toy recommendations?

[catan]

My daughter is 8 months old now, and I am wondering what kind of toys would be good for her development.

I've been to Toys R Us and some other toy stores at Windsor. There is so much stuff, I have no idea where to begin. We only visit HK a few times a year, and HK has much greater selection for toys, so I thought I would get some for her this trip.

The thing is, she's never shown much interest in toys people gifted her, preferring instead to play with whatever it is I'm using (kitchen stuff, paper, cell phones, etc).

I would love to hear other parents' experience with babies and toys. Also where to get them in HK.

[elle]

Here is a link to an article on toys for 9 - 12 month olds:

http://www.babycenter.com/0_toys-for...th-olds_820.bc

I would add that my kid liked 'ride on' or 'push and ride' type toys in when around this age group. We also played a lot with safe things around the house that were not toys and looked at/ read a lot of baby books.

[pixelelf]

here's what my 2 kids love around 9-12mths, they still love them now!

- different kinds of books - hard cover, cloth, normal etc
- assortment of musical instrument like, maracas, handheld bells etc
- ride on toys with buttons and music
- push toys with a better grip wheel (goes slower) such as a pretend stroller, supermarket trolley etc
- low standing activity table
- bath toys wheelies
- cooking toys - pots, pans, veg, food, those that can be taken apart by velcro
- animal pull toys
- telephones, walkie talkies, microphones

[mb2]

My girl didn't really enjoy "real toy" until nearly 1.5 year old as far as I remember.

When she was around 9-12 months, I tried to produce some "toys"

[mb2]

I let her play with below while she was around 9-12 months old:

- beans or macaroni in a drinking bottle. She enjoyed taking them in & out repeatedly. When she grew a bit bigger, I also gave her a spoon to practice scooping. It's a great "toy" which is cheap and good for training her fine motor skill.

- I put some picture cards in a paper tissue box. She liked taking them in and out again and read the cards.

- books. Mainly about animal.. Her favourite.

- crayons.

- piano (avoid those very complicated ones with many buttons, which would certainly distract her. She would ended up only pressing the buttons non stop). I got her a mini grabd piano online (with black and white keys only). I saw a similar one in itsmagical too, but a bit expensive

...

[lesliefu]

No need to buy things...except for perhaps books...you can make homemade toys that will produce enough stimuation for this age....a shaker...beans in a plastic bottle (different beans and amounts of beans will give you different sounds)...just plain bubbles to blow...popping will help her reach out and practice her fine motor, ballons to practice hitting and learn colours.

I'd you really want to buy something...wise kids has lots of nice educational toys (in pacific place and also princes building in central) or you could try it's magical (also in pacific place...inside Harvey Nichols) but they ate quite expensive...have some interesting things though