It’s often hard to find a baby toy that offers hours of entertainment, quality and an economical price.   With the help of some young parents and their discerning babies, here’s a short list of baby toys that cost less than fifteen dollars (with shipping and handling):

The rubber duck
Babies are a lot simpler than toddlers in that they don’t need anything other than something that floats in the tub. They can dunk the duck, splash it, squeeze it, grab it, and of course, watch it bob in the water. Not only will your baby enjoy this classic toy but they will begin to learn cause and effect at a young age, as well.

The mirror
If you take an unbreakable mirror and attach it to your babies crib, they will have no idea that they are staring at themselves, but rather will get a kick out of their own facial expressions. This happens due to the nature of instant gratification. Babies learn from mimicking, and although they will be mimicking themselves, they will now have the basic universal elements of language such as smiling.

Stacking blocks
Babies continually need to work on their motor skills and what better way to accomplish this than through soft stacking blocks. If your child is young, you can stack them and let the baby knock them down, or teach them how to toss the blocks improving their range of motion before they even know what it is.

Stacking rings
Although similar to the stacking blocks, stacking rings have the ability to teach your baby about size and color. Each ring is a contrasting color and each one is also a different size. Your baby will also learn trial and error by stacking the wrong rings on top of one another.

Which toys didn’t make this list?