Unique Gift Ideas for One Year Old Baby Girl
the toy matrix
The Only Toy Gift Guide for a 1-Year-Old Yous'll Ever Need
Photograph-Illustration: Photo-Illustration: Stevie Remsberg; Photos: Courtesy of the retailers
You lot know about New York Magazine's "Approval Matrix ." At present, the Strategist has taken that model of what falls where on our taste hierarchies and applied it to toys . In this case, the iv sides of the grid are "Educational" (say, rainbow nesting blocks ), "Brain Candy" ( a toy railroad train), "Reasonably Priced," and "Splurgy ." Each toy in each quadrant comes highly recommended — click hither to learn more almost our sourcing process and the dozens of experts involved — and every age upward to double digits is covered, all of which y'all can see by clicking here .
At present permit'southward begin with the ane-year-olds. The primal to pleasing this historic period, nosotros learned, is in finding toys that will stimulate and surprise their growing minds. "Babies' brains develop so chop-chop — something like a million neural connections per 2nd," points out Sarah MacLaughlin, a child-development adept and the author ofWhat Not to Say: Tools for Talking With Young Children. "To keep them interested, y'all have to add sensory or mobility features to the mix." Shannon Lockhart, a manager of early-childhood applied practices at HighScope, an early-childhood-education inquiry foundation, agrees: "The more than senses that you can appeal to within an feel, the more than learning is going to happen."
To that end come the following 29 suggestions, with input from professionals like MacLaughlin and Lockhart as well as a range of other discerning shoppers, from many-time grandparents to the vocaliser-actress-mom Jordin Sparks. You can jump straight to the section that interests you most — "Educational–Reasonably Priced," "Educational-Splurgy," "Brain Processed–Reasonably Priced," or "Brain Processed–Splurgy" — or read all the way through to get the full picture of what kids are into these days. Whether yous're shopping for a birthday or a holiday or whatever other mean solar day, it's a listing that keeps on giving.
For kids who love music — and hit things — this ii-in-one toy ought to be, well, a hit. The multifunctional bench features a pullout xylophone and three wooden balls that can be banged on with a mallet. Once they're pushed through, the balls either land on the xylophone to create a pleasing melody or simply roll down the ramp to exist fetched. Remove the xylophone from the bench and you have a stand up-alone instrument. Publicist and female parent of two Sonya Li Casino says her now-iii-year-old son loved it then much, "I ended up purchasing it for a few other 1-year-olds."
It's never too early on to start affirming your kids, which is exactly what these fun flash cards are for. We heard about them from leadership speaker Jovian Zayne. "Nosotros're very intentional most showing our daughter a diversity of images; it matters early on, the messages you receive," she told us. "I got these ABC affirmation flash cards when Jorgie was about 4 months old, and information technology's withal a daily exercise for us: Yous'll see a Blackness girl on one side of a menu and a Blackness boy on the other;A is for astonishing, and the piffling girl is saying something like, 'I am astonishing and can practise great things in my community.'" Zayne credits affirmations like these that she heard growing up equally existence critical for her growth and abilities to "operate with conviction, clarity, and joy, and build a sense of resilience." Across existence inspirational, the flash cards are also a fun fashion to larn the letters of the alphabet.
Photograph: Retailer
Co-ordinate to speech-language pathologist Ellice Kim Lacerda, you lot can never go incorrect with the souvenir of books, especially if they come in a curated box. "One of our favorite gifts nosotros have received and given is a children's volume subscription box," she says. Lacerda's favorite volume subscription comes from her local Bay Area bookstore, the Reading Bug — which happens to send nationwide. "It was fun receiving books we had never read or even heard of," she says, adding that many of the titles her family received became fast favorites. Y'all tin can either choose a curated box with preselected titles or opt for a personalized 1 based on age, gender, interests, and reading level. As far as curated boxes go, the shop has lots of options, but either its "Baby" box of board books for 0- to 30-month-olds or "Read to Me" box of developmental read-aloud titles would make an splendid choice for a 1-year-old. The cost shown is what you'll pay for monthly deliveries; simply if yous want to give a year'due south worth of boxes, you tin can salve a chip by paying $216 (which breaks down to $eighteen for 12 boxes) up front. At that place is also a half dozen-month subscription that breaks down to $nineteen a box and a three-month one that breaks downwardly to $20 a box. Those who but want to give a unmarried box tin can do and then for $xx.
Y'all tin can ever gift your own favorites. Tze Chun, founder of Uprise Art and mom of 2, loves the TouchThinkLearn serial by Xavier Deneux. "These books are so beautifully synthetic. Each folio is super-thick and has embossed areas and so that babies can feel the surface of each i," she says. Her favorites include ABC (shown here), 123, and Colors. "The pages really hold upwards, even after years of playtime and bedtime."
For a more than traditional musical instrument, consider this "magic impact" piano from Baby Einstein. Simply tap the colored keys to play classic tunes or create your own melodies — a great way for babies and parents to play together. As Dr. Sarah Roseberry Lytle, managing director of outreach and didactics at the Institute for Learning and Encephalon Sciences, explains, "Young kids beloved making music and noises and exploring things like, 'Can I make it softer? Can I brand information technology louder? What happens when I striking it harder? Does that make it louder?' That's a really interesting learning procedure."
In addition to music, 1-year-olds love creating art, especially if they watch big siblings drawing or painting. But virtually fine art supplies simply aren't suitable for small, less-than-deft hands: Pencils take a unsafe indicate, pigment makes a mess, and regular crayons snap into pieces. "Palm-grasp crayons are a great way to get immature children to have interest in writing and drawing," says Dr. Alexandra Figueras-Daniel, the associate director of Depository financial institution Street College of Education's Straus Center for Young Children and Families. "These are perfect for tiny easily to build fine-motor skills." They're almost incommunicable to interruption and will go a long way in encouraging artistic expression. Fifty-fifty if it just looks similar messy scribbling at this signal, this kind of exploration is key to laying the foundation for getting them to eventually write letters and numbers, according to Lockhart. "If we want children to eventually write their names, they have to accept lots of experiences with dissimilar writing materials," she says.
Engaging sensory toys brand neat stroller accessories because they can soothe a bored baby when you're stuck in line or on the subway. "I'thousand sure the temptation for a lot of parents is to hand them something like an iPhone that makes a lot of noise. But the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't recommend consuming electronic stimuli in that way for children nether two years old," MacLaughlin explains. This squishy bead toy will hold their attention and stimulate their motor-skill evolution. "It'south like a more sophisticated rattle. It rattles when you lot shake information technology, but information technology also has beads that move around the bars, and it has a sensory aspect to it," MacLaughlin says. And by the way, she recommends attaching any stroller toys to the stroller, lest they go chucked into the street past a gravity-curious baby.
Playing with a toy in the bathroom can be a learning moment. Figueras-Daniel loves this fix of pipes, "as information technology allows children to conform and fill the tubes with water and observe the way to brand the spinners go," she says. This kind of observation teaches kids cause and effect, a concept she says is of import in the development of cognitive skills.
For fifty-fifty more fun in the tub, Figueras-Daniel says you could get your one-year-onetime this toy that comes with a book by beloved children's writer Mo Willems. The book is really waterproof and tin can be read in the tub, making it a not bad way to encourage a reluctant child — similar the pigeon protagonist itself — to accept a bath, according to her. "Somehow, the simplicity of Willems's books brand them engaging and fun for little kids," says Figueras-Daniel, who adds that the included toy pigeon makes the gift that much more entertaining — especially for 1-year-olds, who volition dear playing with it as they hear the story beingness read aloud to them.
This colorful wooden set of blocks can oft be found in Montessori and Waldorf classrooms aslope more basic rectangular versions. Each arc in this nesting set can be stacked, counterbalanced, and combined with the others to create imaginary city scenes with bridges and buildings or to simply allow for experimenting with texture and gravity. "Stacking is fun, merely even if they're not coordinated enough to stack their toys, they would beloved to watchyou lot stack and then exist able to knock it down," says MacLaughlin.
Just as colorful, these oversize, interlocking Mega Bloks "are amazing," co-ordinate to mother of two Shirley Kim, who works as a clinical dietitian. "My kids played with them from age 1 to now — they're 7 and 3.five." The blocks' bigger size makes them easy for small easily to grab and more appropriate for this age than, say, Lego Duplos (which happen to make an ideal gift for 2-year-olds). This set includes 80 pieces in all shapes and sizes that come up packaged in a convenient storage purse.
Clamber tunnels are a thrill for this historic period and get large giggles, to exist sure, only they also help young toddlers with spatial sensation and a improve agreement of object permanence. Older kids and adults know that the person whose face leans into and out of the tunnel is always nearby, but for a i-year-old, these types of lean-in, lean-out peekaboo games genuinely help them larn about the way the world works. Says Lytle: "Yous really want parents to be there playing with their children, following their lead, assuasive them to figure out what happens."
Lovevery play kits are advisedly curated by a team of developmental and educational experts. The toys included are age and stage appropriate, designed to foster the growth of spatial skills, reasoning, and of course to be plenty of fun — think elementary stacking toys, colorful pouches for hiding away wooden treasures, and books with images of other children. The writers of this slice (Steven John and Lauren Ro) swore by these kits for their kids when they were equally young as 1, and they've grown in popularity with parents across the country, including a few notable folks. While you lot always have to take celebrities Instagramming about products with a grain of salt, we're inclined to believe the caption in actress, vocalist-songwriter, and mom Jordin Sparks'due south Instagram story that spoke of how the kits have been "incredible" for her son's "mental, concrete, and emotional evolution." The boxes are especially useful if you lot want guidance on how best to support your picayune i'southward development. As Ro says, "I was impressed with the quality, pattern, and thoughtfulness of each box, which came with in-depth instructions and suggestions for utilize also every bit a breakup of what you tin expect your baby to do in that 2-calendar month span."
Here's another style to incorporate peekaboo play into games with your child. Artist Anna Bak-Kvapil loves playing with these silk scarves from Sarah'southward Silks with her almost-1-year-old daughter. "The pure-silk nature of the scarves make them really soft and spectral," she says. "Something about the floaty nature of Sarah'due south Silks really absorbed her. We have other play scarves, but they're not as floaty." As for how to play with them: "Either I put it over my head and 'hibernate' from her or I drape it over her caput and she pulls it off herself (usually)."
"This large wooden cube has lived in the playroom in my house for years and grown upwards with all nine of my grandchildren," says Westchester grandmother Donna D'Andraia. "It's such a beautifully fabricated toy that it tin be handed downward through generations. I recently passed it on to my niece'southward son, when he was a year sometime: He loved moving the beads along the maze and opening the lilliputian wooden doors to be surprised with the different faces of animals. And shortly he tin can utilise it to practice the alphabet." Though a heavy, bulky investment — information technology weighs almost 15 pounds — "information technology will last forever." Ro, who received it as a gift for her now-toddler when he was a baby, agrees information technology's a toy i-year-olds can use and abound with: Her son is even more interested in it these days, as he loves looking at the rotating messages and calling out the animals.
"This railroad vehicle is great for the stage when your baby begins to 'prowl,' or walk around the room by holding onto things," says Zahra Kassam, founder of the at-dwelling house Montessori programme Monti Kids. "It'southward a Montessori-teacher favorite considering it allows babies the opportunity to practice their walking skills while building their independence." A tip she shared: "Weigh it down with heavy books or free weights to ho-hum information technology downwardly at showtime." And on the celebrity front: A red Radio Flyer wagon appeared on the back terrace of the home of thespian Aaron Paul in this meet with New York (his girl was 19-months-one-time at the time).
If you lot're looking for something that combines the amuse of the B. Zany Zoo activity cube and the versatility of the Radio Flyer push wagon, consider this buggy that critic and author Sadie Stein — and her 1.5-twelvemonth-quondam son — loves. "The single best gift Hal ever received was this wooden walker full of blocks," she says. Made past French company Janod, the wooden push toy includes xxx alphabet and number blocks likewise as sliding chaplet. Stein, who appreciates gifts that are applied, says that the buggy is "also good for property and storing other toys."
Children love to play house, so why not get them their very ain identify? Eater eatery editor Hillary Dixler Canavan recommends this low-delivery house made out of cardboard, and her i.5-year-old daughter loves it, also, specially "sitting in there with books or opening and endmost the window." Inexpensive, customizable — it's a bare canvas, after all — and perhaps all-time of all, sustainable, it's a great option for city folks who don't have admission to a backyard. "We set this up in our living room, and while it'south non inconspicuous, it's likewise pretty small," she says. (Information technology'southward about iv anxiety alpine.) "And if we ever decide we simply can't take it anymore, we'll recycle it." Nonetheless, she cautions, "Information technology's a commitment to accept it in our living area, but it'due south worth it for her to have a piffling imaginative play space."
Photo: Courtesy of the vendor
Children love emulating their caregivers: That'south why play kitchens, play lawnmowers, and play cars are then popular. John'south girl (similar her large blood brother before her) loved playing with her toy Dyson when she was 1. "If my married woman or I grabbed our actual Dyson from the closet, she ran total-speed across the house to grab her ain footling vacuum — which does really create low-cal suction — and followed united states of america around laughing as she 'helped,'" he says. (Information technology looks remarkably similar the real matter, down to its shade of Dyson Yellow.)
Kids this age beloved to stack things, and these brilliant, squishy cups by Fat Encephalon Toys, with suctions both at the bottom and around the brim, can be towered or paired up in all kinds of formations. Or they can "stick right to your fridge," says Ashley Tyrner, a single mom and the founder and CEO of Farmbox Direct, the subscription-based organic-produce service (she also leads her now-viii-year-old daughter's healthy-repast-kit visitor, Harlow'due south Harvest). "They entertain your child while you're cooking dinner." In reviews, it'due south been noted that the Kupz also work every bit a teething toy or fifty-fifty every bit a juice cup, in a compression — they're BPA free and fabricated of 100 percent food-safety silicone.
"This set is a winning combination of magnetic railroad train cars and mix-and-friction match animals that kids can build, detach, and brand once more," says Holly Magelof, toy buyer for the Dolphin Bookshop and a 20-plus-year veteran of the toy-ownership industry. "There's even a conductor included. It's ever a favorite of our pint-size customers." And it'southward uniform with other SmartMax sets to keep the building going (and hands set you lot up for future gifts).
One time they're 1 or older, all little children need a stuffed friend to grab in the crib at night (and tote around tucked under an arm all twenty-four hour period). "Let me apologize in advance for recommending this singing elephant," says Fiorella Valdesolo, a author, creative consultant, and mom to an about-two-twelvemonth-former. Tap one human foot and the cuddly toy plays peekaboo; tap the other and information technology sings "Do Your Ears Hang Depression" in what Valdesolo describes as "a creepy kittenish phonation." And yet "your infant will find information technology endlessly entertaining," playing it "over and over and once more," Valdesolo notes — and then much so that "it will drive you lot batshit." Which is the hallmark of only the all-time pieces of brain candy.
For a more humanlike plush toy, Figueras-Daniel says that a doll with removable clothes, like this i, provides "opportunities for children to use fine-motor skills in fun ways." She says such a doll volition as well help with symbolic thinking and sociodramatic play — or imaginative play with a social chemical element — which begins at age ane. "Items that facilitate pretend play, similar dress-upwards clothes, play phones, dolls, food, and dishes, let children to start to carry out these play routines on their own and with others," she says, adding that this kind of play "ties in with language development as they engage with other adults and children." Figueras-Daniel loves that Infant Stella comes in various styles, including what the make calls "peach" and "brown," maxim it's important "to get dolls that reflect the children who are playing with them, equally children need toys that reverberate who they are."
According to Figueras-Daniel, dollhouses are another great way for edifice fine-motor skills and encouraging pretend play. For a 1-year-old, she recommends a soft plushy set similar this one from Gund, which comes with an igloo (which doubles equally a carrying case), a polar bear audio toy, a penguin squeaker toy, a fish rattle, and a North Pole flag crinkle toy. Something like this is non merely cute just also easy to play with, "equally the pieces are soft and appropriate for tiny hands," she says.
While it's definitely an investment, mom Jennifer Beall Saxton, the founder and CEO of Tot Squad, calls the Doona the "well-nigh versatile tricycle ever" and promises that it's something that can grow with a i-year-old. According to her, it's "the simply ride-on toy that allows you to adjust each element, from who steers to who pedals or pushes, so that parents tin relinquish some command at each phase of development." The Doona Trike starts off as a stroller with a partially enclosed seat and a handle for pushing, both of which can eventually exist removed to go out just a trike in its most advanced mode. Says Saxton, "We got information technology but after my daughter turned ane and had to steer and push for her, but as nosotros spent time exploring our neighborhood during lockdown, she got more expert, and at present we can let her loose." If y'all're worried about gifting something that looks cumbersome, know that the Doona Trike folds upward for like shooting fish in a barrel transport and storage.
If you similar the idea of an interactive plushy similar Flappy the Elephant but wish to make it more personalized, TeddyMozart is a machine-washable bear that can tape unlimited hours of songs and stories via an app and and so play them back through a removable Bluetooth speaker. "For those long-distance grandparents who may not be able to see the baby often, this adorable teddy carry gives the infant the ability to hear your vocalism and bond with you lot from afar," says grandmother Violet Favero, who writes grandparenting books such every bitSilly Yaya.
"Blabla dolls are my go-to gifts for all the little people in my life," says postpartum doula Julie Arvan, who invented the Nesting Days baby carrier. She adds that she starts giving them at age ane, telling u.s.a., "The dolls are more than toys. They're whimsical companions for immature children." Arvan explains that transitional objects like these dolls "are cardinal for gradually learning to split from female parent and explore the world." The dolls are handmade in Peru from 100 pct cotton, and for each one sold, the company promises to institute ane tree in partnership with the nonprofit system One Tree Planted.
This water table has kept John'southward kids playing for up to an hr at a fourth dimension, and it'southward been the focal point of endless days of summer play. When filled with water, it's stable plenty to support toddlers who are still shaky on their feet, while all the many accessories (including those you add, from pitchers to spoons to plastic and rubber toys) appoint older toddlers who are gear up for more involved play. Best of all, it's big enough — and has enough activities — for many kids to play with the water table simultaneously. Plus Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's toddler, Miles Stephens, is apparently a fan.
This lilliputian car has been delighting toddlers for more than xl years now, and information technology's surely got many decades of popularity left. By the time they are near 18 months old, well-nigh toddlers volition exist able to "bulldoze" the classic coupe themselves — meaning use their anxiety to scoot it effectually. The smooth plastic exterior won't marker or scratch most surfaces, then it's suitable for use outdoors; the plastic tires can handle brick and concrete, too.
Additional reporting by Liza Corsillo.
The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy beyond the vast due east-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best acne treatments , rolling luggage , pillows for side sleepers , natural anxiety remedies , and bath towels . We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are discipline to change.
Every editorial product is independently selected. If you purchase something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.
Unique Gift Ideas for One Year Old Baby Girl
Source: https://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-gifts-toys-for-a-1-year-old.html