• Love It – Magformers Set

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    Brina loves creating things with the Magformers!

    The girls got a Magformers Set for their birthday.  Since then they have played with the set for hours.  A bunch of time was spent playing with them during their recent snow days when they did not have school.  I love it when they get a toy that promotes creativity.

    Magformers are bright colorful magnetic toys that you can use to build all kinds of items with.  The set we got contained squares, triangles, and pentagons.  They are easy to use and the magnets are enclosed so they cannot be swallowed by younger kids.  The pieces always attract, never repel, making it easy for anyone to stick two pieces together to build.  The magformers stimulate creativity, engineering, spatial awareness, coordination, and mathematics.  You can build pretty much anything you can image from balls, houses, pyramids, turtles, towers, and so much more.  This toy has sparked our kids imaginations over the past month and they are still pulling it out to play with it regularly.

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    Big ball out of Magformers

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    Of course knocking it down is always a fun task to do too

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    Brina built all the items in the book first than started creating her own inventions.  Love watching her read the directions and put things together.  She was pretty quick at it!

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    Magformers creation

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    She has spent hours putting together different combinations and items with this set.

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    Proud of her creation

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    Making some little items

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    So much fun

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    House

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    Karlie loves playing with them too.  She split her time between the magformers and reading some chapter books.

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    Myrtle the Turtle

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    Time to take this one apart and start on a new project

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    Having a blast

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    Neat creation

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    Fun toy

    There are many different Magformers Sets that you can get.  Amazon is a great place to look for them and you can read all the great reviews as well.

    “Love It” is a series of posts on items that I use regularly in my household that I love!  There are some items in our daily lives that make life more enjoyable, efficient, or just plain fun.  I will be sharing with you some of the products that have been given to us (or to me) that have made it to the top of my list.  It’s my way of giving a huge thumbs up!

  • Magneatos Toy Creations

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    Latest Magneatos creation!

    The girls have had their Magneatos for several years now.  When they first got the set they only did simple configurations.  Lately, they have been coming up with more interesting structures.  These toys are wonderful because kids of all ages can play with them without the magnets being dangerous for the kids.

    The magnets are placed in oversize rods and the metal balls enhance the building structures.  It is fun watching the girls use their creative juices to make various items out of the magneatos.  Thankful for opportunities to stimulate their minds.  We found their set at our local Goodwill, but you can find them on Amazon or various stores.

  • Creative Play – Karlie’s Fun Shop

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    Karlie’s Fun Shop!

    I love it when my kids get creative during their play time!  When they use their imagination it also stimulates creative thinking, analyzing, organization, math skills, and uses a variety of other great educational skills.  One of the activities they enjoy doing is creating a store complete with products, cash register, hours, and more.

    Setting up a store takes time and planning.  They really have fun pretending to sell us various goodies.  The store names change and products change from time to time, however, I have noticed that they are becoming more efficient and organized at setting up and running a store.

    These activities allow them to practice some wonderful entrepreneurial skills which will be beneficial for them later in life!  Sometimes only one of the kids runs the store and other times it is a joint adventure.   On this particular day Karlie was the one who decided to “set up shop”!  She took time in selecting her merchandise, setting it up, creating a name, advertising her products and hours, and selling her inventory to her customers (aka family members).

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    Some items displayed in Karlie’s Fun Shop that will appeal to a variety of people!

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    She has all her products neatly displayed for her customers to see and purchase (looks like she has some great educational items for sale)!

  • Recycled Bottle Top Tank

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    On her own my daughter decided to start recycling the bottle caps for a craft.  The other day she pulled out the recycled bottle tops that she had been collecting and put together this bottle top tank .  With a little bit of construction paper, tape, and bottle tops you can make a lot of cool items for fun!

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    She put this  Bottle Top Tank in the living room so it can “guard” our front door (not sure it is the most welcoming sight for our guests, but at least it is harmless).