Building blocks are an excellent way to learn through play. Building with blocks helps children to develop motor skills, spatial skills, problem-solving skills, and creativity.
Unfortunately, Princess Pea has never really been that interested. We bought her some lovely wooden HABA blocks when she turned one, but she never really took to them. At preschool it's a "boys' activity" ("boys' activities" and "girls' activities" seem to be very clearly delineated at this age). Princess Pea is about the farthest thing possible from a tomboy type, and spends nearly all her time at preschool in the house corner, taking care of the dolls, cooking, and putting on play make-up. So that was that as far as blocks were concerned.
But then for Easter, we got some new wooden blocks for Sweet Pea, as several of the ones from Princess Pea's old set were missing or broken (not from plentiful use - more like from being at the bottom of the toybox!). They are colourful, pretty, and have various shapes, designs, bells, beads, mirrors and such on them. Princess Pea has taken a renewed interest in them (I think because they're 'fancy', which is very important to her these days).
So this week we had a tower-building contest. And I had a brain-wave! We took turns building not the tallest towers (as we usually do), but the 'most interesting' and 'fanciest' towers. It's amazing what a little change in vocabulary can do!
She started by making her first tower tall. Then I did one with some curved pieces balancing precariously on other pieces and she started to get the idea of 'most interesting'. She loved this game! It wasn't really a contest per se, as there was no competition involved. It was simply taking turns to build the most creative tower we could. After each tower was built, I let her take pictures of them on my iPhone. That sealed the deal - a new favourite game in the Pea household!
PS - A new weekly 'Outdoor Play' linky party will be starting here on Friday! It is co-hosted by me, Kate at An Amazing Child, and Abbie at Greening Sam and Avery. Come by and link up your outdoor play posts! See you then!
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