Monkey walls like this with much more fun parts to climb on are very common in Russia, and as you might know from my previous post on this topic called “A space for little monkeys to be monkeys” I’ve been really wanting to have one for the boys room. Surprisingly these seem to be nearly impossible to find here in America. And after searching high and low the ones I did find are actually from Russia/Ukraine anyway. 🙂 Ordering one from Russia with all the cool things as I wanted was really expensive due to all the freight charges, but fortunately few months ago I cam across this product and it was very reasonably priced. (This is not a sponsored post.)

While our monkey wall is very basic it nonetheless given our boys a lot of opportunities to try themselves at new physical challenges, experience a bit of risk and acquire new skills. All of which are so good for their development both physical and mental. In this post I cover some more details about it, where you can buy it if you are interested and share a very cool video of a 3 year old girl doing all sorts of amazing fits of acrobatics on a similar equipment at her home. Hoper you enjoy 🙂

What we like about it

• Good for development

  Both boys acquired new skills and pushed themselves a little bit and practiced a sense of risk, which is so good for their development.

  It gives boys an opportunity to try themselves at something physical during the times when they are hanging out at home. Although I wish it had more things like here and here, which I need to figure out how to add.

• Solid wood

  The construction is very sturdy. All the elements are made of solid wood with minimal finish that stands up to European standards as far as any toxicity

• Good components

  I like that it also comes with a little ladder to little kids to hang off or to block the way all the way up. We used it a lot with Eleon several months ago when he was very good at climbing up, but he wasn’t into climbing down on his own. So to prevent him from getting up there on his own we always had the little ladder piece there if we weren’t near him.

• Climbing rope

  The rope is nice, thick and made of soft material pleasant for hands.

• Perfect rings for little hands

  Rings are great size for children. And all the rings I found previously on Amazon were adult sized. Alternatively on amazon you can find little trapeze, but they are plastic and really hideous looking. These little rings are great. And the manufacturer was very kind to sell us an extra set of rings and rope to use outside on the deck.

Few things to know

• Installation

  I wish the width of it was a little wider, so that it could be easily secured into the studs on both sides. Instead we secured only one side into the studs with 4 metal brackets, and the other side is secured into a dry wall with anchors.

  This works for little children, they are often on it together and it never gave any signs of being loose in any way. But I think for much older children I would want to mount it to a wall differently. May be using 2x4s secured into the studs first and the monkey wall attached onto them, similarly how they hang kitchen cabinets?

The anchors provided by the manufacturer are for a different county and they do not work with dry wall. But you can easily get heavy-duty anchors at a hardware store.

We had to put a 2×4 (with a sick cloth underneath to protect the floor) on the floor beneath the main ladder to elevate it a little bit to pass our high baseboard.

• Delivery

  When you do order it the set comes from Ukraine and the package is very large and VERY heavy! If you will be going to the Postal Office to pick up your delivery make sure you have a room in your car and ideally some help with loading it.

• Floor mat

  The company selling these also sells mats. But ours a folded in two thick mattress pad from IKEA. I am concerned about possible off-gassing from the flame retardants our IKEA mat is likely to have, and planning to replace it with a mattress made of organic content instead, hopefully in the near future (we’ve been having soo many expenses..whew!)

  If you live in Colorado check out Denver Organic Mattress store, they have a very knowledgable sales persona and good selection of non-toxic mattresses.

• Lastly, I think the rings are too close to the ladder, I always have to remind boys to be watchful so not to run into the ladder itself as they are swinging. But I guess there is no way around it and the little girl in the video below clearly is taking full advantage of those rings proximity to the ladder 🙂

All and all, we love this wall and highly recommend it. And this is not a sponsored post.

Where to buy

Although we got our set through Amazon (that’s where I first discovered them for sale in US) please consider ordering it directly from the store selling and delivering these to support a small business. While the store is in Kiev, Ukraine they speak great English, are most helpful with any questions, you can pay securely via PayPal or a card, and they sell it at the same price as their Amazon with free shipping.

Here is their website and here is their contact page with their email address.

In closing

The monkey wall was most popular when it was first installed, but even as the interest worn off now. We defiantly are due to extending it with some new fun additions. To be completely frank, I wish Ale was a bit more adventurous with it, like the little girl in the video below, but my dreams are not his 🙂 And as parents our job is to offer them opportunities to try themselves at something new, and let them fulfill their dreams, not ours. 🙂

And now enjoy this little wild child having a blast with her monkey wall!

P.S. If you have some equipment created at home for your children’s physical development — I’d love to hear from you and get some inspiration from your ideas. Please leave a comment and share!