First Year Toy Review, Part II

(This post was originally scheduled for April 7, 2010, but I've been having trouble getting my camera to upload photos and kept delaying it.  In the end, I've just decided that you'll have to use your own imagination for a couple of these.  Hope you can handle it!)

Last week, I profiled a few toys that I had acquired for my son when he was just learning to sit upright. While it may seem a little backwards, I'm going to cover some toys today that do not require the ability to sit unassisted. These are toys that a baby can play with during the first year of life at any point, so they are also all good toys for infants in general who are confined to a seat.

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Plastic juice bottle with jingle bells

Price: $2

Size: Small/Medium

Age: 4 months+

Durability: Variable

How it's made: This is a toy you make yourself. Ideally speaking, to create this you would buy (or reuse) some small jingle bells from your local craft store. Put 4 or so into a plastic bottle (preferably Simply Orange, as they use very durable plastic, and OJ is easy to rinse out) and recap. Be sure the cap is on very snugly or use a small amount of superglue to be extra sure the cap will not come off. If you use glue, use your common sense as well: don't overglue so that it drips below the cap; don't let the child come into contact with the glue.

Pros: It's cheap and easy and VERY entertaining. Also, if you lose it, it's easily replaced the next time you empty a bottle of orange juice.

Cons: Kids may fight over who gets to play with it. Guests may mistake it for trash. Can be fairly loud.

Educational Value: There's nothing really easily described about the educational value of a large rattle like this, but I still maintain that a baby learns from playing with it. A child's environment is his first teacher, so this is probably one of his first physics professors. Primarily, the value in this toy is that it allows kids an opportunity to experiment with physical consequences in a fairly safe environment. "When I turn it this way, these things in the middle move over here! And they make noise when they move! Whee!"

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Plastic water bottle, half-scrunched and recapped

Price: $0

Size: Small

Age: 4 months+

Durability: High

How it's made: When you finish a bottle of water, remove the label. Uncap, squeeze about half the air out, and recap tightly. (Be sure that the region near the cap isn't warped so that the cap does not fit properly!) Glue the cap shut as in the above toy, if desired. Some parents like to leave the bottle unscrunched or with some water in it or both. You can try out multiple variations to see which your child prefers.

Pros: This toy is easy to make instantaneously. You can create it anywhere you are, so long as you have a bottle of water with you. GREAT teething toy. When scrunched, the plastic makes fun noises that correspond to your baby's actions. The reflections and remaining water/water droplets inside capture an infant's eye. It's lightweight and fits well in a baby's hand. And of course, it's ridiculously cheap. If you suspect signs of wear or it gets too dirty, you can just toss it in the recycle bin and make a new one.

Cons: Guests may think it's trash.

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Links

Price: Varies, Under $10

Size: Very small

Age: Birth+

Durability: High

Pros: You can do soooo many things with links. You can use them to hold toys in cars (suspended from OSHs or infant carrier handles), strollers (hooked to frame), chairs in restaurants, etc. You can use them as pacifier clips. You can connect two toys together to make a new toy. The kid can chew on them as toys in their own right. Most links come in a variety of colors, textures, and even shapes. They can be used for parent toys, as well, for clipping cell phones, keys, or water bottles (w/carabiners) to diaper bags, purses, or belt loops.

Cons: Many brands of links lose their strength after a couple of years of hard use. They will not always stretch around what you hope they will.