Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I wanted to buy a rolling ball toy for my baby to learn visual tracking skills, cause-and-effect, and coordination. This toy was the best one I could find. I felt that wooden roll-the-ball-down-the-track toys, while well-made, just didn't look that overly interesting. On this toy, there are five separate interactive ways that a child can play with the supplied eight 2" diameter plastic balls. My son was 8 months when we bought it (no choking hazards, very good for pull-to-stand babies), but he didn't start actively playing with it until he was 9 months old. Now at 14 months, he still likes to play with it a lot, it is played with several times a day every day, it's in the center of our living room. Adults still like to play with it as well. What makes this toy rather ingenious in my opinion is that it uses each of the three broad supporting legs as a repository for the falling balls: I'll explain below.
As a product comparison, we have the LeapFrog learn-and-groove music activity table as well, which had excellent play value from 3 months until my baby was about 11 months old. It was at that age that he "outgrew" the LeapFrog table developmentally, and didn't bother to play with it anymore because he had mastered the physical coordination aspects: moving a slider, flipping a plastic book page, and pressing simple buttons. It's in a back room now, waiting for him to understand shapes and colors at which point maybe we can reintroduce it when the songs mean more to him. As a contrast, the Ball Activity Table being reviewed here has much more appeal with the 9 month+ group developmentally and likely has play value until the 2 year mark as it strengthens several of the mental and physical coordination skills which are key developmentally for this age group: Visual tracking, cause-and-effect, coordination, fine and gross motor skills.
Sturdiness: The Ball Activity Table is very good for pull-to-stand babies - The wide base makes this toy one of the sturdiest for pull to stand... I'd suggest that you would still have to watch to make sure that the child doesn't grab one of the funnels to pull up, as if they grab there and apply significant pull/weight, it can tip under those conditions. (Honestly, I haven't found any activity tables that are completely untippable when they're that age.)
Sound: Also, whenever a ball is sent down into its receiving hole, a bing-bong sound is made which helps reinforce the cause-and-effect "a-ha" moment that your baby is supposed to start having. The sound can be turned off on the underside of the toy, and has two volume settings. The low setting is exactly loud enough for us.
Travel: The legs and funnels on this toy can be completely taken off, so we stored this toy in one of our pieces of luggage when we relocated, no problem. It was a priority toy to make the move, actually. The legs attach to the base in rather clever and secure way, they all fit into place together, and then an oversized plastic bolt is screwed on tightly.
The different play interactions:
1. Pull lever - Center section spins with balls. Balls can be placed in the center section. There is a lever that is then pulled, and the center section spins around and the balls whirl around the perimeter of the center section. This part is very fun, we all liked it, a pleasant bing bing music is played. Unfortunately, this part has mainly stopped working for us. To me it looks like the problem may be if you hold the center section still with one hand, and then pull the lever with your other: Possibly something like gears has been stripped (although it still works 1/100 times, so honestly, I don't know). I didn't have time to attempt to return the toy at the time, maybe I just got a dud. It doesn't diminish how much we still like the toy, but I thought I'd note it.
2. Drop ball down funnel - it rolls down a track: A ball can be sent down a funnel where is rolls down a 10" windy track before falling down a hole into one of the legs of the table. This is one of the most fun activities. Now at 14 months, my baby likes to try to roll the ball back *up* the track and then letting it roll back down. Also, he likes to catch the ball as it rolls down the track (this is the key visual tracking and coordination skill).
3. Drop ball down funnel - it sits held at the bottom of the funnel until a large button is pressed at which point it falls into one of the legs. This one took a few months for my baby to be strong enough to press down. I think he started to be successful at this around 11 months. He knows the word "button" now -- "You have to press the button," we'd always tell him.
4. Three colored holes. Set ball down on a colored hole - it sits until it is hit/lightly pressed so that it falls into 1. a cup that is 5" below; 2. a cup that is 3.5" below, or into one of the legs. The coordination is that the cups, which are on hanging plastic supports, need to be aligned so that the ball falls into them. The supplied oversized, light-weight mallet is supposed to be used to tap the balls into these holes. This plastic mallet is quite oversized and does not pose a choking hazard at all. My baby doesn't bother to use it (14 months...), maybe he will later. Adults like it. There's a spot on the side of the activity table where the mallet can be clicked in and held in place.
5. Two colored gears, a ball is placed on one gear, and the other gear can then turn the both of them when a small handle on the top of one of the gears is turned. This requires some turning strength. My son can't do this task yet, although occasionally he tries.
Overall, this was exactly the sort of ball rolling visual tracking toy that I was looking for - lots of activities, sounds (we like sounds for their reinforcement value), and both baby and adult play longevity. Everyone likes to play with it, it gets five stars in our house.
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Activity TableWhat to do first? Let's drop a ball through a holes and see where it goes. We can reach up, bend down and move around the tble to seek it out! We can turn the knob or press the spinner to see the gears turn, make lights flash and hear funny sounds. We can hammer the balls through the holes or drop them into the funnels, too. Then put them all in the middle, pull the lever and watch them spin around!
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