What learning or developmental toys I should offer my baby?
And why?
I will try to answer these questions in this post.
Average six to seven months old babies start sitting up without support. Their vision is also improved and they can see fascinating things around them from a different point of view. Soon they start crawling and everything they can reach becomes their toy.
However, good quality developmental toys will keep your baby amused, engaged, stimulated and challenged in new ways.
For younger babies checkout my previous post top six products to entertain babies
Playmat
It’s not a developmental toy but they grow and learn a lot on a playmat. If you have a hard floor at home, I suggest you invest in a good quality floor mat. It should be large and thick to protect when the baby is learning to sit up and pull themselves up. It should be waterproof and made with non-toxic material for obvious reasons. Also, it should be folding and lightweight, so that you can move it around the house and put it away when not in use. Bright colours and various characters are attractive to the little ones. they also give you clues when talking to the baby. “Oh, look at this cute panda, what is he doing?”
I have this Bammax baby play mat. Yes, it’s a bit expensive. But I think it was a good investment. We are using it all day, every day. Yet, it is as good as new. My baby did her tummy time on this. She learned to sit, crawl and pull herself up here. As a family we watch tv, read, do yoga, take naps or just play with our little one on our floor mat. And now we are using it to play tunnels. For me, A good quality play mat is a must-have for any mum and Bub.
Treasure basket
It was Elinor Violet Goldschmied, an English educator, who invented and promoted the concept of treasure basket play for babies in 1940.
This concept became widely known and today most child care setting has some sort of treasure basket in their infant room.
It has many benefits, such as exploratory activities create new and vital neuronal connections in a baby’s developing brain and facilitate accelerated learning and intelligent thinking.
All you need to know about the treasure basket
Staking and nesting toys
Once the baby can sit up without any support, offer them stacking and nesting toys. These developmental toys improve hand and eye coordination, fine mote skills such as pincer grasp (grasping between forefinger and thumb), and help with their cognitive development.
Initially provide something simple such as soft blocks or large stacking rings and as they learn the concept of stacking offer something more challenging.
Nested toys are brilliant because they teach the idea that you can organise objects according to characteristics such as height, length or width. They can see and compare the big and small parts of a nested toy. These types of activities lay the foundation to learn mathematics in the future.
Nested cups that you can stake are the most popular in this category. Colourful nesting eggs or wooden rainbows are great well.
Shakers and sound toys
At a very young age, babies start noticing cause and effect. All shakers and rattles make a different sound. Provide them with a variety of rattle toys that make a different sound and watch them squeal with excitement.
We had some Soft Plush Shaker Rattles. You can make DIY plastic bottle shakers as well by adding beans, rice, beads etc to the bottle and hot glue the cap.
we also had a wooden maraca shaker and a wooden hand jingle bells toy. My little one loved them. *Just be careful when they are playing with them.
Teethers
Parents scour the earth to find something that will help their teething baby.
More popular teethers are beechwood teethers (because they are not plastic) and gel teethers (you can cool them in the refrigerator). “Sophie the giraffe” is also on the top of the list.
We personally liked “Manhattan Toy’s Winkel Classic”
Teething Rattle ball. Just because It’s a 3-in-1 learning toy.
This brings me to my next item.
Rolling toys
Rolling toys encourage babies to crawl and push forward.
Start with multipurpose teething rattle balls and sensory balls.
Later on, you can add more fun toys like dino baby musical toys, soft rattle car, Press and Go Inchworm/Caterpillar etc.
Just look for qualities such as non-toxic high-quality material construction, safety round corner design, polished smooth edges, unbreakable and strong enough to withstand chewing and large enough to avoid choking hazards. Especially check if battery cases are secured with screws so that kids cannot reach the batteries.
Books
You will find three types of books for babies .
First, the fabric books. They are ideal for babies who chew on everything they can hold. They are soft on tender gums, bright for visual stimulation and have a variety of textures that offers sensory stimulation. Above all, you can wash them. Don’t buy too many though, one or two are enough.
Then comes sturdy Board books. There are many options in this category. Storybooks with bright colours and interesting characters. Hand Puppet books with Educational books for learning alphabets, numbers, shapes, animals, colours, objects and actions. Sound books with buttons. Activity books with flaps, covers and holes.
Finally, Smooth and shiny paper/sheet books. You can get these but don’t get attached to them. Your baby will figure out a way to rip them apart. In my opinion, these are suitable for a bit older kids.
Don’t buy all at once. Curate a collection of books. Start with a few storybooks to read at bedtime. Then bring in some educational books to read during the day. Once they develop the skill to flip the pages, introduce activity books.
Your parents, siblings and friends with kids can suggest what to buy and where to buy.
These are the books that I recommend
- I love you to the moon and back by Sam McBratney (bedtime story)
- Good night moon by Margaret Wise Brown (bedtime story)
- Giffraf can’t dance
- Spot goes to the farm ( lift the flap book)
- Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell (lift the flap book)
- Where is Mr Lion by Ingela P. Arrhenius (with felt flap and a mirror)
- Let’s grow By Jane foster (with sliders and flaps)
- This rabbit that rabbit By jane porter
- Noisy farm by make-believe ideas
- Ladybird learners alphabets and numbers books
- LeapFrog 100 Animals Book (it’s a playbook toy)
- One more tickle By Sam McBratney ( with hand puppet)
Musical toys
Have you seen the documentary Brain matters about early brain development in children? I highly recommend it. It says that musical toys not only entertain babies but also help them learn, boost creativity, improve their mood, reduce stress and much more.
While listening to music is good, playing music is more powerful. Because making music require many physical and cognitive efforts that fire up all the areas of the brain.
I gave my baby a toy piano keyboard. We found it a bit easy on our ears. What will you choose, drum, guitar, tambourine or Xylophone?
Baby Einstein, Take Along Tunes Musical Toy is perfect for pram and car seats. A large press button and several soothing classical melodies. Just tie it to the pram or car seat with an elastic ribbon so they don’t lose it.
Bright Starts Drum Kit has everything that babies like, colourful lit up drums, music animal sounds etc. Though, not so easy on your eardrums.
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Babble & Wobble Hub respond to the baby’s babbling. It’s a baby version of a hub with lights, music and learning phrases etc.
Walker and activity station
Many would say baby walkers are dangerous because they tip over. That’s true, but babies should never be left unsupervised. Especially when they are in the bath or learning a new skill, keep them within your arms reach and be attentive.
We have Vtech 2-in-1 First Steps Baby Walker and an activity centre. It is lightweight and easily tips over. I suggest using it only on carpet or grass. Always hold it with one hand to avoid accidents.
Once we are done, we remove the activity centre and put it on the floor for the baby to play. Walker is folded and hidden away. In case she decided to go on a stroll on her own with her walker.
A walker is a great toy if used carefully. It encourages your baby to take their first steps, strengthen the core and gain balance.
Toys or equipment that encourage physical activities
Once babies start crawling they love going through tunnels and climbing play blocks After burning some energy they sleep very well. Which mean you get some precious time.
We live in an apartment with limited space. So we choose to buy multipurpose toys and items. We used our playmat to make tunnels and tents. However, there are collapsible tunnels and tents that you can pack and store under the bed or in a closet.
For soft play, we usually go out to the baby gym. At home, we put all the cushions and pillows on the floor for the baby to climb on. Also, we used our folded playmat as a soft form block.
Others
There are some other toys that my baby loved at this stage.
Tissue box. I noticed my baby loves pulling out tissues from a tissue box. So I used handkerchiefs and Men’s pocket square to create a DIY tissue box. You can buy a baby tissue box toy.
Treasure basket. I would just put random things in a basket for my baby to explore. She loved it. Click here to get some ideas.
VTech Seaside Spinning Top
This is a great cause and effect toy. Designed with a chunky plunger on the top which spins the sea animals inside a transparent box – a Crab, Angelfish and Starfish. Also, it has 3 chunky press buttons which teach numbers, sea animals, colours and play music. My baby couldn’t push this plunger up until 10 or 11 months non-the-less I loved to watch her try.
Clementoni Farm of balls. It’s a multifunction, educational talking activity centre with three balls that jump and race and small pushbuttons farm animals that make animal sounds. My baby loved it.
I don’t know what was more attractive – bright colours or the baby-friendly music. Her curious little eyes would light up when those cute plastic balls pops up with a push of a button and roll around. It was one of her favourite toys for a very long time.
Interactive soft toys. out of all the soft toys, my baby prefers cocomelon’s baby JJ, talking Peter rabbit, singing reindeer and her talking doll. My baby started showing interest in her plush toys around 12 months mark.
One of my friends swear by VTech Play & Learn Baby Activity Table. It will keep her kids busy for a very long time. I guess any activity centre is a good toy.
While writing this post I have realised that we have so many toys from VTech. It was not an intensional choice though. I will receive no financial benefits for mentioning these products in my post. This is not a product endorsement post. I am just sharing my personal experience.
Finally, a word of advice from my experiences. Some toys will be instant hits and others will grow on them. If you find a great educational or activity toy, Just get it even if they show little interest in them at the moment.
So these are the things that worked for us. I hope you find it useful. Now I would love to hear from you. Share with me what toys your baby loved the most.
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