Sienna is 11 months old now and she is becoming more active and aware of everything every day. With her wanting to explore more and get involved with everything that is going on, she needs more toys and activities that can capture her attention and keep her entertained for longer.
I have put together a list of things that we are using with sienna to help keep her happy and to build her skills and confidence.
Pop Up Ball Pit
The ball pit is definitely one of the things Sienna has the most fun with. She loves getting inside the ball pit and playing with all the balls. It definitely holds her attention for a long time and you can see she is having so much fun playing. She also loves throwing the balls out of it too. Playing catch with a baby who has an endless supply of balls to throw is definitely more fun for them than for us as you can imagine lol!
Drum Set
If you can stand the noise, a drum kit is a great sensory activity. Sienna can stay playing with the instruments for a long time. I’m actually quite surprised at how good she is with the wind instruments too. She blows them very, very well. I don’t remember Bella doing this at her age.
Soft/Indoor Balls
Oh my days, Sienna really loves to play with her ball. To be honest, I didn’t think of buying one for her just yet but when you have an older child in the house, their toys tend to be all around too and Sienna just decided she wanted to play with Bella’s ball. This particular ball is actually quite deflated now. But it is better that way because it is smaller and she can carry it everywhere. I was surprised to see her actually kicking the ball recently. I thought that was a big achievement for an 11-month-old baby! It definitely is a simple, but a great toy for all babies to learn a range of skills with as they play.
Zip Bag full of small toys
This is the easiest entertainment that you could have. Bella has a set of Peppa Pig toys, like all the kids this age it would seem, and she loves them. We keep these toys in a corner in the living room and of course, Sienna has discovered them too. She just goes straight to them and plays with them constantly.
Therefore, what I have done is to put all the pieces in a large transparent zip bag so she can go straight to it and empty it. This is the most fun ever for her. She can spend a fair amount of time exploring all the little toys. Of course, we have to watch out for any small pieces, take them out to avoid any choking.
Foldable box with small toys
Sienna has had this box of toys since she was 4 months old I think. These are small soft toys, some of which make noises. She used to empty the box all the time. Now though, she gets the box from the shelf and throws it everywhere. This seems to be entertaining for her as she tends to do this a lot!
Big foldable box with bigger soft toys
Although it was always in the living room, Sienna has only recently paid attention to this box. She didn’t use to play with it as much but I realised that lately she goes to the box and starts taking the soft toys out and gives them a hug and then takes a couple of them in turns to different parts of the house. I haven’t seen her doing this before so it is amazing and so lovely to watch. She is so cute.
Books
These books are for Bella although there are some that are more for Sienna’s age. But most of them are for older children. For some reason though, Sienna just loves them or, more accurately, she just loves making a mess with them, lol. She likes pulling them all from the shelf where they are kept onto the floor. I swear she does this about 10,000 times a day! Unfortunately, mummy here has to keep tidying them up every single time. You can see a picture of her doing this that I put in a post for Wicked Wednesday here.
Books with sounds
This type of book is always a winner because they really get Sienna’s attention. She now knows how to turn the page or at least she manipulates them in such a way that the music plays.
Pet toy with sound and movements
This toy is incredible. It moves in such a way that it looks like a real dog. It jumps, moves and begs, etc. It definitely captures Sienna’s attention! In the beginning, she was a little bit concerned about it but now she just plays with it a lot more. It is such a cute toy too and I really love it.
This is just a small example of what we use to keep Sienna entertained. It isn’t an exhaustive list, I am pretty sure there are so many more toys that can do this too but I hope this gives you some ideas on what toys are great for this age. I have put together a list of suggestions of toys that might be good entertainment for an 11 month old baby HERE.
What do you do to entertain your baby? What other toys have you used or what sort of activities have you done? It would be nice to make a list of everybody’s suggestions and tips so please leave your comment below as I would love to know what other tips you have.
Thanks for stopping by,
Love you all ❤️
Franca 💋
Romi says
Súper interesante el artículo!! Me encanto!!
amomentwithfranca says
Ayy que linda gracias!! Si pues es todo un tema mantenerlos entretenidos! Te mando un beso grande!
WhatLauraLoves says
You’ve got some great ideas here. I don’t have any children but I’m sure this’ll be a really helpful post for lots of people 🙂 xxx
amomentwithfranca says
Thank you lovely!! xx
Miranda (Myrabev) says
All these look like great ideas but I do not have kiddies yet so not much help from me.
amomentwithfranca says
No worries, thanks for stopping by, xx
Emma says
Happy little one 🙂 you clearly know the best ways to keep them entertained. I struggle to remember to take something out with us! There is so much to pack in the pushchair/car I forget the vital things like toys!!
amomentwithfranca says
LOL thanks for commenting Emma, 🙂 xx
Mummaknows says
Love this age!! Mine is just about there in another few months. Thanks for these tips – I will be using soon! #famjamlinky
amomentwithfranca says
I hope you find them useful when the time comes! Thanks for hosting! Sorry I’m late with my reply, I’m catching up now, xx
Jenny says
Fantastic ideas and advice for the babas entertainment. Love this. We did many of these with my two. Thank you so much for linking up to Share With Me. #sharewithme
amomentwithfranca says
Thank you Jenny! xx
Julie says
We so need to get out boy a ball pit! And that drum looks awesome fun too. Great post!
amomentwithfranca says
Thank you so much Julie! I’m so glad you like it! The ball pit is so handy, they really love it!! 🙂 xx
NewMummyBlog says
I’ve just followed your link from your 1 year old toys post… THis is a fab list too. H is 11 months this week, and loves her books, ball pit and soft toys too. I might have to find the drum set you’ve got, as it looks brilliant. H has never tried a wind instrument, and It’s never crossed my mind to give her one, I’ll need to try that too. Thanks, another fab post x
Poe says
Hello there! Visiting from the #globalblogging pinterest board. I have an almost 1 year old and I’m loving the toy ideas. My son plays with a xylophone but we recently did a music class with him for a few weeks and he had so much fun with drums and maracas, etc. I never thought of a wood instrument. Will be trying that out.
He also has a ball pit at grandmas house which he adores. Thanks for the ideas!
amomentwithfranca says
Hello! So lovely to hear that you are visiting me from #globalbloggimg pinterest board! So happy to hear these ideas are helpful for you. Kids grow so fast and now my little one is almost 4 and ready to start school this Year! I still can’t believe it! Time flies! Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂 x
H Y says
Unfortunately, don’t have any kids of my own but i’m usually the babysister for my 6 nephews and nieces… understand exactly difficult it is to keep the occupied with activities.
Susie Wilkinson says
As you say, the drum set is great for sensory development, but also needs to be hidden frequently!
Laura says
I used to really struggle with keeping my singleton amused at this age, I had twins a few years later and it was a bit easier to keep them entertained as they would enjoy each other’s company
Bernie says
Always open to new ideas
Sheila Sloan says
Cece loves anything that rattles or makes a noise. She loves joining in with music.
Laura Gallant says
So great ideas here
Lisa Jones says
Fantastic ideas to keep the little ones entertained!!
Cindy N says
Fab ideas. Thank you x
Priscilla Stubbs says
some very helpful tips here, I don’t have a very little person but I know friends who would love these ideas
ashleigh says
Good idea!
justine meyer says
Some of these ideas will be great for my nephew
Kristyn Harris says
Thank you! Some wonderful and fabulous tips here! Will definitely be trying some of these out!
YOLANDA DAVIS says
I have a one-year-old Grandson and my daughter has struggled, during lockdown, to stop him climbing the walls with boredom. I’ll be passing on this great advice to her. Thank you.
Sheena Batey says
Been a while since my daughter was 11 months but I do remember how active she was
Mr Mark Adamson says
Some useful tips there, I’m out of practice but now have a niece so it starts all over again
Julia says
Great ideas. You seem so organised with a place for everything…better than being cluttered!
Louise Reeks says
Great ideas, can’t wait to have my nephews again and try these