Homeschool World Forum

With a 1st Birthday and Christmas coming up, I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for toys that are safe, educational, encourage creative free play, and will "grow" with my son as he gets older. He's 10 months old right now, and will be one year old on Sept. 21st.

I'm looking for suggestions for toys approximately in the 12-18 month range or higher, are of good quality and can be used creatively. In other words, I want to streamline the "junk" and invest in just a few really good pieces that he can play with in a number of ways, lol.

We've already bought for this upcoming holiday season:
1. More mega blocks (he has one set already)
2. A stand-up farm play set
3. Ride on/push car
4. Tool set (from Handy Manny, but its pretty basic, lol)
5. Electronic toy that teaches the alphabet/colors (he already has a similar one that teaches numbers/shapes)
6. Some wooden puzzles
7. Tons of books

I'm thinking about some type of play food set (or maybe this would be better when he gets a little older?) or maybe start some of the younger Leap Frog products.

Thanks for the suggestions!

The more manipulatives, the better. One thing we had a lot of fun with at all ages was Dr. Drew's Blocks - basically blank, rectangular wood blocks that can be stacked to build all sorts of structures:
http://drdrewsblocks.com/custom/

- Cars , Vehicles, ones with big tyres.
- Two piece puzzles from "Early Learning Centre"
- Shape sorters
- Musical Toys - drums, piano, tambourine, shakers, xylophone
- Montessori toys - you will find many on google search
- CD's - Barney, Dora etc

Regards
Shalu
http://spinningmemories.blogspot.com