Skip Hop Silver Lining Cloud Activity Centre Review

My husband and I have been debating whether to get Theo an activity centre for a while. By debating, I mean I’ve wanted to buy one and Lee hasn’t wanted me to spend the money in case Theo doesn’t like it. He’s the sensible one! So when the Skip Hop Silver Lining Cloud Activity Centre turned up on our doorstep for us to review we were both over the moon with excitement!

One of the things I like most about the activity centre is that it will last for a couple of years. Once the baby is too big for the seat, it can be removed and the footrest transforms it into a table. It can even be used as a chalkboard which is a neat little twist!

Does It Look Good?

The design of the Silver Lining Cloud Activity Centre makes it stand apart from other play centres because it’s subtle and stylish. It still has pops of colour to stimulate a child but it’s lovely pastel, white and grey design doesn’t look out of place in my scandi inspired living room. Don’t judge me for saying that, he can have whatever he wants if its good for him but it does feel a bit nicer if it looks good in my house, ok?

Is It Easy To Assemble?

I filmed an unboxing video of me assembling the activity centre for the first time. Unfortunately, I took the memory card out of my camera and left it on the sofa where it fell into Columbo’s clutches! This meant I had to take it apart and do it again! Not a problem though, it takes less than five minutes to assemble and disassemble. All the pieces just click into place really easily, adjusting the height of the foot rest is simple and all the toys have additional suction cups to make sure that they’re really secure. The table itself is lovely and sturdy and I like the way the footrest develops the baby’s balance. The footrest is height adjustable so it can fit to your baby from 4 months and as he or she grows.

What About the Toys

Each of the toys is great for developing hand to eye co-ordination and cause and effect recognition. Four of the toys clip to the table but it also comes with a little keyboard that can be used as a standalone toy. It has three settings:

• each key plays a different note
• each key plays a different tune
• motion activated

There’s a slot of the keyboard on the footrest so the baby can use his feet to play with it. This is where the motion activated setting can be used best. The keyboard is the only part of the activity centre that requires batteries, it take 3 x AAA batteries and you need a crosshead screwdriver to get them in, that’s the same with most toys though.

The seat insert swivels 360 degrees so the baby has full motion, the seat also has some stretch in it so a little bouncing is possible too. Theo absolutely loves standing up at the minute and my arms are killing because he’s a little chunk! The Silver Lining Cloud Activity Centre is great because he can enjoy standing up while I can use my arm muscles to have a cup of HOT coffee instead!

He loves all of the little toys, there isn’t one that he doesn’t play with which is really impressive as he has a pretty sort attention span and some toys just don’t interest him at all! They all make sounds as well as being visually appealing which is great for baby and they aren’t annoying which is great for us mums!

It also comes with a little snack bowl in the shape of a chick that suctions onto the table!

My Conclusion

I wouldn’t give something a good review if I didn’t believe in it and the Skip Hop Silver Lining Cloud Activity Centre absolutely does not disappoint. At £135 RRP it’s not cheap so is quite an investment but I can honestly say that I’d gladly pay the money for it. To have somewhere that Theo will happily play on his own is such a relief! It’s also really light so it’s easy to move from room to room. I’ve had him in it in the kitchen with me while I’ve been batch preparing his purees!

You can watch my assembly and video review of the Skip Hop Silver Lining Cloud Activity Centre here:

Have you found a toy that saves your sanity as a parent? Tell me what it is in the comments!

You can buy the Silver Lining Skip Hop Activity Centre from John Lewis and JoJo Maman Bebe.