Earlier this week I shared with you some Fisher Price toys that I had bought for Phoenyx on Amazon and our experiences with those. Today I wanted two new ones with VTech and our thoughts on if these are good buys for your house this season (or any other time!).

Now Phoenyx will play with just about anything…including a box or a piece of Tupperware, so the real test of a toy in our house is longevity. Unfortunately I haven’t had these toys long enough to really get a judge on whether or not these will be used over and over in our house, so for now I am going to share current experiences and stats.

 VTech®’s Sit-to-Race Smart Wheels™

Age range:         6-36 months
Cost:             $44.99
Available at:     Wal-Mart and other major retailers and online at www.VTechKids.com, www.Amazon.com and www.Target.com

Key Product Features:

• This innovative educational toy grows with your child and teaches numbers, gross motor skills, pretend play and more
• Numerous ways to play: For younger children, the toy’s dashboard activity panel can be played with on the floor and features:
• A horn button, twisting knob, two handle bars and four number buttons
• Grows with your child: As children grow, they can sit on the bike which can be used as a rocker or as a ride-on that can be pushed by parents

What Mom has to say

I love that the  VTech®’s Sit-to-Race Smart Wheels™ grows with your child.

Right now Phoenyxs age is one of those in between ages where he is still really young and learning to coordinate his movements but he is too old toys that hang and rattle. When I placed him on the toy, which we set up to move, he could not get on and off by himself quite yet. Now P is quite large for his age, almost as big as a 2 year old, but he still hasn’t conceptually figured out to use his feet to get the “driving” done. He did, however, enjoy pushing the buttons and the sounds that they made while either sitting on it or sitting off of it. He also was able to push the Smart Wheels around by standing outside of it and pushing it across the floor. And while Charlotte is way too big for this toy, she did sit on it and hold him and had one of her friends push them both around the kitchen.

My personal recommendation is that while this toy says 6 months and older, its much better used on a child that is 1 year and up.

What P says:

VTech®’s Alphabet Activity Cube™

Age range:         9-36 months
Cost:             $49.99
Available at:     Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and other major retailers, and online at www.vtechkids.com and www.amazon.com

• Unique to its category educational electronic cube
• Comes with 13 building blocks that feature all 26 letters of the alphabet on them. Each block can be stacked on the top of the cube for building activities with the added benefit of developing fine and gross motor skills.
• Additionally, the building blocks can be snapped into the block reader slot and reorganized to learn more about each letter
• With its five piano keys, kids can have fun and make music all while exercising motor skills and learning musical tones
• A number keypad helps little ones practice visual and verbal number recognition
• A telephone provides opportunities for role-playing and more practice with numbers
• The other sides of the cube include exciting mechanical elements that stimulate the senses and teach cause and effect, including:
• A pin maze
• A shape sorter that leads to a storage area
• Sliders
• Turning gears
• A mirror and more

What mom has to say:

This cube is super cute. You use it with the blocks, play with the sides, and the colors are bright and draw the eye. The phone has a click to it that is attractive to P, but regarding the blocks he is still learning to stack them up. The beauty of that is there are features that will continue to grow with age. If I had one complaint about the blocks though, it would be that although they stack quite like a lego would, they are so loose that one knock pushes them over instead of allowing them to stick more. The side area has a shape sorting section and at the end of the day you can toss the blocks in there so they do not get lost. (does not come with different shaped blocks however)

The one thing I like about cubes is that they put several activities into one location, which means they take up less space with more to do. I also love that it’s a strong solid toy that will get more use as he gets older and be perfect for long term play.

The one thing I do not like about cubes is that my children never seem to go AROUND them. You have to continue to get up and rotate it because kids often just sit in one spot and play. As a result, cubes, at least in my house and at the age of my son, sometimes get ignored because my children tire of seeing the same activity over and over again.

What P has to say:

You can find either of toys available on Amazon.

What are your child’s favorite toys?

~Trisha

*toys provided by VTech