Floor Mat

Hi A.
I got some great interconnecting rubber foam squares,about 1ft by 1ft, at Home Depot for $20. They come four to a package. I put them on my daughters bedroom floor where she plays. They come in primary colors or gray. I highly recommond them. Good luck!

The nice thing about those foam mats is that you can easily take them apart and store them in a closet or under the couch when you don't want them out. They have definitely saved my little ones a bruise or two (or twelve)!

I too have hardwood floors and picked up a set of the ABC foam floor pieces 12" x 12". We had a gate from One step ahead-at the time it came with only three two-section pieces and eventually purchased the fourth so it made a big square instead of a six sided "playpen". We used this on top of the mats to contain him while he played and I could do chores around the house easily. We had the room to leave it up all the time, so if you can find a corner of your room, this works wonders!

We also purchased a set from walmart that were boy ones (blue sports) and I know they had girl ones (pink flowers) and used them instead of a rug on his bedroom floor. This worked great for us and we used them until we moved him out of that room when he was almost 4!!

Annie A's suggestion is what the mommies in my mommy group use. I use my toga mats for my almost 17 mos. old to throw his 5 mins. meltdown and thrash around. At times, I do not use anything. I am not that concern about hardwood floors. I work out everyday and the yoga mat along with my exercise ball that he likes to play with are there everyday.

Hi A., I bought the foam puzzle alphabet letters on Ebay. You can get them in different sizes ranging from 6in letter tiles to 1 ft letter tiles(you only get 4 foam tiles if you choose this one) We ordered 2 sets of the 8" letters and arranged them lengthwise so that they covered the area near our coffee table where my son plays. It doesn't have to take up your whole floor if you arrange it the way you want. I think we paid $30 Australian dollars inc. shipping per set (36 tiles - 26 letters and 10 numbers)I thought the tiles are bright, fun, safe and cheap. Another option could be the train track rug which would be lots of fun when your daughter is a bit older.

I had the alphabet playmat, and hated it, because the letters were always popping out, or my son was always taking them out. Letters ended up all over the place, and that kind of defeated the purpose, and made a mess.

I recently bought the plain blue floor mat Toys R Us sells. They look like big squares with puzzle piece edges. The foam is thicker than the alphabet mats. I bought two packages, which I think cost about $40 total. It covers a decent area of flooring, but you'd need a lot to cover an entire room.

Good luck.

at bjs warehouse they had these mats that are like those letter floor tiles. i am a reeeally bad judge of measurement, but they looked to be maybe 4' by about 10', they were rolled up. also, we bought those tiles to put under the kids' little playhouse outside, but instead of the cute 1' squares, we got big grey ones at lowes, it was a lot cheaper plus quicker to put together and apart.