I must come out of the ciao wilderness soon and write another review:-)
I must come out of the ciao wilderness soon and write another review:-)
Member since:31.03.2001
Reviews:107
Members who trust:52
This is our nickname for Scarlett when shes in the learn and groove centre, poor kid she has a lot to put up with! Scarlett is an expert roller over and is on the brink of being able to crawl, so when we are not in the room or able to closely supervising her she needs a kind of 'holding' area. She's now a bit big for her bouncy chair and is able to sit up in it, so we needed to find another way of keeping her in a safe area, so that I could go to the toilet and not come down to find that she had eaten the computer wires. We looked into door bouncers, but there is a step down into our kitchen, not a good idea!
We decided upon the perkily named learn and groove station. It's designed for babies
from 4 months to walking age (its definitely not for babys who can not support their head) The best way to describe is as a round shaped station with five interactive elements the baby can play with. There are two levels to the station, the area with the interactive toys is slotted by four adjustable legs (that can be moved to three different positions as baby grows), to a base. The baby is placed in the seat in the middle via two leg holes and is able to lean its legs on their lower base, or in Scarlett's case rest on her nappy and suspend her legs in mid air.
It can be a bit tricky to get a wriggly baby to put both legs through the right hole, so we always check to make sure her legs haven't done something strange like two of them finding their way through one leg hole. The seat swivels around 360 degrees, it's sweet to see Scarlett whizzing herself around.
JUKEBOX
This looks a bit like a jukebox. It's blue with a picture of two dancing frogs on one leaf and when you turn it over you get a little tune and a picture of frogs along with abcs and 123s. What side the jukebox is on controls whether the keyboard says numbers or dance types and what tune the turntable plays. It also controls what the microphone says.
KEYBOARD
There is a keyboard with five keys, with the numbers 1 to 5 on, they are red,orange,yellow, green and purple. When the baby pushes them they say the number. Or they say different dance types jazz, salsa, tango. The keys flash as they say each word
TURNTABLE/DJ STATION
This has a picture of a frog on and a yellow lever the baby can pull to activate two different songs depending on what part of the jukebox is flicked. One tune is a very upbeat song about that recites the alphabet and talks about knowing your abcs. The other tune doesn't have any words to it.
MICROPHONE
There is a blue plastic microphone which speaks when baby pulls it toward them. It either gives a little tune, or says 'sing it baby' (which for some reason I find hilarious)
DISCO BALL
This moves as the baby moves and counts 1 to 5 with a little tune in the background.
SO IS THIS ALL EDUCATIONAL?
Or are we just storing her in plastic heaven so she doesn't hurt herself while we're out of the room. Well according to the website (www.leapfrog.com) it teaches the following.
CAUSE AND EFFECT Something will happen because a button was pushed.
ALPHABET, NUMBER NAMES, COUNTING 1-5 Not really sure about this one. It' good for her language development to hear words, but I don't think it will make her count by the time shes one!
FINE AND GROSSE MOTOR SKILLS
Or rather using small and big movement to do stuff. Some of the movements are delicate whilst some are big, such as hitting the keys. Her favourite movement seems to be trying to eat the various things!
MUSICAL STYLES
There are different musical styles in the different songs, apparently the abc song is motown inspired!
HAND-EYE CO ORDINATION
She is very good at manipulating the different activities now and hopefully won't start to grow bored of it after a couple of minutes.
COLOURS
The various activities are visually stimulating to the point of gaudy!
SO WHAT DOES SCARLETT THINK OF IT?
She likes it, but not for too long at one stretch as I think she finds it a bit of an uncomfortable position to sit in for too long. She especially likes hitting the keyboard and will go quite mad there.
Its foldable, so you can transport it around the house or take it to other peoples houses. It cost us £85 from the mother care catalogue. I'm not sure where else would sell this but Mothercare, places like the early learning centre probably do. You can check the availability of leapfrog products in your area at www.leapfroguk.com
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Introduces infants to learning through music and play Activities help develop fine and ... more
gross motor skills Teaches infants the alphabet, number names, counting 1 to 5, colours, language development, and cause and effect Music mode features real instrume...
Postage & Packaging: £6.31 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Introduces infants to learning through music and play Activities help develop fine and ... more
gross motor skills Teaches infants the alphabet, number names, counting 1 to 5, colours, language development, and cause and effect Music mode features real instrume...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
May 5th, 2005
very helpful by (100%):
