Music Band Table
This is a fun, interactive music centre designed for babies and toddlers from nine months of age and I was really excited to try this out with Olivia having been a musician myself as a child and teenager.
A favourite with Olivia and her friends
The bright colours and appearance of the Music Band Table immediately impressed Olivia. It has become something her little friends make a beeline for whenever they come to play. It certainly seems to be a favourite item.
Allows Olivia to play and share with her friends
The Band Table is a platform that holds the three music centres. Handily, each centre can also be used independent of the base, making them more useful for babies who are not yet standing confidently as they can sit and play with them on the floor and to date we have used it most often in this format. We also found this feature useful when Olivia was with her friends as the centres are shared easily amongst Olivia and her pals and it makes it really simple to take her toy or parts of it off when we go travelling.
So much fun to keep Olivia entertained
The three centres comprise a drum section, a maracas section and a DJ console. Within each there are various activities including noisy drum pads and cymbals, a rotating rattle, a brightly coloured collection of flipping panels and a mock vinyl disc complete with scratching point, so eight different activities!
Great for sharing with Olivia’s friends with so many different activities.
Olivia quickly got the hang of how to make a noise and love banging away on the drums and cymbals and rolling the maracas. She appeared fascinated by the coloured flaps and took her time focussing on moving each with fine finger movements and I am confident this will help her develop her pincer grip and fine motor skills. The DJ component she currently seems less entertained by, but no doubt she will engage with this more as she further develops.
Encourages music skills and awareness
The Music Band Table contains numerous pieces of music and sounds and in time, it is suggested that Olivia will try to drum in time with these. For now, her drumming is pretty random yet already I can see her more co-ordinated when using the drum pads and cymbals and I will be interested to see how her skills further develop. Importantly, having plenty of tunes in the soundbank also appealed to me who has to listen to them so often!
Easy to assemble but check your baby is sturdy!
The complete centre was quickly assembled by screwing the legs to the platform. We sometimes found the three different activity centres easy to dislodge. Currently Olivia is at an age when she likes to pull herself to standing, on anything she can reach. When she does this, sometimes the centre moves off the base, rotating as it does and she has been knocked once or twice, which did not impress her at all. It is easy to avoid this by ensuring she is already standing when placed at the table and supported by me when there or, as we are doing, using the centres on the floor until she is more confident with her standing and can walk to the table unaided.
Did it pass the Happiness Test?
We are thoroughly enjoying playing with our Band Table and would highly recommend.
