LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table

We got this when A was around 8 months old. Activity table was recommended by a friend and the idea was that it gives a lot more options to a baby to explore in a fun way. A actually enjoyed it too.  She would spin, tap the shapes, slide the guitar, the one thing she did most was turning the page of the book and the mode would change. The one thing i noticed is that on spinning ABC song would play. Even before it reaches D, A would press something else and it would say red or yellow or something. Its basically becomes a cacophony of abc, 123, red, blue, circle or some music.  A noticed that by turning pages modes are changing and by pressing buttons music etc is coming.

But because of the cacophony its difficult for a baby to associate correct music to correct instrument. For eg: You cant expect baby to learn shapes or colors with it. Educational value of the toy is very less.

At the same time, it is fun for babies but for a limited period. At 14 months, once in a week or two she plays with it. So it was basically used for 2-3 months only. This was the toy using which A stood for the first time because she wanted to turn the page of the book. And she used to stand for long just to play with the stuff on the table. Plastic quality is good.

LeapFrog Learn and Groove Musical Table on flipkart
LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table on amazon.com

Verdict: Buy it if you want a fun toy and your baby has not started standing. Don't expect much education and after standing, babies will very quickly grow out of it. Till the time they learn standing etc, this toy offers good amount of fun and has various options to explore.

How do we buy toys or books?

A question which is asked very frequently to me:
We understand the importance of toys and books but toddlers toys and books are so costly, how do we buy them? Its an extra expense.

My answer: Well yes, 'some' toys and books are not costly. And rather than seeing it as an expense, see it as an investment. An investment to your child's future and a way to unleash their creativity. I agree buying toys is important but they should be chosen very carefully. Toys can do a lot of good if chosen correctly. Moreover its your hard earned money, so it makes sense to spend it on the right kind of toys and books. Few tips I have:

1. If you have time and energy, you can consider making toys at home.
If not, please do buy those for your kid.

2. Make a budget: Every month allocate a fixed amount to toys and books and stick to it. (For eg: you can choose Rs 1000 as the monthly allowance for toys and books).

3. Buy only branded or high quality toys/books. Cheap, local and low quality toys break much faster. High quality items last forever and are safe for kids. Once your kid is grown, you can even sell them.

 

4. If your budget doesn't allow buying the toys you need, consider buying second hand branded toys on olx or quikr rather than buying low quality toys.

 

5.  Avoid buying anything which offers limited play. (Eg: Anything which will play a drum if you press a button or will walk on touch etc). Such electronic toys hardly offer any educational/creative value, are quite costly. And the worst is kids grow out of them pretty fast.

6. Always check the reviews before buying.

7. Consider buying toys and books online as you can get good discounts and deals.

8. Invest in toys and books which can be used for a longer period of time. For eg: pretend play toys, blocks, tents etc. These are toys which can be used for years together and are played in different ways as the kid is growing. One little expensive toy which can be used for 2 years is better than 3 or 4 toys which will be used for few months.

9. For every stage there are few must buys, which are usually not expensive. Consider buying those before moving to the more expensive ones.

10. If you are a reader of this page, you can always message us on FB or email us on learningfrommykid@gmail.com, with your query and we can help you decide or pick.

Dear Zoo

Classic!! Must buy!! A great story. Again goes to A++ category for animal lovers. 'A' loves this book. Its a classic lift the flap book. The story begins with a child's letter to the zoo to send him a pet. And then comes a series of animals sent by the zoo. All under flaps. The child keeps returning them all until a perfect puppy is sent by the zoo. In the series of animals, some was too heavy or too fierce or too naughty. A great story for kids and they learn to associate words like heavy with elephant, naughty with monkey etc.
 
Dear Zoo Noisy Book

I bought the noisy book. And the noisy part of it adds a lot of fun to reading.  When I received it, I was a little concerned as the book has hardcover but papers are not hard. That means by little one can tear them. Thankfully 'A' handles it carefully and hasn't torn any page yet. She loves to press the animal sounds as we read the story. The illustrations are big but simple and nice. Kids get interested in animals after reading such books which has animal sounds too. You can talk a lot while reading this book which will in turn help their speech skills.

If you already own some noisy book or are concerned that little one will tear the pages you can instead buy board book from the following link:

Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book

Coin bank

I came across this product while browsing.

Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Learning Piggy Bank

I liked the product. This product offers multiple benefits. A child can learn counting, putting the coin in the bank improves the hand eye coordination drastically. A lot of other things can be taught using it. If your budget permits, you can consider buying it, mine didn't. I had already exhausted by monthly quota for A's books and toys.

I know lot of ways to teach A counting etc and she has other toys to learn animals, colours etc. I realise may be I want this toy just so that she can put the coins in the piggy bank. Every time she will put the coin, the toy will make some sounds.

So, I decided to give her my piggy bank for playing(Yes, I still have one!). After practising putting the coins inside the coin bank for sometime, A could do it all alone. Then I turned it upside down, so that the hole for putting the coin is not visible and gave her a coin. She adjusted the bank herself and then inserted the coin. Then I kept fiddling with the bank. She still sometimes find it difficult to put the coin if I put the bank in certain positions.

Overall, it was a very engaging and fun activity. And I didn't have to shell a single penny to buy anything.

What you need:
A coin bank and lot of large size coins

Method:
Show your baby how to insert the coin in the bank and shake it to make some noise to keep the baby interested. Then give a coin to the baby to insert. If the baby is struggling too much to insert it, help him/her. If he/she inserts it correctly, encourage them by praising them or by clapping for them. If the baby is still not able to do it even after you helping, leave it for a weeks and try later.

Advantage:
Improves hand eye coordination

Entertainment and learning for free(you might get all these materials at home) :)

Beaware:
Pick only large size coins which the baby can't swallow. Small coins can be a choking hazard.

If you don't have a piggy bank/coin bank you can consider getting one. It can be useful later to encourage saving habits in your kid.

Some links:
Superman Tin Coin Bank
Ollington Street Coin Box - Ice Cream Van

Note that I already had a bank. So the products in the above links have not been tried by me. You can check the reviews on amazon. I have just given the links as examples.

Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

If you have been reading my blog, by now you would know that A loves animals. That's why we got animal shape sorters from little genius(Little Genius wild animals) and from skillofun (Skillofun animal alphabet tray).

But as I had mentioned in the reviews, putting the animal shapes back in the correct slots is tough for a 12 month to 18 month old. Hence I wanted to buy something using which A can learn shapes and can learn inserting the shapes in the right slot by trial and error.

That's the reason I bought this Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

Link on amazon:

Little Genius Inset Shape Board (Small) with Knob

Link on flipkart:

Little genius Inset shape board

A is now 14 month old. She is not as interested in this tray as in animals tray but with a little help she can place all the shapes perfectly in their slots. I am pretty sure that in like a week, she will master this :) I am now using the same shapes to teach her colours. Well that's being too ambitious but a little extra words for the kid never harm. I just keep repeating the stuff to her. The best part is these kind of puzzles are fun cum learning, especially the animals puzzles. A spends like 30 minutes to 1 hour with these kind of puzzles. And I don't need to put in much effort. She is interested on her own :)

There are other similar puzzles available both from skillofun and little genius. You can go through the above links and see similar products. The reason I bought this one is because I didn't want anything too complicated. I just wanted a simple tray with not too many shapes.

Verdict: Buy it but you should consider checking similar products based on your requirement.

Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob

This was A's first animal shape sorter. It has 11 wild animals. Quite big in size.

Link to amazon:
Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob, Multi Color (Large)

A's dad used to show her these animals and used to make corresponding sounds.
For eg: For lion he used to roar. For monkey, he would say ku ku ki ki ka ka( sound copied from this toy Monkey chase). Similarly, different sounds or actions for different animals. A picked it up quite fast and soon she was trying to put the animals at the right places in the tray. She still can't really insert these animals properly. Well its tough for a 14 month old. But has learnt so many new words talking about these animals. I later got Skillofun animal alphabet tray too for A(you can check the review here Skillofun animal alphabet tray).

Seeing how much A has learnt from these toys, I have become a big fan of these kind of toys. Later i got many more shape sorter puzle trays for A. Will be posting reviews of all soon.

I like this product, but you can actually buy only one of these, either Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob, Multi Color (Large) or Skillofun animal alphabet tray

GOSF, 2014.. what did you buy?

How was your experience in GOSF? what all did you buy?

I was looking only for toys and books. Didn't find a lot of great offers. Some hourly offers on snapdeal were great though.

Here is a list of what all I bought:

1. Funskool play faces: Got this for 255.
2. Mee Mee Knowledge Box
3. Quercetti Georello Farm Activity Toy


Thats it. Show us what you bought. Please post the link below and do share your experience and whether you liked the product or not

GOSF 2014

GOSF is starting from 10th till 12th Dec, 2014. A lot of online offers will be announced.

Stay tuned to this page to see more and more toys & books amazing deals.

toys and books wishlist

I have been posting toys and books reviews of the stuff we have from last few days. There are some toys I really wish to get for my little one. Not able to buy those because of budget constraints. Either they are too costly and i have already exhausted my monthly quota of toys and books for A.
And sometimes I just wait for good deals to show up.

Documenting them all here so that you guys can also benefit from it.
And tracking the deals will become easier for me, if they are documented at one place.
This list might keep growing or reducing with time.

For a lot of them, i know what kind of toy but haven't decided which brand or item to pick.

Toys:

Lego, Lego Lego :) : I am yet to see which particular set from Lego do I want.
Doctor set
Kitchen set
Sand and water tables
Tool set
train track set
Car garage
Marble run set: Only after A stops taking toys to her mouth
Loom set(preferably rainbow loom): After A turns 5
Magna tiles
Magnet circus set or farm set



Books:

We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Classic Board Books) : I think A is going to love this one.
Owl babies
Hugless Douglas
Little Tiger: Are You My Mummy?
ABC Animal Rhymes for You and Me
Apple pie ABC
A to Z of Silly Animals - The Best Selling Illustrated Children's Book for All Ages by Sprogling (The Silly Animals Series 1) --> This is a free book. I haven't searched enough about this one. I plan to check it on my kindle soon.
Babars ABC
Corduroy: Giant Board Book
My Very First Mother Goose
Close Your Eyes (New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books (Awards))
Goodnight Moon
Is your mama a llama
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Busy Penguins (A Busy Book)
"More More More," Said the Baby Board Book (Caldecott Collection)
Gossie (Gossie and Friends Board Books)
In the Tall, Tall Grass
Good Night, Gorilla board book
Are You My Mother? (Bright & Early Board Books(TM))
Kitten's First Full Moon (New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books (Awards))
Love You Forever
Baby Faces: Peek-a-Boo
The Snowy Day Board Book
The Day the Crayons Quit
Time to Get Dressed!
Mommy, Daddy, I Had a Bad Dream!

LeapFrog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo

A loves animals. Every single book/toy which we got for her which has animals has been super hit with her. That is why we got this.

It says its a toy for 6 months+. We got it when she was 12 months.

LeapFrog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo on amazon

It has 3 modes.  We have mostly been using one mode as of now. Basically in that mode, when baby spins the ball and on which ever letter it stops, it tells the name of the animal corresponding to that letter and makes the sound made by that animal. For eg: if the lights are pointing towards letter 'P'. It says Pig, Oink Oink. Similarly there are total 26 animals. A giggles, laughs and tries to make those sounds. She finds them too funny.
I felt some of the sounds are not too accurate but then i don't think it matters much as we have had lot of fun and learning for the amount we paid.

Second mode tells the letters. Haven't used this mode much yet.

Third mode plays music till the time baby moves the ball. So, this basically teaches cause and effect. Every time the baby spins it, he/she is rewarded with music.


At the time of writing this review, i checked flipkart, amazon, snapdeal. The product wasn't available. Adding the links here, just in case it becomes available later.

LeapFrog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo on amazon
LeapFrog Spin and Sing Alphabet zoo on flipkart


Verdict: Must buy if you baby loves animals and animal sounds

Fisher Price Wobbly Fun Ball

This was one of the first few toys i bought for A. I wanted to buy her a ball which makes sound when she moves it. She was just few months old. I was concerned for her safety too. So, decided to go ahead with a well known brand "Fisher price"
To my disappointment, when the ball came i saw that the holes are not smooth. They can hurt kids fingers.
And when it moves, it makes noise. Those bells which they describe as jingling bells are just noise. I would rather give a rounded vessel to play to my kid than this ball. Fisher price disappointed me this time.  Interestingly, A now has lot of balls. She plays with every single one of them except this. She hates it. It was kept inside for months together. Then i took it out. She got excited. Touched it, moved it and decided to never touch it again. Looks like our tastes matches ;)

Fisher Price Wobbly Fun Ball

Verdict: best avoided

Tom And Jerry Tunnel Tent House

This is a tent which can be folded for storage. It is open from top. Has two holes on opposite sides. The tunnel can be connected to these holes. It comes with 50 colored soft plastic balls. 

It has one basketball basket inside. I got it when A turned one. This was one of her birthday gift. For dimensions etc you can check the link given here

Tom And Jerry Tunnel Tent House on snapdeal

When we got it, A was scared to enter inside. So i made her sit in the middle of the tunnel. And she hurriedly crawled outside. Since then there is nothing which will stop her :) She keeps entering the tunnel, plays for sometime with balls and then comes outside. And the loop goes on and on. Great for encouraging physical activity. She has still not got the hang of putting the balls in the basket ball. As of now she just enters, picks some ball, come outside, plays with it till the time it reaches a place she can't enter. And then enters the tent again to pick another ball. Her dad keeps moving the tunnel over the futon and A actually learned climbing the futon just to pass through this tunnel. It looks like she has lot of fun playing with it. I think as A grows i will use it for her to practice aiming the balls at the basket and it may act as a nice 4 sided covered area for all kind of pretend plays (may be i will setup my ice-cream parlor inside it with A ;)

It is a good to have toy. Definitely not a must have. More useful for a kid who han't yet started walking. Once they start walking, instead of entering the tent from tunnel, they can actually drop it/fold it to enter from the top. So, if your kid is walking etc, you might want to consider a separate tunnel toy or a fully covered tent. For A, this wasn't an issue as she was still in her crawling phase. Though the basket ball feature and ball pool is usually not available with other tunnels

Also, there are alternatives available which you might want to consider. For example:

Cross tunnel
Tent to Funny - Play Tube Tunnel Tent for Kids Educational & Fun Toys - Crawl Tent
Intex Baby Tent House 

Search for "tent"on amazon.in. I have added a search bar for amazon.in on the right hand side for your convenience. When we bought this tent, these options weren't available.

 
Verdict: Good to have, not a must buy

Hi

Hello all.. This is just an intro post. By gods grace i have got a chance to be parent to a lil one who just turned one. I want to make the most of out and give her ample opportunities to learn and have fun.

I am creating this blog to figure out and document ways in which i can help my lil one learn. Reason for documenting is also to help all others who read my blog. My baby just turned one. I am going to document all the activities which i think might help us in learning different stuff or some fun activities, fun toys. All these might be more inclined towards indian kiddos. To be true, i am a toy collector and want to expose my lil one to as many as possible.

Toys makes me happy. I feel they are very important. I believe kids develop certain skills early if exposed to the right toys. I keep searching for what kind of toys i should buy for my girl. Sadly, a lot of them are not available in India or sometime i have felt some toys are not so great for the indian kids. Thats what drove me to write this blog. I want to capture reviews/recommendations/positive and negative reviews for the toys to be captured here.
I believe every kid should get access to toys.. the happiness on their face when they see that and play with them gives me immense satisfaction.

I prefer buying non-battery cheaper, educational or fun toys for my little one. We do have electronic toys too. But in my experience A has learnt much more from her non-battery simple toys. I will be reviewing both the category of toys here. But I will be recommending very few electronic toys.  For you, it means you can get a whole lot educational toys for your kiddo with in a reasonable budget as electronic toys usually cost much more.

If you like any information on this page.. do post your comment or follow my blog. This is my first post on my first blog.. and I have no idea on how to use it.. so, i will be figuring out stuff as i move forward..

I will soon figure out how to catergorize stuff..  and will then add separate categories for learning activities, fun toys, etc.. I will also be posting A’s every day acts here which makes us bursts into laughter’s or moments which creates a permanent space in our memory.. Enough for the beginning i guess :)

In future, i would want to move this blog to my own domain to give my readers an ad free experience and better content control. So every time you buy from the links i post here, i get a penny which i plan to use for this blog or for getting access to more and more toys.

I Love Sounds Book

First i want to tell what is there in this book. If you are looking for a book which makes sound, then this book isn't the right one. Its a simple left the flap book. There are different things like animals, vehicles etc printed in the book on each flap. If you lift the flap, the name of the 'thing' and the sound it makes are printed. For example: On lifting the flap on which picture of cow is there, left side its written "cow" and on right side its written "moo".
No real sound. So, buy it if you want to expose your kid to the flaps concept and if you are ready to read it out to him/her what each of those pic is and what sound do they make.

A started loving this book once she turned 9 months old. and she still loves it. Now, i don't need to lift any of the flaps. She lifts them herself now. We love reading it.

Here is the link:
I Love Sounds Book

You can check the preview of this book on amazon.

Verdict: Not a must buy. Buy it if you want to expose your kid to lift the flap concept. We  love it.

But if you are just starting to build a book collection for your little one and have budget constraints then you can give this one a pass.

Skillofun Animal Alphabet Tray with Knobs

I am very very happy today. It was a long hectic day but then A's little act has made me super fresh and is compelling enough to review this little toy of hers.

I got A this toy few weeks back.

Skillofun Animal Alphabet Tray with Knobs
and When i got it, i thought A has no interest in it. So i packed it and kept it inside. A has no interest in keeping the animals on the tray. So, instead sometimes what we do is she keeps taking the animals out of the sack and then puts them back in. Of course, i keep telling her the names of the animals when shes taking them out and putting them in. But it never looked like that she is paying attention.

Over time i have seen she has preference towards some animals. So, what we did was this. A's dad quickly arranged all the 26 animals on the tray and then we asked her to get us monkey to put in the sack. She got it :)
Similarly she got us quail, whale, elephant, cow, parrot, yak, and a few more. After that she lost interest.
What this indicates is that shes really learning. Also, whenever she picks up the lion, she roars like one. I think this is good for her age considering the fact that i just bought it and she got to spend very less time with it. This one was recommended by a friend to me. I see it being very useful for A.

A also has animal another sorter. Here is that one:

Little Genius Wild Animals with Big Knob, Multi Color (Large)

I got this one first. And Even this is quite good. Good quality. A knows most of the animals in this one.

I got her the skillofun one as i thought it would be good to know one animal from every alphabet. And anyways more the better :)

If you have to choose one of these, i would say buy the skillofun one if your kid is more than 1 year old. For younger ones, probably little genius one is better as the animals are relatively much bigger in size. One more thing A loves to put little genius wild animals in the tray and tries to get them right but she doesn't even a single animal from skillofun in the tray. May be too many slots confuse her. Anyways, I am sure she would figure it out with age.

I feel its expensive for the price. But then it was worth it. I bought it from flipkart as part of an offer. Checkout the flipkart link here:

Skillofun Animal Alphabet Tray from Flipkart.com

Verdict: Buy it