March 31, 2006 8:04 PM
Parenting Q & A - Gift Ideas for One-Year-Old
A reader writes:
My son is about to turn one, and his grandparents have big plans for presents. This is good in one way and bad in another! My own mother has requested suggestions for gifts, which is nice. My mother-in-law has a tendency to just buy-buy-buy, and often buys things that I don't approve of. So I want to make suggestions to them, but I'm not sure what to suggest! What do you think are good, classic, age-appropriate toys for this age? Right now all I know is that I hate toys that light up, make noise, or require batteries.Thank you!
My reply:
Books are the best investment because they last for years and it's nice to begin building a children's library - especially if you're going to have more children.Also music CD's. You can find recommended books and CD's under Barbara's Picks. You may want to go with the board book editions of some books, but nice picture books can be kept for you to read to him until he's old enough to handle them well himself.
A set of kids' musical instruments. A corn popper for when he starts walking (oops! you said no noise :) Browse through the itmes I've gathered and explained under Barbara's Picks - and send the two grandmothers there for ideas!
I'm sure some MommyLife readers will have some great ideas too!
Posted in Mothering, Toddlers | Permalink
Comments
Thanks, Barbara. I will definitely suggest books and music. The corn popper I'm still thinking about. :)
I took a look at your "picks" and enjoyed them. I wish I knew, though, what ages they'd be best for...doing this mommy thing for the first time, I really don't know what is developmentally appropriate for any age. Maybe someday when you have time (haha!) you could add an age range?
Thanks for this blog and for responding to emails!
Posted by: Emily Moothart | March 31, 2006 9:10 PM
My children have always loved "building" toys at any age. Blocks, Legos, bristle-bricks are great toys for kids. They encourage imagination and can be used forever. They make huge Legos for toddler hands. Toddlers also like those cardboard building bricks to make giant towers.
Outdoor toys are also fun; things to dig in a sandbox, trucks to drive, balls to roll, throw, kick or chase.
Posted by: Barb Szyszkiewicz, sfo | April 1, 2006 8:11 AM
When my little boy was 1 (and even now as he's about to turn 2), the greatest toy in the world was a push cart. We had a little shopping cart that I picked up at a garage sale that is for inside use, and we have a pushing lawnmower type cart for outside. (There are lots of kids in the neighborhood with little log-type things that you can push or ride on..little tykes brand, I think)
Balls are great, as are buckets and shovels, bath toys could be fun (my Mom got him wind up toys for Christmas and he learned how to wind them!), kids sized cleaning things like brooms, rakes, etc (they have a large selection of these things at Target right now), if you don't have one ask for a step-stool for your daughter. It's a little early, but those things can be pricey.
We also have grandparents that like to go nuts with this kind of thing. I personally, like Barbara, prefer books. I try to make lists of books that I think will be fun to read when he's ready to read. We've gotten a collection of biographies about missionaries, all sorts of books that are in the Before Five In A Row curriculum, we got the G is for Garden State Book (a fabulous book, and they have one for every state in the union - CAVEAT - check out the book at the library. I almost got the V is for Viking, since we live in MN right now (we're from NJ), but when I checked it out at the library it was very evolutionary minded and I didn't get it.), and many more.
I wish you the best with this. It is hard to tell Grandparents what to get, sometimes even harder for them to listen.... :)
Posted by: gwen | April 1, 2006 11:02 AM
Our son loves stacking blocks, a MagnaDoodle,and a Leap Pad, and at about 18 months his favorite were the magnetic alphabet letters for the refridgerator by Leap Frog. At 2 years, he still enjoys all of them.
My parents bought our son a few books for his first birthday and then taped themselves reading the books to him and gave us the tape.
Posted by: Pam | April 1, 2006 3:00 PM
My sons all loved THomas trains around one and a half. THey learned colors and numbers and much more with these trains.
THere is also some kind of toy, I do not know it's name, that has balls that go around a plastic maze and pop out the top (runs on batteries) so the air makes the balls pop out. All three loved this and I thought it would be a silly toy used once!
He's too young but we put things like art lessons, science kits, t-ball, bat and a season of playing. These memberships and things get expensive but if the grandparents are going to spend money anyway, might as well be something useful.
Janet
Posted by: janet | April 1, 2006 9:34 PM
My favorite gifts from the grandparents are lessons-like ballet, gymnastics,art,etc...or sports like soccer, karate, t-ball, We have always done this through the YMCA. For the younger set- a momy & me class or baby gym would be great.These are gifts that give the kids life-long skills and they don't clutter up my house.(smile)
Posted by: Lizanne | April 3, 2006 2:17 PM
