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December 4, 2007
Baby Jamz
***Leave a comment at the end of this post for your chance to win a Baby Jamz Move ‘n Groove Dance Mat. Comments will stay open for one week. At the end of the week, a random commenter will be chosen and sent a dance mat!
Holidays come and your baby or toddler is inundated with all kinds of noisy, annoying toys from well-meaning relatives. What’s a parent to do?
This year, a parent has some cool options! Baby Jamz is not your typical line of baby/toddler toys and the music that the toys play is certainly not your Mother’s nursery rhymes. From a reggae "This Old Man" to a version of "Skip to my Lou" that makes you want to jam more than skip, Baby Jamz delivers a fabulous line of toys that parents won’t mind hearing played over and over again. In fact, you might even find yourself singing the reggae version of "This Old Man" when you’re all by yourself. Shh, I won’t tell if you won’t.
This line of toys isn’t cool by luck alone. Solange Knowles and her father Mathew Knowles (Beyonce’s sister and father) created this line of toys that does not disappoint. Baby Jamz features Solange Knowles singing a multitude of children’s songs with an upbeat flair.
The Mix Master Music chair (12-36 months, $24.77) quickly became one of our favorites. Sit on the chair and all the buttons light up in wave like fashion. Children can choose one of three different songs on the one arm and then choose from four different sound effects on the right arm of the chair. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Timbaland was consulted on this chair, because the sound effects are ones used in contemporary songs you hear on the radio today. While some children may enjoy sitting in the chair to play, my daughter (two years old) enjoyed happily pushing the buttons while she made her little people dance on the seat of the chair. A little people dance club was born. The Mix Master Music chair required only minimal "construction" (screwing two leg pieces onto the chair) that took only about a minute.
Lil C also got to try out the Funky Tones Cell phone ($16.86-sold in bundle with Jingle and Jam Keychain) . Unlike a lot of baby/toddler cell phones that are super loud and annoying to the point that I have actually become concerned about my daughter’s hearing and have taken them away, the Baby Jamz cell phone is quiet. It’s loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to harm, and features the songs "Old MacDonald," "Buckle My Shoe," and Mary had a Little Lamb." The top buttons make realistic cell phone sounds and the bottom buttons feature ring tones that are way cooler than my Verizon. It also lights up and is a cool flip open design. I can’t find it right now because I believe Lil C has put it in her purse so I stop playing with it.
The Baby Jamz Move ‘n Groove Dance Mat (2 yrs and up, $19.84) is also very cool. If you’re looking for a way to tire out your little one for nap time, this toy is the way. Buttons on the main console play a variety of different songs ("Mary had a Little Lamb," "Bingo," "and "This Old Man") and when your little one "dances" on one of the seven different areas of the mat, they can make their own upgraded mix version of the song. They call it the "Move ‘n Groove dance mat" for a reason.
The Baby Jamz line also features the following items:
Jingle and Jam Keychain ($16.86-sold in bundle with Funky Tones Cell phone)
Boppin’ Tunes Boom Box (6-36 months, $14.76)
Nursery Tunes Volume 1 CD ($10.47) which you can buy or Walmart, or download onto your MP3 player at Amazon ($9.49).
This collection of toys is unique because they don’t play the tired old nursery rhymes. In addition, although the toys do not have volume control, the level of volume is perfectly set and a nice change from many baby and toddler toys that blast too loudly. The toys also come with batteries already in them, which is oh so nice for the parents of an anxious toddler when the screwdriver is no where to be found. We, at the BBM household, only have one suggestion for the Baby Jamz line. The Mix Master chair would make a fabulous little potty! With plenty of buttons to push on the arms, it might actually be possible to keep a potty-training toddler in one spot long enough for something to happen, if you catch my drift.
The toys are available for purchase only through Walmart. You can find all the information you need to know at the Baby Jamz website, including samples of all the featured songs.
For a Mom whose children have always been more acquainted with Beyonce than the Imagination Movers, this line of toys is a breath of fresh air.
BBM gives the Baby Jamz toy line:
For more information on The BBM Review rating system, go here.
***Enter for your chance to win a Baby Jamz Move ‘n Groove Dance Mat by simply leaving a comment below. Comments will close in one week and a winner will be randomly chosen! Good luck!
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What a cool collection of toys! I’m always looking for musically oriented stuff for my kids and gifts for others as my husband (and now my nine year-old) is a musician. I’ll go check their website…and keep my fingers crossed I win here, too!
Okay, LOVE the dance mat!!! I would love to play, I mean, HE would love to play with that! 😉 And hey, will you stop knocking the Imagination Movers?! They’re awesome and incredibly hip for the preschool set. And, yes, I find myself singing them all the time…Anyway, very cool toys!
That Baby Jamz thing is cool! It’s like a cross between “Dance Dance Revolution” and that old 70’s/80’s game, “Simon.”
SOUNDS like just the right beat for a mother of twins who is constantly assaulted by the same old kids’ tunes. Make it stop! I’ll take two.
I will definately be checking this out, it looks cool!
I’d love to win this for my son. Thanks for the giveaway 🙂
Every child needs music in their life. Thanks for the contest.
Sweet! I think my Little Man would LOVE to get down with some of these Jamz!
With all the noisy toys out there that offer NO educational value, it’s nice that you are emphasizing those that do. I used toys like these with all of my kids, and my daughter recently scored 133 on an IQ pretest, qualifying her for Gifted Support at school.
woot woot. Dance mat.
These sound like an excellent idea, I have an almost toddler who delights in standing on top of his musical phone so that it constantly blares out irritatingly out of pitch nursery rhymes, a new tune would be a welcome change 🙂
That would be perfect for Lani, she is 16 months old and loves to dance. She looks like a little Stevie Wonder when music starts to play, she just rocks her head side to side. She has recently discovered she can “sing” and it is so cool. I guess it would be more like humming but you get the picture.
That looks like so much more fun than the Princess mat that poor G has been using (well, being thrown off of whenever he tries to use) when C is dancing. How fun!
My twins love, love, love music. This would be perfect for them. Please count me in and thanks for the great giveaway.
My two-year-old son is real music lover. I adore watching him dance around the living room when I turn the stereo on, it’s so cute! This would surely be one two he wouldn’t tire of after a day or so!
My daughter loves to dance and sing, and she would love these toys. Right now she is running around the house singing “falalala” from Deck the Halls.
My younger son would have so much fun with this!
Very very cool. I’m definitely the one in this house who tries to give the little guy the gift of music so it’s a lock he’d love this!
…Of course at the moment he’s probably do more rolling around it than dancing, but movin IS groovin’!
Oh awesome, Thomas is a total boogier!
this is exactly the type of christmas gift I have been looking for – what a cool product!
Dude! You know how much 3B loves to get his groove thing on–Brick House, anyone?–so he would love these. Thanks for the 411, and here’s hoping that 3B’s name comes up in the drawing. If not, I guess we’ll have to tell Santa about all of these.