Baby Life Topic

So you might be here because you are in charge of a roughly 1 year old who is not yet 2 and you want the best tips for entertaining their busy hands and minds, or you have a little one in your life through family or friends that you want to surprise with a gift they will use repeatedly. Either way, this guide aims to set you in the right direction on toys which will be used over and over again during this season of your baby's life. A baby's 1st birthday is a huge milestone, mostly for the parents who have managed (arguably) the hardest year of parenting out of all of them, and at least, the most sleep deprived year. Knowing the best thing to buy as a birthday gift for the 1 year old in your life is a challenge if you don't understand where they are at in their developmental milestones and what they will achieve in their 2nd year of life. Luckily, you have come here and can find out you have a huge choice if gift options that are sure to be a hit.

Developmental Milestones of the 1-2 year old

The first thing to help you with your selection is knowing a little about your baby's developmental stage right now and the skills they are going to be working on. For the typical 1 year old, this stage involves the following developmental milestones and developmental leaps (as per the Wonder Weeks book):

• First steps which develop into walking and running and managing stairs
• Imitating the world and people around them by practicing speech sounds, expressions and movements they observe. 
• Greater mobility such as pushing, pulling, riding on wheeled toys
• Developing handedness (preference for using right or left hand for fine motor tasks) - observe this during meal times and let them 'draw' something using a non-toxic crayon or pencil and practice putting a lid on and off a pen or non-toxic marker. First squiggles will develop into basic shapes of 'things' from the real world that they will be proud to 'tell' you all about using their developing language sounds.
• Building towers (and not just destroying them although the destroying is still fun!) - stacking cups for example, they are starting to understand that the cups need to be put together in a particular order, in other words, your 1 year old is starting to figure out how to order actions to achieve a goal. This starts with just 2 cups or blocks and they build their skills through repetition and refining their strategies.
• Learning shapes and colours including starting to solve basic 2-5 piece wooden puzzles
• Attempting to turn the pages of a board book to 'read' it and can attend to a short story lasting about 3 minutes from around 1 year old - for book suggestions see our popular related article on Aussie children's books here.
• Nature loving exploration to learn about the world around them and start to build a mental 'map' of their local area.
• During the 2nd year, babies are progressing through the Wonder Week leaps number 8 (from week 51), 9 (from week 59) and 10 (from week 70). Understanding how your baby's brain is changing and developing can help to know how to engage them and help them with their experimentation/learning. Here is a brief summary of the leaps and how your baby is developing:
  • Leap 8 - Programs - during this leap, baby learns about sequences of actions are put together to complete a larger task in pursuit of achieving a goal (referred to as a 'Program')
  • Leap 9 - Principles - During this leap, baby is experimenting with finding the best strategy (principle) to carry out the programs. They are exploring, copying, pointing and trying out different sounds and emotions to achieve their will.
  • Leap 10 - Systems - During this leap, baby enters the world of systems where they can notice interdependent parts function together as a whole in an organised way such as understanding themselves as a system which is part of a family with Mum and Dad (which is different to other families), understanding they live in a street and can make a map in their head of places around the local area such as which direction to get to the local park, developing a sense of rules and what is 'good' and 'bad', and developing understanding of ownership and sharing. This is a great age to start simple games such as hide-and-seek within the house.

What to look for - best toys for 1st birthday and within the 2nd year

There a lots of options for toys which help your baby (turning toddler) to work on their skills, but their primary caregivers will alway remain the main ingredient in helping them in their self-discovery and as they main supporter through their days. If they didn't have any toys and just had an attentive caregiver/s, they would still develop and find fun and experiement using everyday objects (think letting them loose on the tupperware draw and pots and pans to explore). The best toys are those which can be used in imaginative ways in play to work on many skills at once, and a it's a bonus if it it lasts over many developmental stages just by your little one changing the way they play with it and developing more sophisticated ways to engage. This is big age for teething (still), and continuing to putt things in their mouth for oral exploration, so anything they are playing with needs to be impossible for them to choke on and safe to mouth (in other words non-toxic). Looking at what the product is made of and the size is therefore very important to get right to protect their safety and health whilst keeping in mind there is nothing more powerful at protecting them than adult supervision and attentiveness.

If you want to jump straight into shopping for your 1-2 year old, try these shopping time saving links from great Australian based online brands, otherwise, read on...

Shop The Memo all Toys for 1-2 year olds

Shop Toymate through their huge range of baby toys

Shop Amazon.com.au Baby Toys

Shop Lime Tree Kids by category of Toys for 0-2 year olds filtered by age 1-3 years

Shop Baby Central Australia Gift Ideas for Toddlers

or send them a Gift Card Store physical or virtual gift card that they can spend anywhere just like a pre-paid debit card

Toys for 1-2 year olds by category

So here goes, the following categories of great toys and items are all designed to invite your little one to engage through plan and exploration...

Walking/Riding toys

Whilst your baby come toddler is getting more confident on their feet and finding their balance, they benefit from and are motivated to use push/pull toys to practice their skills and enjoy using their feet to propel themselves on simple riding or scooting toys. From around 18 months, they may start to be able to use a balance bike where they can get some speed and develop early bicycle skills (although not all kids are into these). Between 18 to 24 months, they may be able to use a toddler scooter which has a seat setting whilst they get their balance. The Little Tikes Cozy Coupes and other push type ride-ons are also iconic additions to childhoods where there is some concrete paths or backyard grass to scoot around on. These types of toys are great for exploration inside and outside and build balance, strength and confidence.

Junior ATV ride on with trailer with or without trailer (Toymate)

Building toys

Your 1 year old is starting to want to create/build/stack objects now and will experiment with stacking 2 at a time at first, and build confidence from there. A great set of blocks will last for years of entertainment and there are lots to choose from such as the wooden blocks that come in the wagons (as above) or in a tub, or Mega Bloks which interlock and have lots of colours and different shapes to explore. From around 18 months is a great time to start a Lego Duplo collection which will also provide years of fun and creations.

Lego Duplo - buy from Toymate

Mega Bloks Bigger Building Bag (Toymate); Goki Wooden Building Blocks with bucket for easy storage (Lime Tree Kids)

Bath/Water Toys

Your baby will enjoy sitting up in the bath and discovering all about water physics and cause and effect at this age. You can encourage them to take a bath and stay in the bath for longer with some bath toys and by experimenting with soap bubbles. The main things to look for in bath toys are those that are quick to dry and without any nooks or cranny's where water can sit and result in mould growth. Pair them with an Ubbi Bath Toy Drying Bin or Skip Hop Moby Scoop and Splash Bath Toy Organiser, so that they toys are easy to pack away, dry and access. Sometimes, it is great to think outside the box and bring toys in the bath from the play room such as stacking cups, air filled ball, and Duplo lego (bath time range). Avoid buying squirt toys which draw water in to spray out if you can unless you are prepared to throw them out after a few uses. If you do get gifted some of these, an idea is to use a hot glue gun to seal up the hole so they float and be played with but can't take in/squirt water. Some ideas are:

shown left to right: Cherub Baby Silicone Suction Toddler Bath Toys; Sophie La Girafe Bath Toy; Boon Bath Bundle; Boon Fleet Stacking Boats

Take me to Shop bath toys at Baby Central Australia

Shop bestselling Bath Toys at amazon.com.au & amazon.com

Take me to shop Bath toys at The Memo

Exploring concepts toys

Your 1 year old is learning about the world and experimenting through repetition. They will enjoy any toy that will help them learn about the world including playing with water, learning about sound and vibration with musical toys, learning how things fit together through puzzles and more.  

Little Tikes Easy Store Folding Water Play Table (Toymate); Im Toy Musical Melody Mix Pastel (Lime Tree Kids); Le Toy Van Petilou Chouette Owl Puzzle

Simple imaginative play toys

Your 1 year old is taking in everything about the world around them and will start to do simple role play and 'talking' in conversations. Anything that gives them some props to play out scenarios such as play kitchens, simple dress ups (these will become more popular around age 3), figurines such as animals or little people, and baby dolls will be popular and able to be played with in multiple different ways. 

Fruit Chopping Set - Wooden (Lime Tree Kids); Wooden animal figures - shark (Lime Tree Kids); Love and Learn Girl Doll (Lime Tree Kids)

Climbing and balance toys

Learning to walk, is just not enough for the 1 to 2 year old, they also love to climb and challenge themselves with any activity which develops their balance and vestibular system. They will get hours of fun out of just throwing a ball which challenges their balance more than just standing and walking, or swinging a bat once they are steady on their feet, or climbing to see what is happening at the kitchen bench or just using all the rungs on a pickler triangle to step up and eventually get all the way over. Any (safe) outlet you can give them to climb on or swing, they will be able to continue to develop their gross motor skills and when you can't get them out to a baby friendly playground, you'll want some options around the house. These sorts of items will interest them for many years of they are looked after, so are well worth spending a little extra on.

Little Tikes Totsports T-Ball; My Happy Helpers Evo 3.0 Learning Tower (the memo); My Happy Helpers Grande Pikler; Baby Seat Swing (Toymate)

There is heaps more I could add, but that should give you a good grounding of ideas to find what you need for the 1 year old in your life.

Happy finding and gifting!