This group of musical toys for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers is right in line with the First Act and First Act Discovery products for children ages 3 to adult. Little First Act Discovery toys introduce various types of musical instruments in a fun and colorful way. Some of the toys resemble real instruments and some are disguised as playful animals. The majority of the toys in this line are designed for solo and group play. Each product comes with tips for parents on how to get the most out of that particular toy. Aside from the toys shown above, this line also includes a harmonica, a recorder, a drum, a piano, wooden puzzles, and more.
This set of 3 percussion instruments (a castanet, a mini tambourine, and a maraca) is perfectly-sized for little hands. When I first saw them, I was worried that they were too basic to catch the interest of my almost 2yr old twins. I was so wrong!
First off, each instrument was studied carefully to determine what noise it made and how it made said noise. At our house, we have music time. One of the kids' favorite activities is to take out all our musical instrument toys and see what kind of new music we can create. Even my 5yr old son enjoyed using these during music time.
What I love most about this toy is that it does foster group play. A perfect example of this is what my daughter did tonight before dinner. She, her twin brother, and I were watching a little television on the sofa. My daughter was bored, so she dug out these three instruments out of the toy basket and proceeded to hand one out to each of us. This was her way of inviting us to play with her. This was important because she does not yet know how to say "let's play" verbally.
I introduced the next two toys simultaneously to the twins because I thought they might fight if I only presented one toy to the two of them. Again . . . I was wrong! Both of the following toys are perfectly capable of entertaining more than one child.
This toy won the iParenting Media Award for the Greatest Products of 2008. I have never had much luck with stacking toys with either twin. They are usually more interested in putting the rings on their heads and on their wrists and ankles than stacking them on the base. Unfortunately, they were consistent with their behavior regarding this stacking toy.
It was not a completely lost cause though. The base of this stacking toy breaks up into a maraca and a tambourine. These instruments were much larger than the previously mentioned percussion instruments and were a big hit. I loved how my daughter could tap the plastic tambourine on various parts of her body to make noise without having to worry that she might hurt herself.
My first impression of this musical plush was that it is adorable and, should the twins not take to its musical properties, they will still adore it as a stuffed companion. The larger size of this toy was also impressive. I was somewhat worried because musical and talking plush toys have been known to make my youngest son cry. Again, I was worried for nothing!
This toy was the biggest hit with the twins out of the three Little First Act Discovery toys they had played with. It is a very happy toy, but it is not obnoxious in anyway. I left Penny with the twins during the night. At the time they slept in toddler beds side-by-side and would be awake for hours at a time. Penny Piano was capable of entertaining both twins for long periods of time. It was a pleasure to sit in my room and listen to their squeals of pleasure and I became quite familiar with all the different features of this wonderful toy. My personal favorites are the sounds of harmony and the song "Are You Sleeping." I think the twins particularly loved the rhythm feature and the songs "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "The Alphabet Song."
Overall I am extremely impressed with Little First Act Discovery. As you can see, these toys overcame the majority of my initial concerns. I think I may have to buy at least one more of the Music Learning Pals so that each twin can have one. Now which one should we get . . . the blue piano, the guitar, or the xylophone?
