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Summertime…when the playing is easy (Guest Blogger Wendy Smolen)
Published July 27th, 2010 in Smolen, Wendy, Sandbox, Summit, Story, Summer, toywhimsy.com, educational, Room, Family, Parenting, Toys, Life, Green, Kids FunRory’s Story Cubes by Gamewright literally keeps the good times rolling with nine die, each covered with six pictures instead of numbers. Roll ‘em then, starting with any image, begin to tell a story using all the face-up pictures. Players can take turns, share the plot, or play solo. The myriad “once upon a times” promise an open book of possibilities.
Stix & Stones by Educational Insights is a mash-up of Pictionary and Name That Tune. Players vie to see who can use the fewest sticks and stones to “draw” an object chosen from a deck of cards. “I can build this object in 6 stix!” Variations for team play, young kids, and 3 players make it adaptable to most situations. I also found it fun to challenge myself to make solo “prehistoric” pictures.
For the youngest (6 months and up) kids, the newness of the Stacker by Green Toys isn’t in the classic play pattern, but in the use of recycled plastic material; the non-traditional, non-primary colors (egg yolk yellow, orange juice orange, sky blue, and lime green) and the cleverly molded shapes that stack in any order, not just big-to-small. Each shape also has tiny holes that will probably fascinate a baby who watches water seep through them in the bathtub. -- Wendy Smolen
Guest Blogger Wendy Smolen is co-founder of Sandbox Summit®, a series of conferences that explore the synergy between play and technology. The most recent Sandbox Summit was presented by MIT’s Education Arcade in May 2010.
