Lovevery Review 4: The Inspector Play Kit Months 7-8
October 3, 2023
Disclaimer
My son was born prematurely. He was born at 26 weeks and 6 days (3 months and 1 day early). If this box is for a baby 7-8 months, that means it should have worked for Aryi at 10-11 months, in theory. I feel that all of this makes our experience with development and play particularly unique, and our thoughts on the playkits particularly unique.
Play Guide Months 7-8
This guide is amazing! I have talked about this in previous reviews, but I love the little milestone information. I never tried to compare Aryi to those milestones, but it helped me know what we should be striving to get to at his own personal pace. It is my opinion that no one should be freaking out about milestones. However, if you are worried, your pediatrician can tell you if your child may need extra help or services.
Lovevery: $0.00 not included in price breakdown
Ball Drop Box and Wood Ball Set
This might be our most loved toy from Lovevery. I am upset with myself for not talking about this toy more on the youtube video I made. This toy was amazing for Aryi’s development. It helps to teach to grab things, to let go of things (which I did not even realize was a developmental skill that needed to be learned), to put things in, object permanence, etc. Even as we got more and more kits, this has stayed a loved and played with toy, and I still bring it out. I now like to take out all of the ball drops and put them next to each other. Aryi can discover how they are all different.
The Amazon dupe is nearly twice as expensive.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $17.89
“My First Signs”
This book is super cute. As we know by now, Aryi loves all of the Lovevery books. He loves to see the real people. However he never really caught on to the signs until recently, at almost a year and a half old. Aryi now can do signs for eat, more, and done done. I think he is just really not interested since he is talking so well.
The dupe I found is a few dollars cheaper. However, it wouldn’t have been as big of a hit for Aryi since it is cartoon people.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $7.99
“Things I See” Cards
We absolutely love these cards. Aryi don’t really like these at the 7-8 months that they were supposed to be for. At about 1 year, he started to love these cards. He started to get that the cat in the book is like our cat. He would call it a cat and pet it and give it kisses. He loves to pull out these cards. He will point to, feel, and name the ones he can name. If he can’t name a card, he will point and I will name it with him.
The quality of these cards are amazing. Aryi has chewed them, thrown them, abused them, but they are still in good condition. They seem to be made of the same stuff as a board book would be made of. The only complaint I have (if you could call it a complaint), I wish I could buy more of these cards. I would love it if they had a whole bunch of them you could buy on their website separate from a box, the way they have the extra black and white cards.
The amazon dupe I found was almost twice as expensive, without knowing the quality.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $17.99
Nesting Stacking Dripdrop Cups
This is one of our most used Lovevery toys. At first we would build towers for Aryi to knock down. Then as he grew, he would nest the cups. Eventually he learned to stack them as well. Aryi just in general loves containers, so he will use the cups to put his toys in. Aryi will pretend to be drinking something from these cups. These cups do grow with your child and I can see Aryi using them for a long time. We do have other cups too. The Lovevery cups are easier for babies to stack than other cups. Due to the deep lip on the top of the cup, it is easier to place one on top of another. I would say the quality is pretty good since Aryi throws them down on our tile floor. These cups have been loved hard in my house, and we only have one that is cracked. There is a little spider crack in the bottom of the green one. However, water does not come through the crack, so even though it is slightly damaged, the cup is still usable.
The dupe I found on amazon is a few dollars cheaper, but like I said, these are better than other cups.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $8.00
First Puzzle
Aryi used to use the puzzle piece to teethe on when he was getting his front teeth. I love that they made this silicone, probably knowing that it would have a dual purpose as a teether. Aryi loves the baby in the puzzle. We say hello to the baby when we take out the puzzle piece and bye bye when we cover the baby, making it almost a peek-a-boo game. Aryi loves to point to the baby and say baby.
The Amazon dupe is almost twice as expensive, but comes with 4 puzzles you can put out separately and then eventually together as your child gets better with the puzzle.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $18.42
Treasure Basket
I love this basket. I like that they gave us a cute basket instead of some bright colored plastic basket that would serve the same purpose. I usually use this to store his teethers out on his playshelf when Aryi is teething bad. I will also use this basket or baskets like this to put out toys with parts. Aryi likes to put things in and take them out of the basket. “Put it in put it in put it in, Take it out take it out take it out”, as Ms. Rachel would say.
You can find basically the same thing for basically the same price on amazon.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $12.99
Felt Ball Set
Aryi loves these. They are balls. What could be more fun than more balls?!
The dupe I found on amazon was less than a dollar cheaper, but it does come with 6 instead of 3 balls.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $9.99
Drinking Cup
I love this straw for a child that is more developmentally ready for a cup. We tried out this cup, along with like 10 others. Aryi always had problems choking when he drank from anything other than a bottle. Together with an OT we found a straw cup that Aryi was able to handle, and eventually got to where we are today with my favorite cup, the Dr. Brown’s Milestone Sippy Cup. He never chokes anymore. We still use this cup for play. Ary will put things in it or pretend to drink. I am planning on adding it with the pouring cups when we get the kit that has pouring cups to practice our pouring.
You can get a similar cup from Amazon for a similar price.
Lovevery: $10.45
Amazon Dupe: $11.99
“I Love You All the Time”
The diversity is so beautiful. I brag about that every time I do a Lovevery review. Aryi loves this book. It has babies. That is enough for him. Recently he has noticed the babies have different emotions. He notices when the babies are upset. Not that we don’t say I love you, because we do, all the time. But this book is a great way to reiterate that we love him no matter what, we love him all the time.
The lovevery books are more expensive than the dupes I found, but in my opinion, they far surpass any other books you could buy.
Lovevery: $9.40
Amazon Dupe: $5.00
“Peek-a-Boo”
This is hands down Aryi’s favorite book. He would ask me to read it (point or hand it to me) literally at 7 months. It still to this day is his favorite book. He loves to lift the paper and say peek-a-boo to whatever we are seeing. He likes to point to the things he knows the names for. He gets to see himself in the mirrors.
Lovevery: $9.40
Amazon Dupe: $4.99
Worth it?
Amazon Dupes total out to be $125.87 after taxes are added.
The Lovevery Playkits come in a few buying options(8 items/playkit and 2 items/book bundle):
$80 for 1 box ($83.56 after taxes) – $10.45/item
$98 for 1 box with book bundle ($102.36 after taxes) – $10.45/item + $9.40/book bundle item
$228 for 3 boxes ($238.14 after taxes) – $9.92/item
$282 for 3 boxes with book bundle ($294.54 after taxes) – $9.92/item + $9.40/book bundle item
$432 for 6 boxes ($451.20 after taxes) – $9.40/item
$540 for 6 boxes with book bundle ($564.00 after taxes) – $9.40/item + $9.40/book bundle item
You can see that this kit is about 23 dollars cheaper than trying to buy dupes on Amazon. So, is it worth it? Yes, it is worth it.
This is our favorite playkit by Lovevery. Every single thing in this kit is so helpful for development. We could see Aryi learning when playing with each item in this kit. And, everything in this kit has grown with Aryi. If you can only afford 1 kit, get this one!!!
Lovevery:
Amazon Dupe: $125.87
To check out the companion Youtube video click below.