Last month, my father in law told me he wanted to buy H an activity center because he saw that she was started to shun some of her normal toys. I was hesitant. Mental images filled my head, full of bright, loud, obnoxious plastic centers. The minimalist in me shuddered. God no, I didn’t want any of that. Instead of the nightmare that I envisioned, what arrived was elegant, sleek, and blended right in with the curated collection that I had built for H.
Enter the Hape Country Critters Play Cube. What I love about this play set is that while it’s full of activities, it’s not visually busy. It’s exciting to look at. It’s pretty. And because of the varying elements, it’s great for differing skill levels.
H’s favorite side, the ball run. The play set came with a hammer to tap the balls, but after the first time H ran after the cats with the hammer, we put the hammer in the closet for now. H loves smacking the balls with her hand, and watching race to the bottom. It was immediate love.
The shape sorter. H just got the hang of the shape sorter this past week. She spent all morning one day putting the blue square block in, taking it out, and repeating. She didn’t even want to stop for breakfast. She doesn’t quite get the other colors yet, but she has tried putting the others in the square hole, so it’s a matter of time before her experimenting ends up in her figuring it out. One downside is that sometimes the blocks get caught up on each other when pushing them in, but simply moving them aside fixes that.
The bead maze. H doesn’t play with this much. Every now and then she’ll push a bead up and watch it fall to the other side. I think I have more fun with it than she does.
The color match animals. H plays with this occasionally, but I expect her to use it more once she gets color concepts.
The spinning bees. H loves watching the bees spin around and around. She loves spinning the honeycomb and watching the bees fall into place.
Overall, I love that this play center houses multiple methods of play in one place. It stores compactly together, and doesn’t add clutter. H loves the multiple activities, and will be able to use it for a long time.
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