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.

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