More Than Play
EXPLORE ‘N GROW ACTIVITY BALL
Shake it! Squeak it! Roll it and chase it! There are lots of ways to play and learn with the EXPLORE ‘N GROW ACTIVITY BALL—a toy that grows with your child and features lots of activities for different development levels.
As an infant, he’ll love rolling the friendly face on the outside of the ball, and experimenting with the rattle and squeaker that decorate the outside. Once he gets a little older, he’ll be delighted to discover he can open the ball to reveal lots more activities inside! In the midst of all the fun, he’ll be developing fine motor skills and finger dexterity. This rolling recreation center is packed with so much fun, he’ll be searching and discovering with it for years to come.
Get EXPLORE ‘N GROW ACTIVITY BALL now!
It’s More Than Play... This Toy Also Teaches:
Fine Motor Skills
Pincer Grip
Hand-Eye Coordination
Tactile Play
Problem Solving
Conrol of Muscle Strength
Spatial Awareness
Cause & Effect
Fine Motor Skills
Doing things like turning the spinners on the ACTIVITY BALL can help children develop fine motor skills. When children repeat activities like this, it can help their finger muscles get stronger and improve their dexterity. Good fine motor skills are a foundation for lots of future skills, such as tying shoes and buttoning shirts.
Back to Skills>
Pincer Grip
Picking up objects and learning to let them go can be tricky. When children are young, they’ll often grab or rake at objects with their entire hand. Eventually, children learn that they can better control objects by using their first finger and thumb. Experts call this the “pincer grip.” The ACTIVITY BALL gives little ones lots of opportunities to practice their pincer grip with a ball-drop game, silly spinners and more! The pincer grip isn’t just for fun and games though—it’s the same skill they’ll use later when learning to pick up peas or pull apart a piece of string cheese!
Back to Skills>
Hand-Eye Coordination
In order to pick up the smaller balls inside the ACTIVITY BALL and fit them into the holes, your child needs his hands and eyes to cooperate. Hand-eye coordination is a skill that children develop and refine over many years, so every little bit of practice can help! Hand-eye coordination is necessary for success in all kinds of activities, like feeding himself or making sand castles.
Back to Skills>
Tactile Play
Babies and young children rely on touch more than any other sense when they are young. The skin is filled with millions of sensory receptors, sending countless little pieces of information back to the brain every moment. The brain records how things feel and recognizes this information when the same feeling happens again. The ACTIVITY BALL is full of all sorts of interesting, intriguing new textures for little hands to explore—from the smooth shell to the bumpy spinners inside. Touching and feeling these different textures can help children learn about objects in their environment, and their properties—like size, shape and length. Feeling the differences in textures is also an important sensory experience. Feeling lots of different surfaces stimulates the nerve endings in the fingers and hands, contributing to the integration of a child’s sensory syste
Back to Skills>
Problem Solving
“How do I get the ball to open? When I push it away, how do I get it back?” Problem solving is an important skill—and it begins when playing. It’s important for children to learn to think for themselves so they can start to make their own decisions. Today they might just be figuring out how to keep the fun going, but in the future they may be using similar skills to solve a tricky math problem.
Back to Skills>
Control of Muscle Strength
As children pull the ball apart and discover the surprises inside the Explore ‘N Grow ACTIVITY BALL, they need to figure out how much force is required to pull it open or push it closed. This understanding of strength is called “Control of Muscle Strength.” Children need good control of muscle strength when they’re figuring out how much force they will need to pick up a sippy cup or roll out dome PLAY-DOH.
Back to Skills>
Spatial Awareness
Learning how and where things fit is called spatial awareness. Children need to gain an understanding of spatial awareness to figure out how to move themselves and objects around while steering clear of obstacles. Popping the mini balls back into the ACTIVITY BALL can help children realize that different shapes and sizes can fit in different spaces.
Back to Skills>
Cause & Effect
Learning how and where things fit is called spatial awareness. Children need to gain an understanding of spatial awareness to figure out how to move themselves and objects around while steering clear of obstacles. Popping the mini balls back into the ACTIVITY BALL can help children realize that different shapes and sizes can fit in different spaces.
Back to Skills>
Learn more—together!
Want to join the fun? Playing with your child can boost her learning, and it gives her more time to bond with you! Try these simple tips to enhance your child’s play experience:
- Talk to your child while you demonstrate the different actions with rhythm: “Shake shake shake!” “Squeak, squeak, squeak, now roll!”
- Count how many times he shakes the rattle. Get him to count with you!
- Sit close to him, holding the ball, and gently roll it toward him. Ask him to roll it back to you. Once he figures out how to push it to make it move, you can make this game more challenging by adding a little distance each time.
- Play a simple game of magic. Show him the ball, get him to interact with it, then move it behind your back. “Where did the ball go?” See if he’ll connect your movement with the disappearance of the ball. Reward him with a kiss, a hug or a high-five when he discovers where it was hiding!
- Ask your child to touch different parts of the ACTIVITY BALL and describe each surface. Is it smooth? Bumpy? Does this part rattle or spin?
