Toddlers love water. And they love making a mess. A water table is the perfect outdoor toy to entertain your little one for hours. While your kids are having fun, they’ll be learning at the same time – water play can teach kids about measurements and volume as they pour from one container to another and work to understand concepts such as empty, full, more, and less.
They’ll also improve their gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and if playing at a table with other children, they can work on their social skills and communication. A water table is a must-have for sensory play, where toddlers and preschoolers learn about the world around them through hands-on activities that engage all five senses. The Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table is a great example of a water table that will bring your child hours of play and offers excellent value for money.
The Basics
The Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table is a great buy, as it offers very high play value for the money. Its simple design makes this table easy to drain and clean, and it comes with a few fun toys to get the fun started! For added variety, it’s easy to add a few toys from the bathtub or try a few classic options such as cups for pouring or a magnetic fishing pole and fish.
This table is designed to be used outside, but with a couple of easy adjustments, you can use it indoors as well, making it particularly useful for trying to entertain a toddler indoors during cold or inclement weather. You can fill the table with water beads such as Orbeez or even try something like dry pasta or rice for indoor friendly sensory play. An inexpensive plastic tablecloth or shower curtain from the dollar store can make a great mat to put underneath the table in case of spills.
Design and features
Recommended Age
The manufacturer suggests ages 24 months – 3 years, but the appeal of this water table will extend to children past both ends of this age range. As soon as they can stand, toddlers find themselves drawn to water play, and this table is low enough (22 inches high) that toddlers under two should be able to get plenty of enjoyment from it.
This table also includes some fun accessories, like a catapult, that older kids will surely find exciting as well. While the Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table is designed for toddlers, it can still hold a lot of play value for kids both slightly younger than and older than its recommended age range. I’d suggest 18 months – 5 years as a recommended age range.
Ease of Assembly
Although assembly is required, the Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table comes together easily. All you need to do is pop on the legs, then attach the plastic accessories to the top. This makes it very easy to take apart and store for the winter if you choose not to adopt it for indoor use. It’s so easy that you could even disassemble, pop it in the trunk of the car, and bring it along to the beach for some easy toddler splashing fun!
Accessories Included
The Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table comes with several fun accessories to add to your toddler’s enjoyment. There are two little floating green lily pads, a red scooping net, and five multicolored plastic frogs. The frogs are made of hard plastic, so there’s no chance of water getting inside of them and mildew growing.
The table also comes with two plastic catapults so that kids can fire frogs from the catapult onto the floating lily pads or to the tower in the center of the table. There’s also a little wheel to turn that engages a current, so your frogs can float along on a sort of “lazy river”.
Other Features
This water table has a hole in the middle where you can insert an umbrella. Although it doesn’t come with one included, any cheap beach umbrella should fit, so your little one can play outside on hot days out of the sun. An umbrella will also keep the water from heating up too quickly on very hot days.
The Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table holds seven gallons of water. It comes with a drain to empty the table, and this table is small enough and has few big attachments so you could flip it over easily to empty the water.
Although it’s designed for use as a water table, kids could also use it to play with sand or water beads such as Orbeez. If you live in a colder climate, you can extend the use of a water table like this one by bringing it inside in the winter and using water beads, or something like dry pasta or rice, to make a sensory play table for toddlers.
Compare and Contrast
Little Tikes Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table
The Little Tikes Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table is a themed play table with a lot going for it. It’s bigger than the Frog Pond Water Table – it measures 9” x 39” x 29” – and can easily accommodate up to 4 children playing at once. Shaped like a boat, it has three supporting legs that require a screwdriver for assembly.
This water table has fun details like a water cannon, a mast with a crow’s nest on the top, an anchor, and a little plank sticking out of the side. The mast also features a variety of spinning features that will be engaged when water gets poured down. You also get a ton of accessories and toys with this table. The Little Tikes Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table comes with two pirate characters, one shark, one cannon, one plastic inner tube, two scoopers, one bucket, and a skull and crossbones flag.
Because this table is bigger and has a large mast in the middle, it’s going to be a little more difficult to store than the Frog Pond Water Table. It’s a little more elaborately made, which means it looks pretty cool, but there are also more crevices where water can get in. Because of that, it can be more difficult to empty the Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table, and harder to clean.
It’s also priced higher; it’s more than twice the Frog Pond Water Table price. If you’ve got room for it in your yard and are anticipating multiple children using it at once, the Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table would be a great choice, but if ease of storage and cleaning is important to you, I’d go with the Frog Pond Water Table.
Little Tikes Spiralin’ Seas Water Table
The Little Tikes Spiralin’ Seas Water Table is similar in size to the Frog Pond Water table, at 29” x 29” x 31.5” and holds seven gallons of water, but it features a big plastic spiral in the middle of the table. Kids can drop the plastic balls in the funnel in the middle and watch them spin around and around the spiral down into the water.
There’s another funnel on the side of the table that will make two water wheels turn around and around when water is poured through. And if that’s not enough, there’s also a tiny Ferris wheel attached to the side that will scoop up and drop balls into the water. This table comes with five squirty character water balls as well as a plastic cup for pouring.
As the Spiralin’ Seas Water Table has several large attachments, it does mean it’s more difficult to clean and store than the Frog Pond Water Table. Parents should also check any toys that can get water inside, such as the balls that squirt water, regularly for mildew.
What’s in the Box?
The Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table comes with the following:
- One water table,
- Three attachable legs,
- Two snap-on catapults,
- One attachable drain,
- One center tower,
- One plastic scoop net,
- Two plastic lilypads,
- And five plastic frogs.
Conclusion
For parents looking for a piece of high play value equipment that will entertain toddlers and young children for hours, you can’t go wrong with a water table. The Little Tikes Frog Pond Water Table’s basic design means it is easy to clean and store when not in use, and kids should get hours of fun out of it. All you need to do is fill it up with water, step back, and let them get splashing!