Best toys for 18-24 month olds?

[Sanne Panne]

I want to get my 19 month old daughter some new toys (we have about 10 toys that are somewhat interesting for her age, just looking for a couple more) but am not sure what to get - what are/were your favourite and most successful toys for this age?

My daughter is very much into cars, duplo and stuffed animals. She also loves naming things, e.g. animals and colours (she already has a few toys for that). And she has an awful Dora book with incorporated "piano" from M&S that she really enjoys too. Of course a few "grown up" cups, teaspoons, a sieve and the steaming basket from the kitchen are always very much appreciated as well.

I like the idea of her toys being educational to some extent but they really don't have to be - if kids who love stuffed monkeys can get 10 minutes of happy play (more than once) out of a bed and blanket that I buy for the monkey then that's equally good. Or if they already "play kitchen" at this age I could get some mini pots, pans and cups (she has some wooden "cutting fruit" with velcro that she likes) but we don't have space for anything really bulky.

[ryedalema]

Charlotte loved:

- playing shop (we got her a little cash register and some old packets, boxes etc.)

- a little trampoline with a handle for safe jumping

- an easel

- anything ats and craftsy

- a little apron and chef's hat+ toy rolling pin and cookie cutters

- a dolly push chair

i hated the last one ( a hand me down from a friend) but she's obsessed with it!

Hope this helps x

[Sanne Panne]

I know my daughter would also love a dolly pushchair. I'm not getting one now because I hate them too but I suspect that after baby 2 arrives in June I'll become a lot more "whatever works" ;)

Good idea about the apron, I had forgotten to mention that she loves dressing up in her own old clothes which she can access in a drawer under her bed... something a bit more creative would probably be a big hit (and not bulky!). She likes drawing but never spends more than 2 minutes scratching on paper although these things can change every month. May get some playdough and see how that works out.

Thanks for the input... will look for some dressing up clothes!

[ryedalema]

You can also make play dough really easily with flour water and food colouring.Or get the ready-made cookie dough from the butter aisle ar Sainbury's ;-)

[Sanne Panne]

ryedalema Wrote:

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> Or get the

> ready-made cookie dough from the butter aisle ar

> Sainbury's ;-)

She'll eat it unless I add something disgusting to it first! Good idea though.

Also thinking a small beginners' train track could be fun.

[Fuschia]

Play food

[Vickster]

Train track is a big hit in our house (admittedly with a boy but don't think it should make a difference). My son also likes really easy jigsaws (3, 4, 5 and 6 pieces), in his case particularly of emergency vehicles! I picked up a box from the toyshop in the post office in Dulwich village for ?5.99 last week which are great.

[Sanne Panne]

Vickster Wrote:

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> Train track is a big hit in our house (admittedly

> with a boy but don't think it should make a

> difference). My son also likes really easy jigsaws

> (3, 4, 5 and 6 pieces), in his case particularly

> of emergency vehicles! I picked up a box from the

> toyshop in the post office in Dulwich village for

> ?5.99 last week which are great.

Jigsaw, great idea! Can't believe we don't have one yet. My daughter loves boys' toys as much as girls' toys, no preference whatsoever at the moment so I'll definitely try a mini train track.

[The Nappy Lady]

We got the ELC rocket and flying saucer for Christmas for our 1 year old, but the older children all love it too....every age even the 5 and 6 year olds. It is a fab toy.

Mine seem to love all things with little people they can put in and out if bus/house/rocket or whatever so Happy Land stuff great too.

Molly

Xx

[Fuschia]

Ikea do very cheap train sets

[Fuschia]

Ikea do very cheap train sets

Mine also love to pour water from one ikea cup to another (messy though)

[Sanne Panne]

Fuschia Wrote:

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>

> Mine also love to pour water from one ikea cup to

> another (messy though)

Yeah mine only gets to do that in the bath - until we live somewhere with a garden one day - hopefully soon!

[Smiler]

Also hate dolly pushchairs, but was given one by a friend and she absolutely loves it (though often gets bored with it half-way through a walk). Likewise a minature brush / mop set.

We have a hideous plastic dolls house from ELC with lots of little people, pets and beds, chairs etc. Before bathtime she puts the people to bed, round a little table to eat etc. etc.

Little bags, e.g. Miffy, which she calls a handbag and fills up with random stuff - loves to take it when we go out.

Drawing, playdough - the requests are getting more and more difficult to draw / make! Love the smell of playdough.

Duplo zoo with animals etc.

Bubbles in the bath, though the bubble liquid inevitably always gets tipped into the bath.

Lining up little soft toys and jabbering at them / bossing them around. Stripping clothes off dollies.

Quite fancy a basic train set. My friend's three-year-old has a swanky wooden Thomas one that my friend and I just couldn't get to all fit together, we were over ambitious with our track design - the little boy played with other things while we spent all afternoon messing about with it and failed to make a connecting track, he was unimpressed!

Playing with my clothes / handbags / shoes / costume jewelry - am v.excited about the concept of a dressing up box!

Her favourite things at the moment, however, are not toys but naughty stuff like flushing the loo repeatedly (especially when I am in the shower and can't stop her), opening and closing the kitchen bin, emptying the metal waste-paper bin and rolling it around the room, and climbing / jumping on things, especially the big dining table as has a view out of the window and enables playing with the (lethal) roman blind cords. Argh!

[ryedalema]

Ah yes - I omitted the 'drawing on the TV, jumping on the beds, waking daddy in the morning by repeatedly slapping him on the bed with the waste paper basket' side of things.

I'd second the dolls house - we've a Peppa Pig one. It's hideous - but she loves it. And Grandpa Pig drives a train called Gertrude!

Also, she loves dressing up in my clothes and using my make up. I now have make up brushes dripping in lip gloss, and am waiting for her to go a**e over t*t on the stairs with my high heels on.

Thank heavens for stair gates - 'cept she's figured out how they work now.

D*mn.

[nunheadmum]

My 20mth old loves playing with the toy cooker and play food - she's loved it for months already and it's something she can do more now with big sister too. Similarly a tea set too. And she ADORES the cash register....lots of bits to take out and distribute around the house, share with us etc. Buggies and dollies too. And doctors set.

Really lots of stuff that we never got for no1 until she was much older. No 2 doesn't play with it all properly right now and somtimes just loves emptying the bits out and fiddling with them. But slowly she's getting the hang of things as she copies big sis.