Published on April 29th, 2019 | by Sunit Nandi

Are Activity Cubes Good for babies?

If there’s one thing I consider is a MUST in any family with infants and toddlers is an Activity Cube.

An activity cube for baby is a wooden block which has different games for toddlers and babies to play. Every side of the cube and the upper part has another action to perform. Most action cubes have four sides; however there are a few which have six sides like this one.

The activities you get dependent on the block you purchase, but whatever one you get you can’t fail with this. It’ll keep your baby entertained and busy for quite a while. It will help develop their motor gross and fine abilities (depending on the actions you get), and infants are just drawn to those toys, and they like it so much better.

There are three main types of wooden activity cubes:

Low-end

Likely a misnomer, because these are perfectly nice. These are more economical and plainer, and I’m not a fan because I believe a child would get bored together pretty fast. Tend to be primary colours, basic shapes, etc.. These are fantastic for babies, but once kids get somewhat bigger, there is not much else to explore — no ribbon blocks, things to line up for hand-eye manipulation, etc.. My college-old nevertheless enjoys to play with my small one’s activity block (among the mid-range ones, next), and looking for the letters in her name in the bible side. These aren’t that much cheaper, so you may also go for the one that will amuse the kids longer!

KidKraft Bead Maze Cube

If you’re likely to purchase one of these, the two most popular would be the KidKraft Bead Maze Cube and the Maxim Learning Cube (also listed occasionally as the Maxim Activity Fun Box). Both have various shapes in the marketplace, not just beads, that can be a great feature. They both still are stuck with the identical basic-play, chief color strategy ideal for younger children. Both have removable shirts, and also the mid- and luxury ones do not, and I think that it’s for a good reason — that the corners are still sharp. The sweeter versions have curved or sanded edges, which is a beautiful security feature. There are a few gaps in the activities (by way of instance, the KidKraft variant has a cute shape sorter shrub ). However, the significant difference between the two is the size. The KidKraft cube is 10.6 x 10.5 x 19.6 inches and weighs 6.2 lbs, while the Maxim cube is a lot shorter and thicker at 13.4 x 13.4 x 13.4 inches and 11 pounds. I would give the advantage to Maxim here only for equilibrium and the sunken screws, but bear in mind this means it’s only slightly bit more than a foot tall — maybe not as much fun to get a toddler.

Maxim Learning Cube

Mid-range

Alex Jr. Woodlands Wonder Activity Center

The most popular of them are the Alex Jr. series: My Busy Town, My Busy Farm, etc.. I will talk in My Busy Town as a representative of this Alex Jr. cubes, as they are all slightly different variations of the same thing. The Alex Jr. and the B. Zany Zoo cubes are nearly interchangeable — bead maze on the top with a wooden arch, 1 side of horizontal rows of spinning pictures/letters, 1 front of peek-a-boo doorways, 1 side of curvy mazes, etc.. The differences are relatively small — for example, Alex Jr.’s My Busy Town includes peek-a-boo doorways with various occupations whereas the B. Zany Zoo’s block’s peek-a-boo doors have creatures inside. We ended up purchasing My Busy Town however that I looked at all of them and would’ve been happy with either of these brands. Exquisite quality wood and attention to detail such as round corners as opposed to sharp points.

B. Zany Zoo’s block’s peek-a-boo

Self-evident

This is where you go past the”cube” planet into hexahedrons and outside. These have a tendency to be marked equally to people and to day care centers, waiting rooms, and other high-traffic places. Anatex has pretty much cornered the industry here, going all the way up into the $500+ Sea Life Busy Cube, which has beautiful hand-painted panels and can be certainly sturdy in a whopping 34 lbs. If your organization only IPOed, go to it, but I can’t see demonstrating that much money for this particular toy.

Sea Life Busy Cube

The more modest of Anatex’s luxury offerings is that their Six-Sided Play Cube. The Anatex Six-Sided Play Cube includes more activities than your mid range cubes and more advertising — that the spin-the-horizontal-blocks-with-random-letters-and-pictures panel is now called the”Learn the Alphabet” match (the same block additionally offers”self-contained” as a selling point in Amazon, which will be kind of like providing”timber” as a selling point — it’s pretty much par for the course).

Anatex Six-Sided Play Cube

The way to use a wooden activity cube for gross development (besides routine play!):

Tummy time: particularly with spinning components — If our youngest was a baby she’d lie on the floor before the cube taking a look at the alphabet spin or the roller trucks come down.
Kneeling: we would place her into a kneeling position before the block, holding her feet gently so she could not just sit down. She would quickly become enthralled with all the beads on top and never observe that her heart muscles were strengthening.
Pulling up into status: she would catch onto the surface of the block and pull himself up. Yes, the metal wires on the top are sturdy enough for this. Regardless, the block didn’t tip over — it is heavy enough.
Balance toys on top: as she got a bit more secure on her feet, we’d put toys in addition to the bead put onto the cap of the block to promote her to reach crossbody together with her arms. A bonus would be that when she was using one hand to reach for a toy she had been supporting herself in standing position with only one hand.
Walker: we found that conventional walkers using plastic wheels moved too quickly for a kid just learning to walk. Our PT suggested utilizing our wooden activity block and it also worked. My daughter loved to push around our kitchen floor instead of a walker — it was thick enough that it wouldn’t more too fast.

Tags: activity cubes, babies, good, toys

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.