Stack and roll, Rock and roll: The Present (That He LOVES) My Son Got From a Mathematician

One of our favorite toys we got last Christmas was the Fisher Price Briliant Basics Stack and Roll Cups. My mathematician aunt got these for Cocoa Puff, and as a physics major, I totally approve! I would approve even if I wasn’t a total math nerd though. 

There are so many ways to play with these cups. They have ridges on the outside that allow stacking on top of each other. Any of the smaller cups can lock onto any of the larger cups (i.e. Cup 8 can fit onto cups 1-7. Cup 3 can fit onto cup 1 and 2). There is a hole in the middle of each cup so they are very easy for hands of all sizes to grab. 

They also nest inside of each other.

And you can make balls out of them by putting two adjacent numbered cups together (like ball 1 and 2, or 5 and 6, etc.). This is Cocoa Puff’s favorite way to play with them. 

They also all fit inside of each other inside the two biggest cups. This is the easiest way to store them. 

It comes with a jingle ball that makes a fun rattling and jingling noise when it is shaken. Cocoa Puff has a lot of fun with this little ball. 

I can see these growing with him. You can introduce skip counting. You can work with colors and numbers and comparative sizes. I use them with Froot Loop quite often. We also work on object permanence and love to hide things inside the cups and the balls. 

The bright colors appeal to visual sensory development, too. 

These are totally perfect for travel as they take up practically no room since all the pieces fit inside each other and there are so many ways to play with them. 

My only complaint is that if you turn the cups into balls, they are kind of hard to get apart. You have to really pull them hard, and that’s not possible for a baby or even a toddler. Froot Loop has trouble pulling apart the smaller ones. It’s slightly difficult to stack them as the ridges have to be lined up, but even Cocoa Puff is getting the hang of it. Froot Loop has no problems whatsoever. 

This is in my top five favorite baby toys. It might even be number 1. It is just such a simple concept with infinite ways to play. Score one for imagination (and math too!).