Because Babies Grow Up

I first learned about Sprig Toys when they started following me on Twitter. After exploring their website I approached them about the possibility of doing a product review. This may not appear to be significant, but for me, for this blog, it was. I want this blog to focus on how little ones develop and how parents and caregivers can encourage that development, primarily through interacting with the child.

When it comes to toys, I am highly selective. As the wife of a student, I am also very careful about where I spend my money. I’m only interested in toys that match my philosophy of how children play and toys that encourage little ones’ development. After reading through Sprig Toys product descriptions, I knew I had found a company that matched my philosophy.

I love their Company page which says:

Inspired by our collective desire to keep kids active and the planet healthy, Team Sprig is dedicated to infusing creativity, smart design, quality manufacturing, earth-friendly materials, product satisfaction and responsible business practices into a superior line of fun, kid-powered toys.

We help make the world a better place and we get kids off the couch. Pretty cool, huh?

I love that the toys are kid-powered.

So even though they have lights and sounds, they only work through energy created by the motion of the toys moving. The Discover Rig that we received to play with has a handle bar that the girls can hold onto to push the rig around. It’s the perfect height even for Elli to push as she toddles around the play room. Elli isn’t quite strong enough to push it so that it makes the lights and sounds work. Sammi can get the lights to come on, but she can’t push it hard enough for long enough to get the story sounds to play all the way through.

That doesn’t really matter to them, though. At this age, they are content to push it around, take it apart and put it back together again and make up their own stories about where they are going and what they are putting in the basket on top. They actually played really well together with this toy. I was afraid they’d argue over who got to push it, but they didn’t. They took turns well and Sammi thought of creative ways to still play with it while Elli was pushing it around.

I love their eco-friendly approach.

Another feature that I like has to do with their eco-friendly approach to toy design. They use recycled milk jugs as the material for the toys. I love the feel of it and the weight it gives to the toys. They’ve also designed the toys to be used in water, sand, dirt, any outdoors environment. We tested this when we took it to the sandbox at the park.

The Discover Rig has a man who sits in the driver seat. There is a USB looking plug that he connects to that triggers which stories are heard. I was a little worried letting the girls play with it in the sand for fear that it would get clogged from the sand and not work. As I watched them, they played pretty carelessly with it in the sand. They took the guy out and tossed him around. They dumped sand in and out. After a while I went to check on it, hesitantly. But, as far as I could see, there was no sand stuck in the USB looking connection. When I plugged the guy in, it still worked just fine. I was so happy they hadn’t ruined it and that I hadn’t ruined their fun by being unnecessarily concerned about keeping it clean. I don’t know how it holds up to water; I’ll leave that for someone else to try!

Not just for boys!

Another thing I love about these toys is that my GIRLS love them. Most of the pictures of kids on the Sprig Toys website are boys playing with the toys. But they aren’t just for boys. Girls can also enjoy loading up the rig and carting things around, even if those things are their dolls. I look forward to adding more Sprig toys to our collection. I just haven’t decided which to buy next.

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