A Hippo Makes A Good Friend, Get A Littlest Tykes Tap-a-Tune Piano

When my wife and I had our last child, we thought since it was child number eight and they are grown up now, that we had every toy on the market. We are now purchasing toys for our grandchildren. But, as we strolled down the aisles of Toys "R" Us we found this particular "Little Tykes Tap-A-Tune Piano" on sale for only $15.99. It is a little bit larger than some of the other toys that we have at home. But, we thought as long as it was a learning toy, it would be well worth the money as long as it did its job that it advertised to do. We did not know what would happen when our grandchild saw this, being they are only six months old at this time, we were about to find out, when our grandchildren saw this particular toy their eyes just about popped out of their head. This was kind of nice seeing a toy that is very useful without having any lose parts hanging from the side of it, or needing any batteries to get it to do its job.

Description
This particular toy is a little bit larger than hand held toy that kids are usually used to playing with. The dimensions of this miniature activity Center is approximately 8" x 8" x 6" and only weighs about one pound. You will not need any AA batteries, because this does not need any type of batteries to get it going. This is a brightly colored child's piano, that looks like a piano with eyes in the shape of a hippo. This is are excellent for babies and toddlers, to keep their mind on just one thing, and that is playing with this toy so that you can get some peace and quiet. This has colored buttons or keys as I call them (blue, yellow, orange, and green) with corresponding colored metal plates. That when the colored keys are struck will make such a nice harmony or melody.  This comes completely assembled inside of a box.
Features
This product will help your child develop to be able to play quite a few songs and melodies that will have your child dancing and bobbing their heads and humming and making all kinds of noises to the music. The activities that are centered around their motor skills and will exercise their memory. They will have to learn to solve things, how to push the colored keys. These particular colored keys will get the piano to help your child learn  colors, and melodies. Once you see your child playing with this, they will want to stand alongside of this piano and drive you crazy with what they call melodies. You can either use this at a table for them to sit next to, or place it flat on the floor.

What to Do
If you were wondering, what you have to do with this. Well, I can say that all you have to do is purchase it, and stick it on the floor, in the middle of the room and watch your grandchild have the time of their life, as our grandchild did. If you wish, you could sit alongside them on the floor and help to teach them about colors and tunes because the buttons are different colors and all of their primary colors are on the keys. They will learn different colors make different tunes all just to start. You will be amazed at how many hours that your child will sit alongside this thing or even scoot around the floor to play with it.

Learn or Not to Learn
It will depend on you, whether or not your child wants to learn, if you make a game of it. This will help your Child learn to pick out the basic colors with the matching notes. If you help them this will also teach your child to count and learn their ABCs with different songs that you sing with them. This toy is recommended for children six months and older. I can honestly say that when my grandchild was three years old, they still got into playing with this. One of the most important lessons that we have probably learned about this toy, is the fact that when our grandchild started to crawl and climb, that is the time that they can learn to hit on this piano. Of course, they would try to climb on top of this and sit on it, so that it's time that you might have to remove it from the floor. This is a very durable toy and easy to clean, but I would not recommend letting them have no food or drinks around it, because there are so many small crevices that this stuff can get stuck down into, and that might not be very sanitary for the child, you can't get it totally cleaned up. This can take a beating because our grandchildren are continually carrying this around and dropping it, but it continues to play.
 
This not only helps your child sound out notes, it will help in learning phrases to the different sounds. This will help in all fine motor skills by the pressing motions that your child will have to make while playing with this toy. Your child will get the new discovery and begin to explore all different notes and then reacting to play them. This will play all different notes that your child will enjoy by hitting the right colors and you will notice how your child will react to different colors, and this will make their eyes light up with joy. 

Conclusion
Now that our child has grown up and we have gotten all of its use out of it, our grandkids now play with this. I would highly recommend this toy, but what I would like to see this toy, come down a little bit in price. It is a little bit of a steep price, this has still been the same price throughout all the years that I have seen them in the store. But, if you look at how long it lasts and what it will do for your child, it is worth the money. This is very sturdy and made totally a plastic, with the exception of the metal bars that produce the tunes. We have even taken this on trips with us, because there are no removable parts, it will fit in the trunk or in the back seat very easily. This may drive you a little crazy if you are on a long road trip and you will have wished that you should have left this at home. Our grandchildren have enjoyed this thoroughly throughout the years.