TOY REVIEW:
As a Childcare Provider (and mother), I play with my fair share of toys throughout my workday. I often find toys I like but rarely toys I love - I have started this blog to bring some of the BEST toys to the attention of other moms and care providers….
THE PRODUCT:
Discovery Toys’ Measure Up! Cups consists of 12 durable, colorful, plastic cups. The cups come in four colors: yellow, green, red, and blue (three of each shade). They are $13.50.
Watch learning in action as your toddler uses this set of cups to scoop, dump, fill, nest, stack and stamp. These volumetrically correct, sequentially numbered cups introduce important preschool concepts related to volume, size, time, color and measurement
Discovery Toys Claims
- Fine motor, thinking, & problem solving,
- Introduces important preschool concepts,
- Molding, stamping, and sorting concepts,
- Volumetrically correct – (Cups 1+2=3, 2+2=4 etc)
- Ideal for sandbox, bathtub play, floor play or with playdough.
- Appropriate for 12+ months.
MY EXPERIENCE
Discovery Toys Measure Up! Cups are durable, versatile, and fun for kids. And as far as I'm concerned, they are beyond Awesome (which is an odd thing to say about a set of stacking cups I know… but hear me out)!
The set that we have is as follows (Cup # on the side --- Cup color --- Picture on bottom of cup --- ounce measurements 1-12, also printed on side):
Cup 1 – Green, Butterfly (1 Ounce)
Cup 2 – Red, Mouse (2 Ounces)
Cup 3 – Blue, Rabbit (3 Ounces)
Cup 4 – Yellow, Duck (4 Ounces)
Cup 5 – Green, Cat (5 Ounces)
Cup 6 – Red, Dog (6 Ounces)
Cup 7 – Blue, Seal (7 Ounces)
Cup 8 – Yellow, Lion (8 Ounces)
Cup 9 – Green, Walrus (9 Ounces)
Cup 10 – Red, Hippo (10 Ounces)
Cup 11 – Blue, Elephant (11 Ounces)
Cup 12 – Yellow, Whale (12 Ounces)
HERE'S WHY THEY ARE AWESOME!
Infants:(Infants - 9+ months… They recommend 12months+, but there aren't any small parts so I let the babies join the fun) My younger kids all enjoy playing with the Measure Up! Cups. At this age the "Biggest Pros" were banging the cups together, which is a great bimanual task or knocking them down after someone else has stacked them - a nice cause and effect reaction. The cups hold up very well during the repeated banging and falling process and I have yet to see any cracks in the cups.
Toddlers: My slightly older kids (12-24months) love to flip these cups over and stack them up themselves - making towers out of the 12 cups before knocking them down and starting again. They also start figuring out how to "nest" the cups by this age, which is almost as fulfilling as stacking and just as educational - when it comes to learning about size and volume.
Pre-School: The Measure Up! Cups are not just for tiny tots, as many parents might believe, but also an amazing learning tool for pre-school aged children (2-4 years) because (wait for it…) they are the ONLY.. (did I say only?) yes - ONLY… Stacking/Nesting cups on the market that are actually "volumetrically correct." In other words, if you fill cup number 1 and cup number 2 with water, they will fill cup number 3 exactly. This feature allows for some early excursions into the world of math that are both fun and hands-on. (we have used water, sand, dry rice and dry beans - to fill the cups and learn about basic adding and subtracting, its been FUN and EDUCATION… and isn't that the point???) They are also excellent, for sorting - by size or color, they make a rainbow of patterns AND you can hide objects in or under them creating countless hours of fun.
School Aged: Take your cups pasted "pre-math" skills to full on (hands on) Addition (Cups 1+2=3, 2+2=4 etc), Subtraction (5-4=1, 8-5=2), Multiplication (2+2+2=6) and Division (12-4-4=4). Children always learn better when they have a visual to go along with the lesson plan, and since Math is one of the most difficult subjects for children to grasp (and parents to teach) I find it incredibly helpful to have such a superb teaching device.
MORE FUN for all ages!
1) The animal pictures on each cup decrease (or increase) by size with the cup numbers. (Butterfly is #1 - and Whale is #12) - the size of the cup correlates to the size of the animal.
2) The cups are also great for making imprints. We often roll out some Play-Doh and then take the bottom of each cup and make an imprint - we do this at the beach and in the sand box too! My daughter likes to use them to make real and pretend cookies best of all.
3) Extremely durable. They haven’t shown cracks yet after hundreds of throws and slams onto the floor. They also hold their shape after loads of use, the cups still fit in one another easily.
4) Very easy to clean as there are very few crevices to accumulate dirt. (Sometimes it takes a little extra effort to get out all the Play-Doh from the shapes after imprinting - but sand come off in a breeze)
5) They grow with the child… from Infancy until kindergarden. With just a little creativity these cups can and will be enjoyable for your child for years to come.
6) They come with 12 CUPS!!! Others set of staking cups only include eight or so, while the Discovery Toys Measure Up! Cups come in a a set of twelve. This results in taller towers, and a bigger "reaction" when they fall down.
7) The 12 cups come in four colors - which may not sound like a "PLUS", but it is!!! Because of the fact that the cups come in four sets of three cups, you can form patterns, Like Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Red, Blue, Yellow and so on. Children can also figure out which cup is missing by looking at the pattern and finding the missing color. They can also form 4 small tows out of just one color, or nest 4 sets of all one color. Creating learning through sorting, matching and pattern building.
8) COUNTING! Because the numbers are printed on the side children become familiar with seeing them as well as counting them while stacking and nesting too.
IS THERE A DOWNSIDE?
There aren't really many "negatives" related to this product. My daughter and daycare kids loves the Measure Up! Cups, and I am 100% happy with them as a customer. However, In the interest of writing a balanced review, I will point out a couple of things that could be perceived as negatives.
1) First and foremost is the price. These are plastic cups after all, and Discovery Toys charges $13.50 for them. (If you haven't seen them in action, or been to a Discovery Toys party and watched your own child OOOoooo and AAAAHhhhh over them - they may seem a bit high priced.)
2) If you are looking for a lot of color variation in a toy, this is not the set for you. Though the colors are bold and attractive, they consist of only four: blue, green, red, and yellow. If you are looking for a toy that will teach colors ONLY this is not that toy.
3) Finally, the numbers are written on the side of each cup, as well as printed on the inside bottom of the cup --- Next to the number on the bottom (inside the cup) is also one raised bump for each number. (for example on the 3 ounce cup - there is a number 3 and three little bumps.) It's a great idea… and I would have added it to the above list of "PROS", unfortunately it's not very easy to see and almost impossible to feel… I REALLY wish they'd added that extra sensory of bumps to the outside… opposite the printed ounce measurements. But alas...
So…. To Recap - Why on Earth Would I Pay $13.50 For These play cups???
GREAT question. These cups do seem pricy when compared to other sets of cups, but ask your self how long those "other cups" will last? 4 months? 6 months? 8 months? (I think thats pushing it) But lets just say they last a year….. 12 full months. (From 12 months to 24 months).
After your child turns two --- "stacking" will become… been there, done that. But not with Measure Up! Cups by Discovery Toys, the LEARNING and PLAYING are almost endless, and so are the numbers of months you'll use them! If you bought them when you child was 12 months as suggested, and used them until they were no longer educational... you'd still get more than 7 years of educational play! Maybe longer!!! Plus even after my long list of "Pros" I didn't even list the dozen or so games that they suggest to you inside your uses guide, that comes with you Measure Up! Cups purchase. (Games like… Where is it?, Bobbing Boats, Copy me & Make a Zoo.)
Want to buy these fantastic cups right now???
Click HERE
Need even more proof they're awesome??? Read what other people thing of these amazing cups and how they "Measure Up!".... Click HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment