Babies need both entertainment and learning to help them develop their physical, mental, and other skills. However, they can’t always do this with just playing, and that’s when they’ll need toys.
Activity tables are great toys for babies, but most parents may wonder: do they help your baby? In this article, we round up the reasons why your baby can benefit from having an activity table in their room to play with.
Benefits of Activity Tables for Babies
So how exactly do activity tables benefit your little one(s)? Well, here are some good points:
1. They help your baby become physically strong.
Babies who play with activity tables learn their hand and eye coordination very well; they learn how to pick up objects and move them from one area to another. If your child gets used to this, they’ll easily learn how to deal with other tasks in school when they grow up.
2. They improve your baby’s problem-solving skills.
Their cognitive skills and IQ test scores are also enhanced with activity tables. Babies would have better imaginative skills and they might know which shape fits in one spot and they will also recognize colors, numbers, letters, and other items easily.
3. They are entertaining for your baby.
Most of all, babies like different colors when they play with a toy. Activity tables are created with the mindset that your baby doesn’t have to get bored with the same toy over and over again. For instance, the activity table can have:
- Musical elements (keyboard, buttons, sounds)
- Letters and numbers
- A pretend phone (for dialing and making pretend calls)
- Spinning gears
- Levers to push and pull
- A steering wheel
- Picture books
Babies have a very short attention span so they need to have different kinds of entertainment all at once. This is why activity tables are also great for homes that don’t have a lot of space for a lot of toys since an activity table is an all-in-one toy.
Choosing Activity Tables for Babies
With that said, it’s not easy to just shop for any activity table – it has to have the following:
- Safety features. Activity tables for babies should have safety features. This means that the toys should not have sharp objects, choking hazards, and the like. It should also have non-toxic paint or parts since babies are unpredictable and they can lick or chew parts of the activity table (most likely if they are still teething).
- Fun factor. An activity table for a baby should also present a fun factor. By that, we mean that it should have colorful and exciting features, graphics, and the like. You may even want to purchase a table that has their favorite cartoon character if they have one so that they’ll be enthusiastic about playing with it.
- Learning factor. Most activity tables are all about learning at home. For instance, they teach your children ABCs and 123s or they can teach them different colors, shapes, animal sounds, and much more.
- Ease of setup. An activity table that is easy to set up and also not a hassle to fold back and store can be ideal for parents who are often busy or those who don’t have a lot of space at home.
Conclusion
To wrap it up, babies can enjoy activity tables like a toy and at the same time, it also enhances their imagination, cognitive skills, and much more – they’ll need those skills when they grow up in the future. By giving them an activity table, you are keeping them busy and it can also act as a learning experience for them, even from indoors.