Activity station, any suggestions or reviews?

[kensjen]

I have been thinking about buying DS one of those activity block stations for a holiday gift. He seems to really like them when we are at Gymboree, the Dr, etc. Does anyone have one that they can comment on?
Here are a couple I am looking at:



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The first one is from babystyle and the second is from back to basics toys. I'd love any reviews on these, how does your child like the toy, do you feel you got your $$ worth, etc.

Thanks!

[kensjen]

Does anyone have anything like these? Please...?! LOL!

[eb1]

Target sells a couple made by Parents -- if you go to Target.com and search for "busy park playground" you'll see one. I think this is a new version and I can't find the old one (with a different name) on the Target website anymore, but the stores probably have both in stock (mine do, anyway). The older version has gotten great reviews here.

I think you can't go wrong with an item like this! I'd just go with whichever fits your budget and appeals most. Good luck!

[justlearning]

I think you may find some reviews of the Parents activity cube that a PP mentioned, if you do a search here. My guess is that many kids would like this.

We don't have the an activity cube, but we do have a bead maze that's almost identical to the one on top of the Babystyle cube. (It has the exact same cars, trains, stars, beads, etc.) I got that from Target on clearance for $7.50 last year. What I found was that my son seemed to like bead mazes back around last Christmas but quickly lost interest in his for some reason soon after. It just basically collects dust here at home--I can only get him to play with the bead maze if I start playing with it. Even then, he only comes over and plays with it for less than a minute.

But...the strange thing is that he LOVES to play with the bead mazes at doctors' offices. I don't get it! :) My best guess is that at a doctor's office (or a Gymboree shop), the bead maze is the most interesting thing for him to do whereas at home he has more exciting toys to play with.

That's just my experience, though. As I said, I would guess that other kids may like to play with activity cubes like these at home as well.

[miki]

We have the Parents one from Target. They have a slightly different version now at BJs. It's simpler than the ones you posted but I think it was only $40. DD has played with hers since she started to pull up. Now she messes with the stuff on top a lot but the block is getting a little short for her. She has started to sit or squat to play with it. I don't see any signs of her interest waning. She still plays with it a few times a day. She also uses it as a place to stash her Little People. She'll park the little figures on the top under the beads like they live there.

[DebbieJ]

We have the Parents one from Target that we got about a month ago. My ds LOVES it. He loves to stand and bat at the beads. He also sits and plays with the things on the sides of the cube. It was only $50 and well worth it.

~ deb
Mommy to my sweet boy
B born 12/03
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