The Best Toddler Toys: My 1 Year Old’s Tried and True Favorites

My son has a lot of toys! And if I’m being honest I’m not really even sure how we collected so many toys so quickly, but here we are. I think, truly, you end up collecting so many toys because you’re always just trying to find something they like and will play with independently. Not to mention, at this age, their obsessions change so quickly and you’re just trying to keep up. 

Most of the toys below were given to him as gifts on his first birthday and I can happily say he either played with them for months or is STILL playing with them! So, after a whole year of my little guy being a one year old, here is a list of all of the toys that have literally stood the test of time and saved my sanity! 

• Little People Farm House – This toy is #1 for sure! Not only did he love it when he first got it, but a year later, he still sits and plays with it. Something about the bell, the shoot, the songs…he’s obsessed. 
• Little People Hot Wheels Racing Loops – This toy actually comes with cars, but honestly my son loved the toy so much, he ended up sending just about anything down the track! Sometimes I’d even find crackers that went for a ride. 
• Cause and Effect Pop up toy – Now this toy makes me laugh, because I do think its target audience is babies a bit younger. However, it still makes him giggle. I will often find him stumbling upon this toy and sitting down to play with it. For this reason, it never gets booted when I do a toy rotation. 
• Any and all trucks/cars – My son is truly such a little boy, obsessed with all things that go! Here are his top favorite vehicles to play with!
  • Little People Taco Truck
  • John Deere Tractor
  • Tonka Truck
• Spinning Stackable toy – This toy is not only satisfying for mom, but so much fun for my son! Not exaggerating, for months, he was able to sit and play with this toy for at least 20 minutes at a time. Giggling each and every time he dumped the spinners off!
• Mega Bloks – While he loves playing and building with these, I’ve actually found that he never really played with more than like 5 blocks. Which is totally appropriate for this age.  Sometimes, less is more! 

Now, these next few toys he just got for Christmas so we’ll see how long they last. But, I added them to the list because when I tell you he plays with these for hours, I mean hours! Uninterrupted hours… 

• Melissa and Doug Travel Train Set – This toy is a great little set! He loves pushing the trains round and round. I will warn that there are probably a few too many pieces for how old he is, so they mostly live in our toy storage bin, but I can assume as he gets older he’ll understand the concept of setting up the scenery. 
• Wooden Train Tracks with Magnetic Trains – For Christmas my son got a small set of wooden tracks and trains and was really loving it! Then, we went to visit my brother and sister in law. My nephew had a giant box full of wooden tracks and trains. The boys dumped out the tracks and went to town! With the help of my husband, they had a giant track that took up the entirety of the living room. And my son played for HOURS…and I mean that! He was fully engrossed in building the track and pushing the trains around. When it was time to head home at the end of the day, it was full melt-down. He continued to cry for his choo choos most of the car ride home! Needless to say, I think we’ll need to purchase more tracks very soon! 
• Thomas and Friends Connecting Trains – This toy we kind of bought randomly actually. I was shopping at Wal-Mart and my son was simply not having any of it. He’s not a huge fan of sitting in the cart. In a moment of desperation, we walked through the toy aisle to see if there was something small I could entice him with. I picked up one of these trains because it seemed like a small affordable toy…and well, we had to go back and get more because him and his cousin were literally fighting over them! They loved them so much and he still does! He even takes them to bed sometimes.
• Tonies Box – I have to say, I was a little hesitant about this toy because of the price! But, of course, my mom ended up getting this for my son for Christmas. And I’m so grateful she did. Basically since Christmas we’ve had it playing non-stop. My son learned how it worked very quickly and he loves listening to the songs and stories of his favorite characters!