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Remember that quality is more important than quantity! I think it can be a bit easier to go overboard with toys for infants and toddlers, due to the volume you may receive from adult friends during baby showers and early birthday parties that may be more geared towards your family and friends than the baby's friends. Some toys naturally become favorites (a ...

To quote from The Future of Play Theory: A Multidisciplinary Inquiry into the Contributions of Brian Sutton-Smith: Findings from studies of war toys are diverse, if sparse. War toys have been found to enhance aggression (Sanson and Di Muccio, 1993; Turner and Goldsmith, 1976; Watson and Peng, 1992) reduce aggression (Bonte and Musgrove, ...

First of all, my advice is that you should avoid television and computers for now. He's too young to really benefit from it, and these things can train him to become even more impatient and shorten his attention span. I think this related question has several useful answers for you: How can I keep a 14 month old busy at some activity for longer than 3 ...

First off, I really like your motivation. My daughter is 6.5 months, and we don't have many toys for her (her toys could probably all fit in a grocery bag), but I am already thinking we have too many. I was talking to a friend of mine with 8 kids, and I think she has the right idea. She told me that she didn't go and buy special things for her kids to ...

Well, from my experience every new toy is the favorite toy. The interesting question is: how long? Much things and toys are interesting only for a short time and others will be used again and again. The more flexible they are (as Sarato describes in her answer What toys tend to be a child's favorite, and why? ), the longer they'll last - e. g. Duplo, ...

The main point is that kids crave and need stimulation and it's important for their development that they get it. So if they are not getting it from toys or from television they need to get it from somewhere. The best place to get that stimulation is from their parents. So if you don't use the alternative this can be a big task; it can be tiring and ...

I liked what Beofett said in the How many toys are enough / too much thread. He suggested that the best toys are toys that you can create things with (crayons, legos, etc.). This held true for my brother and I as we were growing up-- while I only played with my easy bake oven for a few months, we played with our block set and legos for many years without ...

I've had several favorite stuffed animals, and they all got very worn over the years. My mother did her very best in cosmetic surgery and that certainly extended their lifetime significantly. But in the end they all disintegrated, either because they were cuddled to death or because of that mice infestation in our garage back in the early 90's... By that ...

I believe that the suggested age range is almost exclusively dictated by the risk of swallowing parts and other dangers. Generally, if my child has any kind of (safe) pleasure out of a toy, then I would not hesitate to let him play with it. Who cares if it's designed for a three-year-old? If my 2yo likes it, I won't stop him. (And it gives me a (false?) ...

Whenever possible, throw them out. You can't, unfortunately always do that (well you can, if you're ready for the consequences of being responsible for ducky's untimely demise). I did this, which worked. Submerge the toy in a 70% solution of rubbing alcohol. Squeeze it quite a few times Repeat this process in hot (as you can tolerate) soapy water Repeat ...

There's no way you can make your child not like to play with toys, and no reason to try. You can't force these things, and your child will resent you for trying. If your child is playing with toys more that's his choice and you have to let him make it. He wants to become more independent, and that's a normal and good thing. If you want your child to ...

Our son started really getting into certain types of building toys around that age, wooden trains/tracks, duplos, and megablocks. Megablocks are easier to put together than duplos if you child is not dexterous enough for duplos yet. Spend as much time as you can doing physical (for him) things too, take walks together, or take a soft ball outside and show ...

Penny Holland, who lectures in Early Childhood Studies at the University of North London, authored a 2000 study on the effects of a zero tolerance policy for war, weapon, and superhero play. Finding that studies that sought to find a causal connection between war and weapon play and aggression in children and later adulthood were unable to prove such a link ...

Part of the answer is around you creating an environment where this can happen - children learn directly from you and the environment. Take them to places where they can meet other kids - play parks, softplay etc You should interact with other parents to show a good example When at home, make sure you play with your child and interact with other adults and ...

I think it's a valid concern, but not very serious at this stage. One thing it's difficult to tell from the question is if your son's focused on Elmo when he's moving him out the way, or if he's focused on the instrument. If the latter, then over-excited grabbing at things is pretty normal and harmless for what is basically a bundle of instincts wrapped in ...

He can't share nicely with Elmo as Elmo won't take turns or offer an instrument when he is done with it. Instead, explain to your son every time he does it that Elmo is a toy and might break if you treat him this way. It is not about teaching sharing it is about teaching him to take care of his toys.

I find that I need to closely evaluate where my child is preforming (schools can help with this). Two of my children had excellent fine motor skills at a very young age and therefore were able to do some toys (such as beading) much earlier than recommended. As well, and possible more to the point, there is a law change about what is require at age three and ...

4 things here 1) aesthetically speaking, i don't believe that a 6mo old baby can have too many toys. you don't know what they like, they don't know what they like. variety will let you discover that. 2) you will however see what they don't like; they simply won't play with it. you can easily focus the collection by identifying these things. do not hesitate ...

What a child finds entertaining varies a lot for individual children. My 7 year-old daughter likes toys with buttons to push, and pretty much always has. My 4 year-old son likes cars, and pretty much always has. My 18 month-old daughter likes dolls even though her siblings almost never play with them. We haven't encouraged or discouraged any particular ...

The favorite will vary from child to child also changing with developmental stages. A favorite for most infants and young toddlers are things with faces. This can be anything from a mirror to a stuffed animal to a doll. The reason this is generally a preferred toy for young children is that their favorite thing to look at is their parents' faces so it is ...

Reasons for a child selecting a toy might include: Toy's Status: If the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered -- it's more likely to be "naturally selected." Generational Longevity: While a child might influence an adults toy purchase, in most case adults buy the toys, and adults are more likely to buy toys that they have an emotional ...

I'll try to answer, although the question might get rephrased: You need to take several factors into account. Consider these aspects, and they might help you narrow down your quest into something that is specific enough that you can search for items on Amazon and read some reviews. What is the goal you want to achieve with this toy? Do you want to train ...

Manufacturers typically list an age range that a typical child of that age could utilize most or all of the features of the toy in the way the manufacturer envisions the toy being played with. This may or may not match your personal considerations of what you find age-appropriate. For example, when my son was 7 months old we purchased a plastic toy keyboard ...

You could try laundering the toys anyway if you believe that they would be suited for it despite their label. Of course don't risk it with the most precious toy... Usually though, nonlaunderable (is that a word?) toys have instructions how to care for them. That most often boils down to wiping the surface with a cloth moist with lukewarm water and mild ...

Some kids are naturally a little more introverted than others, and two-year-olds are still sort of trying to figure out social interaction anyway. What I see a lot of times with 2s is that they play around each other, but not so much with each other. Now that my son is older (he's 4), he plays with kids his own age a lot, but sometimes he becomes a little ...

As well as the other good suggestions already made, I would like to add one: don't have too many different toys out at all the same time. If a toddler catches sight of something out of the corner of their eye, it will be "ooh, shiny" and they'll be off to that and forget what they were just doing! If you want to persist with the same toy for a bit longer, ...

I taught twos, threes and fours for a few years. There isn't a lot you can do about the stuffed toys except put them in the laundry every so often, but here is what I did in my classroom in regard to the plastic stuff. Keep bleach locked away somewhere. At the end of the day put a capfull in a bucket of water and throw in the toys that were licked or ...

In the US, the Consumer Product Safety Commission keeps track of toys that have been recalled (or are recommended for recall) based on things like lead in paint, choking hazards, etc. Not sure how useful this would be in your country but I'm betting there is a lot of overlap with childrens' toys between our two countries. :) We personally choose toys based ...

"Collaborative play" is where children begin to play with other children directly. Before they move into that stage, they may play amongst other children, but tend to still be solo playing (called "parallel play"). It's quite normal for a 2 year old to still be in the parallel play mode of interaction. So, don't do anything. Your kid is normal. ;)

We find that the age guides are a bit of help from a safety perspective, but we can judge ourselves what we know will be safe for him. For our boy, anything that he can crawl on top of needs supervision, since he became obsessed with trying to walk since he hit 8 months old. Therefore, things that are suggested for his age aren't necessarily safe for our ...