Best toys for 1 year old babies

It can be difficult to know what are the best toys for 1 year old babies.  Before I had my son I hadn't a clue what to buy as presents for 1 year olds, but since then I have done a lot of research into the best toys. The suggestions and advice in this article is based on the toys my son and niece played with and really enjoyed at home, friend's houses, toddler and play groups between the ages of 1 and 2.
The best toys for 1 year old babies are quite often ones which encourage them to use their hands to improve their fine motor skills. Toys such as shapesorters, activity tables, balls and 1st sets of building blocks all fall into this category.
Noisy toys that have voices speaking, nursery rhymes and songs are also good to help encouage talking and listening skills.
Toys that enourage 1 year old babies to stand up and start walking or improve their balance and walking skills are also good for this age group.
Read on for the best toys for 1 year old babies.

Ride on toys are a must have toy for 1 year old babies. Most of them have handles on the back that 1 year olds can pull themselves up on and use as balance when learning to walk. When the babies have learned to walk they will love pushing these toys around. Of course they will also love riding on them too. Ride on toys can be used outside and inside. It's good to get one with a seat that has storage. My son used to loved putting things in the seat and then pushing it around. I especially like the In the Night Garden ride on toy as it has lots of extra features inlcuding spinning tomliboos, a horn and a seat with storage.

I found that tradititional baby toys without the fashing lights were often the ones that kept my son occupied for ages. Most of them are so simple yet very effective for keeping babies enteratined and educational too.
 A toy drum is a popular toy. Young babies delight in banging on a toy drum. and as they get older it's a good tool to learn about rhythm. 
One of my favourite baby toys is the peg and hammer bench. It's colourful to attract attention and help teach colours. Babies will love knocking the pegs with a hammer, helping to develop motor skills about teach about cause and effect. 
Shapesorters are great for teaching colours and shapes as well as improving fine motor skills. At 1 years old a baby will be developing just enough skill to start posting some of the shapes.
1 years old is a good age to get a baby their first set of bricks to learn about building towers and knocking them down. The Wonderworld wooden brick are unusual bricks which will fascinate one year olds with their different colours and rattling beads.
The stacking toy is another toy that will keep babies engaged for ages and is great for teaching shapes, colours and developing motor skills

Activity tables, keyboards and phones are all great toys for 1 year olds. Babies love pressing buttons and hearing music, seeing lights and listening to words and songs which all these toys do.
Activity tables are great for 1 year old babies as they have lots of different activities and games to help babies learn colours, numbers, shapes and songs. The Leapforg Learn and Groove Musical table is an excellent choice. It's currently reduced from £34.99 to £14.99 on amazon and has excellent reviews. The table has two modes, learning modes where babies and toddlers can press buttons to sound out letters, numbers from 1 to 10, colours and opposites, in either English or French. In music mode baby can move and groove to more than 40 songs and melodies, including nursery rhymes, real instrument sounds and upbeat dance tunes.
Toy phones are great for introducing role play.

These toys don't really fit into some of the other categories but they are some of my favourite toys for 1 year olds. My son loved all of these toys and most importantly they kept him occupied for ages giving me a few free minutes to myself.

1 year olds love sticking magnets onto fridges and the leapfrog magnets are great. They are big enough to not be a choking hazard and the farmyard set featured here teaches 1 year olds about animals, their names and noises. The letter magnets teaches the alphabet but  1 year olds will still love sticking them to the fridge and pulling them off again and they are also great to learn letters as they get older. Magnets were great for keeping my little one occupied in the kitchen while I was doing other tasks.
 
The Waterwheel play table is a great toy. It's better for the Summer when you can put it outside but if you have a big kitchen or can put down some waterproof covering it can possibly be used inside too. Kept my little boy engaged for ages.

The Fisher Price Garage is a toy my friend bought for her oldest son when he was one. She now has 2 boys who are 4 and 5 and they still play with it. My son is also a big fan of the garage when we go there to play.  If you're looking for a garage for a 1 year old you may also want to check out theVtech Toot Toot Driver Garage (there's a picture of this at the end of the article). 

Slides are great too. My son will play on one for ages. Young 1 year old will need to be supervised to go down a slide (as well as up) at first but in a few months they will be wanting to all it all by themselves! 

In the Night Garden Toys are a particular hit with this age group as they absolutely love the TV series. My son had the Iggle Piggle toy the Christmas just before he was one and was absolutely fascinated by it.
Jigsaw puzzles which are great for children from about 15 months and over.
My mother in law had an In the Night Garden play tent which my son and his cousin used to love sitting in to play peek-a-boo, hide in, eat their lunch and bring in their toys into. Play tents can be used indoors but are also good for putting outdoors in the Summer as they make a great shade from the Sun.
The DVD set below is a bargain. You can buy a new set for £13.77 which is reduced from £29.99

Obviously walkers are great toys for 1 year old babies as they are a perfect  aid to walking before they've taken their first steps. If they've already taken their first steps it won't be long until they are pushing them everywhere. My son had a walker with bricks which he particularly liked as he would spend ages taking the bricks out of the walker and then putting them all in again before pushing them around. The bricks were also great for building and knocking down towers. The Vtech walker is another great walker as it has a detachable activity table that babies will love to play on as well. It includes its own play telephone too.

Some more great toys for 1 year olds. One of my top choices of toys to get 1 year olds is the fisher price bounce and spin zebra. Babies and toddlers from 12 months can sit on the zebra and can bounce and spin around while it plays music (a real fun toy). 

Summer is almost upon us and it's nice to be able to let 1 year olds who are crawling and taking their first steps out in the garden. To try and stop them getting into everything (hand in soil, pulling out flowers etc) it's nice to have a few toys to keep them occupied outside. My top choice of outdoor toy is a small sandpit. My son used to sit in the sandpit for a long time playing with the sand and as he got older digging, filling and emptying containers/buckets, driving his diggers and cars in there too. They can also use their walkers and ride ons outside. For hot days, a small water table or a paddling pool filled with water fascinates 1 year olds. Paddling pools can also be filled with balls and used as a ball pit inside or outside. Other top choices are a baby swing and a first slide. The nice thing about baby and toddler slides is that they can be moved indoors or outdoors depending on the weather. Also, a nice ball is a great gift for a 1 year old. My son used to love balls. Firstly just to feel and crawl after but soon to walk, run, chase after, throw and kick. At one point, he had to take a ball with him everywhere he went. 

If you still haven't found anything on my list here are a few final ideas. The Vtech Pop and Learn Elephant is a fun toy. Twisting the elephant ear activates the air to blow the balls around the toy and 4 piano key teach colours and animals. 
Another classic, simple and inexpensive toy which keeps 1 year olds occupied for ages is the classic galt pop up toy. Four colourful characters that babies push down and they pop up. Babies love the little men out and putting them back in again. Simple but fascinating for 1 year olds. 
Books also make a nice gift for a 1 year old. Look for books with lots of tactile bits for babies to touch and feel. Books for this age should be colourful to attract and hold babies attention too. Flaps to lift and mirrors are also good features. 

Little girls (and boys) like taking things out of mum's bag and putting them back in again. So whey not get them a little bag of their own with stuff to take in and out. The Galt Fill and Spill Handbag is a perfect choice. 1 year olds will also love the Vtech Toot Toot Driver Garage featured.