MagnaTiles

My new favorite activity to do with the kids is playing with MagnaTiles. Actually, ours are the Target version that we bought the kids for Christmas. We have 100 tiles, which are used up quickly. When we bought them, I didn't realize how many things you could do with the tiles. They're definitely helping with speech for the trio. We can sort by color and shape, build tall towers or long houses, make patterns, count, and more. The kids have fun simply spreading the tiles all over the table and connecting them .

We make "roads" that look like CandyLand. James likes to drive his cars and trains all over them.

James figured out how to make a tunnel and yelled, "Train under!"

It's a little tricky to build 3-dimensional shapes. When you have 3 tiles together, they automatically pull towards one another. I've had to help the trio get started, but they've figured out how to build cubes on their own. 

Our latest discovery has been putting figurines inside our houses and towers.

I love playing with the tiles myself. Geometry was my favorite unit to teach and I have so much fun with tangrams.

I normally play with the trio while they're at school, but Jackson enjoys building on his own.

He was quite proud of the jailhouse he made earlier.

We ran out of squares at one point. Jackson has always been a great problem solver and I could tell he was trying to come up with a solution. Within a minute he said, "I've got it! We just use two triangles." The set comes with equilateral triangles and right isosceles triangles. This naturally leads to comparison between the two triangles. 

Considering how much I love playing with the tiles as an adult, I foresee our magnetic tiles being something that the kids will continue to play with for years to come.