The Animal Exploration Tunnel is an activity tunnel designed to excite babies with interactive developmental toys including discovery flash cards, bird that “tweets“, water filled teether , soft sun rattle, and ring rattle, as well as pictures of Baby Einstein characters and realistic animals on the floor mat. The Animal Exploration Tunnel is made by Baby Einstein. The Animal Exploration Tunnel comes complete with a 4-foot long tunnel, with mesh windows, movable toys, and a crinkle floor mat with bright images. This is the ideal toy for early crawlers or babies that you are trying to encourage to crawl. Best suited for babies 3 months and older.
Pros:
- Mesh cutouts in wall of tunnel allow for peek-a-boo between parent and child.
- Many of the toys are removable. They can be moved from the arch to the mat, or taken out of the tunnel for a bed-time buddy or car ride entertainment.
- There are additional rings that can be used to hang other toys (that did not come with the tunnel), for added and constantly changing interest.
- The tunnel is really light-weight and can be easily lifted and moved out of the way.
- Because of visual images on the floor mat, the Animal Exploration Tunnel encourages both tummy time and movement in the tunnel.
Cons:
- The Animal Exploration Tunnel is quite large and takes up a lot of space when it is fully assembled.
- It is necessary to remove the metal support tubes to fold up the Animal Exploration Tunnel and put away. Some people find this cumbersome.
- Children should never be left unattended while in the Animal Exploration Tunnel, as there are several common sense warnings: 1. There is a potential suffocation hazard if used on a soft surface, other than the floor. 2. There is also a potential fall hazard if this product is used some place other than the floor, as the tunnel is very light-weight and children can move it. 3. The tunnel could collapse on baby if the metal supports are used for support to stand with.
- The mesh sides of the tunnel are fragile and are easily stuck to Velcro in the wash.
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I purchased the Baby Einstein Animal Exploration Tunnel for my daughter when she was 4 months old. She loved it the first time that I put it together and laid her in the center of it. There was so much for her to look at and interact with. She was never very big on tummy time before we had this toy, but since, she enjoys spending time on her tummy looking at the mat.
My daughter is now 7 months old and just starting to think about crawling. She has taken a few crawl steps while in her tunnel and I think there will soon be many more. I really like the way that this toy encourages motion development, from rolling over to crawling. It has really been enjoyable to watch my little girl hit those lifetime mile markers.