Most of the Montessori-inspired toys are less than $25.
There’s good news for any parent seeking out developmental toys for baby: Starting August 22, Target is launching a new line of stage-based play essentials from the brand Lovevery. One of the items available through Target — and even Target.com — is the brand's popular play gym. Here, What to Expect Executive Editor Kathleen Felton shares her honest review of it.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I registered for a ton of gear that I thought would endlessly entertain my baby: a bouncer, a baby seat, an activity center. What I didn’t realize at the time was that most of these items, while great, have a pretty short shelf life.
No one explained to me, for example, that my son would refuse to be strapped into his bouncer once he discovered the joys of rolling over or that the pricey activity center would have a shockingly brief window of use.
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Luckily, that’s where the Play Gym ($141 on Target.com) came in, and my son loved it.
Lovevery is known for its gorgeous, Montessori-inspired wooden toys and stage-based Play Kits, and I was immediately drawn to the gym’s soft colors and minimalist design. When my son was a newborn, I still believed I would retain control as creative director of our living room and therefore wanted to avoid harsh-looking, noisy toys — and here was a stylish toy I actually wouldn’t mind leaving on display! But it took me a few months to appreciate how versatile this gift was, and how long my son would be able to use it.
Don’t let the simple concept fool you: Lovevery’s Play Gym can be used from day one all the way through the first year (and even beyond), thanks to a clever design. As a newborn, the play mat made tummy time tolerable with a variety of eye-level features my son could explore, like colorful tabs, a black-and-white card set, baby-safe mirror and hide-and-seek teething ring.
After a few weeks, as he started expressing more interest in the world around him, he loved lying on his back and batting at the wooden bell ring and detachable ball with increasingly nimble hands and feet. (Bonus: Velcro straps make it easy to pop other toys into the hanging straps to change things up, like small stuffed animals or teethers.)
As he passed the 6-month mark, he creeped and eventually crawled away from the mat but would return to play with the wooden batting ring and Montessori ball, now while sitting up. And as he approached his first birthday, the play space cover extended the gym’s life for a few more months by transforming it into a fort that’s perfect for imaginative play and endless peek-a-boo games.
I finally retired the gym around 18 months (by that point, my son had graduated to trucks, dinosaurs and a large basketball hoop that officially established our living room as a permanent kid zone). But I’ll be bringing it back out in a few months when we welcome baby number two — the machine-washable mat has held up surprisingly well considering how often I needed to clean spit-up, crumbs and mystery spills off of it.
In addition to their bestselling Play Gym, the exclusive new Target collection will include products such as Wooden Stacking Stones, Montessori Rolling Rattle, Hide & Find Drop Box — all under $25. The Montessori Rainbow Stacker is the only product available in-store only. These products are usually sold in Lovevery's subscription and/or collection boxes, so it's really exciting that they're now sold separately (hello, lower price point!) at Target.
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