Pros: Great source of entertainment, good development toy.
Cons: Some toys too hard to keep clean.
The Bottom Line: Basically I would definitely recommend this Activity Center because it provided my boys entertainment and much learning and it provided me a way get things done!
capescafe's Full Review: Graco Baby Einstein Discover and Play Activity Cen...
I bought the Graco Baby Einstein Discover and Play Activity Center in 2005 at Toys R Us for my first son. I work at home and I needed something to keep him occupied so I could get some work done. I first put him in it at 3 months once he was good at holding his head up. It was great! He would sit in it for good chunks of time and loved the different toys on it. At first he couldn't play with every single toy but as he grew he was eventually able to play with more toys. This was a plus because as he grew there were more new things on it for him that he was discovering. Once he was a little older I would sometimes sit him in it for a snack time and set cheerios around his seat. It has 3 different height levels that you can adjust the legs as your baby gets bigger. So my first son used it a lot up until he was walking, but even after he was walking I still used it from time to time if I needed him to be stationary for a minute or two. Also, since I left it set up, he would still play with it, just from a different angle walking around it instead of sitting in it.
About Cleaning Eventually we packed it away and saved it for when the next one came along. In 2008 my 2nd son was born and when he was about 3 months old I got it out and cleaned it up. I will say though it was a challenge to clean thoroughly. I kept it clean before by just wiping up spills, drool, spit up, etc with my first but after it had been stored away and I wanted to deep clean the fabric toys especially so it was clean for my 2nd, I realized it was a big job. The plastic toys were pretty easy to sanitize and clean, but the seat was a bear to pull off of the little nobby things that hold it on (I used a screw driver to pry off each hook). Then the tower of shapes toy was so faded from my first son chewing on it and I just felt it couldn't really get totally cleaned inside by just washing it. So I ordered a replacement part for that one from the Graco website (you can easily order replacements for any of the 9 toys). The sunshine toy and the green dragon puppet I actually put in the dishwasher and they came out looking brand new. Again it was a total hit for my 2nd and he is now 9 months and still uses it from time to time, although definitely not as much now since he is crawling and just wants to move around like his older brother.
Details There are 9 different toys surrounding a seat that spins around. The 9 toys are as follows:<br> 1. A musical toy that has 5 different buttons each with a cartoon looking picture of an animal. When the button is pressed it first makes the sound of that particular animal, press the button again and it says the name of the animal in English, press the button again the name of the animal in Spanish, press it again and it then plays a short clip of famous classical music pieces. The animals are a duck (center, which also lights up when pressed), a dog, a cow, a lion, and a cat. 2. A plastic flexible smiley face star that is great for a teething baby to pull down and chew on. 3. Green dragon puppet. 4. 3 spinning wheels that have different sounds when spun. They also each have pictures and the pictures can be matched up accross all 3 wheels. (Sort of reminds me of one of those slot machines where you pull the handle and you have to try to get all 3 pics to match) 5. Plastic spinning globe. 6. A fabric smiley face sunshine on a flexible plastic stand (much like the smiley face star). 7. A plastic book with thick pages with actual pictures of 4 animals (duck, cat, cow, dog) and a mirror behind the pages. 8. A fabric tower of shapes, colors and textures with pictures on each color that correspond to that color. (blue cube on the bottom with blueberries and a bluebird pictured, a yellow cylinder in the middle with a baby duck and bananas pictured, and a red pyramid shape on top with an apple and it looks like part of a fire truck pictured) 9. A plastic arc with 4 plastic balls that slide back and forth on the arc. Each ball has a different color and a different texture on each.
There are 3 legs that have 3 levels to which you can adjust the height. The saucer underneath has 3 pegs which you can pull out to keep the saucer from wobbling or you can put them in if you want it to be able to rock a little. I used both ways for my first. With my 2nd I've just kept them down to keep it stable since my 2nd loves jumping up and down. (It's not a jumper, but my son just loves pushing himself up and down in his seat, it's great for his legs)
Assembly This Activity Center does take some time to assemble. All the toys have to be put in place. You will need a philips screwdriver to attach a couple of the toys (screws provided). The rest of the toys just pop into place.
Imperfections in My Opinion The problem I have with this Activity Center is the fabric toys. I just feel like with a baby constantly chewing on them, they can't be all that clean most of the time. You can wash them in the dishwasher like I did, but even then it takes a while for them to dry, especially the thicker ones.
One other thing that frustrated me was the book toy. Both my boys had a really hard time turning the page when there was one page on each side of the "rings". It seems they could have designed a slightly better ring on which to turn the page.
Other than those few things though, this Activity Center was well worth my money. Both my boys have enjoyed it and it has saved me a lot in that I had a safe spot to put them next to me while either working on my computer, cooking, doing dishes, even bringing it outside while I did yard work. So I have and would still definitely recommend this to friends.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80 Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
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