Minimum Age: 6 months Rating:
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The Exploration Station helps your child learn about colors, the alphabet, and numbers. View larger.

Satisfy your Child's Curiosity
Children are naturally curious -- that's what helps them learn everything about the new world around them. The Brightlings Exploration Station gives them plenty of opportunity to explore, to test their knowledge, and to learn more about how the world works. The Station is chock-full of learning opportunities, with activities to learn about colors, the alphabet, and numbers. The Station plays more than 20 fun songs for you and your child to sing along with. It also offers a great introduction to foreign-language learning by teaching simple words in five different languages. Your child can learn problem-solving skills, test his or her memory, and develop motor skills.

Fun and Learning for Babies and Toddlers
Three adorable Brightlings characters are included -- the Station also works with all of the other Brightlings characters available -- and there are lots of places for your child to explore with them. Push them down the big chute, activate the flashing lights, push, pull, turn, open, and close different compartments -- and more! What's best: This toy will offer your child plenty of learning opportunities and hours of fun for years, with two specially designed modes: one for babies from six months of age, and one for toddlers up to three years old.

What's in the Box
1 Brightlings Exploration Station and 3 Brightlings figures.




Customer Reviews

Awesome toy - my son's favorite Posted 05 November 2008
Short version:
PROS
1. songs are not annoying! (and if you do get annoyed, you can change to music only mode so there's no more singing)
2. introduces languages, alphabet, counting, colors, cause and effect, you name it
3. will keep your baby's interest as he/she learns how to manipulate all the different components
4. after daily use for 4 months, we STILL haven't had to replace batteries!

CONS
1. my son has pulled it over on top of himself and that hurts
2. you may lose the little brightlings balls that come with it

Long Version:
We bought this toy for my son when he was just 4 or 5 months old. At first he could only bat at the little flowers on the side, but when he started sitting up he quickly learned to pull the handle to make the rainbow-colored disc spin. The song that plays is really cute too. Now he is 8 months old and he has learned to open and close the door, move the alphabet slider, push and pull the brightling characters (sometimes), and pull the colored ribbons. With each action there is a unique song or sound, which keeps it entertaining for him and keeps it from being annoying for my husband and I. I especially love how the door says "hello" and "good-bye" in english, spanish, french, german, and japanese....what a great way to introduce languages! This toy is truly awesome and keeps my son's attention for 5 to 20 minutes at a time (depending on his mood, lol)....he used to sit and play with it even longer, but he is learning to crawl now. The best part is that there is still more for him to discover, because he has not learned about putting the brightlings balls down the chute yet and he only sometimes by accident will push or pull the brightlings attached to the base, causing them to sing. We will definitely be keeping this toy for the next baby.



Love it Posted 20 October 2008
I bought this for my son last year solely based on the reviews it already had and let me tell you I am glad I did. This toy has helped my son with his colors and alphabet. It's so cute watching my kids play with it and sing along with the songs. I was pleasantly surprised with this toy.

What exactly is it's purpose? Posted 19 October 2008
I bought this toy based on all of the attention and good reviews it was receiving last Christmas. It was predicted to be one of the hottest toys for toddlers! I knew virtually nothing about it, but I was expecting to be impressed.

Out of the box, the toy looks unique and very interesting. However, upon sampling its capabilities, I'm not quite sure what the point is. Maybe the one we received was defective, but the slider for the ABC's does nothing but sing the ABC song, regardless of which letter it is on. My daughter has gotten a little enjoyment out of the toy--mostly from the strange sounds that the little creatures make. But, overall, it is largely ignored.

This toy simply doesn't seem to do much and offers very few educational benefits. However, it is very durable. My daughter has thrown it from the toy box on several occasions to get to a toy of greater interest, and it still works and looks like new.

My Brightlings Exploration Station Review Posted 14 September 2008
My niece needs help on her motor skills and I wanted to get her a toy that when she pushed something, or moved something there would by some type of reaction...ie a sound, or light, or something moving. I found all of that with this toy. It really is perfect for her and keeps her occupied for hours! Not only that, my 3 year old nephew, who doesn't have special needs, loves it just as much. Thank you and keep up the good work!!

fun toy - only a couple of flaws Posted 22 April 2008
My son received this toy for Christmas, when he was 6 mos old. He was very interested in exploring all the features. He now 10 mos and still loves to pull on the ribbons, spin the rainbow spinner, and push on the singing Brightlings. The sound mixing on the music setting is even fun for adults. This is a great toy to teach cause and effect. One flaw is that it isn't very stable. My son and a friend of his easily pull it over on themselves. Also, we had to pull off the flowers, because they are spring loaded and when my son pushed on them, they sprung back and hit him in the face hard, making him cry. They are not easily removed so we broke them off. Also, it would be nice if there were a place to keep the balls.