This Site is Pure Genius
Jun 14 '02 (Updated Jun 14 '02)

Full Review
Genius babies.com is a one-stop store for all your baby’s educational entertainment needs. I had never heard of this store and stumbled upon it while I was looking for baby shower gifts for my friend who was having triplets. I had entered “baby shower gifts” into the Google search engine, and Geniusbabies.com was in the top five to appear. What caught my eye was that these toys were educational and innovative.

This site overwhelmed me. They have so much to offer such as toys, videos and DVD’s books, rattles, mobiles, playmats, puppets, gift baskets, shower gifts and even gifts for the new parents. I really didn’t even know where to start….so I started at the beginning.

The web site is set up so that the products are organized by categories. One just needs to click on the link that interests her and will find dozens of items to choose from.
The links are as follows:

*Baby Toys and Gifts – This link seems to have some of everything blocks, musical toys, whoozit toys etc..

*Baby Gifts – This link is filled with a variety of gift packages ranging from $25.95 to $100. An example is the “Baby IQ Gift Basket in a Box”

*Embryonics – This innovative section includes prenatal music systems, a wombsong massager, and Mozart’s Magic Music Cube to list a few.

*Infant Stimulation – Products geared towards infant stimulation (duh) such as activity playmats, music, mobiles and embryonic things are listed here as well.

*Everything Whoozit Fun Baby Gifts – Whoozit is a kind of toy by Hoopla. There are about 2 dozen Whoozit toys available through this site.

*Wood Blocks and Toys – This section seems to be filled with various alphabet block sets among some other wooden toys.

*Puppet Fun – Pretty self-explanatory!

*Puzzles – Puzzles (duh again) The great thing is that they specify which puzzles are appropriate for which age group.

The other side of the web site has a whole other list of links such as: Travel toys, Videos/DVD’s, Playmats, Shower gifts, Musical Toys. Under the Baby Shower Gifts link you will find “Daddy’s Diaper Changing Toolbelt”. Most of the time the mother to be cleans up at the baby shower and the father to be is left in the dust. Well this is the perfect gift to ensure he doesn’t feel left out. This cute gift includes everything from scented diapers and wipes to eye goggles, a nose clip and gloves!! I bought this for my friend’s husband and it went over really well at the shower!.

ABOUT THE COMPANY:

Geniusbabies.com is a small family business. It is run by a woman named Michelle Donahue-Arpas. This young mother worked for many years as a social worker with emotionally disturbed children and was inspired to create this site full of toys that would stimulate mental development. The business has quadrupled in the last few years, and now she has her husband and several other family members working with her full time. This little company was voted one of the best sites on the web by Forbes magazine in 2001. As a social worker myself I can safely say that Michelle is making a ton more money than she ever did as a social worker. This is the kind of fantasies that under paid social workers have. (Leaving the field and starting one’s own company and finally paying off the student loans!) This woman is living the dream….Well I say good for her!

MY EXPERIENCE:

My experience with Geniusbabies.com was smooth and perfect right from the beginning. I browsed around for a while and decided to get one of the activity playmats and the new daddy tool belt. I placed my order and was pleased to discover that they offer free gift-wrapping on all purchases over $15. They have pictures of their samples and you just click on which paper you would like your gift to be wrapped in. they also have a section where you can type in a personal note or greeting which they will print on a card and include with your gift. One also has several different shipping options. You can chose from regular ground shipping for $6.95 to next day air which is of course a bit more expensive. I went with the ground shipping and was informed my purchase would arrive in 7-10 business days. I received it in 5. My packages were beautifully wrapped. All I had to do was show up at the shower. Geniusbabies.com truly take all of the work and stress out of shopping. I had no problems, and no reason to contact their customer service. However they have a 95% customer approval rate according to the Forbes magazine article and they also have a section on the website where you can leave feedback. This section is filled with dozens of positive ratings, so I imagine if I had had reason to contact them, I would have been pleased with the outcome.

DRAWBACKS:

I only have one compliant about this site. The links to products can be a bit repetitive. Many of the toys are under multiple links and if you are browsing through the site, you end up looking at the same stuff over and over. However, for some people this might be a positive because if they are looking for a specific toy, and miss it under one link, they are bound to find it under another. For me though, it was just irritating.

This one tiny drawback is not enough to soil my glowing opinion of this site. If you are in the market for educational toys for your own baby, or are looking for the perfect gift for a baby shower, it is worth checking out geniusbabies.com. You won’t be disappointed!

Recommended Yes