Put Scotch Tape Over The Speaker!!!...

This is a great toy for growing infantren. I didn't get it till my son was 8mos old, so I'm not sure how great it is for younger babies, but so far my son loves it (we've had it about a month now). HOWEVER...this toy is VERY loud, and there is no volume control. I just put small pieces of Scotch Tape over the little speaker on the front. Worked like a charm! I put a couple layers to quiet it down a lot, you can use more or less depending on your tolerance. I can't wait till my son can use this as a little table to draw on. Overall, I'm VERY happy with this purchase!

[Tuesday, November 11, 2008]

keeping the baby busy

this was a good purchase, however the infant can only use it for a small amount of time... even though it changes for them to sit up and play with it, by the time that comes they up and all over the house and could care less about it!!! my daughter loved it for about 2 months while she was in her rolling over stage before she started crawling, now it's at their daycare and certainly still being used:)

[Thursday, October 16, 2008]

Durable, both in functionality and entertainment value

We have now owned this toy for 2 years. It has been durable enough to endure overseas shipping in its original packaging and 2 years worth of hard play from several infantren ranging from 6 months to 4 years in age. It needs a good cleaning, but it still looks like new and all parts work. This in spite of having cereal stored in the 'cups' and water poured on it several times. I have assembled, disassembled, and reassembled it several times to accomodate different uses and to save space when we lived in a small apartment.

To begin with, I found this toy to be least useful as a gym for our 6 month old daughter. She was not too interested in staying underneath the gym, and only used the kickplate function to kick herself out from under it. (I set the kickplate against the wall so that the gym would not be kicked away from her.) I must qualify this experience by saying that my daughter never liked lying down to play. She sat on her own from 4 months old, so it was difficult to convince her otherwise. I expected the toy to be entirely too loud as other reviewers have been so helpful to mention. It was indeed loud, but I used the tape-over-the-speaker solution (cutting it carefully into a circle to fit the speaker to prevent any easily picked off edges from poking out). My daughter and other infantren never even noticed it (scotch tape) until a few months ago at which point I removed it. It did cut the sound output significantly.

We soon progressed to allowing her to sit on the bench, well supervised and surrounded by pillows, for short periods. She was quite satisfied to play with the spinning features and playing music from that position. She is now nearly three years old and still enjoys sitting and playing the music, but she has now discovered the 'piano' tones and likes to sit for a bit and compose 4-note songs. A bit dull compared to other keyboard toys, but we don't have any others in our house, so she is content. Every infant who comes to visit has been drawn to the toy; perhaps it is very unique in Europe. Children of all ages have found something with it to interest them.

I have used the easel/table feature mostly for serving snacks to my daughter and her friend. None of the infantren who have played with it have expressed much interest in using the table feature for arts or crafts. They all use it for a minute or two only to progress to the floor. I can only guess that they find it to be too little space on the table. But it seems to be functionally well designed otherwise. The clip holds the paper well and there is place for crayons or a cup of paint, etc.

The toy has withstood a fair share of abuse as well. It has been used to creatively access unreachable objects, by enduring 2 year olds standing on and sitting on the table part (No, I do not allow that when I see it). And it has seen creative use as well. Serving as a 'house' for the same 2 year olds who draped it with a blanket and lay down with their heads underneath.

As a last point, it may be useful to some considering the purchase of this, that our daughter has been and continues to be extremely tall for her age. She is in the 105th percentile in height(the same height as most 4 year olds), but still fits well on the bench with legs underneath the table. She usually likes to stretch her legs out straight as the bench is so low to the ground, so I could see that if a tall infant prefers to sit with her feet in close to her/his body, knees could hit the table. But I have not noticed this to be an issue even when she is sitting properly.

[Tuesday, August 26, 2008]

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