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

Little Crab: Finger Puppet Book

When i was pregnant with A, i watched a stop animation movie with my husband. The whole movie was filmed by manually moving the puppets. The first scene of the movie had a finger puppet book. I fail to recall the name of the movie. But it was pretty impressive. That movie introduced me to the concept of  finger puppet books. I immediately started looking for those but found none in India. Then searched on amazon.com, saw a lot of them available there. I thought i will ask one of my friends in US to get those for me. Luckily, after a while i saw few finger puppet books were available on amazon india. As soon as my eyes saw that, my fingers automatically pressed the keys to order those :) and this book was the first finger puppet book i landed up with :)

This book has a nice crab finger puppet. A loves the crab. Rhyming words and a moving adorable puppet makes it super interesting to be read. A very nice story.
There are few images (like of a fish, boat), which got cut while they inserted the puppet. Its a very small book, perfect for the little hands. But a little bigger version to preserve the necessary images would have been better.

Here is the link:
Little Crab: Finger Puppet Book

At the point when i got this book, there were hardly any other puppet books available in India. Now there are few. You can checkout the following:

Mary Had a Little Lamb (Little Learners Finger Puppet Book) : I own this one too. I prefer crab book over this one as i felt the lamb is a little too small. Also, crab book has a very nice story. This one has the rhyme.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Finger Puppet Book (The Very Hungry Caterpillar): Don't buy this one. Check my review of this book for details.

I plan to buy A more finger puppet books soon.


Verdict: Buy at least one finger puppet book for your little one. Its a super fun way to play and learn. Crab book is good too but could have been better.

Is this blog helping?

Everyday I meet someone or the other who asks me "what kind of toys should we buy for our kid", "what to read to them", "How to keep them busy", etc. I have gone through the same phase in my life. I used to and still read a lot to figure out what should I buy for A. I wanted to document everything I learn at one place.

This was one of the biggest motivation for me to create this blog. After creating it, i realized i am loving this. It acts as a major stress buster for me. People who read my blog usually sends me messages to let me that they are liking my blog etc. Somehow no one comments and ask on the blog. I wonder why?

Here is this post to ask you all, is this helping? what more would you like to see? What more information can help you more? Are all the features on this blog user-friendly? What is good? What is not so good? I would like to know it all.

So either mail me at learningfrommykid@gmail.com

or

Post a comment below.

Zoo Visit

Today we took A to a zoo. At home we have been reading a lot of animal books. A also has a toy which makes animal sounds. All this has resulted in A having special interest in animals. As a result our zoo visit was a hit. We got to see tiger, lion, bear, leopard, snakes, ostrich, hippos, macaw's, peafoal and a lot of other animals. A was super excited and was talking to those animals, copying their voice in her own language.

One tip which i can share with you all is show your kids lot of animals. Make animal sounds with them. Not only it will help them in developing the ability to speak earlier, but also in developing love for nature and natural things.

We went for jungle safari too but it wasn't very interesting for A as she couldn't spot animals. We were trying to show her but she was just not able to see them before the animals disappear. Looks like for her to enjoy that we will have to wait for some more time.

Flipkart-Skillofun

Flipkart has offers going on skillofun products. Check it out:

Skillofun Beads Pattern Box from Flipkart.com

365 Pancharantra Stories

I thought of reading A a different story every night. By the title and the reviews i saw, this book looked promising. Also, Seemed like we could use it for many years to come. Waited patiently to get it.  As soon as it was delivered, i unpacked it. I was happy to see the good quality pages and a good size font. I started reading. Read one story after other trying to find one story which i could read to A.
Sadly, after reading around 20-30 stories i gave up. Every single story is filled with revenge, anger and lessons which i don't want to teach A.
I don't recommend this book to any age group.

Link: 365 Pancharantra Stories

Verdict: Don't buy

Very Hungry Caterpillar Finger Puppet Book

A already owns the very hungry caterpillar board book. She has a puppet book too which we love but is small in size. So, we bought this finger puppet version of the book for a friends kid, hoping that it will be even better than the board book. But it was very very disappointing.
It has one tiny puppet(shame to call it a puppet) and picture of a caterpillar, some fruits and edibles. No real story.

For the story buy the board book without the puppet.
and if you are looking for a puppet book, there are many better ones out there. I will be reviewing some soon.

Verdict:  Do not buy

Very Hungry Caterpillar Finger Puppet Book

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A classic book. Got it for A along with Brown bear book i reviewed last. She started enjoying this one at the age of around 9 months. She notices all the colors and listens to the story. Now a days she is more interested in putting her fingers in the holes from where caterpillar passes through to eat all the fruits and other stuff :)
I loved the concept. Its a great story and your kid has an opportunity to learn so much.. colors, fruits, numbers, life of a caterpillar. A still doesn't understand that caterpillar turns to butterfly but i loved the illustration. She enjoys only the part till food items are shown :)
If your kid is less than 3year old, please buy board book only.

Link:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Verdict: Must buy

Should I Buy Online Or In Stores? And Which Sites?

There are pros and cons of buying online and in-stores.

I like buying online because:
1. Well, i find it convenient. They come and deliver me everything at home. So, i save time
2. Returns are easy :)
3. And most important, prices are lesser than what i get in stores.
4. Before buying i have the option to check the reviews and see what other parents feel about the product

Why in-store?

If you have time, you can go check the product in store. and check all the related products. and then buy. I sometimes go to store, chose the product but then i always order them online as i get better pricing.

If online, which sites?
There are many retailers- amazon, flipkart, firstcry, snapdeal and other small ones.

I have tried a lot of them. I personally like amazon and flipkart most. Thats why i publish links only from those in my blog. Flipkart doesn't deliver most products in smaller towns but amazon almost always does. Hence i order most of the time from amazon.
Returns are easy too on amazon. :)

Fisher Price Toys Monkey Chase

This toys is recommended for kids above 6 months. Though the manufacturer recommended age is 6months-36months, I do-not agree with that. I would say after like 15 months, i don't think A will be using it. Well, in our case time will tell as A is not yet 15 months. Infact A was bored in between. So, i hid it for like 15 days. Now its back to her play list :)

We got A this toy when she was around 7 month old and she loved it. It actually encouraged her to crawl. She used to get super excited seeing the monkey move and used to put her best to move and catch it. Remember if the baby actually catches the monkey, it falls down. Thats where we parents come in the picture. Every time it falls i used to make it stand and it would run again with the same happy music and A will be after with the same excitement.

Note:
This toy is not for parents who aren't willing to lift the toy every time it falls. And please don't expect any educational value from it. Some toys are just for fun and to encourage some physical movement in babies.

The quality of the toy is good but i feel its fairly highly priced.

Verdict: Get it when some offers are on.

Link:
Fisher Price Toys Monkey Chase 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

A's favorite book. We started reading this when she was 3.5 months old. Now she is 12 months plus. Every day, without fail this book is read. She goes to the books shelf, picks it and forces us to read it. Sometimes our head hurts by reading it again and again, but A won't stop :)

Highly recommended book.(must have)

We bought the board book. Good quality, sturdy pages.

Pros:

1. Only one pic on each page --> very important for the very young readers

2. each page has a different color animal --> kids get to see and learn colors

3. The words are repetitive except for the color and animal's name. As they say, repetition is the key to learn

Cons:

1. Chances of your kid become an addict to this book are very high. You may get head aches like us after reading the same book like 20th time in a day

Tip:
Please buy board book only as this will hopefully be the book read most number of times for you too.

link on amazon:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Verdict: Must buy

Brush It Up

A loves it when she sees her momma or dadda brushing their teeth. At time, she takes the brush from them and tries brushing their teeth herself. A still has no teeth but loves taking the brush to her mouth. So, from a long time i have been thinking of coming up with an activity which involves a brush and is safe for my 1 year old. A's caretaker was cleaning her sipper with a bottle cleaning brush and A was liking that. That's when i came up with this:

What you need:
A brush (tooth brush, paint brush, anything would do)
a stained bowl (you can dirty a bowl with paint or anything you want to)
a bowl of water

Method:
Show your baby how to dip the brush in the bowl of water and then clean the stains.  Next pass the brush to your baby to clean the stained bowl.

Advantage:
Improves hand eye coordination

Your baby will love exploring these objects
Entertainment and learning for free(you can get all these materials at home) :)

Beaware:
Stay next to your baby. Don't let him/her lick the stained bowl
They can spill the bowl of water, so be ready to cleanup the mess

Ambi Toys – Lock A block (Best Shape Sorter For Babies)

 
A has lot of shape sorters. But this is by far the best for her age. From 8 months onwards till may be 18 months, this can be used. Unlike other shape sorters, it has just 3 shapes(2 pieces of each), red ball/circle, yellow triangle, blue square and a small key. Shapes are perfect for the little hands and simple enough to keep them interested.

Here you have:
Ambi toys lock a block on amazon india

For reviews, check:
Schylling Ambi Lock A Block
The same product is available on other retail sites like firstcry, flipkart but I am a big fan of amazon.


Also, if at the time of writing i compared the price on each of these sites for this product, they were same.

Funskool Nesting Eggs

A has a fascination towards eggs. When she wasn’t crawling, by chance i showed her eggs and to get those she pushed herself from one end of the bed to other. So, we bought her Funskool nesting eggs from amazon. If you have been reading my other posts, by now you would know that i like quality of most of funskool toys. Cheap but good quality :)

Funskool nesting eggs

It has 5 colorful eggs i different sizes. I just leave them in front of A. A opens them all. Sometimes rolls them. and then tries to close them. She hasn’t started nesting them yet but she has learnt to close them.
Great toy for learning matching colors and sizes. Good for developing hand eye coordination.

Verdict: Must buy

Funskool Stacking Cubes

Another cheap but great toy A has is Funskool stacking cubes

Funskool stacking cubes
Got this for 113/- from amazon.. Have posted the link above..
Very good quality plastic.. Funskool has barrels and drums too..
While nesting drums can be placed inside each other a lil more easier than cubes as they are circular.. but for cubes they need to align it perfectly with the cube below it.. So, thought a little more logic might be good :)
these are 8 cubes, useful for teaching stacking, nesting, colors, for developing hand eye coordination.
Dont expect your lil ones to learn it in a day.. it will take long.. A can now stack like 2 cubes and can nest 2 cuubes too.. but gets frustrated if i confuse her by placing bigger cube over the small one :) So, patience is the key.

Links to barrels and drums:
Funskool stacking drums
Funskool stacking barrels

Verdict: Must buy

Funskool Play Doh

There are lot of varieties available for play doh’s. A is just 1 year old.. and on the products its always mentioned that they are for 3+. So i wasn’t sure if my lil one will enjoy this.. but something told me it might be fun.. and if not now, i can always use it later.. The next question was which brand. I have lot of products from funskool and have no complaints from any one of them. Hence went ahead with funskool play doh.

I bought this for 89/- from amazon
Funskool Mini Playdoh Factory on amazon india
Funskool Mini Play on flipkart

Loved it. A can play with this for like an hour..  You can let your imagination run wild with this these.
A makes me put the doh in the extruder again and again and make various shapes out of it.. Its an excellent way to teach colors to kids and an awesome way to improve their fine motor skills..
We created caterpillar, fish, cookies, ostrich.. :)
Cons:
1. Whenever i am not looking, A tries to put the doh in her mouth. So, if you have a kid who is likely to eat the doh you will have to be very careful & keep seeing them (may be thats why they say recommended for 3+, but then the hours of fun and play it brought to our home, it was worth it
2. It had only two colors of doh(blue & yellow) but it was good enough to give us confidence that we are & will enjoy it.. So, i will be soon buying more colors and variety..
You can consider buying these variants:

Funskool play faces
Funskool birthday cake

I recently bought this too:
Funskool Playdoh Case of Colours
Its good but i feel it has mostly lighter shades.I wanted black, brown to make eyes etc but they aren't present. When i get those from where, I will update.

i wanted to make a list of toys here but its getting late and A is starting to get up. So i will add more toys later.

Here is a pic of few items we made.



I forgot to take pics of other items.

List Of Toys And Books To Be Reviewed Soon

I am a toy collector, mum to a one year old. 
Here is a list of toys and books which I will be reviewing soon. If you want any toys you want me to review, you can add those in the comments section. This is the list of toys/books which we already own, so all the reviews will be based on our first hands experience. If you want any toy to be reviewed which is not in this list, add it in the comments section, i will try to procure that and post review.  I will keep adding more entries in this page as and when we buy more toys and books. As and when I am done reviewing a toy/book, i will remove it from this list. So this is just a list of to be reviewed soon items and doesn't include the ones i have reviewed.
Also, i will always try to post a link to where you can get these online
Once i update the list below with all the toys i have, i will update the recommended age, and also a buy or don't buy from my side

If anyone wishes some item to be reviewed earlier, please post your request in the comments section. or else i pick any random product from this list to be reviewed.

Toys(non-battery):

Skillofun capital alphabet tray with pictures
Skillofun Picture on Alphabet Tray with Knobs, Multi Color
Skillofun Alphabet Picture Puzzle
Skillofun Multi Activity Box, Multi Color
Skillofun Beads Pattern Box, Multi Color
Little Genius Beads - Shape and Pattern
Little Genius Tiger Seriation Big with Knob, Multi Color
Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Baby's First Blocks
Mattel Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Stack and Roll Cups
Funskool Kiddy Star Links
Fisher-Price Rock-a-Stack : This is a flipkart link as product was not available on amazon
Fisher Price Stack & Roll Cups
Fisher-Price Toddlerz Tappy the Turtle 
Ambi Toys Max Pull Along -5 dog
Funskool Wibbly Wobbly Train
Funskool play faces
Kinetic sand waba  or any equivalent: We got this as Christmas gift for A. :) Lets see how she reacts and plays with it.
Mee Mee Knowledge Box
Quercetti Georello Farm Activity Toy
Lego duplo
Sassy Dunk n' Clunk Shape Sorter

Bead shuttle/maze
wooden blocks cart
picture match puzzle (all 4 sides) 
Count from 1 - 100 wooden toy
Melissa and doug picture match puzzle
Little genius ABC
Little genius 123
Little genius abc
Little Genius Birds with Sun
Mother care ELC my first bowling set
Hape shape sorter
Hand puppets & soft toys
Color maze
Fisherprice doodle, scribbler, slate
Barbie - Disney
Toykraft finger painting kit
Piggy bank
Esoft dog

tricycle

Toys(battery):
Fisher-Price Kick and Play Piano Gym, Discover 'N Grow
Vtech apple (town one)
Vtech learning bus
Vtech globe
leapfrog musical activity table
leapfrog discovery ball
leapfrog leappad
little tikes trumpet
vtech baby mobile
vtech toto laptop
vtech phone
Mitashi Sky Kidz SK 42 Fun Tunes
Moshi monster
hexbug

Books:

ABC Zoo
Dogs by Emily Gravett
Smelly Nelly (Finger Puppet Books)
Guess How Much I Love You
The Gruffalo
My Charming Board Books: ABC
My Charming Board Books: Fruits 

From Head to Toe Board Book - Eric Carle
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes... (Baby Board Books)
Phonics (My First Board Book)
Room on the Broom: Activity Book
100 Shapes and Colours (First Picture Word Book)
Little Mermaid (Fancy Story Board-Books)
Step By Step ABC.123.Colours
Peter Pan (Pop-Up Fairy Tale Books)
Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Dr. Seuss's Book of Wonderful Noises (Bright & Early Board Books(TM) 

365 Animal Stories and Rhymes (365 Stories)
Barbie: Learn Your Numbers 1 to 20
Big board picture book - Roger priddy
Mary had a little lamb
Winnie the Pooh: Weather
Duck got stuck
Peter pan pop up book

Activities:
I will be posting  activities for the little ones (age group 1-2 year old), all customized for indian market. I have either tried these on my lil one or going to try soon and will update back with the result. I have seen lot of stuff which is available outside india is not available here and vice versa. Whenever possible i will publish links to from where i got certain stuff.

Please look at the Activity tab to see the posts for this section.