I am a huge fan of the Fisher Price Brilliant Basics Super Star Classical Stacker. (boy, that's a mouthful!) Any ring stacker is a great toy for babies and toddlers because they help with fine motor skills, sequencing, sorting, concepts of size, and color recognition. I especially like this stacker because it gives wonderful visual and auditory feedback when a child makes a successful or near-successful attempt to place the star-shaped rings on the stacker's base. I use it frequently during my therapy sessions to help kids gain the skills listed above and to help with locomotion as I will have children take the stars from one side of the room to the stacker base on the other side of the room.
PROS:
- The music is enjoyable and not too loud
- Each star has a different color and texture
- Even if the batteries run out, this toy can still perform its intended use
- The stars are easy to clean
CONS:
- It is not the cheapest stacker on the market
- It's battery-operated, which adds an additional expense when the batteries run out
- Made of plastic that may not be BPA-free
- Made in China (for those of you sensitive to that)
I'm not huge on all those blog giveaways because they take so much time to enter! But this one is easy to enter and you could win great toys from Melissa and Doug. They're great learning toys and are pretty indestructible, considering my boys have had some of their trucks and puzzles for a few years now and haven't destroyed them yet. So whether or not you enter the sweepstakes, check out their toys to find fun ways to work on fine motor skills, imaginative play, role-playing games, problem-solving...
All you need to do is go to their Facebook page, "like" it, and enter the sweepstakes!
