The Mock Turtle

What toys etc are good for one year olds that will last and/or get played with a lot?

Mine already have a push a long walker (which they don't get yet as they don't understand the concept that their feet can move. Tim just gradually tips his rigid body forward and Topsy pulls it towards her and then falls on her bum but they love the panel with buttons and sounds), wooden blocks (they like to knock down towers I build and bang them together) and a Brio train set (they don't get this yet apart from eating the trains but it was gifted to us), and swings for outdoors.

Most of their stuff is second hand so I'm getting ideas from what's available but it's hard to tell if that's because stuff is popular or if people are mainly selling stuff that never really got used. Obviously I'm happy to buy new stuff too!

Things I've seen that look quite good are those activity cube things, like you get in GP waiting rooms, ball pits, activity table things, play tents, tunnels, slides and sit on stuff or scuttlebugs. Will these get used?

Also in one of my baby groups people seem to rave about Pikler triangles / Triclimb/ wobbel boards etc. Are these worth the expense?

Is Toot toot stuff worth it or is Brio or similar much better? Also, are Megabloks any good or is it best to wait until they can use Duplo?

What sort of age do they like imaginary play like kitchens? I read a few people saying their one year olds liked a tea set but mine seem a million miles off finding stuff like that fun. At the moment, I think they'd just bash bits of it together rather than getting the pretend element. Oh, and how old for those sand/water tables for the garden?

They have a few shakey type instruments and drums which they really like. Are xylophones etc used much? Any other instruments which won't drive me mad from the noise?

I know children are all different but wondering if there's some consensus on stuff that was loved/stuff that just took up space.

V always liked climbing, so we got her a Little Tike gymnastic climbing frame (a sort of cube) that she’s only now really grown out of (she’ll be four in August). But they’re quite pricey and unless you have a lot of indoor space, quite seasonal too.

Play kitchen wise - A2 enjoyed playing with the play kitchen at 1, but it wasn’t so much as imagination play as enjoying opening and closing things. He’s just got back into it, and again, V dips in and out of that now. So a play kitchen can be a worthwhile long-term investment (and there are some really lovely play food accessories).

Toot toot are great (if you can find the off switch - A2 once threw one in the bath and it didn’t have an off switch, so it ended up buried in the bin as it would not shut off).

A2 was given a toy house thing (great description f’arty!) that had lots of switches and knobs/buttons/doors to explore. It was from Boots and he loved it, and it was also quite handy for travelling.

All of the big stuff was completely ignored by mine but the biggest hit ever were the squeaky eggs my sister got T for either his first birthday or Christmas. Those or the stacking cups were played with more than anything else by both boys.

Mine didn’t actually play with most toys until they were well over 2 but I don’t know if that’s normal. They preferred climbing over/in stuff or playing with balls. But never in the horrible ball pit and tunnels thing we had.

M loved his play kitchen and I think we would have bought it when he was almost 2.5? We also had a workbench with bits you could nail/ drill into which was largely ignored despite the buttons and knobs.

With my own children, I avoided big ticket presents from us because grandparents always wanted to upstage us. I think they had a doodle bug (should’ve got the bigger size) and a scramble bug thing.

Apologies, they are called wheely bugs and scuttlebugs!

I got a play tunnel for B I think, and I can't remember what I got for A (which was more recent, so that's weird). The play tunnel went down a storm until the cat pissed in it.

I remember, generally speaking, it being a bit hit or miss what toys went down well between the ages of about 0-3. The thing she loved most of all was her Fisher Price 'animal train', whose excitable song is burned forever into my auditory cortex. And then later on, a set of highly trashy plastic 'princess shoes' that came in a cardboard shoe tidy.

My kids will not let us get rid of the play kitchen. Squeak got it when she was 2, and it was around 2 that Chunk showed interest.

We’ve bought a few more toot toot cars for Biggie, as he seems to be developing a similar car obsession to his brother (handy ) and some Twirly Woo and Tellytubby toys as he loves watching that on the TV. We’ve also bought him a yellow sit-on Lamborghini as Tupac had a red one for his first birthday and that was the resounding success and he still plays on it now. Plus I am desperate to fill my house with more large plastic items, obviously

Stuff like kitchen/tea sets/fake shop etc I think were used more from age 2.

A friend bought Tupac one of those Beat Bo things too which he loved, added bonus of being massively annoying and noisy, like everything he is drawn to

Beatrix wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:47 am Also lockdown won’t have helped to know what they like, but I found that buying toys she seemed really interested in at other people’s houses or playgroups etc. almost guaranteed she’d ignore it at home.

This! I’m looking at you, Brio!

Don’t go too big too early or you’ll have nothing left for future years!

If I recall, a shape sorter and activity cube were very popular. Stacking cups too but I think you have those. :stalker: Playtables are better when they can stand (Christmas, then) and a bowl of water with plastic things is perfectly fine at the moment! Never had a sand pit or table as I knew who’d be clearing it up! We got our play kitchen when J was two and got many year out of it before passing it on. Ride ons are often popular but you have to spend the first forever breaking your back to push them around. Oh, I bought a second hand Little Tikes rocker - that was a good one.

I remember (actually me not my children) having one of these (but this one doesn’t have the letters to post):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/174282945784?c ... gJj6PD_BwE

The boys shape sorter was like this but bright plastic:
https://www.bigjigstoys.co.uk/shop-by-a ... gKJ7PD_BwE

Our rocker:
https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/out ... gK2KPD_BwE

There’s always tonnes of Little Tikes stuff on our local FB marketplace.

Beebie had a Mozart Magic Cube which he adored and played with till he was almost 4. It was a gift and I had no idea how pricey it was till I searched so I could add a link. But it was a quality toy and the sounds were way more inoffensive than his other toys.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Munchkin-Mozar ... B00HQ0WAJG

J we got a Fisher Price garage. And I remember my SIL gave him some pop up tunnels. He ignored the Mega Bloxs workbench that was his Christmas present the following month.

S we got a plastic bubble popper thing that she loved. Like this one.

Oh yeah stacking cups! Also I've remembered one of A's favourite presents from her 1st birthday, only a little thing but my god she loved it. It was the Tomy 'Hide and Squeak' egg box. There was something about those eggs she found totally compelling. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4028868

We had one of these garages, which was well played with by all three of mine (in fact I only gave it away a couple of weeks ago): And this post box has endured. I think we gave it away but must have missed one of the wooden letters, which TD still incorporates into his games. WOW toys are excellent. They are ridiculously sturdy so will survive being lobbed down the stairs, and can entertain them from the age of just pushing them around to appreciating all the details. Ronnie Rocket and the bin lorry seem to be universal favourites.

Penny Century wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 9:04 am Oh yeah stacking cups! Also I've remembered one of A's favourite presents from her 1st birthday, only a little thing but my god she loved it. It was the Tomy 'Hide and Squeak' egg box. There was something about those eggs she found totally compelling. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4028868

E still plays with these eggs in his toy kitchen. He got a zany zoo activity cube for his first birthday and loved it. I got it on special offer for £40 and sold it earlier this year for £25. I’d have loved to have got him a triclimb but they’re so expensive. He’d have loved it though, he’s such a climber.

BM got an electronic teapot that made pouring water noises when you tipped it - literally every one year old who played with it was obsessed with it.

She also had a shape sorter that was also a ball, which was brilliant.

Penny Century wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 9:04 am Oh yeah stacking cups! Also I've remembered one of A's favourite presents from her 1st birthday, only a little thing but my god she loved it. It was the Tomy 'Hide and Squeak' egg box. There was something about those eggs she found totally compelling. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4028868

Those squeaky eggs were the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title! L was obsessed with them. We still have them, and I found her playing with them a few weeks ago (she’s 7! )

Stacking boxes, bath toys and anything noisy and/or with wheels or moving parts all went down a storm.

S had a pull along dog and clicker thing he liked, also a shape sorter type jigsaw. First birthday presents can be small, because everyone else will go mad.

IKEA did an activity cube thing that was played with lots.

Thank you all!

We do indeed have stacking cups, and also a shape sorter and the eggs which they love and fight over, especially the box. I don't get the appeal myself! We also have a Beat Bo, which is only turned on at a special treat. Tim was really scared of it at first.

They would definitely like opening and closing kitchen doors. I was beginning to think I was raising a right pair of simpletons with all the other babies their age just casually whipping up imaginary scrambled eggs or something.

There was a rocker going free in a local group a few days ago, I'm annoyed I missed it!

The suggestions look really great. I particularly like the idea of the postbox, and the Wow toys look great for suggestions for other people too as there's a good range of prices. The Mozart cube looks great for a noisy toy that's less annoying. A garage is a great idea too, as is the animal train. They love Teletubbies and In The Night Garden so I reckon they'd like some character stuff.

The toy garage (we got ours from Tesco, far cheaper than Fisher Price) was much loved here, as were tents/pop up tunnels/cubes etc (any space they could make into a den, basically). They need to be around 2 for imaginative play, really, but they'll definitely evolve their use of toys bought now. I think for S's first birthday we bought him a pull-along Ninky Nonk which lots of things to open/close pop up etc which he absolutely ADORED

I can't really remember what big toys we got for J for his 1st birthday, but I did get a couple of keepsake things for him, which I'll also get for Conchie. A Robert Sabuda popup book and a personalised wooden chair.

I got them a Wobbel board for Christmas last year. I managed to get one in their sample sale, so justified it by saying it was a shared present, but only J has played with it so far.

We have been thinking about getting a few soft play bits for Conchie's first birthday and asking people to get song things to go with it. I've no idea where we'd store it though!