May2017
I recently received an e-mail from a customer whose Father in Law wanted to buy some new toys to be kept in their house for when their one and a half year old grand daughter came to visit. My customer was looking for some recommendations which she could pass on to her father in law.
I love getting questions like these and I know every child is different, as are visits to grandparents houses, so my reply was quite general. But, I thought I’d copy it onto a blog, in case there’s other grandparents out there who want to have a few special toys in their home.
Before I start, there’s some factors that need to be stated.
Bearing these in mind and the fact that the child in question was a one and a half year old girl, here’s the toys that I suggested the grandparents might like to purchase.
These 3 soft toys have weighted bottoms on them and a bell in each one, so when they are pushed, they won’t fall over and they make a cool sound. They are brilliant for babies and toddlers but even older children enjoy soft toys and doing imaginary play with them.
The Djeco Duo Puzzles are brilliant. Each box has several 2 piece, tough cardboard puzzles that match for example mum animals with baby animals or animal homes with animals. They are gorgeous designs and come in a lovely tough box for easy storage. These are puzzles that she will need help with initially.
My niece, who will be 2 in August is loves her ‘Water Magic Reveal‘ book. Simply fill the pen with water and colour the pages to discover colours and patterns underneath. Within a couple of minutes the page is dry and white again, ready to be done over and over.
If you want a wooden puzzle, I’d recommend this 24 piece world map puzzle. It’s the kind of puzzle that she will need help with now but she will still love in a couple of years.
I’m a big fan of magnetic toys for this age group. I stock this lovely magnetic fishing game. If you also love magnetic toys and you want to see my selection, check out this blog ‘Magnetic Toys for All Ages‘.
If you are always eating or having cups of tea when she is over, having some play food will help your grand daughter feel part of the gang in preparing and serving. The wooden tea set that I stock is gorgeous. My girls got the felt food when they were her age and they still play with it, and if it gets griming, it can be washed.
If you are thinking of putting some toys/games in the grandparents house for older children, I’d recommend some games that granny and grandad can play too. Often grandparents have more time and desire to play with kids than parents do, so some educational games could go down well. I sell three boxes of educational card games – Matilda’s Splendid Spellings Games, Charlie’s Marvelous Maths Games and The BFG Spelling Card Games.
It’s very hard to know what to buy for this age group and it depends a lot on the child. A lot of toys that she would probably love are recommended for children aged 3+. This is just a precautionary safety standard that a lot of people will ignore, especially if their child isn’t one who puts things in their mouth. It is nearly always ignored when a second child is added to a family as it’s not fair to put the older child’s toys away when a baby arrives. If you have already gone through a set of toys for babies, you probably don’t want to invest in another set of toys that will last less than a year before she grows out of them, so choose wisely and hopefully these ones will last a good bit longer.
I hope you all get to enjoy your extended family time as much as my family do.
xx Suzie
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