While Montessori and these other trends are nice and good and fine, sometimes if you’re a busy parent you just need to keep the kid occupied! Below are some of the best things that have allowed us to get to some work e-mails or cook dinner etc. I never liked the idea of bright colored plastic toys either, however; here we are. Once he was more interactive and learning more from toys than just basic fine motor skills I did take these away-except the dump truck its one of his favourite toys- (around 10 months) but until then these were great.
Now, our son is BUSY he was crawling at 6 months and has been busy ever since so we needed things to keep his interest for 5 to 10 minutes, which is a LOT under the age of 1!
-
Activity Cube – This was another one of the first toys he could interact with, he loved to spin the bits on the side, and he loved that it would sing if he pushed a button.
-
Dump Truck with Balls – This was one of the first toys our son played with, he was figuring out how it worked, and picking up the string on it really helped develop his pincher grasp!
-
Walker – Let me start by saying this is great for when they are first learning to pull them selves up because it has breaks that you can put on so it wont roll away. As a walker once they can walk its not great because they have to lean too far over the legs to push it. We got something more open so he can stand more upright once he could walk more. BUT the busy board front of this thing kept him busy for many months!
-
Swing – We use this every day! He loves it! Now that our son is a bit older he likes to put things in it and push it even! Its great on cold days when we can’t go to the park and its soothing if he is fussy or tired!
-
Pop-up Toy – Before he could even sit up he could play with this! I would prop him up with pillows and he would put all the things down, I would put them up, I could get a solid 30 minutes of entertainment out of this!
-
Guitar – He loves this one specifically. It is great because there is a button he can push to play music or he can make his own, he dances to it, and takes it around with him.
-
Pull Toys – From a young age and for a long time he has love wood push toys. He loves the string, and he loves the wheels.
-
Stacking Train – This is a great one it combines the stacking rings with a pull toy and blocks and so many things. This just sits below our coffee table and has for about 6 months! I do find pieces all over the house but that means he is busy and playing with them!
-
Stacking Cups – These are so great for diaper changes! I’ll put one on his face, over his nose, on his hands, give him one nestled inside the other. Basically by only giving him one or two at a time it entertains him long enough to get through a diaper change before they all end up on the floor!
-
Ikea Play Kitchen – honestly from about 10 months on this would have been great! We gave it to him for his 1st birthday but he LOVES this thing so much and spends an insane amount of time concentrating and playing with it!
And yes, we’ve done sensory bins, they do occupy my son for quite a while- no doubt; however I have to vacuum the whole floor to get not even all of the rice from those. So we save those for days when I have the time to clean up after it!
Those are the best ones! We have some other toys but they don’t hold his attention as well! Now – get to work while that little one is busy!!
