Help with toys for 6 months old. Need Suggestions!!!

[etwahl]

Am trying to find some new toys suitable for 6 months and up and found this on babycenter. Anyone have it? It's pricey.

But most importantly, I am looking to buy some toys for the 6 months and older range that are stimulating, educational, what have you. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

http://store.babycenter.com/product/toys_books_and_music/by_age/6_12month/4624

Edited to say I am also looking for some bath toy ideas...

Tammy,
Mom to Lauren Genevieve
03/12/2003
www.evantammy.com

[August Mom]

This is the toy I was actually going to suggest before I clicked on your link. DS got this toy for Christmas when he was 4.5 months and started playing with some of the activities right away. He played with it without the legs until he started pulling up/cruising. Then we put the legs on and he walked around the table playing with the various activities. He still plays with it at 1 year, but I'll admit that it doesn't hold his interest as much now as it used to. I still think it's worth the money as it was DS's favorite toy for over 6 months. And, I still think we'll play with it in the future as he works on learning colors, shapes, opposites and numbers/letters. I think it's an all-around great toy and highly recommend it. BTW, it does makes lots of sounds, but I don't find the toy annoying. You can usually find it at Wal-Mart and Target for just under $40.

[nigele]

Tom got this at 6 months and still plays with it daily, several times. He absolutely LOVES it. I just saw it at Target for $39 so shop around!

[Momof3Labs]

Colin has a similar (cheaper) table and loved it from about 5 months until about 9 months. He still plays with it occasionally, but not as much now that he is so mobile. He also loves his Fisher Price push walking toy, and his Little Tykes garden center. Anything that he can stand and play with!

[cinrein]

We got this for $34 at BJs. Anna likes it. Her favorite toy right now is one like this http://www.learningcurve.com/ourProducts/postprocess.asp. We got it at Target.

She also likes the Fisher Price symphony stacker--she mostly plays with the ball head on the top. Also any kind of plastic nesting cups are good in and out of the bath. We use them to dump water on her in the tub and she'll sit and bang two together. The funnest thing in the tub right now is a Carter's washcloth that is a puppet. She likes it when it "gets" her.

*Edited to correct my typos*

[bnme]

Some simple, inexpesive, and easy to travel with toys are Sassy cups, flip book, and FP blocks. I think toys like these are good becuase they help develop hand coordination. My DS also enjoys his FP Rack-a-stack and anything that plays music.

[nitaghei]

Target has this for $39.99. It's a terrific toy. I got it for DS when he was about 6 months old, and his face just lights up when he sees it. And the music is not particularly obnoxious - and there's volume control!!

Absolutely worth it - and I'm VERY cheap!

Nita

[nitaghei]

Tammy,

After I got home last night I took an inventory of some of the cheap toys that DS loves:

Stacking cups (I build the tower and he knocks it down - we can do this over and over and over and . . . .)

Soft blocks

Plastic spoons and containers (Take and Toss - $1.99 for a dozen for the spoons?)

Balls - he loves a freebie beach ball we got - it's light and he can toss it. We actually toss it back and forth.

Rattles - especially the ones that are transparent, and he can see inside.

And catalogs - he loves to rip the pages off - messy, and I have to make sure he doesn't start chewing or swallowing the paper - but soooo much fun! :)

I'm looking for suggestions for bath toys, too!

HTH

Nita

edited for typos

[Rachels]

Balls and stacking cups are great for the bath! And Tammy, we don't have the Leap Start table, but a friend has it and I think it's terrific. Other than that, though, there weren't a lot of pricier toys that Abigail loved at that age. I found that small things she could look at and manipulate were her favorites, especially if they crinkled or made a noise. We got a set of soft crinkle blocks at BRU that she adored, and she loved her stacking cups. She also had a big cloth box with little stuffed things in it -- a star, a rabbit, a heart. She liked that, too. And her favorite was a water bottle with just a little bit of water and soapsuds in it and the label removed. She would shake it and the whole thing would fill with suds. That one was GREAT, and just about free.

Look up a thread called "Favorite Non-Toy Toys," which has lots of suggestions like that.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[mama2be]

Tammy,
This is such a fun age for toys for them...there are several I recommend that Tristan is loving.

First we put out tons of blankets on the ground since he has mastered the roll- and rolls the full length of the room. I then plant toys all over so he can roll to them. One of my books suggested not demonstrating the toys too close to their face and then handing them to them but to instead scatter them around and let them find them.

Tristan loves playing with the "duck head" on his Gund lovie (bear rug with head...but a duck...

HE loves loves loves a toy that JMarie and Aiden got him that is made by TOLO and it is a nice sized dragon stuffed animal, with crinkle, rattle, bells and a mirror...he loves it!!!-the perfect gift for anyone looking for one for a baby...

He also loves his Lamaze toys. Lisa dn Thomas got him his favorite a sun that is so pretty I want it show cased and not dirtied :)...I buy them all new and we love them!!!! Bright pretty colors, well made...
HE has his soft stuffed "lambie" to grab if wanting soft, and is mesmerized by the tag on it which puts his face in a trance...oddly enought the tag is on the butt on the lamb so thus he looks as if he is drooling over the lambs butt...

Two toys I am so glad that purchased are "wobbly" toys...I recently saw some at Tuesday Morning...but they wobble and are about maybe 8 inches high and have the softest ring to them.

OF COURSE one of his favorites is the SKWISH...I am so glad that I got him this and highly recommend it to anyone with a baby. Made by Manhattan toys.

He also has a plastic ball that is filled with little "beads of plastic" that manuever thru a maze as you roll it, it gives soft sweet noise like rain as he rolls it...

With little exception I have gotten most of these at thrift stores and yard sales, for several reasons...when I spend the bucks I spend it on wood toys and spend alot!!!! So i surroudn him with these toys that cost me no more than $1 and I highly suspect folks paid atleast 5 times that amount for them. I disinfect all of them. I am not only thrilled to do that due to cost BUT also suspect I am getting acess to alot of toys from many many years ago that I would not find today in stores...

OH YEAH A BIGGIE...I got what looks like a crib bumper froma thrift store that has each section doen in bright colors...there are "windows/frames" on each section that have about 5 cards tucked in eachone. Some are black and white picutres for stimulation and some are colored designs. You can switch them out, I use this around the fire place to prevent him from rolling into it. BUT he LOVES to stare at the black and white picutres...he has a cat and a man's face (a cartoon) that Steve jokes looks like steve :)...he get on his tummy and "talks" to that cat for atleast 15mintues at a time...

He also loves to take his little fingers on the "knots" uneven ness of the carpet...he will do that for long periods of time, as if to study it as he runs his little hands over it.

Soon I plan on taking plastic coke bottles and filling them with macaroni etc and super glueing the lid on (to prevent him from choking on the contents) he can roll that around :)...different contents will give different sounds...

AS you know I avoid music making toys...but that is just me and a very personal decision so not flaming them, I just don't have any. I find the exercauser that our doula lent us has some spot that makes it sing "fiddler on the roof"...when it comes on out of no where Tristan gets startled and I can actually see him going from having a blast playing with the roller toys on it to sitting back in the seat, jaw dropped and confused...it is sad to see since seconds before he was having a blast...

HTH...

HE loves his floor time...

[C99]

We have the LeapStart learning drum, but Nate still does not use it much. He plays primarily with rattles -- love the wooden ones -- on the floor or with the toys on his exersaucers. For the bath, he loves his rubber ducky.

[ralu]

My DS still loves rattles. He likes both sides of Tiny Love Developlay activity table, Fisher Price stacking blocks (http://www.fisher-price.com/us/babyu/product.asp?s=bubrilliant&id=17777), Fisher Price star stacker, Sassy stacking cups, Leap Frog piano, various small plastic balls. He loves musical
toys and is very interested in listening to classical music (esp. if the rhythm is alert). He also likes books (touch-and-feel and lift-the-flap, but also Dr. Seuss's "The cat in the hat" ) --- Spot's Big Touch and Feel book is his favorite.

Raluca & Matei (Feb 2003)