09/25/2026
Developmental Tip 🧠
You don't need fancy toys or expensive learning materials to support development. Some of the best learning opportunities are already sitting around your house!
This specific activity pictured is best to start in the 12–18 month range. This is when children are developing the visual-spatial awareness, problem-solving skills, and hand coordination needed to figure out how objects relate to one another. Something as simple as matching lids to containers requires a child to notice size and shape, orient the pieces, coordinate both hands, and adjust when something doesn't work.
As children grow, we can add complexity to those everyday materials:
🧺 Around 9–10 months: Once baby is sitting steadily and reaching for objects, place a few favorite toys in a small, shallow basket. Reaching in, grasping, retrieving, filling, and dumping all build coordination and spatial awareness. As they get older, try a larger laundry basket or weave yarn across the opening so they have to figure out how to reach the toys.
🧸 Around 9–10 months: Loosely tape toys to a muffin tin, floor, high-chair tray, or other safe surface. Pulling them free gives little hands a problem to solve! As their strength and coordination develop, use more pieces of tape or create a slightly greater challenge.
⚪ Around 12 months+: Tape toilet paper or paper towel tubes to a wall, refrigerator, or door and provide lightweight balls to drop through. They're experimenting with object permanence, cause and effect, gravity, hand-eye coordination, and early problem-solving.
🏕️ Any age: Keep towels and blankets available for play. Peek-a-boo and hiding eventually grow into dragging, wrapping, carrying, building, and elaborate forts. The material stays the same while the play becomes increasingly complex.
🧦 Around 18 months+: Add a few socks to a simple washing station. Wash → squeeze → hang → dry → match. One everyday activity can support sensory exploration, sequencing, bilateral coordination, hand strength, matching, and practical-life skills.
The materials don't have to become more elaborate as children grow. The challenge can.
Take a look around your house before buying the next learning toy. A container and its lid might be exactly the developmental challenge your child is ready to figure out. 🌱
