Toys for Little Movers, ages 6-9 months

What a FUN stage with littles! They are sitting up to play now, learning to crawl and then stand and cruise.....and so I have changed up the toys for this stage. Everything is still going into their mouths, but they are really loving "bigger" items, things that will help them develop these gross motor skills. (Yes, there are affiliate links included with some of these ideas!)

I have this walker that at first mine just loved to sit in while I worked in the kitchen for a bit.....until they realized that they could move their feet and start exploring the hallway and move from the kitchen to the living room. We had races down the hallway and I could listen to those laughs forever:)

This standing easel and stand up car were a hit, too. I love the easel because it converts from a toy they can sit in front of and play with, to a table that they can stand to play with, and then an easel later when they can draw and paint. The car has so many songs and sounds and is fun to just stand and play with, but also when they begin walking, they love to push it along. It's a perfect size.

Opus, from Fisher Price, is a cute little octopus that encourages littles to "chase" him around the floor and there are different settings so they can dance as Opus calls out "move to the front" and "move to the left" , for example. At this age they just think it's fun to chase him around, but later we may use it when they are walking and dancing:)

This collection of bath animal toys from Munchkin seems like maybe not a toy for little movers, but I'll tell you how I used them: as motivation to cruise from one end of my couch to the other! I would put a few on the cushion on the end of the couch and put him at the opposite end and he loved them so much that he learned to cruise along until he reached them!

Climbing blocks --I got this set of soft climbing blocks and we called it the "mountain", and around 8 and a half months, it became really fun to climb up the stair block and "slide" down the incline block. Again, I used a toy to motivate him to climb up, and then I showed him how to roll a ball down the slide, too, to practice the word "ball." So much fun, but I did stay close by while he learned to climb on these.

This was also the age where I invested in a play yard, so that there was a safe spot for my grands to play while I cleaned up after a meal, or when I ran to the bathroom, or answered the door for a delivery......and also handy when family members with dogs came to visit, so that both the baby and the toys were safe. I got this one from Harppa, and my daughter has this one from :