Your one-year-old is such a pretty sight. Even though most of the time his hyperactivity and extreme curiosity make him do outrageous things that make you want to pull out your hair in dismay, still there’s no one more precious than your little child.

And while you’ve done everything in the past year to make sure he gets all the proper stimulation and nourishment both physically and mentally that he needs, it doesn’t end there. Now that he’s turned a year old, it’s a new chapter for mind enriching activities and toys. It’s time to say goodbye to the good old crib mobile and the colorful rattles that kept him company for the last few months. It’s time to say hello to toys that are appropriate for 1-year-old children.

One type of toy that can be enjoyed by your 1-year-old while at the same time are crucial for the development of many areas in his mind are building toys and wooden toys such as wooden trains. These wooden toys are instrumental in honing a variety of skills, some of which include fine motor skills, hand-to-eye coordination, spatial concepts, creativity and imagination.

Because of the wooden train’s many building pieces from which your kid will construct trains and buildings, his fine motor skills specifically the use of his small muscles in the hand will be enhanced. This is an important foundation for future actions like holding a spoon or feeding oneself.

Aside from that, wooden trains allow for the vast exploration of one’s creative imagination. These wooden toy for kids will take your kid into many different journeys where his imagination is king and he can go wherever his mind wants to go. With his Wooden Circus Train Set for example, he can be the greatest lion tamer who will bring his ferocious but lovable lions in a trip across the country.

Wooden trains also encourage independent play by allowing your kid to build cities and trains on his own. But it can also be useful in fostering camaraderie, teamwork and cooperative play when played with other kids.

Aside from wooden train sets, other best toys for one-year-olds are activity boxes with levers, buttons, dials that your kid can push, pull and manipulate, balls to kick and throw which can strengthen his muscle coordination, blocks to build, cars and trucks for more creative imaginative plays, stuffed animals and puppets, musical toys, interlocking beads to slide and manipulate, stackable toys like stacking rings and nesting cups, modelling clay, picture books, plastic animals, pop-up toys, push and pull toys, shape sorters to enhance visual perception and shape discrimination and toy versions of daily items like telephones and cooking utensils.

It’s important to note that educational toys for one-year-old are those that engage your kid in activities where they are participants more than just passive observers. While a crib mobile stimulated your kid’s mind when he was still a newborn by having objects of different colors and shapes rotate above her head, now he needs toys that not only can be watched but also be pushed, pulled, and played with.