Best toys for 9- to 12-month-olds (2024)

Babies are magnetically attracted to the VTech Sit-to-Stand, and parents love that it lasts (and fascinates) through many different stages of development. Before your baby can walk, they can spin the rollers and press the light-up buttons on the front of the Sit-to-Stand.

Once they can sit confidently, the play panel can be removed for your baby to use as a busy board on their lap or on the floor. In response to your baby's actions, the Sit-to-Stand plays 70 sing-along songs, music, sound effects, and phrases to encourage language development. The keyboard on the Sit-to-Stand's panel also plays individual notes, so your child can use it to pick out a tune. (This might be a good time to note that the Sit-to-Stand has a volume control, and both lights and music can be turned off entirely).

As your baby gets more mobile, they can grab the VTech's comfortable push handle and use the toy to support their standing bodies, and to enable their first tentative steps. Before long, they'll be pushing it confidently all over the house.

Heads up
The Sit-to-Stand isn't intended for children to use as a pull-to-standing toy.

Parents say
"The Vtech Sit-to-Stand is 100 percent better than a walker! It has a beginners' speed, so it goes at his pace. He loves it, and has become more confident standing on his own without mama! Now he's taking four steps on his own and can stand for seconds at a time without me assisting. He'll be walking in no time!"

"My little one got it for Christmas! She wasn't really interested in walking with us holding her hands, but loved to stand. After a day or two of her just playing with it she got right up behind it and now walks all over with it!"

Specs

• Age range: 9-36 months
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries (included)
• Color options: 2

Children of all ages love reading with their caregivers, but board books with lift-the-flap pages are particularly engaging for 9- to 12-month-olds. This may be because peek-a-boo is a classic game for babies who are starting to grasp the idea of object permanence. And, as Lohiser notes, cause and effect is a fascinating concept to babies at this stage. And so books that offer some kind of surprise for your baby, or do something in response to their input, will be the ones they reach for repeatedly. In this book by classic children's author Eric Carle, short rhymes on each page describe an animal; when children lift the flaps, they see that same animal revealed.

Leah Rocketto, Associate Commerce Director for BabyCenter, says that any sort of peek-a-boo book is a win with her toddler, and says she prefers this book over other lift-the-flap books the family owns, "because there's some sort of story so I don't get sick of reading it to her.” Leah adds that her daughter will often play with the flaps for a while without being read to, giving herself a nice break.

Heads up
Board book pages are sturdy, but flaps invariably give out before the rest of the books.

Specs

• Age range: None listed
• Batteries: No
• Color options: 1
  

Turn your living room floor into a gym sized just right for babies with these soft foam shapes covered with vegan leather. Babies can crawl up, around, and over, and you can set up the shapes in a new way every time you play. In fact, these are light enough that before too long your little one will handle the setting up all on their own.

"We have a NuggetOpens a new window which our daughter greatly enjoys, but she goes wild over this playset at our friend's house," says Leah. "What's been amazing is seeing how the toy can grow with your child. My daughter first used the set when she was 8 months old, so she'd mostly crawl through the tunnel and use the steps to pull herself to standing. Most recently, at 13 months old, she climbed the steps and slope with very close supervision. I imagine as she gets older, she'll be able to climb, slide, and more without having me right next to her."

Leah adds that the set is sturdy enough to hold kids up, but she feels safe allowing her toddler to use it: "I really like that there are flat mats to put around the steps, tunnel, and slope for a little extra protection, but also as a way to help babies get used to steps at a small level." And finally, the ECR4Kids foam set has one huge advantage over the Nugget, says Leah: "You can easily wipe away spit up, spilt milk, and other messes because of the material."

Heads up
This set is expensive because it has so many pieces; you can economize with the smaller 5-piece set instead.

Parents say
"I have several ECR4kids softzone pieces. They're good when the kids are young and they build with the blocks and make forts when older."

"We love these too! My baby has been playing with them for the past month or so, climbing and walking while pushing them in front of her. My other kids, 6, 4, 2 years old, also enjoy using them for floor is lava type stuff, rolling cars down, etc."

"We encourage her climbing. We actually bought the ECR4Kids and Foamnasium soft climbers for her playroom as well as several 4x10 gymnastics mats to go underneath that she climbs all over. It's her favorite thing to do."

Specs

• Age range: 9 months-3 years
• Batteries: No
• Color options: 2
  

If your baby's all-time favorite activity is filling and dumping, these sturdy cups are a must-have. The colorful wavy-edged cups are made of super-safe recycled plastic milk containers and easily go from tub to park and back again. They stack satisfyingly into a tall tower, which can be dismantled just as easily with a satisfying crash.

"While playing this way they’re building confidence because they can do it independently. They’re also practicing cause and effect, working on fine motor skills as they sort and stack, and so much more," says Lohiser. Parents love that these cups are numbered on the bottom so can be used to teach basic math skills. They're also what Green Toys calls "volumetrically accurate": fill up cups 1 and 2 and the contents will exactly fill cup 3.

Heads up
These cups are dishwasher-safe so feel free to get them dirty

Specs

• Age range: 6 months and up
• Batteries: No
• Color options: 1
  

This two-sided toy takes full advantage of your baby's fine motor control. On one side of the tote is a traditional shape-sorting game: There are holes of varying shapes that your baby must push the nine textured plastic blocks through. On the other side of the tote are crinkly flaps that have images of familiar objects like a kite or a wrapped present on top. When your baby lifts the flaps, they find the shape that corresponds to the blocks, so your baby can learn to match. With all these features, this toy is one that keeps your baby quiet and fascinated for long moments.

Parents like that this toy makes it more difficult to dump out its contents: Once the shapes are inside, you have to unzip the bag to get them out, a move that's beyond most babies at this stage. They also like that the carry handle makes it easy for children to bring the toy from place to place, including into Grandma's house or a restaurant when you need an on-the-go toy. One final point in this toy's favor: Everything stores in the tote neatly so nothing gets lost.

Heads up
Some parents say the blocks can fall out of the holes on the side of the bag if not carried correctly.

Specs

• Age range: 9 months and up
• Batteries: No
• Color options: 1
  

Babies can practice their sitting skills while learning the many ways to play with these big colorful blocks. At first, your baby may be content sorting the blocks or putting them into a container before dumping them out. But soon babies graduate to stacking and building. Mega Bloks are large and chunky, easy for small hands to grasp. They also don't fit together as tightly as other bricks, so children just mastering fitting and stacking won't find them frustrating to take apart.

"They are so easy for babies and young toddlers to work with. You can also use them to help teach colors and counting, " says Shelley Gingrich, BabyCenter's Executive Director, Brand Solutions, who adds that her kids used them for a long time, too, including in the bathtub and at the family's water table: "They also continue to be a favorite for tower building through the preschool years."

Heads up
These blocks are similar to Lego's Duplo blocks, and most parents have a strong preference for one or the other.

Parents say
"Mega bloks are LOs favorite right now. She can play with them for a long time. Also fun in the bath too."

"My oldest got Mega Bloks when she was one and she still plays with them pretty often now that she is almost five."

Specs

• Age range: 1-5 years
• Batteries: No
• Color options: 1
  

Babies love tapping things with a pint-sized hammer, but Hape's version takes it to a new level with this multifunctional toy with a xylophone beneath a "bench" with three holes on top. Babies use the hammer to pound brightly colored balls through the holes. Once they do, the ball tumbles over the xylophone beneath to create a cascade of notes, which little ones find hilarious.

Kids can also pull the xylophone out and play it with the hammer, or simply remove it so that the balls they pound through the top land on the floor instead of onto the keys. If you separate the xylophone from the bench, you can create two toys for two kids to play with simultaneously.

When my daughter was a baby, she played with this daily, as did her friends. They loved hitting the xylophone with the hammer, and the ringing tones that sounded in response to their banging. The sounds of the xylophone are bright and pleasant, even when babies with hammers are the ones making them.

Heads up
Since the hammer that comes with this toy is not attached, it's easy to lose.

Specs

• Age range: 12 months-5 years
• Batteries: No
• Color options: 2