Competitive structured BLOCKS ROCK! Toy invites hands-on play that builds lifelong STEM skills while developing spatial awareness and critical reasoning in toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners.
STEM education has long been praised for strengthening skills, knowledge, and applications related to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In our ever-evolving complex world, STEM education is more important than ever to prepare our children to solve problems, make sense of information, and know-how to gather and evaluate evidence to make decisions. In fact, competitive structured block play has been proven to foster confidence and skillfulness to focus on solutions rather than problems. Besides, investing in a STEM toy that will grow with your child can be one of the best educational material purchases you have made! Thus, BLOCKS ROCK! is a perfect choice for an open-ended toy!
With the highest regard, this is a sponsored post by BLOCKS ROCK! that brings joy and excitement to learning with captivating activities and games that build life-long critical and analytical thinking skills. You can read about their mission here.
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BLOCKS ROCK! is an educational toy that will grow with your child! The best part is that children can use blocks in various ways, thus making this educational toy suitable for a wide age range.
INTERPOSING
The first and the easiest way to use the blocks is INTERPOSING. BLOCKS ROCK! comes with cards that have structured images that are the exact size and color of the blocks. This matching type is one of the first critical reasoning skills your toddler might attempt to solve, starting anywhere at eighteen months. Offer your little one to place the block ON TOP of the image, matching the shape and the color. This type of critical reasoning is matching an IDENTICAL object to the IDENTICAL picture image. And, since there are identical characteristics in each, little children can be successful in this type of matching early on.
SIDE-BY-SIDE STRUCTURING
The next level is to build the structure NEXT to the card. This type of reasoning requires a little more abstract analytical thinking, but a child is still guided by visual assistance on the structured card. However, the child is not bounded by the outlines of the printed card image and, thus, must use a more advanced level of critical thinking.
RACE TO BUILD
Finally, BLOCKS PLAY! is a competitive, educational game where two players (or two teams of players) compete to build color- and shape-specific structures in the shortest amount of time. To begin with, children distribute the blocks evenly among each other. Thereafter, a player chooses a card that has mirror images for both players. As such, each player has a copy-structure to build out of the colored blocks. The one who builds the fastest rings the bell to end the round. Moreover, the player who finishes first keeps the card. (Each card has a numerical value.) Accuracy is key, and a player only wins the round when the structure is completed successfully. At the end of the deck, the winner of the game is the player with the most cards or with the most points, as indicated on each card.
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WHY IS CLASSIFYING IMPORTANT?
Remember, little people need to MANIPULATE in order to CONNECT! So why is SORTING and SPATIAL AWARENESS so IMPORTANT? Our visual and tactile perception consists of understanding HOW objects are situated in space. Gaining an understanding of the attributes of those objects, such as relative COLOR, SHAPE, or SIZE, which can be a distinguishing characteristic, is a key to mastering this vital skill. In particular, the developmental milestone to learn to CLASSIFY objects emerges at about eighteen months. Even earlier, children learn to identify COLORS at about twelve to seventeen months. Thus, a child becomes aware of different colors at around one year old and might name different colors by the age of two and a half to three.
Thus, classifying objects into categories is crucial since it allows children to mentally and physically organize things within their world. Little people need to understand where things belong. Moreover, they need to experience and maintain harmony within their thoughtfully prepared environment. Children feel safe and secure if there are predictability and order in their lives. As such, they can master previously acquired skills through practice and repetition. “Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired!” said Martha Graham. Remember, children cannot experience what they have not been given an opportunity to do! So, by CONSISTENTLY offering them OPEN-ENDED TOYs, like BLOCK ROCK! that can help build important character traits, such as logical thinking, mathematics, problem-solving, and creativity, we are guiding them on a path of success and security!
The affirmation: “I can do it myself!” is at the core of Montessori philosophy, and open-ended STEM toys, like BLOCKS ROCK! can significantly impact a child’s confidence and a desire to play, thus spurring growth and cognitive development.
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
Albert Einstein
BLOCKS ROCK! STEM Toy
Lastly, BLOCKS ROCK! STEM toy comes in packaging that is thoughtfully designed to have an allocated color-coded place for everything! Putting blocks back can be a puzzle prompt on its own. By returning everything to its place, children maintain order in their prepared environment while learning to follow visual instructions.
Happy BLOCKS ROCK! play!
“Play Is The Work of the Child.”
Dr. Montessori
Indeed, play activities are essential to healthy development for children as research shows that 75% of brain development occurs AFTER birth. For example, at birth, the brain is about 25 % of its adult weight. By age two, it is at 75 % of its adult weight. Moreover, by age six, it is 95%nand at 100 % by age seven. So, birth to age six is the MOST FORMATIVE YEARS when children are absorbing like sponges through PLAY by manipulating, stacking, building, and exploring!
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, PLAY is SERIOUS LEARNING. Play is really the work of childhood.”
Fred Rogers
So, seize the childhood and let them learn through PLAY! Offer your child to PLAY CREATIVELY with BLOCKS ROCK! while advancing logical and critical reasoning, developing spatial awareness and mental rotation, and strengthening their STEM skills! Children are little only once, but if we teach them right, once is enough!
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BLOCKS ROCK ~ enter code MONTESSORI for $10 OFF
1 Comment
Hello! How did you enlarge the cards images?