With baby shower season in full swing, it’s time to shine the Melissa & Doug Toy Spotlight on our innovative new baby toy, our Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym. This interactive ocean-themed play mat is designed to help babies develop important skills including gross & fine motor, visual and auditory processing, sensory exploration, and social-emotional.
Take a deep dive into our Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym right here in this latest edition of our Toy Spotlight blog!
Why Babies Will Love this Ocean-Themed Play Mat
Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym
Play Basics: This ocean-themed play gym for babies features engaging graphics in both full color and black & white, wide wooden arches that allow parents easy access, and a Quick-Close button to easily fold it flat, and also includes five sensory toys to further promote developmental play.
Playful Details: Provide your new baby with a safe, secure place to explore and play with our undersea-themed Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym! This wooden play gym encourages babies to play and learn through multiple developmental stages: A cozy play mat features high contrast black and white graphics for early visual stimulation on one side, while on the other, a full-color ocean scene with sensory ribbons and a crinkling peek-a-boo clam shell keeps older babies engaged as their vision develops. The play gym includes five machine-washable, skill-building toys that can attach or be removed: a vibrating wiggly octopus, a chiming high contrast turtle with safety mirror, a double-sided, multi-textured crinkling sea star, a bright squeaking crab, and a chiming and rattling manta ray kicker. Best of all for new moms and parents: The wide wooden arches that allow easy access to the baby, and the innovative Quick-Close button that allows for speedy fold-and-go travel with or without the mat and toys attached. Makes a great shower gift or present for infants, ages birth to 9 months.
Age: 1+ months & up
Parents Will Love This Feature: The Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym features wide wooden arches that give parents and caregivers easy access to the baby, as well as an easy-to-use Quick Close button that folds the gym with one touch.
Who Will Love This: New moms, especially those still recovering from their delivery. The wide wooden arches give parents easy access to their baby, and the one-touch Quick-Connect button easily folds the mat with one touch. Babies up to one year old will benefit from the mat’s different high-contrast and colorful stimuli, detachable sensory toys for exploring and building new skills,
Skills at Play: Gross and fine motor skills, auditory & visual processing, sensory exploration, social-emotional development
Parents want innovative ways to help their young kids develop skills, and are looking for educational toys designed specifically to enhance learning opportunities through play. Our Ocean Easy-Fold Play Gym was designed to grow with babies from newborn to 9 months old, and highlights different developmental milestones as baby ages. For example, the high-contrast black & white undersea graphics one one side of the mat geared to the vision skills of newborns will give way to engaging, eye-catching full-color artwork on the other side as the baby grows and develops.
Plays Well With: Mix & match with other Melissa & Doug baby and infant toys, such as:
This cuddly fish friend will swim right into kids' hearts! With bright colors, bold facial features, and washable fabrics that include a variety of patterns and hidden pictures, this crinkling, squeaking, multi-textured soft toy from Melissa & Doug K's Kids is perfect for encouraging tummy time and fueling storytelling.
This super-sweet clip-on vibrating pull-toy is a delicious way to entertain babies while stimulating their senses—without the sugar rush! It looks like a soft, smiling ice cream cone, but pull it down and it expands to four stacked scoops in different patterns, colors, and textures (cotton, corduroy, and quilted materials). When baby lets go, the cone vibrates and plays chiming sounds as it jiggles its way back to a single cone!
Peek-a-Boo Berry Take Along Toy
Entertain babies on the go while stimulating their senses with this super-sweet clip-on Melissa & Doug Peek-a-Boo Berry Take-Along Toy! The soft plush berry with ombre crinkle leaves and smooth ribbon tabs is easy for small hands to grasp, shake, and squeeze.
How sweet it is for babies to discover textures and sounds with the Melissa & Doug Pineapple Soft Stacker! Grasp, squeeze, shake, and stack two soft, fabric-covered rings (one of which crinkles), a durable plastic textured ring, and a soft textured topper with crinkle leaves and silky smooth ribbons.
The Buzz:
“If I could rate this higher than 5 stars, I would! This baby gym has made such a wonderful addition to our days at home with our 4 month old. He absolutely loves all of the toys (especially the crab & starfish) and I love that the toys all feature a different sensory experience. As a bonus each toy, & the mat itself, are machine washable. I also appreciate that this play gym features an easy way to fold it up and store it away as needed. It’s also reversible & has a black and white pattern as well which gives you options based on preference or to coordinate with your home decor.” —Chelsead80 in a 5-star review on MelissaAndDoug.com
Enjoy this blog post? Check out more of our great baby-themed content:
Shop Melissa & Doug By Age (Newborn-12 months)
The Best Melissa & Doug Baby Shower Toys
Toy Spotlight: Pineapple Soft Stacker Baby Toy
Skills At Play!: A Guide to Toys That Teach Important Developmental Skills
