Teach My Toddler

I got this as a gift and my son really loves it. It teaches colors, shapes, letters (upper and lower case) and numbers. In each of those categories are a foam board puzzle with pop-out shapes/letter/colors, etc., a large poster display, flash cards, and a board book. The directions say to keep it somewhere out of reach so your child can't play with it on their own and to only go over one section at a time. I found though if I kept it out of reach my son would throw tantrums because he liked playing with especially the shapes so much. One of the posters is already partially ripped and he bit apart the 7 on the foam board while I wasn't looking. For me it doesn't make sense to keep it all hidden, even if it means that it gets a little bit destroyed.

I really like this, but find I rarely use the flash cards or posters. My son mostly enjoys the foam puzzles and the books whether playing with me or alone. The only problem I have with it is that they made some silly decisions with the foam puzzles. For example, the triangle isn't an equilateral triangle, but barely so. But the sides are different JUST enough that it won't fit unless you put the correct point up. *I* can barely tell, let alone my 20 month old. The same is true of the 8, one circle is bigger than the other, so the bottom circle has to go on the bottom....but it's very hard for even me to tell that. There are quite a few little flaws in the puzzles like that that while it doesn't seem that big of a deal, it certainly is for an easily frustrated toddler who can't see the extra two millimeters when they're trying to put the piece in the correct hole of the puzzle. Also, I like that the puzzles are foam but the foam is not very durable for my still sometimes orally obsessed little man. Wood would've been better. Overall I like it because he likes it, and it doesn't cause TOO many frustrated tantrums, but enough that I felt it needed mentioning.

The information about the creator of this item says that she is a parent who grew frustrated at the lack of certain educational toys, so she made some herself. Unfortunately, this kit still has the feel of a homemade toy, not fully thought-through, and without the quality or durability one would expect from something that costs so much.

Many drawbacks have been noted by previous reviewers, but I'll review some that I've also noticed. One major thing is that the foam of the puzzles is not very durable, and honestly it's not the easiest thing for toddlers to pull pieces out of and push them into. For the cost of this kit, wooden puzzles should be possible, and they would be much more toddler-friendly.

However, it's the little details that make this kit feel a bit "cheap" or poorly constructed. Some of the shapes have minor asymmetries for no apparent reason -you will find your toddler struggling to turn the triangle the correct way, because the sides aren't quite equal in length, even though all the other (more complicated) shapes are perfectly symmetrical. Similarly, there are other odd choices in the other "units": within the numbers, for example, the numbers 3 and 8 have one semicircle/circle very slightly smaller than the other, again making it more difficult for little hands. But the 6 and 9 are exactly the same shape and are interchangeable, even though that's a case where you might actually want a child to be sensitive to the distinction so they have to get them with the right side up.

And there are other minor things, like the unrealistic scene used to illustrate the shapes book (trees are ovals, a fence is made of diamonds, and for some reason the car has a heart hanging off it). That's okay, but something more annoying is the fact that the colors in the color unit are a little "off." The "pink" color is a little too purplish, making the watermelon used as an illustration in the book for that color look very strange. The "gray" mushrooms also look a bit odd. The other colors aren't as bad, but they all look a little "off" -they're not realistic colors (which would be nice, given that the color book illustrates each color with a food item), but they're also not the bright standard children's colors you'd see in crayons or paints or other toys. Little eyes at this age are still learning to draw appropriate boundaries between colors, so it's important to have good examples. This kit is mediocre, and the color choices seem amateurish for no apparent reason.

There are further inconsistent choices in design that are less helpful. For example, the alphabet set in the kit uses consistent illustrations -the book, the flash cards, and the poster all use the same things (alligator, etc.) for each letter. But the numbers cards and book use a specific set of items for each number, while the poster has generic pictures of stacks of blocks. These block illustrations on the numbers poster all look the same to a toddler, which again is unhelpful and inconsistent (kids below the age of 4 or so don't really understand the abstract concept of number, so all you're really teaching a toddler is the shape of numbers and counting order). Similarly, the colors book uses helpful food items to match up with each color, but these are not found on the other materials. At least with colors it seems more likely that a toddler will understand the abstract concept of each color, though.

All-in-all, the kit just feels like it wasn't designed or manufactured to any high standard -it just seems like something you could have thrown together yourself. And, in fact, you could actually make almost everything in this kit with a few hours of work, and the quality wouldn't be that much worse. You could make up flash cards for letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. I'm sure you could even download templates online. You could make posters. And you could even make up simple books using heavy paper (which admittedly would be less durable than the board books here). Or you could buy such things -there are obviously board books out there (as well as flash cards and posters) that cover the alphabet or numbers or whatever, and they're more interesting and exciting to kids than these materials. About the only thing that would be harder to make yourself would be the puzzles, but there are in fact high quality plastic or wooden puzzles out there that also do letters, numbers, shapes, etc. You could buy a number of those puzzles for the cost of this kit.

The main thing this kit has going for it is that all the stuff is in one case (which also isn't very durable). So, it's something that you can bring out, and your toddler will recognize it and get excited about the various options inside. Again, you could do the same effect with homemade materials, though -using a filing folder or even just a box with various items in.

Honestly, I have used the kit because I already own it, but I wouldn't really advise people to buy it for the price it is offered. Instead, if you're at all creative, you could easily make up similar materials of similar quality yourself with a few hours' work. Or, you could assemble better quality items that are manufactured by others and do the same thing. If the design choices were a little better and used more durable materials, this kit would be a great idea.

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I had bought this for my very active 19 month old son... He does seem to like to play with the activity, but will just last through one for 15min or so at best.. My complaint about this product is how cheep the puzzles are made the first time he pulled one of the letters out it ripped.. He has now ripped 3 letter just by taking them out as the directions suggest for the child to do so.. Also when putting the puzzle back together its pretty frustrating for a young child you really have to push pretty hard. they should of had a backing on the board and backing on the individual pieces.. Other then that its pretty good.

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My friend recommended this (her daughter loves it), so I made the purchase. My 22-month-old son loves the puzzles (especially the shapes, and he was able to identify them all after a few weeks). But since the puzzles are made of flimsy foam, and since he's still a bit mouthy, they all have teeth marks in them, and a few pieces are already broken. Other than the puzzles, the rest of the materials are not that fabulous (the books are boring, the animals that represent the alphabet -i.e. "A for Alligator" are creepy-looking). If I had paid half the cost, I wouldn't be so harsh in my review, but this was a bit pricey, and so I had high expectations that were not met. Don't waste your money.

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This is a great company. I think they just know how kids think. My son (2.5 years old) loves to play with each of the sections. He often brings the box over to me (yes it is light enough for a 2 year old to lift by the handle) and wants me to open the box. Each section is separated by a heavy plastic divider.

At home we do not have a schedule we keep for reviewing the sections. Our son typically drives the play. We don't leave the pieces out, but take the time to put everything away. The puzzles are lightweight but a nice quality foam. The pieces for the puzzles go together without too much effort. Easy for little children's fingers to manage.

My son's current favorite section is the colors. He likes to match up the colors with the crayons. It's nice that the puzzle pieces are shaped to only fit one correct spot. You will notice that many lower quality puzzles have only one or two shapes. Having specific puzzle shapes for each letter/color makes it easier for a child to associate where each piece goes. This is the second set by this developer. There is a first set which is also fantastic!

This set is a great value, again I was unable to get close to creating/collecting my own set for the price (full retail). This is really worth it and I would recommend it to anyone with small children. Teach My Toddler

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