I could use some recommendations for toys for my 18 month old nephew. Any “must have” toys for that age (of course he probably has them but…) . I think it’s time for a “See and Say.” and a Jack in the Box (he seems to love the anticipation->surprise thing alot). Any other ideas?
For his second birthday, my son got this Fischer Price thing–it’s like two spiral tracks, you put two cars on the top, in a sort of tray, push down on the lever, and off they go down the tracks. It makes “vroom vroom” sounds whenever you push the lever. Man, that thing was a tremendous hit. Very simple, almost no coordination required, and lots of exciting noise and movement. If you go look at it in the store, you’ll see what I mean. It’s called something like “Fisher Price Raceway” or something like that.
See and Says are good, as is just about anything that makes noises when you push buttons. A popular christmas gift last year was a V-tech phone that made different noises when you pressed the buttons and would say “Hello!” when you picked up the handset and “Goodbye!” when you put it back. Big fun, I’m telling you. Heck, a little electronic keyboard would fill the bill nicely, and be good for some time to come–at least it has been for both of my kids, who have over the past few years destroyed a Radio Shack kids keyboard composing and recording their own songs (it only records one note at a time, and doesn’t remember the song once you turn it off, so it’s not very sophisticated, but when you’re three or four and figure out how to do it, it’s enthralling), singing into the attached mic, and exploring all the songs the demo plays. Of course, all this is pretty well beyond the 18month old nephew, but he’d have a heck of a time banging on the keys, and there’d be lots of things to explore as he got older.
A good place to find toys for kids of all ages is www.etoys.com. I mention it because it’s organized by age. Just enter the age of the child, and you’ll get a lot of ideas.
Lego Duplos. It’s Legos for smaller kids, with larger blocks. This way, you don’t have to worry about duplicates, and it will last for at least a couple of years. I’m a big fan of building toys for kids, so that they get their little minds stimulated and have open-ended play. Plus, it doesn’t require batteries!
Get the lad manly toys. Manly plush animals. Manly anything by fisher price that’s too big for him to get stuck in his throat. Manly Sesame Street stuff. Manly brightly colored plastic letters with magnets on the back so he can spell manly nasty words on the door of the dishwasher. Stacking/nesting boxes that he can stack tall and then knock down in a manly fashion.
Cardboard books are good. Goodnight moon is in cardboard form and any Max book by Rosemary Wells is great.
My advice, however is to ask the parents. I have 5 kids and it’s helpful to have someone ask what do they want or like and what is not good or unacceptable.