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Babywise Mom Recommendations

Babywise Mom Recommendations | Toy list | best toys for children | #toys

Being a seasoned mom with four children and many years of experience, I have a list of kid toys and items I would buy again and again. I have compiled it all for you into this handy Amazon list. The list is in approximate age order, with the top items being for older children and the bottom items being for babies. At the very bottom, I have my favorite parenting books.

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Great Toys to Encourage Independent Playtime

Independent playtime has such value to your child. Your child will learn to focus, build a longer attention span, gain creativity, become adept at self-play, and be more orderly. It is so very worth the effort it can take to get started with independent play. You might be wondering which toys are best for your child to play independently. Are some better than others? Here is a list of my favorite toys for independent play to get the most out of the time spent. This post contains affiliate links.
Great Toys for Independent Playtime to help your child play happily | independent play | toy list | #toylist

Toys that Require Imagination 
I want my children to gain that benefit of gaining creativity, so I like toys that require some imagination. These can be building toys, like LEGOs. They can also be figurines, stuffed animals, or baby dolls. For figurines, I ideally prefer toys that are not based on a movie or television show. My children have some of those, but what I want is imagination happening. If the toys are based on something the child is familiar with, the characters and personalities are already created. Here are some good options. Click on the image to learn more about each toy:

  
 


Toys that Mimic Real Life
Another great category of toys to go for with independent playtime are toys that help the child mimic real life. This is a huge benefit of playing in general, and will really help your child gain orderly skills (as will requiring your child help clean up at the end). Dress up clothes. Toy kitchen and accessories. Doctor set. Vet set. Note on the dress up. If you hit the Halloween stores and sections at stores the day after Halloween, you can find some good deals on some dress up clothes.

  

Toys that are Hard
Some toys are difficult for the child to play with. What happens when the child plays with that toy with you around? He/she asks you to do it or to help. When the child is in independent play, he/she has to do it herself. This helps with attention span and being able to play alone. Do not overwhelm your child with difficult toys. Do not leave your child alone with toys that are too hard and not developmentally appropriate. You don't wan to to completely frustrate your child. Puzzles, magnet dolls, geomags, train sets, and nesting cups are all good examples of hard toys.




Musical Toys
I also love some musical toys going on. I am very musical and love to foster that in my children. I think it helps them with their creativity and attention span.



Books
Books are a fantastic item to have with your child during independnet play. I have a lot of posts on best books by age. Here are some. One I always loved for independent play with my little ones are the VTech books. They read to the child. I also like soft books.



Toys for Baby
When baby is doing independent play, you want toys that won't frustrate but will be entertaining. Some toys have been mentioned, such as books, nesting cups, and the music table. Be sure toy you leave with baby are safe for baby to have unsupervised. With babies who can't sit up independently, an activity gym is perfect. For babies who can sit up, they love to either empty items or fill them back up (depending on the age). A bucket of some sort full of toys that can be emptied then refilled will b be a big hit. Here are more ideas:



Conclusion
My children play independently, without me, daily. For help on getting this started with your children, see Roomtime--Your Invitation and Starting Independent Playtime Late. 

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Poll Discussion: Best Toys for Babies-Children


I love this poll idea from reader Jennifer--Not sure if this would work for a poll, but maybe something about the best learning toys for each age group? The one toy that always gets played with at age 1, 2, 3, etc.?

Great idea right? We all wonder what toys really stand the test of time and what are favorites. For this poll, comment for as many children/ages you have that apply. Do what age your child is now as well as what they loved in the past. Include:

1-Child's age
2-Child's gender
3-Favorite toy at that age

Let's do the following age breakdowns:
  • 6 months or younger
  • 7-9 months
  • 10-12 months
  • 12-15 months
  • 15-18 months
  • 18-24 months
  • 2 year old
  • 3 year old
  • 4 year old
  • etc.-- 5, 6, 7, 8, 9...
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Favorite Toys 2013

I had the idea to post about our favorite toys we acquired over the last year. Hopefully this can help you as you think through your gift ideas for the holidays coming up. We will take it youngest to oldest.

BRINLEY--1 YEAR OLD GIRL
Brinley had two big hits this year.

This has been a big favorite. We haven't ever owned one of these, and you readers told me she would love one and you were right! We went with the Step2 Big Splash Waterpark because it has people with it and she loves dolls so I figured she would like playing with people. If I had been buying it for Brayden as a one year old, I would have gone with the Step2 WaterWheel Activity Play Table--this one has boats and he was big into vehicles. 


This is another favorite with Brinley this year. This is very similar to the Playskool Busy Ball Popper but it is easier for a younger child to use on her own. Brinley can't do the popper alone, but she can do the dinosaur alone. She loves it!




This toy was something she got for Christmas last year--so she was five months old. It is an award winning toy. It is great for babies because it is easy to grab and manipulate. The same company makes a similar toy called a Manhattan Toy Winkel.




McKENNA--4 YEAR OLD GIRL
Here are McKenna's favorites from the last year.

This was the favorite! You should have seen her face when she opened this on her birthday! It is every dress Cinderella wears in Barbie size. She uses these with her Cinderella Doll Barbie, but obviously you could use it with any Barbie since it comes with every dress.



This is another huge hit this year--she obviously loves princesses--McKenna loves these! These are mini-figurine princesses. You can take the dresses off and on. You can find all sorts of various sets by looking at the Little Kingdom sets on Amazon.




McKenna also loves dress up, and these shoes have been a favorite ever since she got them for her birthday this year. It is fun to have a few pairs so you can share with sisters and friends as well as change with your outfits :)




McKenna loves play dough. This set of play dough tools from Melissa and Doug has been great for her to play with. It is age appropriate so she isn't just getting mad while using it.




KAITLYN--6 YEAR OLD GIRL
Here are the favorites of Kaitlyn this year.

A scooter is a lot of fun for any gender. McKenna rides this a lot, too, so it definitely could be given to a younger child than 6.





This is the favorite of Kaitlyn. She loves stuffed animals. For Christmas, it was a Boa Constrictor. For her birthday, a peacock. Can I just say I am so glad the Internet exists so I can order such obscure things from Amazon? Otherwise she would be quite disappointed!


Kaitlyn loves art. This How to Draw Animals book has been quite popular with  her. She has improved at drawing animals quite a bit also! If you have a child who is interested in art, another idea is Klutz Books. They have books for clay charms, lettering, folding airplaes, window art, drawing Star Wars, pipe cleaner, finger nails...so many creative things!



BRAYDEN--8 YEAR OLD BOY
Here are Brayden's favorites from this year.

Did you ever play with these in gym class growing up? I remember loving them! This has been a huge hit with all of our kids this year, but especially Brayden. I love anything that takes energy out of him.




Brayden started doing his own magic tricks a lot, so I thought we would try out how he liked a magic set. This has been a lot of fun and it is great quality. I like that it shows the child the fun of magic, but also that magic isn't "magic."


Boys this age like anything remote controlled. This is something Brayden actually saved up for and bought himself. He has really enjoyed it and the quality has been good. The price is only 20 (supposedly retails for 130 but I have never seen it more than 20). You can also do a Truck like this one.



Nerf has upped their game--the guns shoot further and with more accuracy. Brayden has enjoyed this so much, we made a birthday party out of it. These new guns shoot 2-3 times further than the old ones did.




FAVORITE GAMES
Here are our favorite games we added to our collection this year (we love games--we have a tradition to play every Sunday evening). These are games everyone but Brinley can play right now (McKenna isn't always great at it, but she catches on faster than I would think a four year old would, so don't underestimate them!):

We had some toys sent to us to try out for the 2013 Holiday season. Here are our reviews on them.

This is AMAZING. Of all the things we had sent to us, this takes first place in our list of favorites by far. Kids can add funny effects (like a mustache to your face), can create slideshows, and can show what is on the camera by doing projection from the camera. This is big, bit hit and if I didn't own it and knew about it, I would say this is a must-own camera. This is far better than any other kid camera we have owned. Definitely worth it!


I can't find the exact one we have. We got a house for the Littlest Pet Shop characters. Kaitlyn adores these things (as a lover of animals) so she really likes this.

Brayden is a big, big Lego fan, so I thought it would be interesting to try out a KRE-O set. He has enjoyed it. He says they are smaller pieces than Legos are. I think time is going to be required to really judge how this is versus Lego. Initial findings are that they are good just like Legos are good.



This is something quite interesting. It is a My Little Pony in essentially Barbie form. I wondered if Kaitlyn would have a high interest in this because she loves My Little Pony so much. She likes it fine, but it is McKenna who loves it. McKenna is my Barbie girl. So I would guess if your daughter is into Barbies, she will like these, too. It will be interesting to see what Kaitlyn prefers when it is time to play Barbies.


As I mentioned earlier, McKenna loves play doh. Super loves. So she was so excited to try this out. She had fun with it and the new type of play doh they have designed for the frosting is cool (though harder to clean than the traditional kind). I think she would enjoy this more in a year or two when she has better fine motor control. They say it is 3 and up, but as I alluded to earlier, many times these sets wind up just being frustrating for everyone. Older children can run things like this with no problem, but anyone 4 and younger usually winds up needing a lot of help from parents.

MORE IDEAS
Want more ideas? I have done many posts similar to this in the past--here they are:

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Timeless Toys

Timeless Toys

Bethany of http://thegracefulmom.com/  asked me to share my top five favorite toys of all time...which is super, super hard for me to choose just five. Never-the-less, I made this list in about 10 seconds. These are toys I have seen used by my children at various ages, so I call them timeless.

We first got this table when my oldest child was 7 months old. This is the number one most played with toy we have ever owned--except the kitchen. See that below. Every child has LOVED this toy, and the children love it for a long, long time. If a parent were able to only buy five toys in the first five years of the child's life, this should be on their list. 




We got this toy a little over a year ago at the recommendation of my blog readers. So many of them said their child and children loved it, and that they loved it for years, so I thought I had better try this out. My readers were right (of course)! This is one of those toys that produces giggles like crazy, and it is a fun toy that an older sibling can play with a younger sibling. All three of my kids sit around this toy and laugh and laugh. This is another one of those "so worth it" toys.




This was another reader recommendation. Readers suggested I get this for my youngest for her first birthday. I then did a bunch of research and saw how well this rated on Amazon. So we got it. I must say, this is the perfect doll for the young ones! It is soft and it is safe. I love Baby Stella so much that it is my automatic gift to any one year old girl. There are also lots of fun accessories. 




This is going to be a sneaky way for me to get more than five toys in this post. Anything made by Melissa and Doug is fabulous. We own a whole lot of Melissa and Doug toys, from puzzles, to wooden paper dolls, to train stuff, to kitchen food. You can not go wrong with Melissa and Doug. When Brayden (my oldest) was 2.5, we got him a Thomas the Train figure 8 wooden railway set. It is nice, of course. When he was 3.5, we wanted to expand the set for Christmas. We went to our locally owned toystore. There, a worker told us we should consider Melissa and Doug. He said the quality was excellent and the price was even better. To compare, the Thomas Figure 8 set was $40, while this entire set, trains and all, you see in the picture here is $90. Pretty much a no-brainer. Over the years, we have purchased Thomas destinations and Thomas trains, but have this basic kit that gives you all the track you could ever want. (do you like how I worked in Thomas stuff too? I am tricky). I must add, this is something all three of my children love to play with together. Very popular.

A toy kitchen would definitely be on my list of must-have toys (obviously...here it is). We purchased our toy kitchen when our oldest was 18 months old. He loved it from the first moment, and it gets played with constantly. This is our number one most played with toy. The children all play with it together, and it grows with them and their imagination. You also can easily add to it over the years as they mature. A shopping cart, food, dishes, other accessories...it just never gets old. At least not yet. My children 2-6 play with this daily. There are a lot of kitchen options out there. Everyone will have their own preferences depending on desire for wooden, plastic, size, cost, look, etc. Don't feel like you need to spend a fortune to get your kitchen. My parents still have my old kitchen that is comparable to a $30-50 kitchen today and my kids love it. Kids just love kitchens.

Okay...one more....

I just couldn't leave this oneTime out. Last but not least. When I was a child, I loved Little People. When my husband was a child, he loved Little People. All three of my children have loved Little People. Just today, my three children made a Little People City and were playing together. There are all sorts of toys available based on interest. I chose to highlight this barn because it has been popular with both genders. My girls have also had a special love for the pet shop and the house, while my son has loved the airport and garage. 
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