The Best Gifts For 1 Year Old Boys That Will Keep Them Active

The More Features The Better
Bouncing baby boys are full of energy, so it’s a good idea to pick up some really absorbing and interesting toys for them to channel that energy in the best way possible. Spoil them this Christmas with an educational toy that not only gets them active, but also gives their brain a workout. Educational toys will keep your toddler developing at an amazing pace, and they will last far longer because they are interesting and rewarding for little minds to use. Below are our top 9 best gifts for 1 year old boys, and don’t forget to check out our helpful item guide at the end of the article!
Best Gifts For 1 Year Old Boys
Picture | Toy Manufacturer | Requires Assembly? | Price | Our Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Little Tikes Light 'n Go Activity Garden Treehouse | Yes | $$$ | 5 |
![]() | Step2 Play and Store Sandbox | Yes (Sand) | $$ | 4.85 |
![]() | Fisher-Price Little People Advent Calendar | No | $$ | 4.8 |
![]() | VTech Smart Shots Sports Center | Yes (3 AA Batteries) | $$ | 4.8 |
![]() | Earlyears Deluxe Fill 'n Fun Water Mat Baby Toy | Yes (Water) | $ | 4.75 |
![]() | Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Cube with Pounding Bench | No | $ | 4.7 |
![]() | VTech Baby's Learning Laptop | Yes (2 AA Batteries) | $ | 4.65 |
![]() | Fisher-Price Bright Beginnings Activity Walker | No | $ | 4.55 |
![]() | Melissa & Doug Playful Puppy Pull Toy | No | $ | 4.5 |
Table of Contents
- Best Gifts For 1 Year Old Boys
- Little Tikes Light ‘n Go – Activity Garden Treehouse
- Step2 Play and Store Sandbox
- Fisher-Price Little People Advent Calendar
- VTech Smart Shots Sports Centre
- Earlyears Deluxe Fill ‘n Fun Water Mat Baby Toy
- Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Cube with Pounding Bench
- VTech Baby’s Learning Laptop
- Fisher-Price Bright Beginnings Activity Walker
- Melissa & Doug Playful Puppy Pull Toy
- Guide to Gift Buying for a 1 Year Old boy
- Which gifts are good for a 1 year old?
- How do I tell if a toy is safe for a 1 year old?
- Can older children also use these toys?
Little Tikes Light ‘n Go – Activity Garden Treehouse
Click Here For PriceThe “Light ‘n Go Activity Garden Treehouse” by Little Tikes is a wonderland for a young child. It has a small slide, a crawl-through arch, popping and sliding toys, a sorter and even three different light shows from a magic lantern. The magic lantern is battery powered, so you may want to make sure that you have a couple of extra AA batteries lying around in case the power goes out during a great show! The Treehouse can be rearranged in several configurations to keep the layout feeling fresh, and this toy can grow with your child as they are able to reach the activities higher up such as the sorting tree. Just to make sure this product ticks every box, there are also balls for sports activities, buttons which play audio, a ticking clock and swing doors to interact with. If this activity centre doesn’t keep your little boy busy for hours every day, nothing will.
Step2 Play and Store Sandbox
Click Here For PriceDepending on where you live you may not have access to the beach or a playground that has a sand-pit, but this is no longer a problem with the Play and Store Sandbox from Step2. Going to the beach can be frustrating and difficult to organise, not to mention messy, but this Sandbox is a clean and safe way to introduce your child to all the different tactile and creative activities that you can do with sand. The sandbox has a tamper-proof lid to keep animals and weather from ruining the sand, and it also has four built in seats that your child can use to keep themselves comfortable while playing. You won’t find an easier or safer way to give your child the feeling of a sandy beach than this! The container can hold up to 200 lbs (90 kg) of sand which you will need to purchase or collect separately.
Fisher-Price Little People Advent Calendar
Click Here For PriceIn true festive spirit, you can purchase a “Little People Advent Calendar” from Fisher-Price to count down the days to Christmas. This will be the perfect way to introduce the holiday to your little one, as well as teach them some valuable skills. Your toddler will be exposed to patience and reward, numeracy from counting up and down, and cultural awareness of the holiday period and what it represents. They will even learn fine motor skills from popping open the doors of the calendar in order to receive their next toy. Each day they will get a little character to add to the collection, and they won’t be able to wait to pop open the next door!
VTech Smart Shots Sports Centre
Click Here For PriceThis activity centre by VTech is equipped for early soccer and basketball stars, and would make a perfect toy for an active little boy. There are some popper toys on the side of the centre which will help improve your toddler’s hand-eye coordination, and they will also be exposed to basic numeracy as the score board tracks their goals and dunks. The LED score board is actually quite an impressive addition to this product, as it can also play animations and sounds to encourage your child to keep going. You will need 3 AA batteries in order to keep this centre up and running.
Earlyears Deluxe Fill ‘n Fun Water Mat Baby Toy
Click Here For PriceThis “Water Mat” by Earlyears is one of those toys we all wish we’d had as a child – it looks and feels awesome, and it’s just too much fun. When this mat is inflated and filled up with water it becomes the equivalent of a water bed activity mat for a toddler, and your child will start to push and grab the shapes which float around inside of the water-tight plastic. This toy is great for developing gross and fine motor skills, improving balance and core strength, and can be used to teach your child about the sea!
Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Cube with Pounding Bench
Click Here For PriceThis pack of two Melissa & Doug toys truly deserves its place on our list of the best gifts for 1 year old boys. There are 12 different colour coded shapes for your child to sort, and the pounding bench features 8 pegs that twist downwards as they are hit. The sorter is great for early geometry and colour recognition, as well as fine motor and hand-eye coordination. The pounding bench will be a good way to improve hand-eye coordination too, as well as work on those gross motor skills of swinging and bashing. The products are made from high quality wood which has been painted with non-toxic paint, just to put your mind at ease that even chewing on the blocks will not harm your child (though we’d probably keep an eye on that).
VTech Baby’s Learning Laptop
Click Here For PriceThe VTech “Baby’s Learning Laptop” is a fantastic product for introducing your young one to the world of technology and digital learning. The laptop has 9 large button keys on it which help to promote fine motor skills, and the screen lights up with different images which will also introduce the concept of cause and effect too. The buttons of the keyboard itself and setting on the side allow for up to 90 different sing along songs, tunes and other sounds. There is a moveable mouse on the right hand side of the laptop which gives the toy an authentic ‘laptop feel’, to make your child comfortable and familiar with the technology. There are 2 AA batteries included with this toy, but we’d recommend buying a good few backup batteries, as you’ll not see the interest in this great toy dying any time soon.
Fisher-Price Bright Beginnings Activity Walker
Click Here For PriceThe “Bright Beginnings Activity Walker” by Fisher-Price is a must-have for children who are nearing the stage where they move from crawling to standing. It has poppers, sliders, doors and a mesmerising rolling ball in the centre of the activity panel which will all give your child a good balance of tasks to keep themselves occupied with. The activities on this walker help to develop both fine and gross motor skills, and eventually will help to encourage standing. This toy is great for long term investment, because as your child begins to grow and starts to walk this Activity Walker will make a comeback as a push toy all over again. The walker also folds up conveniently to make it hassle free when transporting in a car or for easy storage around the house. For only $23 this toy is an absolute steal!
Melissa & Doug Playful Puppy Pull Toy
Click Here For PriceIt may be the cheapest toy on our list at only $15, but you can not underestimate the quirky appeal of the “Playful Puppy Pull Toy” from Melissa and Doug. The Playful Puppy is made from quality wood and vibrantly colourful non-toxic paint, making it a very appealing little pull toy for a crawling or early walking toddler. The toy encourages your child to keep going when they are attempting to crawl around or ‘toddle’ to their next destination, and the movement of the puppy is also rather funny. It is designed to wag its tail and bob its head as it walks, so it will be the source of many laughs for you and your family too. The quality finish on this product makes it a great toy, as it will last very long with the proper care. We’d give this one two thumbs up for general appeal and the undeniable cute factor.
Guide to Gift Buying for a 1 Year Old boy
You will want to know exactly what your little one will be gaining when you hand them a brand new toy, because nothing is better than giving your child a head start while they have fun at the same time. Whether you’re looking to help your child improve their fine motor skills by playing with a popper toy or develop their core muscles on a swing, you can be assured that we’ve got what you need. Below we’ve tackled some of the common questions that you might be asking yourself about these toys right now.
Which gifts are good for a 1 year old?
Good gifts for a 1 year old are things that they can get their hands on, something that they can really interact with and make their own. Buying DVDs or passive toys at this age is not only a bad idea, it could slow your child’s development as they feel less motivated to be active in learning from their environment. There are quite a few types of toys on the market, so here are how we’ve broken them down for easy understanding:
Physical Play: these toys include sports equipment like bats and balls, swings and other basic toddler ‘gym’ equipment that you can find on the market. These toys will help to develop core strength and coordination, fitness and will give your child a place to use up their energy in a way that other toys simply cannot do.
Tactile Play: this category includes toys which get your toddler close up with the elements, for example sandboxes or water toys. These toys allow your child to explore different sensory experiences hands-on, and learn from them. Cheap ways to have your toddler interact with tactile play is to allow them to get messy with some jelly or any squishy food on a sanitized table. You could even use shaving foam as long as you make sure that your child doesn’t eat any of it.
Pull / Push: These toys are very straight-forward, and they include the likes of toy cars, strollers and / or walkers, and often toy pets like dogs or cats. Nothing motivates a little crawling toddler like a puppy that needs to be taken on a walk! These toys help with gross motor skills as well as motivation for movement and eventually walking.
Sorters: these toys work nicely to help your child distinguish colours, shapes, and work on their motor skills at the same time. The item we’ve chosen for our best sorter toy is the Melissa and Doug Shape Sorter & Pounding Bench, which has quality wooden blocks and also functions as a stress relief toy. Other sorters can be different by organising their set via colour and size too, such as ring sorters.
Poppers: these are toys that have buttons, switches, and other fine motor components. Usually there will be a type of reward for the toddler when they are able to operate a popper toy, like a fun sound or flashing lights. There are various poppers on the Little Tikes Light ‘n Go Activity Garden Treehouse, and also on the stroller we have chosen.
Musical Instruments: the noisier the better, these toys are great for helping your child to learn basic rhythm, mathematics (counting), auditory discrimination and hand-eye coordination. This also allows children to express their creative side by making up their own songs, or combining different sounds that they find interesting.
No matter which toys you choose, you can be assured that every single one on our list has been carefully chosen for their educational advantages as well as their high quality finish.
How do I tell if a toy is safe for a 1 year old?
While all of these toys are age appropriate for 12 months upward, it is always a good idea to have parental supervision during play time. None of the products uses toxic materials or sharp metals, so the likelihood of your child sustaining injury from the toys is minimal, but if something is broken or there is a manufacturing fault minor injuries are always a possibility. Each of these toys is made to the highest quality standards, and the buyer reviews they receive confirm their durability and safety.
We recommend checking the exterior of the toy from time to time to make sure that everything is in place: not only can some plastic toys crack from being thrown around (remember, these are toddlers we’re talking about!), but smaller pieces could be dislodged and become choking hazards if they are not removed. Adult supervision is key to making sure that your child uses the toys appropriately and is not at any risk, and when in doubt you can always ask your child’s teachers or other parents if they have any advice. Take a look at this advice from Safe Kids to know everything there is to know about toy safety.
Can older children also use these toys?
Yes, these toys are suitable for 12 months and upward, and some are even suitable for children as old as 3 years. This will depend on the child’s particular interests and needs, so you may experience different results trying to extend the lifetime of a toy with a child who starts to enjoy language based activities more, when compared to a child that enjoys physical activities more. Get to know the temperament of the child you’re buying the gift for, and when in doubt, ask the parents!
If you really want to make sure that you are buying a long lasting gift for a child, go for a toy that has multiple benefits and areas of interest. Choosing a toy that only works on a single developmental area will definitely reach the back of the cupboard before a toy that always has more than one benefit for your child. Something like the sandbox is a great example of a toy that will work well for older children as you can introduce activities such as sand-castle building or fantasy-play with other toys into the mix, but a sorter will soon become old news to a toddler who masters it and needs to move on to bigger, better things.