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Recently updated on March 3rd, 2023 at 01:39 pm
Good toys for 9-12 months old meant to help your baby develop can be somewhat difficult to find. At least for me, it was. That’s because I always gravitated towards baby development and learning toys.
So I always check the back of the packaging to see what my baby will be able to learn or better said what he could develop while playing with that particular toy.
Therefore, we don’t have a lot of toys for our son, but he certainly has a few.
Another thing you should know (unless you know this by now) these can get a bit more expensive, but for me, it’s totally worth it!
So if you are on a hunt for ideal toys for 9 to 12-month-old babies keep on reading. Below, I have a list of my son’s favorite toys, when he doesn’t play with everything else but toys.
At this particular age (not only) babies are developing:
• hand-eye coordination
• language development
• baby’s senses
• motor skills
• imaginative play
You might also like:
- 5 Valuable Construction Play Benefits for your little one
- Unique Montessori Gifts for 12 to 18 months old
Vtech Turn & Learn Cube
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 6 to 36 months.
There are 5 interactive sides, which attract your baby’s attention with music, chunky light-up buttons, bright colors, and animal sounds.
These features introduce animal names, sounds, and shapes, including 5 sing-along songs and 20 melodies.
Some sides have sliding and spinning manipulative little toys to encourage interaction and a motion sensor that triggers fun sound effects.
It encourages the following development skills: motor skills, imaginative play, and language development.
Our opinion:
This toy is my little one’s ultimate favorite. I bought it for him when he was around 6 months old.
In the beginning, he wasn’t playing too much with it, but because it has lots of lights, sounds, and music, his attention was always on it.
As he grew he was more and more interested in playing with this toy. It would keep him busy for at least 10-15 minutes.
One thing that I noticed and didn’t like a lot was when he started climbing onto it. He could easily fall and hurt himself, so I would recommend never leaving your baby unattended while playing with the toy.
Of course, he outgrew this “bad” habit or maybe he just forgot about it.
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Puppy Remote
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 6 to 36 months.
A remote-looking toy, loaded with buttons, songs, and lights. When your little one presses the buttons, the screen lights up and he’ll be hearing songs and sounds that teach numbers, ABCs, opposites, colors, and others.
It encourages the following development skills: academics, fine motor, curiosity, and wonder.
Our opinion:
He got this at a very young age (4-5 months) from my mom. Of course, he didn’t pay as much attention to it back then, but a couple of weeks later he started understanding and instantly fell for it.
For some reason, I misplaced it and found it at around 10 months of age. As soon as I showed it to him, he immediately remembered and kept him occupied for at least 20 mins.
He now pushes all the buttons, listens to the songs or numbers, and after that, he pushes the buttons, again and again, sometimes he even starts dancing when hearing the songs.
Sliding Toy
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 3 months on.
It plays some sort of trumpet song when you slide it. Also, the toy’s “wheels” come off and can easily become rattles that your little one will adore.
This is not necessarily a developmental toy, but it’s a cute one and my baby loves it.
It encourages motor skills development.
Our opinion:
I found that the song can be too loud for babies, especially since they have a such fine hearing. Otherwise, it’s a cute little toy and my son plays a lot with it.
You might also like:
- 5 Valuable Construction Play Benefits for your little one
- Unique Montessori Gifts for 12 to 18 months old
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Puppy
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 6 to 36 months.
A soft and cuddly puppy that responds to your baby’s touch. It comes with more than 50 songs, tunes, and phrases.
Some of its features are:
- Paws, tummy, ears, and light-up heart respond to the baby’s touch.
- Introduces body parts, letters, colors, counting, and more
- it has 3 different stages that allow this toy to “grow” with your baby
Smart Stages
Level 1 – Explore – 6M+
First words and sounds spark baby’s curiosity
Level 2 – Encourage – 12M+
Prompt baby through questions and simple directions
Level 3 – Pretend – 18M+
Imaginative fun and early role play
This toy encourages the following development skills: sensory and fine motor skills, listening, academics, curiosity, and discovery.
Our opinion:
This one is my favorite toy! It’s very cute. Who doesn’t like a soft puppy that “talks” to you?
I also love the fact that it “grows” with my baby and he can learn lots of things such as body parts, funny phrases, and baby songs while playing with it.
My son enjoyed it since I bought it for him, and now, from 10 months onward he started pushing all the buttons.
Vtech Toot-Toot Animals & Drivers
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 1 to 5 years.
These are little toys that you can collect for your little one as he grows. It’s divided into 2 categories: Toot-Toot Animals and Toot-Toot Drivers. For the latter, there are garage sets and track sets that you can buy. And all these can transform into a massive playing set that you can enjoy playing with your child.
Every toy has its own fun phrases, sing-along songs, and realistic sound effects.
When used on the Toot-Toot Drivers Track set they respond to SmartPoint locations with different phrases, sound effects, and more.
These can be bought separately or in sets of 3 (as shown in the pictures next to this text).
It encourages the following development skills: imaginative play, sensory development, language development, and motor skills.
Our opinion:
We received one of these toys (the tiger) as a gift from one of our friends and since then we were hooked and started looking for more. They are fun, educative, and very easy to play with.
Up until now, we have the tiger, the bus, and the airplane.
My son also received the Track set as a present for his first birthday. He doesn’t quite understand it yet and he usually destroys the whole track, but it’s all about learning at this point.
Check out Toot Toot Animals & Toot Toot Drivers
Paw Patrol Sit & Ride Car
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 6 months onward. Or better said, this is perfect for your baby after he’s able to sit on his own.
A very simple and cheap car that your baby can sit on. As your little one grows he can ride the car by himself pushing around with his feet.
It also comes with a backrest for comfort and an extra security measure.
The wheel comes with a horn in the middle that makes a squeaking sound.
It could be easily used as a walker.
Our opinion:
This isn’t the best toy ever. When we went to visit one of his little friends he played a lot with a similar car to this one.
When it arrived and noticed that there are no sounds, I was so disappointed. But this was the only similar ride on car that we’ve found on Amazon.
We also bought it for the purpose of a walker for him. I love seeing him pushing around this car with his little hands.
He didn’t discover (yet) the fact that he can push himself around using his feet.
Later edit: please be careful with this car. We didn’t have the best experience with it and my son took a lot of falls. I don’t think it’s secure enough for the little ones. We ended up throwing it away and purchased a better car that is sturdier and safer for the little ones.
VTech Tiny Tot Driver
About the toy:
It’s suitable for babies from 12 to 36 months.
Lots of interactive buttons including a horn, traffic lights, ignition key, a turning wheel, and a wing mirror (non-breakable) for self-discovery.
There are also lots of colors, numbers, and animal sounds through fun phrases and realistic car sounds that are hidden behind the 5 vehicle buttons from above the wheel.
It also includes 10 melodies and 2 sing-along songs.
This toy encourages the following development skills: discovery exploration, language, motor skills, and sensory.
Our opinion:
Another favorite of mine is that he “chose” it in a shop. He was probably too little for this one (I bought it when he was around 6 months), but because it has numerous songs, numbers, and animal sounds and it’s very interactive I decided to go for it anyway.
He loved it in the shop but he lost interest when we went home with it (typical 🙂 ).
At around 10 to 11 months he started playing more and more with it. So it’s probably pointless to buy it too early, but that’s me 🙂 I saw it, liked it, and bought it.
Fisher-Price Animal Puzzle
About the game:
It’s suitable for babies from 12 months onward.
There are 6 cute and colorful puzzle pieces that are sized just right for little hands to grasp and hold.
The base of the puzzle board has pictures so that your baby will be able to find a match easily.
They’re the chunky size so they can stand up for fun figure play, too.
It encourages the following development skills: eye-hand coordination, thinking, and problem-solving muscles, and stimulates important senses, like sight and touch.
Our opinion:
I always loved puzzles so I want to “transfer” this love for them onto my son.
He’s probably too little for it, but he started putting the shapes near their place or sometimes he even managed to put them in the right place.
While shopping in Lidl I saw this puzzle for a really good price so I immediately bought it for him. I found it on Amazon as well, but if you have a Lidl nearby I would recommend waiting for it to come back in stock. The price is almost double online.
Sometimes he holds up pieces and hits them one another, same as clapping. He’s so cute!
Jenga Blocks
About the game:
Jenga is a game of physical and mental skill. Built on the simple premise of stacking blocks. It can be played by everyone in your house or family, there is no age limit.
It can be really fun, engaging, and sometimes even addicting.
These blocks are made out of wood, therefore can be suitable for babies as well.
Our opinion:
This is not necessarily a toy for kids, but I’ve let my son play with them and he was very entertained.
Most probably a better choice for these would be building blocks. But whenever you’re on a tight budget and you have these around your house, they’re just perfect for your little one.
I love the fact that he finds different ways to play with them. Here are a few: stacking them up, filling a bucket, or putting and removing them from the VTech Cube (mentioned earlier).
Soft Ball
There isn’t much I could write about a ball. I guess everyone is familiar with it, am I right?
I introduced a ball to my son really early, that’s why I bought him this soft little ball that he can squish and hold, plus it says “Baby’s first football”.
I thought it can be a very nice memory of these early months.
Conclusions
These are all my son’s favorite toys for 9-12 months. As I said at the beginning of this article, I wanted to buy him toys that can teach him something and put his little mind and muscles into action.
I will continue to do so in the future as well, therefore I am constantly looking for new toys that will help him develop. So if you have any recommendations for toys please leave them in the comments so that other mommies can see them too.
