Okay, it’s no secret that I used to be a consultant for Discovery Toys. But three years later I am still in love with my all time favorite product by them and I just have to write this review.

A friend from my daughter’s preschool just signed on with Discovery Toys and when no one else offered to have a party, I said, “Why not?” I all ready know I love the products and she needed practice and some help getting her business launched. I was looking forward mostly to having some girls over for an evening as none of us get that enough these days. I found myself fielding questions about the products and the one that kept coming up was the Measure Up Cups!

Girls that couldn’t come needed a suggestion of a good product. I didn’t even know this was my favorite until I had sold 2 and was telling a third friend about them. I don’t plan on going through a bunch of Discovery Toys reviews, but this one is definitely deserving of one by me at this point. I had no idea that it was my favorite until today!!

Measure Up Cups by Discovery Toys is plainly a set of 12 nesting cups that alternate in the primary colors. I’ve seen a lot of cup sets in the last 3 years (my time spent as a mom) and this set, while the most expensive, is absolutely the best planned set. It was designed to grow with your child throughout his baby-hood and into elementary education. It certainly is also built to last as long as needed and to be passed on as a perfect hand me down gift as well. One set can very well make it through several siblings intact, and still educationally sound.

==== Product Features ====

- The most basic and recognizable features are the fact that they nest and are color coordinating between red, blue, yellow, and green.
- There are twelve cups in all, which is more than the usual cheaper set.
- The nesting feature helps teach spacial relationships.
- They are built with a firm lip at the rim so that they all stack very nicely upon one another to make towers.
- The alternating colors are great for learning about sorting and patterns. Each set may vary in which color it starts with, but 1-4 is the same as 5-8 is the same as 9-12. Pattern recognition is an excellent pre-math skill.
- The construction is very sturdy plastic, so they will outlast even the most destructive children.
- On the bottom of each cup is a stamp of an animal that is relative in size to the number of the cup. Example – the number one cup has a butterfly, the number twelve cup has a whale. (Butterfly being a very small animal and whale being a very large one.) All the cups in between follow suit. The stamps can be used for dough, clay or cookies. Anything that lets you stamp or press an image into matter.
- A pack of stickers comes with the cups of numbers 1-12 on circles that resemble a basic diagram of a clock. The number appears and so do the corresponding number of dots in the position that you find them on a clock. Essentially, this lets a child get familiar with not only the number itself visually, but also it’s relationship to other numbers on a clock.
- This same diagram of a clock and number is also found embossed upon the inside bottom of each cup.
- To top it all off, possibly the neatest feature of Discovery Toys Measure up Cups is the fact that their insides are “Volumetrically Correct.” In other words, if you fill up cup number 1 and cup number 4, you could then dump them both into cup number 5 and it would be an equal amount. The pre-math and elementary math skills that this feature lend are amazing. You can use them to teach addition, subtraction, and even early multiplication and division.

==== Age range of product ====
Measure Up Cups are quite possibly the most versatile product that Discovery Toys makes. I think that is why, after 3 years, it is still something we use 5 times a week. Infants will love to watch adults or siblings stack these cups on one another and knock them over. Nesting keeps them together in a small space for storage and helps older babies learn about spacial relationships. (They stand up to being chewed on, too so let the babies have them!!)As they reach toddler stage, they will explore these cups by filling and dumping all over the place. They will stamp away on the play dough and begin to recognize animals and their sizes. (You can multi-task this toy to talk about animal sounds and use it as an emotional builder as well.) Use the pattern of colors to play sorting or counting activities, or just play patterns for pre-math. As they reach entry level school, they will begin experimenting with the volume of the cups and working towards telling time. (While it may not be able to teach time altogether, it does have the capacity to set a strong foundation for that skill.) As I said before, the math games are amazing when you use these for addition, subtraction, multiplication or simple division by filling the cups and dumping them into other smaller or larger cups. “How many times can you fill the number 2 cup with the water from the number 12 cup before it’s all gone?”

The catalog ages the toy from 18 months to primary school. The catalogs typically give an age range of a product for children assuming the time frame that a child can begin to use it themselves and the time at which their knowledge will cause them to loose interest and move beyond the scope of that product. After using it with my daughter and other friend’s children, I honestly believe that this toy is appropriate for children from 6 months to second grade. It has certainly proven itself to me time and time again to be useful in EVERY age in that frame. Colors grasp children’s attention long before they have the motor skills to build towers with these cups. You may have to help them with that in the beginning, but if you are looking for a toy to grow with your child through all steps of early development, this is it!!! No question!

It is built to last, and also guaranteed for life under Discovery Toys policy so if they ever break, they will replace the product for free – no questions asked. They know kids break things sometimes, and it’s comforting to know that they stand behind their products. If you loose a cup, which I have done more than I’d like to admit, you can order replacement cups at a relatively inexpensive price without reordering the whole set. (The replacement cups come in each color and every size so if you had a blue 4, you can get a blue 4 and not throw off your patterns…)

====Any Cons? ====
Well, you do have to get them through a Discovery Toys consultant. You can’t just run down to the store and grab a set. That also means that on top of the $10.99 price tag, you’ll have to pay shipping in most cases – unless your consultant has a stash and wants to be nice about charging shipping…

You can find a consultant near you by visiting the website www.discoverytoysinc.com. Many consultants have web pages where you can order directly instead of tracking someone down as well, so this set back is easily overcome. You just have to start with a zip code, and maybe send an email...

They are a bit pricey. In order to be covered under the guarantee policy, you must purchase the product through a consultant and not through an outside agent such as ebay. You may find them a bit cheaper on ebay, but in the long run, you sacrifice one of the best parts about this product and that is the guarantee. It truly is worth every penny, even after shipping, to have these cups – whether your child is 4 months or 5 years – this is one product that just stands alone as far as quality and child interest. You could get a cheap set of cups, but it would never last as long or teach such a broad range of things to your child. It is worth the money.

I’ve never been the type to sell someone something that I didn’t believe in. But as a consultant, I think anyone has the ability to sometimes overlook what may be a bad side to a product because they are so gung-ho about the good sides. I loved these as a consultant, and I do so more even now as a parent and customer! Discovery Toys Measure Up Cups has earned a title of “Original Classic” in the catalog, it is often described as a best seller, and it has also been awarded both Dr. Toys Best Classics and Dr. Toys Best Products.

For a perfect toy that teaches everything from fine motor skills to problem solving and simple math, I highly recommend Discovery Toys Measure Up Cups to anyone and everyone shopping for a child under 6! A booklet is included with ideas to help parents utilize the features to the fullest. Great for car trips, floor play, dough play, water and sand play, even cooking/baking skills – you name it!

Any questions, feel free to comment… Thanks for reading!!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 10.99
Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: Other