What a one-year-old actually needs: a toy maker's short list

Walk into any toy shop with a one-year-old and you'll see a wall of plastic that lights up, sings and does the playing for them. Our group has made toys for kindergartens since 1989. Here is what we've watched one-year-olds actually use, and why we built Year One of Chapters around it.

What One-Year-Olds Are Learning

Between their first and second birthday, children are learning three big things with their hands: grip and release (letting go on purpose is harder than holding on), size and order (which cup goes inside which), and cause and effect (if I knock it, it falls). The best toys for this age give them hundreds of small, safe repetitions of those three things. They don't need batteries.

Five Toys We Recommend

1. A stacking tower with graded rings. The rings only fit in one order, so the toy gives the feedback and you don't have to. Expect the tower to be knocked down more than it is built. That's the point.
2. Nesting cubes. Four or five open cubes in graded sizes. They nest, they stack, they hide things, and they get carried around the house. One of the longest-lived toys we make.
3. Shape cups. Fill, pour, match. The first maths most children do is with their hands at the kitchen table, and cups let them do it with water, rice or sand.
4. A simple shapes strip or first shape board. Two or three big shapes with knobs. The first puzzle most toddlers finish alone, which matters more than any flashcard.
5. Graded shapes on pegs. Same idea as the tower but sideways: biggest to smallest, left to right, the way they'll later read.

What to Avoid at This Age

• Anything with small parts. Toys for under-threes shouldn't have pieces that fit through a toilet-roll tube. Check the age label.
• Toys that play by themselves. If the toy does the singing, the child does the watching.
• Too many at once. Four or five toys out on a low shelf, rotated every few weeks, beats a toy box they can't see into.

Year One, Chapter 1: The Stacker

Year One · Chapter 1: The Stacker is exactly this list, made in our own factory from solid wood, with a printed play guide that says what each toy teaches and three ways to play with it:

• Grading Circular Tower: a tower that only works in the right order, so they learn by trying again.
• Stacking Shape Tower: shapes onto pegs. Turning and lining up pieces builds problem solving.
• Natural Stacking Cubes: nest them, stack them, knock them down. Size order and hand-eye coordination.
• Natural Shapes Cups: fill, pour and match shapes to cups. Early maths with their hands.
• Wooden Shapes Strip: match each shape to its place on a strip, left to right, like reading.
• Toddlers Grading Shapes: graded shapes on pegs. Size, order and a steady hand.

Bought on its own, the box is $89 every 3 months on subscription (Chapter 2 follows automatically and you can cancel from your account at any time), or $99 as a one-off box, delivered anywhere in Australia. In a Chapters membership, this box comes with a solid-wood table and chair at your child's height, which are yours to keep, and the next chapter follows every 3 months. Membership is $149 every 3 months or $499 for a year upfront. We send the next chair and table legs free as they grow, and members get 15% off everything in the shop. Tell us their birthday and we'll show you where to start.

Made by Edu Fun in our own factory since 1989. Packed and sent from Pakenham, Victoria.