Indoor toddler climbing eqpmnt recs pls

My ten month old is a climber. Looking ahead, I think it's going to be
a loooong winter cooped up with a 14-20 month old unless I get some
stuff to keep him very physically active indoors. I'd like to put it on
his birthday wish list so I'm looking now. Any recommendations for some
suitable toys/climbing equipment? Thanks!
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 3, and Jaden, 10 months

Cheryl S. wrote:
My ten month old is a climber. Looking ahead, I think it's going to
be a loooong winter cooped up with a 14-20 month old unless I get some
stuff to keep him very physically active indoors. I'd like to put it
on his birthday wish list so I'm looking now. Any recommendations
for some suitable toys/climbing equipment? Thanks!


I desperately wanted one of those giant plastic toddler play yard things,
with the little slide. It is big but would be OK in the house. I also
really wanted one of those things from IKEA where they can stand at the
kitchen counter. It has sides so you don't have to worry about knocking
them down. I didn't get one so can't speak from experience but they looked
great, lol.

What I did have was a set of stairs for free, lol. Luke *loved* those. I
also allow climbing on my couch. I know that is a no-no for some people.
We'd put the cushions on the floor and use one for a ramp from the couch to
the floor. Wow - rowdy fun had by all, lol.

When I scrub the kitchen I moved all those chairs into the living room and
they had a hayday climbing over, under, and around those.

Those are all of my ideas! Luke was climber too.

--
Nikki

"Nikki" wrote in message
...
I desperately wanted one of those giant plastic toddler
play yard things, with the little slide.

I actually do have the smallest one of the Little Tikes one of those - a
cube with a slide coming out one side. It's in our dining room, instead
of a dining room table. :-P It's not quite safe for him yet though -
he's certain to fall out the back or tumble down the slide if I'm not
*right there*. I'm hoping for things I can safely leave him on, at
least long enough to go to the bathroom! lol.

It is big but would be OK in the house. I also
really wanted one of those things from IKEA where they can
stand at the kitchen counter. It has sides so you don't have to
worry about knocking them down.

I've seen that in the One Step Ahead catalog. It does look cool but I
think it would drive me nuts taking up too much space in my kitchen.
The highchair is bad enough, there is just no good place to put it.

What I did have was a set of stairs for free, lol. Luke *loved*
those. I
also allow climbing on my couch.

When I scrub the kitchen I moved all those chairs into the living room
and
they had a hayday climbing over, under, and around those.

Those are all of my ideas! Luke was climber too.

Thanks Nikki! Those are great ideas, especially the free ones. I like
free. ;-)
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 3, and Jaden, 10 months

"Cheryl S." wrote:

My ten month old is a climber. Looking ahead, I think it's going to be
a loooong winter cooped up with a 14-20 month old unless I get some
stuff to keep him very physically active indoors. I'd like to put it on
his birthday wish list so I'm looking now. Any recommendations for some
suitable toys/climbing equipment? Thanks!


We have a collapsable tunnel that Emma liked to crawl through. And along
the lines of what Nikki said, I think you can get those step2 outdoor
equipment with just a slide/ladder that wouldn't be too big for indoors.

Like this (although I've seen smaller I think):
http://tinyurl.com/54j7t

Or something like this:
http://tinyurl.com/62j9s

You could do a ball pit too, if you can stand it.

Mary

Mary W. wrote:

You could do a ball pit too, if you can stand it.


If you can stand it is right, lol. My kids were given a big one as a gift.
They did like it a lot, and it was nice to have in the winter - sort of ;-)
It is huge, ugly, and has about 100 balls to fling around.

--
Nikki

"Mary W." wrote in message
...
Like this (although I've seen smaller I think):
http://tinyurl.com/54j7t

That is very similar to what I have. The one we have is Little Tikes, I
got it at our resale shop for $35. What a bargain!

Or something like this:
http://tinyurl.com/62j9s

You could do a ball pit too, if you can stand it.

DH got this when Jaden was born, to help give Julie something to do. We
did fill it with balls. It makes me wish we had a basement we could
finish as a play area.

I guess I was thinking more of some kind of vinyl-covered stiff-foam
obstacle course..... ?
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 3, and Jaden, 10 months

Cheryl S. wrote:

I guess I was thinking more of some kind of vinyl-covered stiff-foam
obstacle course..... ?

They definitely make those. All the one's I've seen are at least $300 if
not a little more. The daycare I used to use had some. I was at an indoor
play place once that had a ton of them. They *are* really nice for the
younger crowd. Hunter was 15 months and he had a heyday at that play place
and he wasn't even a climber or even particularly active at 15 mos!


--
Nikki

In article ,
"Cheryl S." wrote:

My ten month old is a climber. Looking ahead, I think it's going to be
a loooong winter cooped up with a 14-20 month old unless I get some
stuff to keep him very physically active indoors. I'd like to put it on
his birthday wish list so I'm looking now. Any recommendations for some
suitable toys/climbing equipment? Thanks!

I'm not sure what's available now, but one of the things I got when my
kids were small was a sort of build-your-own jungle gym: it had PVC
pipe in various lengths, and several shapes of joiners. When the kids
were small, I could build something smallish for them to climb on
indoors, but take it down when it started to get in the way. As they
got larger, they started building their own things. It was expensive,
but lasted as a useful indoor/outdoor kid toy for many years, and was
especially useful in a smallish condo, where we weren't allowed to leave
anything outdoors overnight.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

dragonlady wrote in
:

In article ,
"Cheryl S." wrote:

My ten month old is a climber. Looking ahead, I think it's going to be
a loooong winter cooped up with a 14-20 month old unless I get some
stuff to keep him very physically active indoors. I'd like to put it on
his birthday wish list so I'm looking now. Any recommendations for some
suitable toys/climbing equipment? Thanks!

I'm not sure what's available now, but one of the things I got when my
kids were small was a sort of build-your-own jungle gym: it had PVC
pipe in various lengths, and several shapes of joiners. When the kids
were small, I could build something smallish for them to climb on
indoors, but take it down when it started to get in the way. As they
got larger, they started building their own things. It was expensive,
but lasted as a useful indoor/outdoor kid toy for many years, and was
especially useful in a smallish condo, where we weren't allowed to leave
anything outdoors overnight.

That sounds like Quadro, which I was going to suggest. I don't know
how easy it is to get abroad, but they have a website he
www.quadro.de


--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

In article ,
Penny Gaines wrote:

dragonlady wrote in
:

In article ,
"Cheryl S." wrote:

My ten month old is a climber. Looking ahead, I think it's going to be
a loooong winter cooped up with a 14-20 month old unless I get some
stuff to keep him very physically active indoors. I'd like to put it on
his birthday wish list so I'm looking now. Any recommendations for some
suitable toys/climbing equipment? Thanks!

I'm not sure what's available now, but one of the things I got when my
kids were small was a sort of build-your-own jungle gym: it had PVC
pipe in various lengths, and several shapes of joiners. When the kids
were small, I could build something smallish for them to climb on
indoors, but take it down when it started to get in the way. As they
got larger, they started building their own things. It was expensive,
but lasted as a useful indoor/outdoor kid toy for many years, and was
especially useful in a smallish condo, where we weren't allowed to leave
anything outdoors overnight.

That sounds like Quadro, which I was going to suggest. I don't know
how easy it is to get abroad, but they have a website he
www.quadro.de

That's it! It's expensive, but I think it may be one of the best toy
investments we made, as it went from us building smallish things that
satisfied the kids' need to climb to them designing and building things
from houses to jungle gyms to cars to lemonade stands. For my money, it
meets the highest standard for toys, since it has multiple uses and can
be used over multiple ages, can be added to by buying more kits if you
want to, and is sturdy.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care