How Open-Ended Toys fuel imagination - Stickle Bricks
Playing with Max has become my absolute favourite thing to do. When he was a little baby I loved all the quiet time and the cuddles but now he's at such a fun age where he's starting to play and engage with his toys and cruising around they're fab new milestones. It's so much fun watching him learn and understand how things work. Obviously toys can be overwhelming, so I wanted to invest in some key pieces that will grow with him and found that open-ended toys work best for imaginative play. I was given the chance to review a Little Builders Stickle Bricks box and absolutely jumped at the chance of introducing my boy to such a nostalgic toy
Max has absolutely loved playing with the stickle bricks, granted he's not quite got the hang of the play side. But he's having great fun picking the bricks up, bashing them together and giving them a good chew (excellent teethers!). It's a toy I remember from my own childhood and the hours I'd spend playing and building new scenarios so I know it's a toy that's going to grow with Max. Here's just a few ways I'm going to use the Stickle Bricks to learn through play with Max
Shapes and Colours
Learning his shapes and colours is a while away but at this age they are little sponges so modelling lots of language on the fun bright colours and shapes will help him understand and learn himself. Once he has the hang of it we can play lots of fun colour and shape sorting games
Fine Motor Skills
Children are known to not want to participate if they think they're learning but I'm a huge believer in learning through play. Max has excellent gross motor skills but we're working on his fine motor skills and stickle bricks are a great way of learning pincer hand movements to pick up the bricks or pull them apart. The unique way stickle bricks attach makes them a great early construction toy
Playing together
Now I don't need an excuse to play with toys! I'm definitely a big kid at heart but playing with toys I had as a kid is tons of fun. By playing with Max and modelling my creations and how to play with the Stickle Bricks, eventually he should start joining in playing in a similar way
Building imagination
Imaginative play is a big learning step in every childhoods life, it's the time that they understand the world enough to start playing make-believe or let's pretend. Fostering and building that imagination is really important and open-ended toys such as stickle bricks really help with that
There's no right or wrong way to play with stickle bricks. There's no correct build or final act so the toy is completely open-ended and dependent on imagination. Your little one can literally make anything they set their mind to from people to vehicles to full-blown stickle world and scenarios the possibilities are endless
We're really enjoying playing with our Stickle Bricks and I'm excited to expand the collection as he gets older.
What's your favourite open-ended toy?
Or what nostalgic toy do you want to see make a come back?
