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EvenFlo SmartSteps Exersaucer Entertainer
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Average customer review:
Product Description
ExerSaucer includes a variety of SmartSteps activities especially designed with fun and learning in mind. Aids baby in achieving 10 developmental milestones such as hand-eye coordination, object exploration and more. The patented folding technology makes travel and storage easy. This help baby to rock, spin or bounce, sit or stand. These are for babies 4 months to walking age, maximum height 30". This requires 12 AAA batteries not included for toy bar, pod, bus and music player.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #9101 in Baby Product
- Brand: Evenflo
- Model: 6161521
- Dimensions: 32.00" h x 9.00" w x 29.00" l, 18.00 pounds
Features
- Grows with child by offering teethers and big buttons for younger babies and simple word association for older babies
- SmartSteps learning pod is removeable and goes where baby goes! Use in the activity center or on the floor for tummy time fun
- Learning pod is interchangeable with other Evenflo SmartStepsTM product
- 18 age appropriate activities teach developmental milestones such as imitative play, hand-eye coordination and object permanence
- 50 different sights and sounds are pleasing to little eyes and ears; simple word association and fun dancing lights reward baby
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product Description
Designed for babies at least four months old and able to sit up by themselves, and with a height under 30 inches, the Evenflo ExerSaucer SmartSteps active learning center is a fun, interactive toy that helps develop the motor skills necessary for walking while increasing baby's physical activity. Ideal for both independent play and interactive fun with parents, this learning center encourages your baby's natural curiosity and keeps him or her entertained and engaged with a fun selection of colorful and playful toys.
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 SmartSteps Active Learning Center offers 18 age-appropriate activities. View larger. |
The ExerSaucer SmartSteps features spring-loaded legs and a rocking base that let your child safely bounce up and down and develop a sense of balance, which is so important when they're gearing up to take their first steps. The fabric bucket-style seat allows for easy spinning and other leg-strengthening exercises. Safely bouncing up and down also encourages a love of physical movement. But it's the stimulating and interesting toys that are bound to capture baby's attention.
First, the Toy Bar encourages baby to reach and grasp by providing over 12 different rewards with lights and music, and 18 age-appropriate activities, half with electronics, maintain her interest. Additionally, over 50 song and sound rewards ensure continual engagement.
Baby will have her own phone, can peek at herself in the mirror or the two of you can play peek-a-boo with a cute worm in a bright red apple. There's also an option to play music by pulling on vibrantly colored, rattling characters, or to press buttons and learn about shapes, letters and numbers in a lively, interactive way. The whole play station even lights up and plays music, another feature that's sure to delight your child.
Helps Encourage 16 Developmental Milestones
The ExerSaucer SmartSteps isn't just a toy--it's a system that's specially designed to help your baby reach up to 16 important developmental milestones. The lights and music encourage baby to reach and grasp, helping him or her to gain an understanding of the relationship between cause and effect. The classic peek-a-boo game gives baby a sense of object permanence.
The other activities help hone imitative play skills and hand-eye coordination, while the chewy toys, spin barrel and the butterflies all teach a wide variety of age-appropriate concepts.
 The SmartSteps Toy Bar glows and rings to inspire reach and grasp. |
Made to truly grows with your child, the ExerSaucer SmartSteps offers teethers and big buttons for younger babies and book pages and simple word-association for older babies. The three-position height adjustment makes sure baby is comfortable as he grows, and the three flip-down feet ensure additional stability in the stationary position for younger babies.
And when it's time to move the ExerSaucer SmartSteps, the lightweight plastic construction makes it easy to carry it around the house, so that you and your child can be in the same room. This learning center even boasts a patented fold down system for easy transportation and storage. It also sets up quickly and easily and takes just six "AAA" batteries (not included). And parents will love that the machine washable fabric lets you deal with spills or smudges quickly and easily.
About Evenflo
For over 85 years, Evenflo has been a worldwide leader in the development of innovative infant equipment and is now one of the nation's leading manufacturers of high quality baby care and juvenile products. Evenflo began as a company that solely distributed baby care items. They have now expanded to manufacturing products, like car seats, strollers, high chairs, play yards and activity centers, that meet all the needs of children from birth to the pre-school years.
Amazon.com Review
Your baby is naturally curious, and with every new day, she's gaining new motor skills and increasing her physical activity. She loves to sit surrounded by mountains of interesting, colorful toys, playing with and examining each one. And while she isn't able to stand or walk yet, she loves to exercise her legs by bouncing on your lap, preparing her for those eventual first steps.
The Evenflo ExerSaucer SmartSteps Active Learning Center is designed to give your baby both the exercise she needs, and the entertainment she craves. If you child is at least four months old, can sit up by herself but can not yet walk, and is shorter than 30 inches tall, read on -- the Evenflo ExerSaucer could be a great way to help your child develop her motor skills while having hours of fun at the same time.
 Keep your baby entertained with a fun selection of colorful and playful toys. View larger. |
 The activity center folds down for easy transportation or storage. View larger. |
 Spring-loaded legs and a rocking base let your child safely bounce up and down. View larger. |
With the ExerSaucer, your child is supported in a fabric "bucket" seat that she can spin around to play with a smorgasbord of exciting, stimulating, interactive toys. She will have her own phone, she can peek at herself in the mirror, and the two of you can even play peek-a-boo with a cute worm in a bright red apple. She can also play music by pulling on the colorful, rattling characters, and experience a lively introduction to shapes, letters, and numbers with an interactive play station that lights up and plays music when you press the buttons.
And best of all, while she's entertaining herself with all those fun-filled toys, the ExerSaucer's spring-loaded legs and rocking base will let her safely bounce up and down and help her to develop her sense of balance. And your baby will delight in making the ExerSaucer's butterflies spin when she jumps.
Perks for Parents
As your little one becomes more active, the ExerSaucer offers an entertaining, safe, stationary area for your baby to play while you attend to household chores or prepare dinner. The ExerSaucer's lightweight plastic construction makes it easy to carry from room to room, so that you can keep a constant eye on your child, and it folds down for even easier transportation or storage. You have the option of locking the seat in place and using the fold-out stabilizer legs to keep the saucer from rocking, should you need your baby to stay still for a bit. The seat is also height-adjustable to accommodate your quickly growing child -- and you'll be very happy to know that its fabric is machine washable for easy cleaning.
The Ultimate Test Run
To assemble the ExerSaucer, we needed a Phillips screwdriver and six "AAA" batteries. Although assembly was relatively easy, it was somewhat time consuming due to the number of parts involved. (It took us about an hour, not including time we needed to attend to the baby's needs in between assembly). But once the ExerSaucer was fully assembled, our 9-month-old test baby couldn't get enough of it. We had loads of fun playing with the peek-a-boo apple, she was very excited to have her very own phone, and she loved to make all the toys jingle and rattle as she enthusiastically bounced up and down.
Our one complaint: the interactive electronic "book," which seems designed to introduce babies to their ABCs, 123s, colors, and shapes, is actually a bit confusing. While it was a lot of fun to turn the pages with our baby and press the buttons to make the lights and music play, don't expect it to teach her much about letters or numbers. But considering everything else this fun-filled activity center has to offer an infant, that's a minor complaint.
Pros:
- Entertains your baby for an extended period of time
- Strengthens your baby's legs and develops their sense of balance
- Fun for both independent play and interactive play with mom and dad
- Folds down for easy storage and transportation
- Some of the interactive educational features are confusing
- Assembly takes approximately one hour
Customer Reviews
Hours of fun for your little one!
I bought this exersaucer when my daughter was 3 months old and had enough head control for an upright toy. We already had a jumperoo that I had received as a gift, and since she really enjoyed playing in that, I thought an exersaucer (with so many more toys than the jumperoo) would be even more fun. I also felt that the exersaucer would be a bit easier for her to use at first since at its lowest setting it's lower than the jumperoo and therefore better for slightly smaller children.
At first, the sheer number of toys was extremely overwhelming to my daughter. She would only stay in the exersaucer for a minute or two before she started to cry. We kept putting her in for a minute or two every day, and she quickly worked up to sitting in it for five minutes or more.
At this age, she's still not doing much deliberate playing with the toys. However, the design of the exersaucer and its toys allows her to make a lot of things happen even without really trying. By facing her towards the interactive book, she manages to trigger the lights and sounds just with her random batting at what's in front of her. By facing her in the opposite direction, towards the hanging toys, she can easily spin the "kaleidoscope" wheel by herself, and with a little help she can pull the hanging toys to trigger lights and music. As she continues to grow and develop more dexterity, she will be able to use each of the toys even more fully.
One of my favorite features of this exersaucer, though, is the ability to swap in and out different toys in addition to those that originally came with the SmartSteps. Three of the included toys (the cell phone, teddy bear and turtle) have interchangeable bases that work with a number of replacement toys. Each replacement toy (purchased separately) is marked with what kind of educational development it's supposed to encourage, and they cost a very reasonable $3-$8 (approx.) each. So, for a few dollars extra, you can buy some additional toys to focus on different developmental goals as your child grows and give your child even more to do on this exersaucer.
As for assembly and storage, the exersaucer has a slightly smaller footprint than the jumperoo or the aquarium cradle swing, and I've found it much easier to move from room to room than either the jumperoo or cradle swing. It also easily collapses into a relatively flat circle, which makes it good to pop in the car and take along as a portable entertainer. Assembly was easy except for installing the lower (green) legs into the yellow base. The instructions say to snap all three green tabs into the yellow base. What the instructions don't say is that if you don't do it in the right order, it's virtually impossible. When you look at the tabs, you'll see that two are identical to one another and the third looks slightly different. Snap the different-looking tab in first, and then snap the other two in - it makes the whole process go much more smoothly.
Overall, I highly recommend this exersaucer. Yes, it costs a few dollars more than the next most expensive brand, but for the tremendous amount of stuff included in it, it really is a bargain.
Keeps my daughter busy
I highly recommend this exersaucer. My daughter is 6 months old and she loved it the minute we put her inside. We bought this model because it looked like it would provide many stimulating activities for the baby to do; much more than the other brands and models. I was a bit hesitant to buy it at first because it is a little pricey, but I have learned the hard way not to cheap-out and this toy is definitely worth a little extra money (priced at $99, it only costs $20-40 more than other models that are not nearly as nice). I was very pleased that all of the tray toys are of high quality. The thick cloth seat seems comfortable for my daughter, and it is removeable for laundering. The toys are removable and can be moved around to different places on the tray to give baby a change of scenery. There are butterflies on the leg tops that spin when my daughter shifts her weight...she loves to grab at them. This toy has been a hit with her, and we have not even installed batteries yet to use the musical/educational activities!!!
I have not looked around, but I am hoping that there are interchangeable parts available for this toy so that I can change the activities every week or so. So if you are a designer for this toy, PLEASE listen and make more tray toys! They will definitely sell!
My daughter will be using this play station for a long time...there are several height adjustments and she is using the lowest setting at 6 months (she's 25-26 inches tall).
I have not tried to collapse this toy yet, but apparently you can fold it up for storage or travel.
Do not buy this thing!
I wanted to get the best exersaucer for my son, so I researched them for a week---- I spent hours on the computer trying to find one that was educational, fun and safe. I thought that this was it. Unfortunately, it had great reviews, and it was one of the most expensive which I mistook to mean "quality." First of all, it was a pain to put together. But once it was done, I thought it was worth it. Then, there are butterflies that attach to the springs, which of course a child is going to grab and play with. So the butterflies bent, and then the springs got stuck and the exersaucer could no longer bounce. So my husband had to break the butterflies off-- and even then, we thought "it's minor" and I still wasn't too upset. But then this morning, my son was playing in it, and I noticed he had something all over his cheeks. I went to look closer, and realized the stickers that are on the "book" had shredded from getting wet from him putting it in his mouth. I was outraged. I mean, why would they put stickers on things when they know that babies put everything in their mouth? Hopefully the glue that was on the stickers wasn't toxic! But even so, you don't want your child ingesting paper!! And as other people have said, the cell phone holder is very dangerous, as were the butterflies before we took them off-- all have potential to poke your child in the eye. I am very disappointed with Evenflo-- they did not have a child's best interest in mind when they made this, it seems they are just looking to make money at our children's expense. I tried to go to the evenflo webpage, but it hasn't connected for the past 2 hours. Hopefully I can get some kind of refund on this, otherwise I just threw away $100. Definitely do not buy this product!
*UPDATE* After talking to Evenflo, they will only give me "replacement" parts for up to 90 days.... which really isn't what I wanted. The new parts are going to be the same as the old parts, which aren't safe. It's a shame-- I will not be buying any more products from Evenflo, and I will make sure all of my friends and family spread the word as well.
