WonderBrains Toys

Full review
Sick of all the recalls on Chinese-made plastic toys and disgusted by all the tiny-pieced child bricabrac scattered throughout my house, I decided to buy some real toys for my daughter for her birthday and Christmas this year. You know the type I mean… the ones that don’t require batteries, don’t send flashing pulse signals to her brain, don’t shove her into a little girly box that require little girly accessories, and actually promote creativity and free play. I had never heard of WonderBrains until I started Googling for the Melissa & Doug Learn-to-Play Piano. The site had it but for slightly more than another site with which I was comparison shopping. Still, I planned to buy a few things and WonderBrains had free shipping for orders over $100. Taking the free shipping and one-stop shopping experience into account, I decided to lay down some money.

My experience
My daughter loves instruments, so I ordered her a toy piano and a ukulele, and a gripped egg shaker for little brother. I also ordered her an abacus, which my engineer husband had asked me to get her but previously I had no clue where to find. I also ordered the Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Clock for my three-year-old and a cute stuffed toy crocodile for baby brother.

I had fun shopping on this site. It was so refreshing to find so many truly educational toys. At first, I thought the category menu was a barrier to easy shopping. But the list of categories on the left-hand side actually helped me find what I was looking for quickly. The list is long and includes such intangible themes such as Active Play, Early Learning, Language Arts, Montessori Toys, and Spatial Toys. Those threw me off at first because you actually need to click into them and see some examples before you know whether or not that category is appropriate. But other categories, such as Books, Arts and Crafts, CDs and DVDs, and Musical Fun, are quite obvious. Even though I knew I wanted to buy the clock, the piano, and the ukulele when I entered WonderBrains.com, I didn’t know what to get for my little guy and spent quite some time clicking away and reading toy profiles. Beneath the category list is a list of Award Winners, Just Added, and Toys on Sale. You can also search by Toy Brands or by Age. The latter is how I ultimately found some safe and fun items for my 3-month-old. There is also a search field at the top of every page.

What I noticed now is that there’s also a way to search for American-made items, something you don’t often see on Web sites. I’m not one of those gung-ho buy American people but it is nice to see that category available as an option for searching. In fact, when you look up a toy listing, one of the details included is origin. FYI, all of the toys I ordered are made in China.

The listings include a nice amount of information. In addition to place of origin, a photo, the recommended age, brand, availability (for instance, whether it’s backordered or not), Multiple Intelligences icons, and a short description are included. Some listings include customer reviews, related items, and awards as well.

Because of my large order, I was able to take advantage of the free ground shipping perk for orders over $100. I also found a $5 off coupon on a coupon site I frequent. The total savings made it worthwhile to shop here over a few other sites where I had found some of these items.

I got instant confirmation of my order via email. The message included my purchase order as well as a link to look up my order status using my order number and a toll-free customer service number and email address. I did not need to use either because my order arrived promptly. It took five days from the day I ordered to receive my package. All of the items were included and in good condition. I had worried about the piano, since it is somewhat fragile, but it was sealed and protected.

Overall
I was impressed by the selection of fun and educational toys I found at this site. The toy descriptions are accurate, shipping was on time (and free!), and I feel good about the types of toys sold here. There are even Resources for learning about stimulating your child’s mind and creativity. There are some CDs (such as the Geography Songs), DVDs (American Sign Language “We Sign” programs), and toys I will probably order in the future.

www.WonderBrains.com