When I was choosing toys for my twins when they turned 6 months old, I was looking for:
- toys with lights and tunes to develop sense of sight and sound
- toys with lots of colors and illustrations
- toys that need picking, gripping, and holding
- toys with textures to develop sense of touch
- toys that can shake to develop hand grasp
- toys that can be shaken to produce sound to understand cause and effect
- toys that move to encourage interaction and attract attention
- toys that encourage crawling
- toys with melodies, songs, phrases, music
Here’s the format of what you will see in the rest of this post:
1.
2. Manufacturer recommended age in brackets
3. What I like about it
Toys for 6 months old and up:
1. Sassy Developmental Bumpy Ball (6 months+)
- lots of colors, patterns, and
rattle
- learn to grasp, roll and toss
the ball: good for developing motor skills
- soft and safe
- BPA-free balls in
different textures, good sensory balls for growing infants
OR
3. Sassy Developmental Sensory Ball Set (6
months+)
- Colors, rattle, develop motor
skills, learn to grasp and shake the plastic ball or squeeze the fabric
ball, later learn to bounce-throw-catch-kick the ball.
- Easy for child to
grasp and twist, has different colors, and has 4 different teething
surfaces
- The other teether my kids had was Nuby Keys teether but I heard many people say that the gel within came out. So for that reason I am not suggesting it even though this never happened in my case. There were days I put the Nuby teether inside freezer so the gel froze and the frozen, cold keys were good for my kids during their teething pains.
5. Lamaze Peek-A-Boo Forest Soft Book (6 months+)
- Soft book,
colorful, peekaboo flaps, introducing small books for child
6. VTech Wiggle & Crawl Ball (6
months+)
- Battery-operated ball wiggles, encourages child to
crawl and chase it
- 45+ melodies, sounds, phrases, press buttons to listen,
and 5 flashing lights to attract attention
7. VTech Drop and Go Dump Truck (6
months - 3years)
- learn colors, numbers, listen to melodies, develop
motor skills, put balls (called rocks for this) in dump truck and
lift hinge to unload, press buttons
- pull along toy to drag around the house encourages
walking in later months
- There are over 8
tunes and sound effects and there are balls in 6 different colors vibrate
on Dino's body and balls could come from his mouth or tail -- and all of
this sounds weird but this is a nice toy for 6 month olds who would like
to crawl to get the balls and put on Dino's vibrating body again, not so
much for 1 year olds.
9. This is a popular stacking ring set:
Fisher-PriceBrilliant Basics Rock-a-Stack (6 months - 3 years)
But
I'd much rather give my children the #11 Stack & Roll Cups, or this:
VTech Stack and Sing Rings (6 months - 3 years)
or at a later age this Melissa & DougRainbow Stacker (18 months+) set that is made of wood
unlike Fisher-Price and VTech's plastic sets.
OR
10. Fisher-Price Stack and Explore Blocks (6
months - 3 years)
- stack on top of one another or
nest the blocks inside one another
- learn colors, count dots, see
illustrations, learn numbers
- stacking develops motor skills
and understand balance
… I wish these were 10 cups altogether instead of just 5!!
11. Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stack & Roll Cups (6 months - 3 years)
- Can stack cups on top of one another, can nest it
inside one another, can put correct cups together to form a ball, can
learn colors in toddler years
- I use these in the bath tub too and even though they
sink my kids like to play with these in water and we learn colors while we
bathe too!
- My kids could not grip these stacking cups firmly at 6
months and if they’d swing their hands or lose balance while crawling and
fall they hurt themselves with these plastic cups so if this happens with
you too then I’d suggest giving at a later age (not at 6 months)…perhaps 8
months.
12. Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo (age: able to hold head up independently until unable
to climb out)
- The jumperoo I had was a different one bought in Thailand (not the one in picture below). There are so many options with various colors and themes and sounds.
- I love how the seat rotates 360 degrees, there's light,
sound, pressing lots of buttons, lot of colors, music, and lot of jumping
for the kid and reaching around to touch, encourages lots of skills and
healthy development
- My kids started using it from 7th month onward, and if
there were times when I needed work done instead of having them crawl
around the house I would put one kid in the jumperoo and one buckled up in
the bouncer!
13. LeapFrog Scout's Learning Lights Remote (6 months - 3 years)
- 65+ songs and tunes, 10+ lights
in different shapes
- learn numbers, counting,
shapes, weather, and many words and phrases
- handy, easy to carry for
travel, small in size but lots of learning
14. Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Puppy (6months - 3years)
- 50+ songs, tunes and phrases
- teaches body parts, letters,
colors, counting, etc
OR
15. LeapFrog My Pal Violet (6 months-3
years)
- can connect puppy to
phone/tablet/computer to personalize puppy with your child's name and
favorite things
- 40+ songs, melodies, and
lullabies
- can learn colors, counting,
first words, and so on
16. B. Toys B. One Two Squeeze Blocks (6 months - 3 years)
These are are 10 blocks from 1 to 10in same
square shape and size but in various colors, embossed with numbers and
different objects and patterns
17. B. Elemenosqueeze (6 months - 3 years)
These are 26 blocks from A to Z in various
shapes and sizes, embossed with alphabets and different objects and patterns
- Both together make
excellent learning experience for kids while having fun stacking
creatively and learning balance.
Unlike Mega Blocks or Lego blocks - these B. Toys blocks can be
squeezed.
18. VTech Turn and Learn Driver (6 months - 3 years)
- lots of songs and
melodies and colors and buttons and lights and motor skills and pretend
play!
OR
19. VTech Magic Star Learning Table (6 months - 3 years)
- lot of colors to
learn and buttons to press and page to flip and baby phone for pretend
play and numbers to learn and wheel to turn and 65+ melodies and songs.
- you can choose to
switch the mode to Spanish language (but this is one reason I did not buy
this toy)
