Toys for 18 Month Old

Here are a few creative play items my 17mo daughter likes:
-We lay out an old twister game mat and she loves to play on it and bring colored balls we have to the dot on the mat.

-What I call the urban sandbox: we took a plastic storage bin and filled it with dry beans and cups & spoons. She loves to sit in it and play. Easy to store and bring out occasionally.

-Finger paint (high chair is easy), music, creating a water table.

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do you rotate out her toys? that seems to make them new again.

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Remember the attention span of an 18 month old is only about 2 minutes.

Get her toys that make sounds.
Puzzles, blocks, scoot toys, a small slide, pull toys, soft balls.. I agree that large boxes are fun. They like to climb in and out of them.

She will have a longer attention span with another person playing with her..

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At 18 mos I was my childrens favorite "toy". They loved toys as long as I played with them. They need to learn how to play otherwise they they just dont know what do do with all the stuff we give them.Buy toys you like to play with. My favorite is a musical wheel that lights up. Each button is a different instrument and plays along in classical tunes as you direct it. One year for Christmas we spent tons of money on all the newest toys only to have our son playing with bubble wrap and an empty box. My son is now 5. Time goes fast, enjoy every stage you can.Have fun!
S.

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Most kids that age love water. Set up a dishpan or a bucket and some plastic containers. Have you tried puzzles? What about blocks, my daughters would love to watch/help me build a tower and the best part is when they got to knock it down. This is a good age for ride on toys.

Turn off that tv. 18 months is way too young for her to be watching.

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Puzzles, beading blocks, a dollhouse, and my daughter's all time favorite toy is a $10 puzzle from Target. It's a fish puzzle with metal circles on the top of the fish and magnetic fishing pole. She's had it for about a year and still plays with it EVERY day! She also likes her grocery cart. She pushes it around the house with her toys, blanket, sippy cup inside. It's really cute.
Mine is the same way about the t.v. except ours is Barney, lol. :)
They love to build and pretend at that age (and older mine's 2 1/2) and so a toy broom/kitchen/doctor set/tea set, etc. is great! Have fun! They're soooo fun at this age!

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My daughters are a little older, but have been really into dolls lately. My 2 year old likes to push them in a stroller, pretend to feed them, put them to bed, watch me change their clothes, etc. I have found that my kids seem bored at first too when I turn off the tv, and then I have to find something to do and get them started (puzzles, blocks, etc.) However, it is true that at that age, their attention span is really short. How about a bubble machine for outside?

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If you have space in your home, a play kitchen is a great toy for this age. My son got his at 18 months and still plays with it all the time (he just turned 3). All of his friends love theirs too. It should hold her attention longer than other toys because there is so much to do.

Two of my other favorites at this age are through Discovery Toys. You can view all available toys at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao Here are the two I highly recommend:

Roll & Play - a great first "board" game for you and your baby to play together. My son loves rolling the ball and doing the different activities on the card. Plus, it's on sale right now! http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...

Castle Marbleworks - entertains toddlers for a long time and they can play by themselves. : ) http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...

Let me know if you have any questions.

K.
http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao - summer sale going on now! Get fun and educational toys, games books & CDs at great discounts!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Discovery-Toys-Irvine/30...

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My son (21 months) loves his Geotrax set. He will play with it for an hour (just know you will probably have to help your daughter put the track together first because the pieces can be tricky to snap together). It's with the boy tys at the stores, but my nieces also had a set they love to play with (one outgrew it at about 6 years old, the other, 5, still plays with it). They can be pricey, but it was well worth the money at Christmas.
He also loves puzzles. I really like the Melissa and Doug wooden ones. Very durable so far and we've had them for almost a year. A few scratches, but no broken pieces at all. Of course these will hold his attention for only 10 minutes or so.
Books are also big with him. He ill spend 30 minutes or more "reading" books. We've got several different kinds, but he really loves the ones you interact with (touch and feel, buttons, panels that slide, etc). He usually opts for board books rather than the regular books on his shelf. We actually just got him a Tag Jr. reader, which he figured out how to work within seconds. He really enjoys playing with it and it keeps his attention.

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Hi! I have boy/girl 19 month twins. They too get bored easily! They love watching YO GABBA GABBA and WOW WOW WUBZY, but I too would turn tv off for a good while! We purchased shape and animal wooded puzzles, they really like those and we bought them a big playhouse that has kitchen and some play food. That kept my daughter occupied but my son wasn't interested in playing house. He loves cars and trucks so we bought him lots and for a while he would play with them but soon got kinda bored. They loved looking at peek-a-boo books though. My son just loves being outside so much that he's constantly telling me, "outside!!". They also have so many toys my house looks like a daycare center. I take them out for a ride on their radio wagon and they like that a lot! I watch them in our big backyard walking all over. They basically are very busy body toddlers that are at an age where they are noticing so much more than their toys and books now. They want to 'explore' now! With twins, it's hard with one wanting to just go outside and one play inside :/ You just have to keep trying, sorry! I hope I helped a bit. They do get tired when I walk them, of course my mom helps! Then they'll nap for about 3-4 hours! ;)

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My son loved this toy
http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Laugh-Learn-Learning-P...

we give it as a stock present for all new tots.

Does she have an Elmo she can play with?

Children need to explore new things. They need to feed their brains and have new experiences. There are already a lot of good suggestions here for you. Anything that she can explore, where she can be a little scientist is great. Children learn through play.

ALso, if you do need to have a few moments and are tempted by the TV, consider getting something like Leapfrog's Letter Factory. It is fantastic.

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Two things come immediately to mind...first...my first child did NOT watch tv (we were "good" parents then!) and still hated toys. He preferred to be "doing"--usually whatever we were doing. He liked to wander outside. For him, it was simply a matter of finding something that mattered to him. Being outside, and eventually, riding bikes or playing with scooters (even little kid ones) absorbed his time. He is now 6 and still is not big into toys. Then there's my second. He too would watch tv all day...because we let him. After a week with grandma and grandpa, who play nicely with him with his toys, he has "learned" again to play with his toys and not to just zone to the tv. I think if you persevere, limit tv pretty dramatically, she will learn to play on her own. It's really hard...and will perhaps be pretty intense for YOU...but the payback should be good. I personally am a little worried about this issue myself--my older son is home from school, I'm pregnant and tired, and I hope I don't sit my kids in front of the tv all summer!! Good luck!!!

Updated

Two things come immediately to mind...first...my first child did NOT watch tv (we were "good" parents then!) and still hated toys. He preferred to be "doing"--usually whatever we were doing. He liked to wander outside. For him, it was simply a matter of finding something that mattered to him. Being outside, and eventually, riding bikes or playing with scooters (even little kid ones) absorbed his time. He is now 6 and still is not big into toys. Then there's my second. He too would watch tv all day...because we let him. After a week with grandma and grandpa, who play nicely with him with his toys, he has "learned" again to play with his toys and not to just zone to the tv. I think if you persevere, limit tv pretty dramatically, she will learn to play on her own. It's really hard...and will perhaps be pretty intense for YOU...but the payback should be good. I personally am a little worried about this issue myself--my older son is home from school, I'm pregnant and tired, and I hope I don't sit my kids in front of the tv all summer!! Good luck!!!

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You have gotten a lot of good suggestions. I am glad you asked this because I often wonder what to do with my 18 month old daughter. She does not watch any TV and she still gets bored and clingy/whiney when I am not playing with her. She does really like her baby dolls right now. She put's them in her stroller, or any basket or the back of her tricycle and "goes bye bye" with them. she likes to collect things around the house and put them in he baskets. I have realized that if I direct her ":go find more toys to put in your stroller" she will do it and that buys me about 2 more minutes...hehe

She loves books... she can spend 20 or so minutes sitting by herself reading, I also made her a photo album that she loves to look at. Her ride on buggy is a favorite, she can push it or sit and scoot, I let her use it indoors because she loves it so much!
As others have said, water, sand, kitchen objects (pots, pans and spoons... even cans of food and stuff my daughter loves)

mostly I would say my daughter plays with "real things" over her toys. So i have stopped buying tons of stuff and just allow her to go though the cabinets (I have locks on the stuff she is not allowed to get).

Well, I hope this helps. And just remember, every phase only lasts a little while and then they are on to the next one!

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How often is she getting outside? I'd turn off the tv and send her into the yard. My now two year old has an older brother so he loves to play with his toys in the sand box, and play with water (water table - or use a shallow storage tupperware on a low table or ground). And being bored is okay since everyone needs to learn how to entertain themselves. Does she have chalk? And does she understand the point of the cash register? Have you played 'Store' or 'bank' with her? She may not get the point of it and how to incorporate it into imaginary play.

It may be too many choices that are available to her. We rotated my son's toys - only a few types out for a week or so and then rotate out the old and in with the "new". It helped peak his interest instead of getting new toys.

Items from the kitchen can be great - for pouring and straining or banging :)

If she likes to color, she may like painting also. Watercolor paints are very easy to clean up.

Have you tried one of the Tickle me elmo dolls that jiggles?

I do infant toddler daycare from my home and one of the biggest keys is rotating your toys and dont keep out too many at once. Remember, she IS only 18 months old so NOTHING will hold her attention. :)
I always have out:
one kind of building blocks (rotate through wooden blocks, megablocks, peek and play block from FP)
one activity table (I have 3 that rotate through)
one set/type of imaginative play toy (FP little people are my FAVORITE, trains, cars, animals)
lots of books and sometimes will put down many pillows and blankets for them to sit and snuggle on

now and then: ride on toys, tunnel to climb through

It's important to be ok with setting aside one part of your house. and you DONT have to entertain her 24 hours a day. let her wander in that safe environment and entertain herself. and that's what babies this age do....wander. :)

outside: riding toys, climbing toys, sand table, pretend mower, gardening tools.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_toys-for-children-12-to-18-mo...