Any creative ideas for a 6 month play area on hard wood floors?

[Jiinx]

She's just starting to sit well so I think we have some time before she does any crawling...we have hardwood floors and some rugs in places..any ideas how I can make an enclosed area for her to play in?

tia

[Courtney L]

Hi,  The other day my husband and I were at Babies  R us and they have these new gates here is the link, it says that you can extend it.
http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=2689375&cp=2582996&parentPage=family

~C~

[Jiinx]

interesting! thank you

phew thought I would need to arrange sofas and buy cases of water bottles as barriers..

[Courtney L]

No problem, I've turned over chairs and put laundry baskets everywhere before!

[sjm182]

I used that Superyard too (fyi, at One Step Ahead, they have one with a gate).  http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=488757&cmSource=Search

But, the key was getting a floormat to pad the inside of the gated area.  One Step Ahead has a natural "wood" patterned one. http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=536202&cmSource=Search

I actually found one in red to match our decor.  I got the red here, and they have a bunch of other colors too https://www.softtiles.com/content/view/58/1/

We used the gate/mat system for a long time.  Then, when she didn't need the gate anymore, we kept the mats down and just used it to organize her play area.  The matching color means that it doesn't stand out in our living room at all.  Plus, it helps her keep her stuff contained in a specific area.

[Mashi]

I found that with the gates like that (our friends have them), many LOs feel very trapped inside - we always called it Baby Jail!  Though we did not have hardwood we still didn't want DS getting out of "contained zones" and so I did as PP above said - an upside done laundry basket (with a toy trapped in so it amused him for ages trying to figure out how to get it out), few couch cushsions, some large pillows, a rolled up blanket and so on and made a large space for him to be in, but surrounded by pillows - could move it when and as I needed to, set one up quickly in any room I was in, and so on. For the hardwood you can get those foam puzzles that have numbers or letters on them that you click together, kwim?

[mini me]

Being in Greece, no houses have carpet, so I bought loads of cheap foam jigsaw pieces ... great investment as we now use them outside to stop DD slipping over getting out of the paddling pool, she fixes them herself as part of her playtime, is learning the ABC and counting from them, wipe clean, easy to vacuum over and if one happens to break, I'll just replace it with another!

http://www.ukclassifieds.co.uk/36_interlocking_jigsaw_alphabet_number_mats-o449103.html

[Jiinx]

thanks mashi, andi and sjm - interlocking soft puzzle pieces will be what I'll do. She's still not crawling! lol I don't think she'll like the closed space as when I put her in her exersaucer, she just cries now.. Maybe she doesn't like the "trapped" feeling.

beautiful tiles sjm...those flowers ones are so pretty.

[bubbabear1]

Hi there,

We have wooden floors too and found the foam puzzle mat is great!!

Siobhan
xx