When we first worked on creating our wooden baby activity cube, with the bead maze, clock, and shapes....it seemed pretty straightforward to us. The triangle goes here. We can count with the abacus. We can move the beads around and watch them fall. But then what?

As adults, we sometimes have a hard time understanding how some of the simplest toys like wooden baby activity cube can provide so much learning and skill development for our babies and toddlers, and we forget to explore them a little further to help our children learn. We have a hard time breaking it down to help someone else learn who has a completely different perspective and skill level.

In light of this mid-evening revelation, as we are watching our 6-month old baby play with the wooden activity cube for...going on 15 minutes, we are reminded that babies and toddlers see activity cubes completely different than we do. 

Therefore, we want to share some of the ways we've discovered playing with our wooden baby activity cube (which happens to be one of the best toys for babies older than 12 months that we've found, in my humble, albeit biased, opinion!). 

We share these ideas in our videos that come with the Play & Learn Activity Cube, but here they are again, in case you missed them.

Wooden Baby Activity Cube Develop Fine Motor Skills 

Wooden baby activity cube is excellent for helping develop early fine motor skills. Your baby can grasp the gears, move the clock hands, and slide the beads around the curvy wires. Just THINK of how hard their little noggin is working to run that bead all the way up and around that wire! And why does it keep falling down?! 

Watching the simple concept of cause and effect can help build their curiosity, too, which is probably why they love dropping food out of their high chair. It means mom or dad or grandma or grandpa will pick it up!

How Wooden Baby Activity Cube Teach Sound and Basic Language

We use lots of easy words while playing with the wooden baby activity cube, to help identify actions of "in" or "out," "up" or "down." Talking in simple language and narrating exactly what the baby is doing while they do it helps them associate words with actions. 

We always add a little silliness, too, by changing the pitch of our voice up or down, which adds the dimension of different sounds to their learning with the wooden baby activity cube.

Other ways to use language and sound while your baby is playing with the wooden activity cube:

• Say "goodbye triangle/circle/etc." as they put the shapes into the play cube
• Play peek-a-boo with the shapes under the box and reveal where they went!
• Make sound effects when pieces move around the bead maze or clap when they reach the bottom

Wooden Baby Activity Cube Develop Hand-Eye Coordination

ToyVentive wooden baby activity cube also comes with some colorful stacking cups, which are great for helping your little baby learn hand-eye coordination. They can stack them, hide things underneath them (future magicians, anyone?), clang them together to make noise or even combine both the stacking and noise by tipping over a tower of cups. 

Our stacking cups are made of a durable, non-toxic plastic, so they hold up well and aren't too noisy. 

You can also sort them by size or by color to give your baby another way to experience the items. “Does the small one fit inside the big one? Where did it go?”

Expanding Your Child's Vocabulary

The Essential Words book that comes with the Play & Learn Activity Cube is a personal favorite. We love to get some reading and snuggling in while playing with the toy! 

The book includes simple words and helps your baby learn words that go with the pictures. We work on breaking down specific sounds within words and repeat ones that we like to practice. Sometimes we will face our daughter when we say a word so she can see what our lips do to make the sound. It's so cute to watch her try to make the same shapes as our mouth!

More Play Ideas with Baby Activity Cube 

Wooden baby activity cube is hours of entertainment, and It's even more fun when you or other grown-ups play with your baby or toddler. We cover a few more play ideas for toddlers in another blog post, and we'd love to hear or see how you're using the activity cube in creative ways with your baby! 👇