I take a lot of joy in finding interesting toys for my children as they get older. With each new stage, I pore over Amazon, researching and reading up on toys that will teach, engage, and stimulate his growing interests. Now that Christmas is around the corner, I thought I would do a small series on some of our favorite toys of the past since Juliet will be inheriting many of them.
Drake was 6 months old at his first Christmas and Juliet will be roughly the same age. I remember getting so excited to celebrate Drake’s first Christmas, but wondering what would be a good present to get a six month old baby who was barely even sitting up. As a whole I prefer toys that serve a purpose, whether it’s to educate or to help promote some kind of physical learning like crawling or walking, as well as ones that can sustain interest for a longer period of time so I get more bang for my buck.
That first Christmas I asked around on one of the forums I belong to about a good gift for a six month old, and the resounding answer I received was the Bright Starts Around We Go Activity Station.
The premise of the toy is that there is a stationary activity center that contains various engaging toys, like a flip book, piano, etc., and there is also a seat that makes a complete 360 rotation around the station, allowing your child access to all the toys powered by their own legs. At six months old Drake was capable of holding himself upright with support, but was still not ready to stand yet. With the support of the toy however (which held him upright similarly to the jumperoo or exersaucer) he could walk around the station playing with the different toys as he chose. Since many doctors discourage the use of walkers and push toys, I felt this was a way to assist Drake in learning the basics of walking while still keeping him safe from falling or getting hurt.
At first Drake had difficulty walking and moving around the toy as he wasn’t used to the idea of walking or moving forward, since the jumperoo and exersaucer are stationary toys that only allow for up and down motion. But this moving seat taught him to propel himself forward in the same manner we learn to walk. For a long time Drake would only play with the toys right in front of him when placed into it, but over time as the other toys drew his attention he would attempt to reach over to them thus pushing the seat slowly around the center. It took a little bit of learning but soon Drake was whizzing around the entire station with ease and it soon became his favorite place to play as he grew.
Drake quickly lost interest in both the exersaucer and jumperoo once he mastered the Around We Go Station, as it allowed him to move around more. Drake used the seat well past twelve months and once he was able to walk fully on his own, we removed the seat and the station still remained one of his favorite toys. I loved how long the toy kept his interest over such a long period of time, aided him in learning how to support himself upright as well as taught him the basics of putting one foot in front of the other to walk.
I am so glad we bought the toy for his first Christmas as I think right around six months was the perfect time for Drake to really get the most out of it. Now that Juliet is hitting that age, we plan on retrieving this from the basement. I think Drake might also be interested in it again so he can play along side her, allowing them to interact together.
The one big con about this toy is that it has a large footprint since you need space for the seat to be able to rotate in a full circle around the entire toy. We managed to find a perfect spot in our apartment after moving furniture around. I hope we can do the same in our new place as this is such a great toy, I just can’t imagine not using it again.
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
i loooooove drakey!!
dh’s bff had this but we didn’t hear about it until we’d already gone through the majority of A’s exersaucer phase…and he grew quite tall and the legs were kind of awkward. I wished I’d found it about sooner. they’re actually hard to find in brick and mortar stores around here
blogger / pomegranate / 3300 posts
That looks like a fun one. We got several excersaucers and jumping toys as hand me downs so we never bought one, but that one looks great!
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
i bought one used but olive was physically delayed and she wasn’t able to use the moving function. then it took up so much space in our small apartment so i sold it before she was strong enough to move around in it. but everyone i know that has this absolutely loves it.
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
This looks like a really cool hybrid toy – looking at it, I would think that this would take the place of both an exersauser and jumperoo. I’ve never heard of it or seen it before – thank you for sharing!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
Those look fun! We didn’t have room for it at our old house, but with future babies down the road I may consider it
blogger / apricot / 366 posts
Adorable, I wish Miss H wasn’t too big for these kinds of things
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I found this on Amazon, too, and fell in love. The only problem is that now that my 9 month old can crawl, he doesn’t like to stay in it long.
blogger / nectarine / 2600 posts
@Mrs. Hopscotch: Next baby
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
My first DD absolutely loved this thing!! But I think we used it for too long with her and that delayed her walking.
She walked at 13 months, but I firmly believe that she could have walked on her sooner if she didn’t love this toy so much. It was her security blanket!
So with our second DD, I planned on removing the seat part early on, but she was ahead of me and got tired of it early on.
She started walking at 10 months old.
But I would highly recommend this toy still. Very fun!
persimmon / 1223 posts
We got one off Craigslist and it has been such an amazing find! Now that our LO is getting really close to crawling he wants to move around on his own a bit more but since 6 months we have been able to set him in it in the mornings or afternoon if we are getting ready/making food etc and he will happily ‘walk’ around and play with the various elements (usually the piano and flip book) I look forward to hopefully making it last longer by removing the seat once he is able to stand more on his own.
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
Oh my gosh! I LOVE this toy! When Little P was learning to walk he ran in circles in this thing and now (at 18 months) he still uses it as an activity table.
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
I didn’t even know about this. Yes, will consider it for the next baby
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
I’ve never heard of this toy! Both my kids are kinda past the stage where they need something like this, but IF we ever have a 3rd… I’ll have to keep it in mind.
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
Wow, there’s so much baby/kids gear out there that I would never even thought exist