Shapes with Ella Spin Ella's belly to the sunny daytime scene and act songs about parts of the body. Spin to the nighttime scene and help Ella find starry shapes in the sky. Plus, a Goodnight mode provides
5 minutes of soothing light.
What Ella helps teach.
Language Development
Active songs encourage vocalisation while introducing baby to first words about shapes, senses, facial features and more.
Physical Development
Playful responses to each bat and spin stimulate the senses and encourage gross motor skill development.
Daytime & Nighttime Routines Daytime and nighttime modes reinforce active playtime and sleepy bedtime routines.
Imaginative Play
By stomping and singing along with Ella, baby engages in pretend play, an early milestone in social development.
Children are comforted by the order, stability and predictability of a daily routine. Routines help infants and toddlers develop a sense of time and sequence.
The ability to name parts of the body gives children words to describe themselves and others, and so is important to language development.
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With Ella, you can encourage language learning with songs and rhymes. As your baby plays with Ella, your child will hear delightful songs and rhymes.
Sing Ella’s songs to your little one as you look in the mirror together. For example, touch baby’s nose and sing, “I can do lots of things with my baby face. I use my nose to smell!” You child will enjoy this time with you as he or she learns about his facial features.
Nurture creativity and language development through pretend play. You can also encourage language development by pretending to have animated conversations with Ella. Your child can imitate these active, two-way conversations as he or she invents creative games and stories to act out with her new friend.
Comfort your baby with special daytime and nighttime routines. Soothe your baby to sleep with Ella’s nighttime scenes, gentle light and melodies. When it’s time for bed, remind baby that the stars are out and it’s time to say good night. Start each day by waking up Ella and swinging and stomping with the active song.
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A review from the blogs.
The first toy we tried, Shapes With Ella, advertised for children ages 6 months and up, is essentially a glorified stuffed animal.
The soft blue elephant has a wheel implanted in her chest, which plays a few seconds of soothing music when the child spins it. Above her chest there's a pink heart-shaped button, which illuminates the wheel when a child presses it.
Spinning the wheel reveals daytime and nighttime scenes of a cartoon version of Ella. The daytime scene shows a happy Ella frolicking on some grass, with a half-eaten apple precariously balanced on the tip of her trunk, underneath a smiling sun and two flying bluebirds.
Ella scores parental points for nutritious food propaganda, since she seems to be dancing in joy about this tasty red apple she's apparently half-munched. Spinning the wheel again shows a scene of Ella sleeping on the grass under a slumbering half-moon. Above her are some stars, linked by dotted lines, like constellations, which form a square, a circle and a triangle. That's the "shapes" part of the toy, I gather.
The cardboard box that Ella comes in claims that she introduces children to shapes, facial features, daytime and nighttime routines. I'm not sure if any of that came across to our daughter. But she does enjoy spinning the wheel to watch the scene change and make the music play, as well as pressing the button to see the light go on and off. The music Ella plays is soft and calming, so it's thankfully palatable to adult ears. I wouldn't predict that Ella is destined to be a beloved favorite in our home, but she's also not likely to be banished to a dusty box in the garage by a parent who can't stand the noise she makes.
The rest of this review can be read here.
http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2008/07/09/childs_play/index.html |
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