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Playing with Magnetic shapes is an amazing imagination building and learning tool and one of the fun indoor kids activities. It helps develop their spatial and motor skills and helps boost their morale and build their confidence as well.

There comes a time in every parent’s life, wherein they are unable to give their child 100% of their attention, the biggest challenge for them in a tech-centered universe that we live in, is to find ways on how to keep the child occupied without resorting to throwing some sort of screen in front of them.

Sure, there are many advantages to this screen time, they could be watching a nature documentary on the science channel or seeing the cooking / arts & craft channel but too much of one thing has never been the answer, in my opinion.

Especially given the fact that how we live our lives in this “new normal” environment i.e. Stay at home, Work from home, online school, online hobby classes, no parks / play groups or outdoor activities of any type. 

Yes, outdoor activities are very crucial for a child’s development both mentally and physically as they not only get to run around freely but also get fresh air and get to be among friends and nature. All of which is a must for everyone, however indoor activities is equally important. As you may agree, they will eventually get tired from playing outdoors but once they are home they still want to play or you would like to keep them busy at a dinner table, a restaurant or at home while they are waiting for food, or in a car while you all are on a long drive.

Plus since they are being bombarded with screens, I was looking for a solution on how to keep my child occupied while I worked but without having to make her more off a “screen-zombie” so to speak. She is a creative person as she spends time drawing / painting or playing with her LEGO blocks, but I wanted to find something more to help her imagination go wild, while giving me time to finish my other chores.

My husband found some pretty cool inexpensive puzzle toys, and yes, before you can say it, he found them on Amazon. Sometimes I really feel his sole mission in life is to show me things on Amazon to buy 🤦‍♀️ (between us, I do love Amazon as well because you can get so many options to choose from and the plus point is that it gets delivered right to your doorstep). Now, back to this cool magnetic shapes that I was talking about. 

Magnetic imagination shapes by a company called Play Poco. Click on the product displayed below to take a look at the cost and other details in depth.

Well, then let’s start with the obvious questions first:   

What are Magnetic Shapes all about?

 It is 102 magnetic foam pieces with various colours that you can use to make pre-defined designs or whatever design you can think of with those shapes. It is suitable for boys and girls, 4 years and above.

How do you play with Magnetic Shapes?

It comes with two magnetic boards and a book containing 300 possible designs that you can put on those boards and it also has two display stands so that your child can proudly display their work.  

Why should you buy Magnetic Shapes?    

It is super light as the shapes are made out of foam and they come in beautiful bright colours that the kids will love. The pictures in the book are very straight forward and easy enough to understand. 

Couple of things to note is that, since the cut-outs are magnetic they will stick to any magnetic surface so if you have a bigger magnetic board in the house you can really come up with some interesting designs by using all the 102 pieces.

After doing one or two designs with a little help, my daughter was able to manage the rest by herself. The actual value of this kit is derived when you make something out of your imagination.

Another nice thing is that since they are magnetic, you can even display them on your fridge door.

Below is what our daughter had created:

Now if you’re wondering how much this cost? let me tell you it’s not expensive at all. You can even consider it as a gift option if you are looking at something valuable and inexpensive.

I like the way they were able to incorporate different ways a child could interact with the puzzle. The only thing I wish they would have included is different sizes for the magnetic board. But you do get quite a lot for something for that price and it is of decent quality as well.

Now there is definitely an element of make your own fun with this kit, especially once you have completed all the suggested designs from the book. But we found a simple trick that may work with your child if you wanted to extend the play time from this kit. For example let’s say you just finished the design of the car from the book, we then asked our daughter to come up with her own design for a car. Sure enough she would sit there for a while figuring out what her car needed to look like.

Now it doesn’t work with every design but through trial and error we found out that it works with most of the designs and off course if we are trying to be creative then the playtime extends even more.

Our daughter has found other uses for it as well, as she uses some of the magnetic shapes as backdrop for her LEGO Creations.

Verdict

In the end I would like to say that this magnetic shapes puzzle toy has been a nice addition and I would happily recommend it to anyone who is looking for an inexpensive gift for their child or someone they know. As there is scope for lots of fun and potential if you’re willing to invest a little time plus given that the price to play is fairly cheap is an added bonus for anyone who is working under a tight budget for sure.    

Our rating for this magnetic shapes would be:

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