Fisher-Price’s Laugh & Learn® Smart Stages Chair #FMEGifts14

Ever since Keira first started to be interested in toys Fisher Price’s Laugh & Learn line has had a huge presence in her toy chest.  Seriously.  She has the Laugh & Learn™ My Pretty Learning Purse™, the Laugh & Learn™ Love to Play Puppy™, the Laugh & Learn™ Smilin’ Smart Phone™, the Laugh & Learn™ Say Please™ Tea Set and the Laugh & Learn™ Dance & Play Puppy.  The latest edition to our “collection” until now was her Learn-to-Flush Potty which made potty training incredibly fun and easy.  (Definitely recommend it for potty training!)  I even have the Laugh & Learn™ Sweet Sounds Picnic™ set ready for Ava’s first birthday. 

I think most parents to young children have one or two products from Fisher Price.. or you know.. 6 of them.  They are popular and and have been a huge name in the infant and pre-school toy world for a long time, I grew up with many Fisher Price toys myself.  You don’t stay on top without being innovative and just in time for the holiday season Fisher Price has revealed a revolutionary new learning technology with their Laugh & Learn® Smart Stages collection.  The toys in this line actually grow with your child developmentally for up to three years.

We were sent the new Laugh & Learn® Smart Stages Chair from the new Smart Stages collection to experience first hand.  The Chair is meant for ages 12 months and up and retails for $49.99.

The girls range from one age spectrum to the other with the chair so its interesting to see how different their interactions are with the chair set to the appropriate development stage.  

Ava is 10 months so actually just a couple months shy of the lower age recommendation.  She is able to sit in it when I put her in it but mostly gets down quickly so she can play with all the features.  I am sure this will change quickly as I remember how much into chairs Keira was from an early age (and still is!)

Keira at almost 3 years old loves to sit in her chair to play, to watch movies and sometimes just to watch me work.  When I first showed her the chair she picked it up and brought it over to her potty and told me “2 potty’s, Mommy, 2!  I was sure to clear that up with her but I can see why she made the mistake as its a chair and features the same happy smile as her potty.

The chair does require some assembly out of the box, and does not include the required 3 AA batteries.  My only dislike about the chair is that changing the batteries requires removing the back foot to be able to access the battery compartment. We haven’t had the chair long enough to determine battery life yet so not sure how much of an issue this will be considering we have almost 3 year old Laugh & Learn products still running on the included demo batteries they came with.

Parents have full control over the stages through a switch on the front of the arm rest. You just slide to adjust to the appropriate stage.

Both girls love flipping through the book which features the familiar laugh and learn Puppy.  It is easily their favourite feature of the chair just judging by the amount of time they spend flipping through to look at the pictures.

The book is a good example of how the three different stages vary.  When you open the book while the chair is set to the first stage the chair sings a song about carrots, on level two the chair asks if you see the carrots, on level three the chair asks you to pretend to eat the carrots.  Of course each page in the book does something different too.

Overall both girls seem to really love their Laugh & Learn® Smart Stages Chair and since it is more than just a toy it does get used daily.   I love how sturdy the chair is, it’s been designed well and Ava hasn’t toppled it over yet when using it to stand . 

The new Smart Stages toy line includes seven products in total, including the Smart Stages Chair; Puppy’s Smart Stages Home; Puppy’s Smart Stages Train; Smart Stages Crawl Around Car; Smart Stages Laptop; Smart Stages Vacuum; and Smart Stages Mower – all designed to encourage experiential learning through active play. 

 Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages toys are available at all major Canadian retailers including: Toys R Us, Walmart, Target, Sears, Real Canadian Super Stores and Amazon.ca. For more information on Smart Stages, visit www.fisher-price.ca/smartstages