I had the opportunity to review the Bird House Playset by Melissa and Doug from Ebeanstalk the other day with my 18 month old son, Sebastian, as well as a few of his friends at our weekly playgroup meet up. For those of you who are not aware of Ebeanstalk, please see my previous post from last week. Ebeanstalk is an educational toy store site that offers toys and products for children of all ages, from baby toys to kids toys .
First off, I was impressed with how Ebeanstalk sends their toy purchases to customers. Inside the box, they include an informational card that details the developmental milestones and how this toy would benefit each, as reviewed by child specialists. I have never received something like this with a product/toy I bought for my child. The developmental milestones included: imagination, education, language, dexterity, locomotion, social and emotion aspects of learning, and how this toy would benefit each. The only question/concern I had in regards to the information presented on the informational card was that it specified that this toy, the Bird House Playset by Melissa and Doug, was for children ages 3 months-6 months, but on the outside of the toy package itself, it stated it was for children 9+ months. Confused, I began to search online at various stores and noted the same discrepancy. I decided to go with the boxes age range and offered the toy to Sebastian to play with. Even though he is 18 months old, he enjoyed playing with the bird house and the 4 birds that came with it. He understood the concept of fitting each bird into their respective peek-a-boo holes, and was able to tell the colors apart. I don’t think a child 3 months-6 months would get the same enjoyment that my son had with the toy. After my son was done playing with the toy, I offered it to a few children, ages 6 months and 12 months at our weekly playgroup. The 6 month old could not figure out that he was supposed to put the birds in a specific hole. Instead, he tried to cram each bird into different holes and then when they wouldn’t fit, gave up and just played with the birds themselves. The best feature of this product is that the birds come in different shapes and colors and each offers their own unique sound, either jingling, rattling, squeaking or crinkling. The unique sound feature of each bird kept both the 6 month old and the 12 month old content. With the help of mom, the 12 month old was able to fit some of the birds into their respective holes, but again, chose to play with the birds, rather than fit them nicely into the bird’s nest.
Overall, the product was crafted nicely, with the exception of the eyes of the birds. The eyes were made out of black plastic pieces, which the 6 month old began to chew on after awhile. His mother had to take the bird away, as she was afraid he would break the plastic piece off and choke on it. Because of this, I would suggest this toy for older children, 9+ months. The bird house has vibrant colors that caught the eyes of my son and the other children playing with the toy, and with the handy loop on the top of the house, my son was able to carry the toy around when we went out. Overall, based on the how my son interacted with the toy and my own personal review of it, I would give the Bird House Playset by Melissa and Doug a 4 out of 5 rating.
If you are looking for the perfect gift for your son or daughter, why not check out this bird house set on Ebeanstalk, or any of their other toys shown on their site, and broken down by age. I can say firsthand that the quality of their products and product selection is suburb and I will continue to purchase my children’s toys/gifts from them.
Coupon Deal: Check out Ebeanstalk today and don’t forget to use the offer code: THANKYOU15%, for 15% off your order.
Happy shopping!
This is so cute--maybe I'll get it for my baby cousin!
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