We are snowed in today and the kids are home. This means I have from 6:30am in the morning until about 8:30pm. That’s a long time with the kids at home! I always take out open ended toys when they are home like this so it kills about 1-2 hours by themselves in the morning. Today’s secret weapon is Zoob. We’ve had Zoob Jr and Regular Zoob for about three years now. Every single time we’ve taken it out they’ve played with it a different way and somehow more complex. As babies, they just used it as counters and really basic toy, even used it to bang on some drums, etc. The most we’ve done is use it as a chain to lug around their animals like a choo choo train. As they approached 3 years old, they were building cubes and buildings and now as my five year old is getting a bit more mature, she’s full on building animals and cars. I like it because:
- It grows with your child.
- It is open ended so they can build multiple items and pick from their imagination. They can even build tools that help them with other stuff. Doesn’t need to be a structure stated on the cards that came with the toy.
- Motor skills are improved because it takes a bit of strength to pop in the pieces together.
- Takes BRAIN! Not all pieces are the same and they all have a different purpose! Some of both ends are balls, some have a claw and a ball, etc. This matters as some things will rotate, others will not, depending on your purpose.
We have the Zoob Junior and also Regular Zoob. The only difference is the size of the pieces. There are cards that come with the bigger sets and tell you how to build some stuff if you cannot imagine what you can do:
Zoob Junior is good for 2+ I feel like but the site says 4+. I think they mean if you’re going to follow their model and build something, then 4+ but if it’s open ended play, I think 2+ is fine. Zoob Junior now has different sets they sell:
Regular Zoob will need to be age 5+ since the pieces are smaller and slightly harder to click in.
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