High 5- Great Apps for Toddlers (iPhone/ iPad)

I won't go into the debate of whether toddlers should be allowed to handle your smartphones or Tabs (I'll leave it for another post). But, if like me, you feel that there is no harm in giving your toddlers these "Smart toys" to play and learn, you may like to download these apps on your iPhone/ iPad to keep your toddler occupied. All these Apps have been personally experienced by me, Mr. Scientist and our Champ.

1. Sound Touch Lite (Free), Sound Touch (paid): Great for learning animal sounds, identifying animals, vehicles, household objects, musical instruments etc.

2. Kids Song collection (Free & Paid): Interactive Collection of Nursery Rhymes. Paid version has more.

3. Wheels on Bus: Popular Nursery rhyme "Wheels on the bus goes..." along with lot of interactive games suitable for Hand Eye co-ordination.

4. Baby Dress Up/ Puppy Dog Sitter: The toddler learns to dress up a baby/puppy and take care of it by feeding, bathing and putting her to bed/ plying with it.

5. Toddler Puzzle Shapes: Helps to identify shapes in a fun way!

Do you or your toddler have a favorite App? Do comment and share....

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Kids Corner- Age Appropriate Toys for 18-24 Month Olds

Now is the time when toddlers start to polish their acquired skill and the most important thing that you will now hear or experience very often is 'I'll do it myself" or want to do things on their own. They are now capable of showing and expressing their emotions. Walking is more stable and experimentation starts here as well... am I able to walk sideways? backward? with eyes closed? (yes, my champ does that...!). The vocabulary may range from 50-200 words. He/she can follow what you are saying in an efficient manner. The toys at this stage should help them in their social and emotional development and building their vocabulary as well let them to be physically active. Some of the appropriate toys for this age group are-

1. Pretend Play Toys
These toys introduced at the previous stage of 12-18 months can continue through this stage and even after that for a long time. The only difference is the play becomes more sophisticated and interesting for us to watch. You may like to give toy kitchen set, tool kit, shopping cart, dolls to take care of (great idea if you are planning for another child), models of household equipment like vacuum cleaner etc. These toys let the child imitate his/her parent(s) and also help to develop his/her social skills.

2. Blocks
Here they come again. Nothing can beat the creative and imagination development that takes place while playing with blocks. The structures get more advanced with advancing age and also the child may never get tired of blocks and they may accompany him/her through the adulthood as well.

3. Toy Musical Instruments
Children love to create music and what would be better than to give them a toy guitar, drum or a keyboard to create their master-compositions.

4. Balls
Balls of various materials and sizes can be given to the child to kick, throw and run after them. At this age, with practice, they can learn how to kick a ball and then later come running and kick. All this helps in sensory coordination.

5. Puzzles
Along with wooden on piece puzzles, you may introduce puzzles with 2-3 pieces. The feeling of victory that comes after putting the pieces into their place is great for them and will motivate them to go for complex puzzles and also help them to develop their problem solving and organizing skills for life.

6. Ride on Vehicles
Now the child will be more comfortable  in using these as he/she becomes more confident in getting on and off from it.

7. Vehicle Playsets
Children at this age definitely enjoy their collection of vehicles and if they have a playset like car tracks or train set, their joy knows no bounds when they see their cars or trains running along them and making some noise or generating some other response like lights or wave. These help in sensory and motor coordination.

8. Crayons and Paper
To help the child develop his/her writing skills for later, crayons help them to get the grip and their hand muscles become more flexible for writing with scribbling. Only make sure the crayons are non toxic and also washable as you never know when the scribbles from paper will also start showing on walls and other surfaces.

9. Books
Books if introduced early can become the child's best friend for the rest of the life. At this stage, board books work as well as the picture books and as the child grows, reading to them becomes more fun. It also help them to develop their vocabulary and understanding of various things.

Apart from Toys, physical play like in the playground on slides, swings and running around is highly recommended as is swimming.

What's your child's favorite toy? Leave a comment...

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Kids Corner- Age Appropriate Toys for 12-18 Month Olds

Active is what your child is now! He/she is now almost walking well without support and hence get more opportunities to explore greater heights (Be careful and make your home safe for your li'l one)! Hes/her movements are more co-ordinated. The child is now able to use his toys from the previous stages in a much better way, as in he/she is able to use the toy sorter in a proper manner, able to stack blocks to make towers much taller than before, is able to scribble using pencil or crayon (Be careful of your walls; to prevent scribbling on walls, you may like to tape a paper similar to the colour of wall upto the height your baby can reach, so that all his/her masterpieces are on the paper and not on the wall.). Now, the baby also starts showing affection by giving hugs and kisses and also like to imitate adults in simple household routines. Toys at this stage should enhance the motor skills as well help in balance and co-ordination. They should promote problem solving skills, imagination and creativity. Some appropriate toys for this age are-

1. Large Building Blocks
Blocks which can be built up into a big tower or a fort. The blocks which fit into each other (like Mega Bloks) can also be introduced now for more creative designs.

2. Sorting Toys and Puzzles
Shape sorters, now make more sense with the child and also you can now introduce wooden knob puzzles, where one piece has to be placed in its place. This acts like advanced version of shape sorting with shapes being more abstract in outline.

3. Balls
The toddler can now play with a ball by kicking it, throwing it or by running after it while it rolls. Different types of balls may produce different sounds on hitting the ground, which also amuses the child. A favorite game in my house is we (me or my husband) will pretend to hit our champ with a soft ball and he loves dodging from it. We'll throw the ball away from  him and pretend to miss the target and he feels he's successful in his dodging attempts and will bring the ball back to us and this goes on filling the whole house with his squeals of joy and laughter.

4. Ride on Vehicles
These could be electronic (like cars and bikes) or manually controlled with a handle for an adult to maneuver if the child gets tired. These help them to practice getting on and off the vehicle as well as practice peddling if it's manually controlled.

5. Pretend Play toys like Tool Bench or Kitchen Set
These will let the child to imitate what adults are doing but with safer tools. These can be used for much longer time and their play will get more complex and imaginative. It helps them to develop their imagination and creativity and also will promote sharing and harmony in later stages.

6.   Non Toxic and washable crayons and paper
Kids now love to scribble and it's better to give them a crayon and paper otherwise be prepared with a sponge and soap solution to clean your walls and floor, although writing on walls may still happen even if paper is kept in front but let's hope for the best.

7. Books
Board books, cloth books and all types of books. Picture books work the best as the child now starts identifying the objects and telling him or her the correct word now will help in long run. Your li'l one may even now pick up his/her favorite book for you to read to him/her.

8. Cars and other Vehicles of various Sizes
Kids now love to play with anything with wheels. They love to drive them up and down the bed, sofa, table and sometimes even on your body. The whole world may look like a car track to them.

Apart from all these toys, you may like to take your child out to a play area with climbing gym, slides and swings but make sure to be attentive all the time and never let your li'l one out of your sight. It's also a great time to start with swimming using floating devices. Introducing sandbox is also a good idea at this stage. Give them a bucket and shovel and watch them get dirty!


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Kids Corner- Age Appropriate Toys for 9-12 Month Olds

At this stage, your highly mobile baby as more curious than ever. He/she will now start exploring the unexplored (childproofing the house should be the first on your to-do list!). The child is now able to understand and recognize a lot of words and may also be able to blabber a couple of them. He/she now understands the cause and effect theory very well and will try to see 'what happens when I do this...?' (this could be anything from pressing the buttons on his musical toys or throwing one of your crystal vase on the floor...). The toys at this stage should help in developing his motor skills further, increasing his vocabulary and also for developing the problem solving skills. Some of them could be-

1. Activity Boards/Tables/Cubes
Still running strong, these toys can help in motor and intellectual development depending on the types of activities that are there in the toy.

2. Shape Sorters
Now the child will slowly start understanding the concept of shapes. And trying to figure out why a triangle block won't go through the circle opening will be a challenge for them and solving that will help to build up his problem solving skills.

3. Wooden or Soft Blocks
They are required for the same reason as in the previous stage of 6-9 months and also now you may see your child arranging the blocks in some interesting arrangement, this will boost his/her creativity.

4. Stacking Cups and Rings
The baby will understand the concept of big and small using these toys.

5. Push Toys
The child may start cruising around the house by now. He/she will love a toy that they can push around in the house. If there is no toy (even if there is...), be prepared for light pieces of furniture being moved around in the house.

6. Books
Again like previous stages, you can have board or cloth books. Now if you read to your li'l one, he/she would love to imitate your actions by flipping the pages and blabbering.

7. Soft Toys
These cute things will become even more likable by your li'l one. By this time, he/she may also have his favorite toy and his sleeping companion, his foodie buddy and what not. Interactive soft toys are even better.

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Kids Corner- Age Appropriate Toys for 6-9 Month Olds

By this stage, the babies start sitting on their own or atleast with support. Some start crawling and some may also try to stand with support. Also they can go out and reach for the toy. They are now interested in buttons and other things that they can twist, move up or down, flip, open or close... so all the electronic toys with buttons and other such features that make sound or give a reaction when handled are also good option. Some interesting toys could be-

1. Activity Mats or Gym
Still coming from the first stage, some of these mats or Gyms have features like musical buttons, spring pull action for toys, which still amuses your baby at this stage.

2. Busy Boards or Tables
These are boards or table with lots of activity panels on them. Each one is different from the other. Some may also be used as a push toy which your li'l one can use while learning to walk. Other variations in this category can be Activity Cube, Activity Center, Activity Table etc. having one thing in common and that is lots on things to do at one place. Find the one which has activities that can help in all major developmental areas like motor (fine and gross), hearing, sensory (textures), intellectual.

3. Books
Cloth books or board books would be great at this stage. Get your li'l one early into the habit of reading by reading to him/her and by introducing books with his/her toys.

4. Balls and Other Rolling Toys
Since the babies start crawling by this stage, giving them something which rolls in front of them would be great to encourage crawling. These could be balls, rolling toys, a big sturdy car (can use the remote controlled car as well, babies love to chase them...).

5. Wooden or Soft Blocks
Your li'l one will now enjoy stacking up the blocks and then knocking them down. This will later help him/her to develop his skills for building blocks that will come later in their life.

6. Soft Toys
Who doesn't love to cuddle with a soft toy and most of us have grown up with one favorite soft toy from our childhood. The soft toys will not only be your li'l ones' cuddle buddy but they are also quite sensible things to buy- they will help the child to get used to lots of textures, your li'l one can learn to identify lots of animals and characters, if the toys also have some buttons which will produce sound or induce some movement, even better. My li'l champ loved his Dancing Doggy (a dog with glares who dance when you press a button on his hand), Jumbo (an elephant who trumpets when the button is pressed), Mickey (his sleeping companion) and a lot more. Giving names to toys is also a great thing to do. The child will understand the concept of individuality.

My Champ with his Dancing Doggy and Jumbo!

 What Toys your li'l one like?... Please leave a comment!

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