Budget-Friendly Gifts for Newborns to Tots

Blocks: One-year-olds love to squish things, which makes soft blocks more appealing to little hands than the old-fashioned hard variety. Soft blocks also lack the dangerous rough edges of building blocks.

Shape sorter: Trying to fit a shape into a hole might seem ridiculously easy to an adult, but to a one-year-old, it's a real challenge. A shape sorter helps toddlers learn problem-solving skills while they're having fun.

Push-and-pull toys: For little legs just learning to get around, a push toy can be great practice. There are a number of varieties of push-and-pull toys out there, from the old-fashioned corn popper filled with bouncing colored balls to the more modern lawnmower or shopping cart.

Toy telephone: Toy manufacturers have taken this classic into the digital age. Today, toy phones go far beyond the push-button variety. There are cell phones, cordless phones, and even phones with answering machines on which children can record their own messages.