10 Best Toys for 8-Month-Olds Reviewed in 2024

Design

It's designed for hours of entertainment and there's a seemingly endless list when it comes to all the ways this will bring a smile to your baby's face. Starting with the soft playmat designed with bright colors to the numerous baby-safe toys, the Baby Einstein Caterpillar & Friends was designed to stimulate your baby's senses and spark their curiosity.

Educational Value

Your baby will be reaching, pulling, swatting, and touching every single thing that dangles down from their very own mini-gym. There are loops and rings and some parts of their gym will even light up and sing (we're not saying that we intended that to rhyme but we're not saying we didn't, either). The bright shining star toy that's found in the center of the gym can also be removed and used on the go as a fun travel toy as well. It's a great learning station for tactile efficiency, motor skills, and visual stimulation.

Entertainment Value

Your baby will be highly active when they're sitting in their brand new activity gym. They'll have the opportunity to kick their feet up (literally!) and play with all the things that surround them in a fully-immersive, interactive experience.

Design

This activity ball has four different areas of entertainment that all serve a specific purpose. In the middle of this ball, there's a frog that's able to be spun around, encouraging dexterity and motor function. Around the outside, you'll find a small mirror, various sliding beads, and plastic rings that can all by twisted and slid along the handles. Each one of these has a different texture that makes it appealing to your little one.

Educational Value

By evaluating each of these areas of activity, your child will make short work of improving their various motor functions. They'll be gripping this activity ball and exploring every aspect of it in no time at all, therefore taking away both entertainment and skill-building from it.

Entertainment Value

Having so many varying features means that this toy will not get boring. It can be played with before or after naptime, in between feeding, on long car rides, etc., and will make your baby just as happy as the first time they laid eyes on it.

Design

As with any octopus, this little guy has eight arms that differ a bit from any normal plush toy. Each arm holds a different surprise that awaits your baby with the simple press of a button. When they press each color-coded button, they'll be delighted to hear different sounds, music, and even experience various textures and noises. It's cuddly and cute but also fun and entertaining -- Everything you could ask for in a stuffed animal!

Educational Value

The Octoplush is a treat for the baby's senses and will encourage them to interact with their toy, thus testing their senses even further. When pressing the tentacles, the Octoplush will introduce your baby to the color names, classic baby melodies and has a language setting option that can help young ones jumpstart their linguistic abilities.

Entertainment Value

This little guy can go anywhere your baby goes and will encourage their sensory learning. It's even fun to use when you're playing with them one on one and sure to incite some contagious giggles. Your baby will be totally surprised when they realize that they're the ones who are causing this octopus to sing so much.

Design

The VTech Baby Lil' Critters Spin and Discover is made from high-quality plastic with no sharp edges that might harm the baby. Featuring three friendly faces of a frog, bear and a bird it's visually appealing and makes it instantly likable for the little one. The added suction cup on the button makes it an ideal high-chair toy, minimizing the risk of the toy falling over and breaking down.

Educational Value

By simply spinning the wheel, your baby will be exposed to five different songs and over 45 sounds and phrases. It's truly a toy that will grow with your baby and the older they get, the more they'll get out of this educational Ferris Wheel. It's great for encouraging speech skills and getting your baby to warm up those vocal cords. With five catchy songs to choose from, your baby will be bouncing and singing along in no time. As they get older, they'll learn how to repeat the phrases back to their favorite VTech toy and slowly begin to improve their speaking skills.

Entertainment Value

This little product has a whole lot to say for itself and we have no doubt that your baby will have plenty to say back to it. It's perfect for individual play and will keep your baby entertained and learning when they're playing on their own. This is one product that will hold its value for years to come. It's a hit with babies younger than a year as well as those who have entered into toddlerhood. With so many various levels of interaction, your baby can use this all the way until they've reached four years of age.

Design

We love that this jazzy little elephant will quickly become one of your child's favorite toys and will likely remain that way when they reach their toddler years.

Educational Value

This adorable little elephant comes with rings that are easily stacked onto his nose and as your baby places them, they'll hear a fun surprise. This elephant interacts with your child and will tell them about numbers, colors, and even shapes. Just by hearing their elephant talk, they'll be motivated to talk back and eventually, they'll know exactly what he's saying. When your child is finished stacking all the rings, they can then send them flying by pressing down on his tail. This vocal elephant will help improve your child's skills in two major areas. First, they'll be improving coordination and motor skills by stacking each ring onto the trunk of the elephant. Secondly, as they grow and being learning, they'll be able to absorb and memorize the information that their elephant is communicating with them. It's truly an investment in the future!

Entertainment Value

With a mighty "AH-CHOO!" all the rings will come falling off and your baby will get the chance to do it all over again. It's a fun and unique toy that will hold its value long into your baby's toddler years< It's an innovative and fun way to learn about shapes, colors, and numbers, and will help them improve various skill sets during each stage of growth.

Design

One block features a mirror for little ones learning about recognizing themselves. Another block vibrates when you pull a string. Still another has a bell inside that tingles when you shake it. And the final block is just that: a sturdy, simple, soft-foam block. All blocks have different shapes, images, and colors on their varied sides.

Educational Value

These gentle baby blocks will help young children to increase their fine and gross motor skills, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination. They’ll also start to learn about colors, animals, and cause and effect. Plus they’ll get to enjoy a creative outlet by building their own fun structures!

Entertainment Value

We love that these blocks are so big. Their larger-than-life design is a big selling point amongst infants. They’re not only easy to pick up, they’re also more fun to play with given their size. The bright colors and varied images also hold young attention spans and attract little eyes.

Design

The design is based on the classic stacking ring toy we all had & loved in our early childhood. Whether your baby is just having fun with their rings or actually learning how to listen to this fun VTech creation, we're sure that they'll never turn this toy away.

Educational Value

You've seen stacking rings such as these before but what you haven't seen are stacking rings that actually sing and talk back! VTech is back at it again with products that encourage learning and will hit a number of skill sets that are beneficial to baby development. These rings look just like any other until they're turned on; your baby will be surprised to learn that they actually talk. Whether this toy is instructing your baby to stack their rings or playing catchy musical melodies, it's sure to be a hit no matter what age they are. It's unique in the sense that it's motivational and will provide positive encouragement as your baby learns how to follow the size order of each ring.

Entertainment Value

With over 40 different songs to choose from, it's one toy that very rarely becomes boring. Each time your baby stacks a ring correctly, they'll be rewarded with a special melody just for them. This smart set of rings even encourages them to continue stacking if it notices a significant lag in time in between ring placements. There's nothing more we love than to see a toy that's fun, skill-building, and motivational. This reimagining of a classic ring stack game is definitely next-generation and proves that traditional toys can be revamped to suit educational purposes. Your baby will drastically improve their hand-eye coordination all while having a blast listening to music and melodies.

Design

This Fascination Station is really just an activity center that has several different points of interest that your child will find thoroughly captivating. It can be suction-cupped to a hard surface but can also be removed from its base in order to be played with on the floor or on the go. It features eye-catching black and white-striped rings along with a colorful fish and a spinner that, when spun, produces a rattling noise. The simplicity of this activity center shouldn't be underestimated when it comes to visual and auditory learning. Your baby will be slowly improving in motor functions as well as making connections in their brain between what they're seeing and what they're hearing, making this an easy, yet worth it, product.

Educational Value

Hand-eye coordination is a big point of development when your baby reaches eight months. At this point, they've realized what they can use their hands and fingers for but are just getting the hang of holding and pinching things. A toy such as this can be very useful in encouraging your baby to move their hands in various ways to produce different sounds and visual effects.

Entertainment Value

From the colorful beads to the spinning design this toy is great for keeping their attention and allow them to explore with their hands. It is great for encouraging the connection to be made from sight to sound. It'll hold your baby's attention and help them to use their deduction skills in order to make the connection between what they're seeing and what they're hearing. The clear tunnel in the center of the toy allows them to do this relatively easily since they can see straight into it, and it'll take them no time at all to figure out how to use it.

Design

The Roll and Discover Ball will play music and phrases as it's rolled around on the floor, prompting your baby to crawl after it in order to play again. The various noises that are emitted from this ball are what encourages your baby to crawl after it and it's tons of fun to play within groups or individually. This would also make for a fun game to play with your baby, as you can roll it to them and watch as they delight in its catchy music and interesting sounds.

Educational Value

This ball is specifically intended to encourage your baby to learn how to crawl. By eight months, chances are that your baby is already up and exploring their home. If not, then this ball can come in handy to provide motivation to get them moving. If your baby is crawling already, then this is a fun way to get them to keep up the great work and build much-needed muscles for walking. We love that there are so many options when it comes to using this ball during playtime. Babies won't be able to help but bounce around and dance to all of the neat music it plays and they'll find plenty of joy in crawling after it to hear more.

Entertainment Value

The large size of this ball makes it very easy to catch up to and keeps it from going too far. It's also covered with fun textures so your baby will be mesmerized from the sheer feel of it when it's not rolling around the room.

Design

Bendable, flexible, versatile: these little links are a compact building toy made simple and safe enough for young children to enjoy. These are a perfect on-the-go toy as they pack up easily and can be stored inside kids’ backpacks, mom’s purse, or even dad’s pockets. These are BPA-free.

Educational Value

Bright Starts’ links build dexterity, confidence, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination. They’re also a great creative outlet and a way for children to learn basic problem-solving as well as enjoying their own imaginative inventions.

Entertainment Value

Kids can bend them, twist them, squish them, link them together; the possibilities are numerous. Children will love the opportunity to make their very own creations and experiment with all of the different ways they can shape and form these versatile little rings.