Modern Mamahood: Toddlers Play Hard on Playscapes

With my active, stimulation-needy toddler (because she's brilliant of course)...I'm always on the hunt for something that will truly captivate her for as long as possible. That's why I came to a screeching halt while driving past a yard sale one day where I saw an indoor "playscape" similar to the one pictured above.

Yes it takes up a bit of space, but it is completely worth it. We brought this into our home when my daughter Regina Jade was about 12mo old and at that point she mostly got her kicks out of simply standing on the lower pieces and the way the foam felt squishing under her feet. The individual pieces can be interlocked together (via velcro or other fasteners) for all kinds of combos.

Now that RJ is nearly 17mo, she plays with the foam fortress in different ways, which I love seeing. She's climbing up and down the wedge part and stepping on and off the rectangular blocks and enjoys sliding her stuffed animals down the wedge. The tunnel part is a ton of fun for her on its own; she flips it around from a tunnel position, to it's side to be a little secluded "chair", and upside down where she jumps and walks around in her mini half-pipe.

RJ gettin' her play on

Needless to say she expends a large amount of energy on this thing and she's honing her motor skills. And a bonus for us mamas, she'll go at it for a pretty long amount of time (we're talkin' over 20min here!). I also like the fact that the "playscape" is very similar to the one at the child center she goes to while mommy and daddy hit the gym. They bring theirs out frequently for the youngins and I'm sure it's made her feel a lot more confident taking her turn.

You can find the item featured at the top HERE, but keep your eye yard sales because finding this thing for $5 like I did is a major score.

From Amazon's product description: Constructed of dense foam covered in durable, heavy duty cloth-backed, wipe-clean vinyl.

The Modern Mamahood Column on the Ladies Lotto Blog:

As our Ladies Lotto community grows and evolves, we now have quite a few mamas and mamas-to-be! The LL Modern Mamahood weekly column presents the issues and products related to being a Ladies Lotto Mama. Blogger: Lana Perry