I love open-ended toys with limitless possibilities to stretch their imagination, for pretend play, and even to learn math concepts like counting, sorting or patterning effortlessly.
A mumtrepreneur friend who runs the local online shop My First Games brought over a set of CitiBlocs in cool colours, and we’ve been having good fun with it.
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CitiBlocs 200 pieces ($89.90) |
It comes with a little manual with some suggestions of things to build and the required number of blocks. #5 flipped through it and asked Kate what she wanted him to build for her. “House!” she exclaimed.
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House under contruction |
#5 picked up some blocks, looked at the manual, then realised that it doesn’t have step-by-step instructions like his Lego sets.
He looked at me, looked at his little sister and said, “Don’t worry ok, gor gor will figure out how to build for you.”
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Kate’s tiny house |
Within minutes, he finished constructing an adorable little house for Kate.
That was fast!
I was still studying the diagram and didn’t know where to begin. Guess #5 doesn’t need any help from his clueless mum when it comes to construction toys.
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With the remaining number of pieces, he did some quick math, and figured that he had enough blocks to build this robot-looking model.
He got stuck after building the base, thought a little while, then beamed. “OH! I know.”
Over the past few years, I have discovered that he is very strong in his spatial abilities so looking at a picture and replicating it is not too difficult for him.
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Robot man |
He was done for the day, and the little ones happily took over. It was interesting to watch how they started by lining them up in a row, and slowly progressing to stacking them up horizontally.
Over time, I prompted them on other simple ways they could build with the blocks.
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Free play |
Another day, I took the box out for Kate to play with and #5 came over and suggested we have a competition.
We divided the blocks into half, and the category was “Vehicle”.
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#5’s ship with mast |
We were not allowed to look at each other’s work, and halfway through, I was stuck and wondering how to fashion the sides of the ship to make it curve upwards.
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Mummy’s ship |
#5 took some of my blocks, aligned them properly to give the sides a tilt and taught me the physics behind it.
See, if you put it like that, it will tilt up. If you want a greater tilt, you add more blocks here. But if it becomes too heavy, you need to…
Ok, I can’t even remember everything else he said. Mummy has absolutely no aptitude nor interest in engineering and construction. But I still get involved to support his interest and learning…
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Living room |
The next category was “Furniture”. #5 had great plans to make a towering chair. However, he built it too thin and too high that it collapsed.
So the score was 1-1.
Till next time!
Save tip: Not to be missed promotion going on now! 30% off all CitiBlocs from My First Games. Enter code CTBTHIRTY at checkout. While stocks lasts.
oh wow! I love your citiblocs living room furniture set! Very modern art looking.
Hi Lyn,
You think? Avant-garde huh haha!