Building blocks are wonderfully imaginative and creative toys. Building Blocks helps a child’s cognitive development which involves thought processes, including remembering, problem-solving, and decision-making. Building blocks enable a child to form a mental representation(model) of the world.
Guidecraft’s Junior Rainbow Building block set is yet another impressive and ingenious toddler activity. Children learn best through doing and actively exploring – it’s called a discovery based learning. Because skills like problem-solving must be discovered and cannot be taught. I am Glad that Guidecraft pays attention to the developmental skills that a child needs to acquire when making their toys/activities. Guidecrafts’s Junior Rainbow building block set took the building blocks to the next level. The inset colored acrylic windows are very attractive. Bright colors are visually stimulating, and they capture children’s attention. Building blocks help in improving children’s Manual dexterity. Building structures require the ability to distinguish the different shapes and hence increase Spatial Awareness.
According to Jean Piaget(first psychologist, to make a systematic study of cognitive development), “cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of mental processes as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they discover in their environment”. Imagine what it would be like if you did not have a mental model of your world. It would mean that you would not be able to make so much use of information from your experience or to plan future actions.
I give importance to cognitive development as much as possible. Building blocks had become my goto tools to help develop this skill. For the very same reason, I introduced Duplo building blocks to my daughter pretty early on when she was only seven months old. She did keep the blocks in her mouth a couple of times. But that’s it. After that, she was totally hands-on. I invest my time to look for different building blocks for my son not just Legos(I will share a post regarding this soon !).
Check out the Gift Guide: 11 Most Amazing Building Toys That Are Not LEGO
I never bought wooden building blocks sets for my kids. Guidecrafts’s Junior Rainbow Building block set is our first wooden block set! Once they arrived, the blocks looked a teeny weeny bit unfinished. I quickly realized it was just the look and the product was totally fine. My son started playing with them, and he was super engrossed. He got a chance to unpack them as the little one was napping. He quickly started building the structures and enjoyed doing so for a while.
My husband joined in, and both began to explore. The dad and son duo are very protective about the little one. So they are always making sure it’s safe for the princess to use before she gets to touch anything. Just before they were about to wrap up, I got into taking my pictures. My camera is always readily available as I am not sure when I would be able to capture the right moment. And you know kids are never camera friendly (Yep even my husband!), and you cannot force them! I usually take pictures to show our experience when they are completely into it or when they are about to wrap up and would never like to interrupt.
The Guidecraft Junior Rainbow block sets are one-third the size of the original wooden blocks from Guidecraft. The wooden blocks fit well in my daughter’s hands. She was quickly able to stack and build some structures. Also as I mentioned, we did not see any issue with the finish of the blocks, and my toddler enjoyed playing.
Toddlers observe a lot! The more interesting stuff you add in, the more opportunities you are providing.Sometimes you have to bring in your creativity or stretch your creativity to an extent where you can open up windows of possibilities for them. It’s just not toddlers, as a matter of fact, any kid. If you could show them multiple ways, a product or an activity or an object could be used you are helping them think of different possibilities. You are in fact expanding their imagination.
You could use Guidecrafts’s Junior Rainbow Building block set in multiple ways. Kids can learn about shapes, colors and they could also use these blocks as Light table activity. Put the colors together and encourage them to see through them. They will be excited! You could also bring them in the sun and let the shadows speak to them! All these activities are for added learning and observation.
When I was reading through a magazine I came across creating shadows. Immediately it occurred to me that these wooden building blocks would be perfect for creating amazing shadows. Sunlight was coming into the house So I quickly set up a white drawing sheet and put these three triangles and it was such pleasure looking at the bright colors. My 20-month old quickly came in to check. My daughter was trying to grab the shadows thinking these are another set of blocks. While it might not be any different for a 20-month-old, Kids ages 2+ would love seeing these!
My son was very much fascinated by the shadows of the building blocks. I made him trace the shadows, and through these shadows, I slowly got him into a discussion of guessing the time of the day based on the direction in which the shadow is falling.
My daughter was super excited to build the structures, and she forced her brother to watch her build. We took the exercise outside as the sunlight was not coming into the house. It was pretty hot outside, so we wrapped up quick. It was a fun few minutes activity for them.
I also created a DIY Light Table for added learning and observation. I emptied a storage bin, switched on my iPhone flashlight, a kitchen towel and took our blocks right into our bathroom!(ya.. you read that right!). I placed the kitchen cloth as a cushion for my iPhone, and I put the storage bin over. Tada! A Light Table! We set the blocks on our DIY light table and started to observe and explore. It was a fun activity. My daughter loved it. Do you know the cons of this? I had to spend next 45 minutes in the bathroom! After her naptime, my toddler quickly grabbed the wooden building toys and storage bin and went straight into the bathroom! Ah!!.. the side effects of DIY!
Imagination, exploration and visual stimulation. That’s what Guidecraft’s Junior Rainbow Block set was providing! These will be great fun for toddlers. Guidecraft’s Rainbow Block set is a Play and Learn activity set, and I would recommend it!
Summary:
- Product, Guidecraft’s Junior Rainbow Block set
- 40 piece set with assorted shapes
- solid wood frames with inset bright colored acrylic windows
For added exploration, you can try The Sand Rainbow Block set, Shimmering Water Rainbow block set, & Crystal Bead Rainbow block set all make sounds that can be calming for some children.These will help in Auditory Stimulation
Related topics: Guidecraft IO Blocks Travel Set Toy Review ; Grippies Builders -Best Toy For Toddlers
Tags Building Blocks, Wooden Building Blocks, Building Blocks for Toddlers, Building blocks for children, Guidecraft Building blocks, Guidecraft Rainbow Building blocks
*The toy was sent to us at not cost for review.But all the opinions are honest and 100% my own. Check out my review process to learn more on how I review the products.
