[blindkid] never stands still

Wed Jun 16 03:18:00 UTC 2010

That may be, although it sounds like their daughter has a huge amount of 
opertunities for many types of physical activity, far more than I had, and 
hopefully I can find that many for Jeremy.  I am willing to venture that 
most children's products are just not built to last, whether we are talking 
about barbies or tonka trucks, trampolines or tricycles, art supplies or 
board games.  The older heavy duty toys of wood and metal are sort of 
extinct, and new materials just aren't as strong.  I have wooden building 
blocks, tin soldiers and horses, an India rubber ball and some cloth dolls 
that have been in my family for years, but almost all of my plastic toys 
from dolls to out-door toys have long sense cracked, broken, discoloured, 
etc.  I am finding that my lofty ideas of "It's worth it to buy the $200.00 
highchair because if I have 4 children it will only be $50.00 per child." or 
"I can use all of the same baby toys for future children, so it's ok to buy 
a jumper, bouncer, toddler rocker, tummy time gym and excersaucer, to see 
which he likes best."  Um, no, that was a bust.  His toddler rocker kept 
falling apart, his bouncer broke, the musical component of his jumper died 
two weeks after setting it up and never worked fully to begin with, many of 
the toys on his excersaucer look quite sad and on the verge of colapse, his 
infant car seat is worn shiney in places from movement and rubbing and the 
cushioning of the material part, not the styrophome part is warn very thin 
and squashed down, his highchair  tray is already scratched and stained, and 
I take good care of his things gald darnet.  I read instructions, follow 
care tips and buy "quality" products, but my child wares the heck out of 
them.  The trampoline I complained to Richard about and asked for 
recommendations for a better one, has only been here for a few months, 
Jeremy only jumps a total of 30 to 60 minutes on it per day, and it is 
already torking the frame, chunks are coming out of the handal padding, the 
bounce is turning into sag and there is a tare in the protective padding 
cover.

Not always, but often, I believe that kids get short changed, and products 
made for adults, especially clothing and sports equipment is of a much 
higher quality in workmanship and materials being used, than those products 
made for kids.  It's sick, but true.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brandy W" <branlw at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 9:13 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] never stands still

I think the reason you are coming across so many problems is because a
typical developing child with no out of the ordinary sensory needs would not
jump for hours every day. Although I'm aware of sensory needs of children
hours and hours of jumping seems excesive and to me and my experience should
be replaced with some other activitties. Brabn
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)"
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 12:38 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] never stands still

Sure,

The best we've found so far (our fifth small trampoline) has been our
Bazoongi 55" Junior Combo Trampoline with Teclon Pad. (That's the
official name on the web site.) I mention this with some reservation
because we have had some problems with it, but it  has been better
than our first four... All of these small units seem to be within a
foot or less from the floor.

It has steel springs which I thought would solve everything over our
previous elastic and bungee "springs". Well, the springs mount into
little slots in the frame. Jump enough and the edge of the punched
slot and the hook of the spring rub one another. The holes get longer
while the springs get thinner. After about six months, springs began
to break. (The hook ends simply snap off.) They sent replacements but
then I realized the frame was getting damaged (slots tearing to the
center of the frame, my oversight-- could not see that before I took
it apart to add the springs though). They sent a new frame but then I
realized they sent the wrong frame (too small, their mistake). They
sent another frame but then I realized we were short on springs from
the first batch (also their mistake). Finally they sent 40 more
springs and I replaced every one again. All this took several weeks
and I expect to have springs failing again this fall sometime and
suspect the frame could be getting unsafe a few months after that.
People at Bazoongi were very nice and polite and all parts and
shipping to date have been free but the hassle factor is still pretty
high.

Bottom line is that any of these $100-range products simply seem not
to be designed to last for a terribly long time.

The Intex Jump-O-Lene (I assume that's the one?) looks fun, but my
first reaction is the sides look low enough that a jumper could vault
over the side. Also, ultimately most of these blow-up units spring
leaks and deflate. This becomes a huge pain, re-inflating over and
again until the leaks are so fast that you can't use them anymore.
Adult weight may also pop them if you have to crawl in to rescue a
child with a "boo-boo", for example. Usually patch kits are included
but these often fail to stop the leaks properly. The trampoline above
has about 6 feet of surround netting so there's no chance of that,
though you can fall out the door if the netting tears up or the "door"
is not closed.

For something smaller than the Bazoongi we have, I'd probably look on
their same page at the 48"  Bazoongi® Bouncer. (Comes in pink or
orange camo.) This one is $100. (The next one up is only $7 more.) The
key difference is that the 55" unit has no actual handle but tall
sides with netting while the 48" has no surround netting but does have
a padded, "inverted-U" handle. Smaller kids could probably do better
with the handle, but if they do let go, there is no safety net so
think of that when you set it up. All of these small units (like the
48" and the 55") seem to be within a foot or less from the floor.
Carpet with a pad is better than a hard floor. Pillows around it might
help, but put them out far enough to catch a rebounding child.

Here is the Bazoongi page:
http://www.bazoongi.com/trampoline.htm

You could also go in the inflatable bounce house direction of you have
enough space and can tolerate the noise of the blower. Honestly, I'd
want a basement room to use these inside but they are great to softly
stop a fall and the surround nets are strong. However they'd
completely fill most of our living rooms, especially when you factor
in the blower that has to run all the time it is up. Better for most
of us to find outdoor space but then you have winter snow and summer
mosquitos to factor in or whatever local frustrations mother nature
will throw your way.

I hope that helps a bit.

If anyone else has some better recommendations, please jump in with
them. I know of more durable solutions but they are in the larger
trampoline and bounce house realm. They require a chunk of outdoor
space and are from several hundred dollars to up in the $1000-plus
range for even the lower end offerings in that arena.

Richard

On Jun 10, 2010, at 11:31 PM, Heather wrote:

> Richard, this might be off topic, but since you brought it up, could  you 
> please recommend a good quality small toddler trampoline and  then maybe 
> one for slightly larger kids?  We baught Jeremy one when  he out grew his 
> baby jumper at around 12 months old, but the one we  got was a pain to set 
> up, has very little bounce, is very small  considering the amount of space 
> it takes up and is already showing  signs of ware and tare and Jeremy only 
> jumps about thirty to forty  minutes a day.  It's funny that you mention 
> all that your daughter  does on hers.  Jeremy loves to watch TV, listen to 
> the radeo, sing,  talk to himself, or his checkered towel, his version of 
> a security  blanket, even look at books or pet the cat who has learned 
> that for  pats he needs to stand on the table where Jeremy's bouncing hand 
> will pat, but not hit him while meowing up a storm to go with the  toddler 
> babble.  I am always having to stop him from bringing his  sippy cup or 
> finger food snack up there with him.  In a pinch for  time with Jeremy in 
> a pissy mood I have even managed diaper changes  and clothing changes 
> while he jumped lightly.  lol  He never jumps  for more than five minutes 
> at a time, but he will do it through out  the day, and if thwarted by time 
> constraints, it is clear that his  mood and receptiveness to learning 
> suffers if he can't jump.  His  other thing, that I will post about and 
> ask some thing about later  is going up and down and up and down our 
> stairs for up to an hour  and forty minutes with various games and 
> make-believe employed while  doing it.  So, second the trampoline 
> recommendation, add the  recommendation for something called a jumpaline, 
> a mini bounce house  for the living room that Jeremy also recommends, as 
> he has one of  those at Jim's house and the trampoline at mine, , and 
> request  recommendations for spacific trampolines that pass the Kendra 
> ceal  of approval.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org
> >
> To: <empwrn at bellsouth.net>; "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for  parents 
> of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] never stands still
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