Product Review: Little Tykes Jump N' Slide Bounce House

As the mother of two very energetic boys, I feel more than a twinge of sadness every year as the cold Alaska winter settles in and we are confined to playing indoors. This last winter, after a few weeks of being housebound due to various colds and infections and extremely cold temperatures, my boys were in desperate need of some sort of physical outlet. On a whim, I started pricing inflatable bounce houses on the internet. Days later, our Little Tykes Jump n' Slide Bouncer arrived.

Features
The Little Tykes Jump n' Slide Bouncer features three mesh walls to help keep little bouncers inside the bounce house. There is a slit in the mesh of the back wall that allows the kids to enter and can be sealed with velcro once they've climbed in. The exit for the bounce house is a wide slide. The slide is about waist high on an adult, so it is not too tall for the smallest bouncers.

Size

The Little Tykes Jump n' Slide Bouncer is 9 feet by 12 feet and approximately 6 feet tall. We use it in our two car garage, and it is small enough that there is plenty of room for the kids to slide down and run around to the back to enter again. We've had seven to eight preschoolers and toddlers jumping in their at a birthday party, but I think it can safely and comfortably accommodate three to four. The weight limit is 250 pounds.

The bounce house is bulky to carry, and is almost impossible to squeeze back into the storage bag that comes with it. We fold it up and tote it around in a large plastic tub. Despite the heaviness of the material it's made of, the bounce house is surprisingly light weight.

Assembly
The Little Tykes Jump n' Slide Bouncer comes with a blower (about the size of a large toaster oven) to keep it inflated. Once the bounce house is laid out on a flat area of ground, you attach a fabric tube that runs from the side of the bounce house to the blower and cinch it shut. After that, it only takes a flip of a switch to start inflating the bounce house. Inflation takes about 1-2 minutes. It is so easy to start that my four year old has declared it his duty to turn it on for us.

We have used ours inside our garage, out on our lawn and at a local party venue. The Little Tykes Jump n' Slide Bouncer comes with stakes so that if you use it outside you can secure it safely in place.

Where Can I Buy It?
This model can be purchased online at either Amazon or Wal-Mart's websites. When we purchased ours, the best price was at Wal-Mart. Our local store doesn't participate in the free Site-to-Store shipping option, but shipping through the post office was only $12. It arrived in four business days. Where we live in Alaska, this was an absolute bargain. Many retailers charge extra fees or exorbitant shipping prices, so I was quite pleased with the low shipping cost and fast shipping time. Our total cost was just over $200, a much better value than a video game system, in my opinion.

Bottom Line
I tell all parents, especially those stuck inside all winter like we are, that this the best money we ever spent. Our home is small, under 1500 square feet, so there is nowhere for our boys to run or burn off energy when we are stuck home. The Little Tykes Jump n' Slide Bouncer takes minutes to get ready, but brings us hours of entertainment all winter long.