Essie has really become such a curious and inquisitive little girl recently, and with her newfound skills of pulling herself up to standing and cruising furniture, she is able to get about and explore anything that catches her eye. Which is usually the kitchen cupboards! Fisher-Price have launched a new product which seemed perfect for this stage of Essie's development: their 2-in-1 Sit-To-Stand Activity Centre, and they kindly sent us one to review.
Fisher-Price are one of the first brands that spring to mind when I think of toys for babies and toddlers. By letting kids be kids they create products that nurture their inherent nature and aid early childhood development. My older children have had several wonderful Fisher-Price toys over the years, and I can even remember having some when I was little, too!
The Fisher-Price 2-in-1 Sit-To-Stand Activity Centre is a safari-themed entertainer with 360 degrees of animal themed activities. The activity centre is suitable for babies from around 4 months old and grows with your baby as they reach new milestones of development. It has two modes of use; at first babies can sit in the middle of the activity centre and play with the toys that surround them. This is great for babies aged 4 months+ until around 9-12 months, or when they begin learning to walk. Later on the seat can be removed and replaced with a fun ramp to turn it into a play table, perfect for helping little ones aged 9-12months+ who are learning to stand and cruise as they move around exploring the different activities.
The Activity Centre arrived in quite a large box containing several pieces, but was very easy to put together. You do need a Philips screwdriver as there are screws to hold the legs in place, but other than that most of the pieces simply click into place. It took me about 15 minutes to assemble, although I'm sure I could have done it quicker if Jude hadn't been "helping"!
It is brightly coloured and has lots of different sections to play with, all with different toys, sounds and textures which all help stimulate babies' visual, auditory and tactile senses. I first set the activity centre up with the seat in place so that Essie could try it out. The comfortable padded seat spins a full 360 degrees which encourages her to move around and explore the activities. As she is very mobile now she doesn't like to be in one place for too long, so I removed the seat and added the spiral ramp instead. One of the activities on this entertainer is a shape sorter and the shapes can be unhooked so that they can be rolled down the ramp. This is Essie's favourite activity and she likes to take the shapes with her wherever she goes.
The activity centre also has a removable musical alligator which has light-up keys and plays musical notes and short sounds. It can also play 20 minutes of music. This requires three AA batteries which aren't included, but that is the only part of the activity centre requiring batteries. It's really handy that the alligator can be removed as this will be great to take on holiday with us or on long car journeys to give Essie something familiar to play with.
The Fisher-Price 2-in-1 Sit-To-Stand Activity Centre has quickly become a favourite toy in our home; Essie absolutely loves to play with it and actually so do my boys! It is helping her to become more steady on her feet and distracts her from pulling books off the shelf or raiding my baking cuprboard, so my life is a little bit easier! I love that it doesn't take up too much space in the living room and the white design fits in well with the rest of the play area. The legs can be removed to make it easier to store if you need to and the seat pad is totally machine-washable, something that always gets a thumbs up from me as we all know how messy little ones can be!
The *Fisher-Price Activity Centre has an RRP of £99.99. It's a wonderful toy and one I would definitely recommend. Often baby toys are quickly outgrown, but as the two modes of play mean that this will be enjoyed for so much longer.
Oh I love this! Love the ramp in the middle x
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