Best Toddler Toys:18-24 Months

In the run up to the biggest toy shopping period, Walmart released it's 2013 holiday top toy list Chosen By Kids, and from that list I have taken the five best toddler toys that were chosen by their panel of children.

Getting the opinions of 1,000 children between the ages of 18 months and 10 years, Walmart really have drawn on a wide cross section of the population, and these are toys that are going to be popular as birthday gifts right through 2014 and beyond.

With Big Hugs Elmo winning the Infant/Toddler Toy of The Year 2014 and the VTech Go! Go! range runner up in the same category, Baby Alive, Fisher Prices Farm and Crawl Around Car they really are quality toys.

Who knows better what children would love to receive as gifts than the children themselves. No more worrying if you are choosing the right toys, espescially for younger children who are not yet capable of verbalising their wishes.

What I especially like is the fact that the top twenty toys has been divided into 4 age groups, so it makes it easier to see what age the toys are appropriate for, unlike most top toy lists that do not specify age.

However, do not feel restricted by the age groups as it will depend on individual children if they would like and enjoy a toy from a different age group.

If you are shopping for older children, or a just interested to see what the children recommended, then please check out my other reviews of the choices for: 3 to 5 year olds, 6 to 7 year olds and 8 to 10 year olds.

All the toys reviewed below can be ordered direct from Amazon.com, saving you the hassle of trailing around the stores looking for toys. 

This collection of toys really has included many tried and tested brands, and Sesame Street is another, celebrating its 44th anniversary this year.

Big Hugs Elmo featured in many of the 2013 top toy lists that were compiled by the best toy stores, including Walmart and Toys r US and was voted Infant/Toddler Toy of The Year 2014.

Originally an educational US TV series, Sesame Street lends itself perfectly to being marketed as a range of toys.

It is popular at the moment for toys to be interactive, able to react to the child who is playing with them, and Elmo is just such a toy.

When you cuddle Elmo expect to be hugged right back. He will dance and sing and when he's tired he will fall asleep if you lie him down.

This toy is almost guaranteed to be loved by any young child that is lucky enough to get the opportunity to play with it.

Voted a "Runner Up" in the Infant Toddler section of the Toy of The Year 2014 awards, the Vtech Go! Go! Smart Wheels selection is going to be winner with kids, in much the same way that Fisher Price's Little People range is.

Currently the number 1 best seller in the Toddler Train & Train Sets category at Amazon.com you can read this review on the Smart Wheels sets, or if you would prefer you can buy this VTech Go! Go! Smart Wheels Train playset now.

First introduced by Kenner in 1973, Baby Alive was an astonishing 40 years old in 2013!

Now owned by Hasbro, Baby Alive has been through many reincarnations since then, with the Real Suprises doll being the latest.

So what does Baby Alive Real Surprises do?

This is a truly interactive 21st century doll. We expect Baby Alive to be fed and to be able to pee and poop, and need diaper changes, but Real Surprises does much more.

Reacting to what your child does to her, she will shake her head to show that its not what she wants and she will talk to your child, just like a real baby would.As an added bonus Real Surprises is bilingual, and can talk in either English or Spanish.

This toy was voted as a top toy for children aged 18/24 months in 2013, but the manufacturers do not recommend it for children under 3 years.

I see no reason why you could not buy this doll for a younger child, provided that you maybe kept all the small parts to one side until they were old enough not to be at risk of choking.

The Laugh & Learn Crawl Around Car is not a car in the sense that it moves, but rather a car shaped activity center that will give your toddler hour upon hour of educational fun.

This car has a huge amount of activities, with more than 75 phrases, tunes and songs, an interactive dash interface and 3 different categories of activities.

The fact that this car is not able to move, and is built to be very stable, means that it will encourage your pre-walking babies to use it to develop their standing skills, newly mobile children will be able to safely cruise around it whilst older mobile toddlers will love to sit in it and pretend to be driving.

Fisher Price's Little People are another range of toys that have stood the test of time, with them first being made in the 1960's under the "Play Family People" brand.

I have written countless reviews about Little People toys, and I cannot speak highly enough of them.

My own toddler has a huge collection of Little People buildings, vehicles, people and animals, including a farm that is identical to this.

The Fisher Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm is small enough to not take up to much storage space, yet it opens out to provide lots of pretend play opportunities. Your toddler will be introduced to animal sounds when the sheep, horse, pig, cow and chicken are placed where they live.

My toddler does not often play with this farm in a way that you would expect (unless you are a parent to a toddler, then you surely expect the unexpected!), but that is part of the fun of Little People. You are more likely to find a parrot or a vulture nesting in the chicken coop, a dinosaur drinking from the trough or a collection of trains parked inside the farm building.

Cicak Junior also has the tractor and trailer, complete with a delightful peek a boo pig hiding in the haystack, and I have showcased that below, along with a couple of other add on sets.

You really can't go wrong with Little People for children aged between 1 and 4 years of age.

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Top Toys For a 12 Month Old Boy

The best toys for a 12 month old boy, chosen by a Mom

Are you looking for the best toys for a 12 month old boy, maybe as a first birthday gift or for Christmas, and want to choose wisely?

Look no further because I have reviewed the best toys for 1 year old boys.

As a mother to a 3 year old boy I know that the best gifts for a one year old boy are toys that will last the test of time and become more than a brief diversion, something that will grow with your baby and last well into toddler hood. Indeed, many of the toys that my one year old played with are still firm favorites now that he is three.

One year of age is a time of transition, from being a baby to a toddler, and you want to choose toys that will reflect his increasing mobility and independence.

Children need a variety of toys to provide different stimuli to encourage their brains to develop and reach their full capacity. Here you will find an excellent range of toys that are guaranteed to keep your 12 month old happy.

I have also included useful information about the development of 1 year old babies, and how the toys that I have chosen will help them to develop these skills. This is particularly helpful if you are buying toys for someone elses toddler, or if you are planning ahead and are not sure what toys will be suitable once your baby is a year old.

If you are looking for inspiration for an upcoming birthday, I hope that the toy reviews for boys age 1 year old will give you ideas for your own one year old boys, and please remember that all of the top toys I have reviewed here would also make suitable gifts for 1 year old girls.

Between the ages of 12 and 18 months of age your child will become more mobile and will love to play with toys that can be pushed and pulled across the floor. 

Learning to pick up smallish objects encourages fine motor skill development which is important for tasks learned later, like writing. and using imaginative play to role play with the figures aids speech development.

Little People are a definite favourite with toddlers, and this Fisher Price Little People Lil' Movers Airplane will provide endless fun as they role play with the three figures provided and sing a long to the catchy song.

My 3 year old son loves all his Little People, but the airplane is probably his favourite. This was one of his first Little People wheeled vehicles, and the carry handle on the top of the plane helps him to push it along the floor, or indeed more recently to whoosh it through the air. 

Cicak Junior has been playing with this airplane now for almost two years, and I fully expect him to get a lot more play time with it.

As your baby approaches their first birthday you will notice that they are beginning to make more recognisable sound, and are also using non verbal language, for example shaking their head to mean "no".

Toys that encourage them to talk are therefore beneficial in developing their speech.

Children see and hear people using their cell phones all the time and children love to copy what adults are doing. This Smilin' Smart Phone is the perfect phone for them to be practising calling their friends.

This toy phone provides hours of educational fun for your one year old, with sounds, phrases, and songs accessed by pressing the buttons, which are good and big and easy for little fingers to manipulate.

My son has two toy cell phones and he by far prefers this one. Even though it is a lot bigger than our phones he holds it to his ear and has pretend conversations with it.

Cicak Junior got this phone as a gift at a little over 1 year of age and is still using it three years later, which definitely represents excellent value for money.

Building with blocks is an excellent way to develop a child's eye to hand coordination, and all children love it when they get to knock over a stack of blocks that you have built together.

Mega Block First Builders building blocks are perfect for developing a toddler's eye to hand coordination. This brightly coloured set has 80 pieces that are large enough for little fingers to manage, and it also comes with a handy storage bag.

At one, my son loved to pick the bricks up, throw them around, explore their texture and "help" me to build things.

Now at three years of age he will sit and play with his bricks. He can build basic objects, add bricks onto wheels to make vehicles and build towers.

A building block set will last your child for maybe three years, and if you buy a set such as these Mega Block ones they are compatible with the smaller bricks that are suitable for older children. 

By the age of 1 your baby will probably be rapidly developing into a toddler, and toys that enable them to stand alone, and walk by holding onto it will be very popular and will also help their gross motor development. 

The VTEch Sit to Stand Learning Walker is consistently a topseller with Amazon and is the walker that I would personally recommend. 

My own baby had this exact same walker for his first Xmas and when he walked less than three weeks later I thought we had a toy that would no longer be used - but I was wrong. He loved the activity panel on it and still loved to push it around.

We eventually gave it to a friend with a baby, but Cicak Junior still loved to play with it when we visited them.

Around the one year mark babies should be able to manipulate items in order to get a response, for example shaking a maraca. 

They should also have the necessary fine motor skills to be able to hold the hammer and attempt to hit the keys with it.

This extremely well made and durable Hohner Kids Glockenspiel is designed for ease of use by little fingers, and is currently the number one best seller in the Kids Instrument Accessories category with Amazon.com.

With safety in mind, the musical bars are designed so that they cannot be removed, and the color coding on both the keys and the songsheet will enable even quite a young child to attempt a tune.

My three year old boy has had a similar glockenspiel for a while now, and whilst he is too young to play an actual tune he loves to hit the keysw and make a "tune".

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