’s interest during play dates and sharing experiences with other moms.
Now, at the time of the second lockdown in the UK, and generally taking care to socially distance, it’s more difficult to learn and know what toys would my children love, and all I can do is to look at pictures, reviews, and try to guess.
In this post, I want to share three toys that proved to be a great success with my daughter. All three toys appeared in our house during the first year of her life. Now she is three and still plays with them fondly. These toys make a wonderful Christmas gift.
The first and my favourite one is the London bus from the Early Learning Centre (ELC). What a versatile toy! I bought it for the small figures it comes with as I was told at nursery my daughter loved the small world figures. But it is so much more than that! Over the time my daughter was running around rolling the bus in front of her, giving a ride to her favourite teds in it, and making stories over and over again with characters from the bus. She learnt about the conductor, driver and bus stop playing with this toy and was really excited to identify them in real life. Every time she sees a bus outside she says “this one is red like mine”!
The second toy is the little cars set. They are a tractor, a bus, a plane, and a few other cars. They are colourful and have faces and characters. They are small but the wheels are big and they roll really well. I bought them when my daughter was very young. The description said they were safe for a kid who likes to explore toys with her mouth and that was the deciding point for me. First, I did races with the cars pushing them forward and seeing which one goes farthest and wins while my daughter watched. Eventually, as my daughter learnt to crawl and walk she was bringing the cars back to me for another race. Then she learnt to push the cars herself. Then she discovered role play and played a lot with the cars as characters indoors and outdoors. Then we practiced colours with the cars and then we counted them. When we see a green tractor in the park my girl comes home and plays with the green tractor from the set. When we see a plane in the sky she comes back home and plays with the plane. When we drive in our red car she comes back and plays with the red car. It seems there is no end to the ways the cars can be played with!
The last one is the set of musical instruments. I bought them when my daughter was four months and we still play with them. At first, as a baby, she was learning to hold them and shake them as a rattle. Different shapes and weight meant that she would learn to hold one of them and then move on to practice with another one and so on. I also remember very well the moment my girl learnt to pass the rainboshaker from one hand to another and did it over and over again enjoying herself. Such a great practice for motor skills! As the girl grew the games became more musical and more grown-up. We use the instruments now to form a little family band and shake with music. In particular, we enjoy classical music concerts for babies and toddlers and often use the instruments there. I will write more about these concerts in another post. Meanwhile, my youngest is now mastering his motor skills joining the family band, and looking up to his sister.
Here are the links where you can buy the toys:
The cars set (not the same as ours but very similar)
What are your favourite toys? And what are you giving your little ones for Christmas?