TOYS
Marble Runs – Toys That Develop With Your Child
Have you noticed how curious children are? From the moment babies open their eye they follow sounds, movements, smells…their brain constantly wondering, keen to learn. As parents and caregivers it falls on us to guide and encourage them on this incredible journey of discovery. Luckily there are so many directions and resources we can tap into.
One of such resources that has been around since ancient men is toys. It continues to encourage development, offers comfort and feeds children’s bottomless curiosity.
As a modern day parent in a very fast changing environment with vast new inflow of concepts, gadgets and games I am keen to offer my children the best tools to develop rather than distract them. I find that one key to this is getting toys that are versatile, and can be played with in many different ways, developing and changing with your child’s growing abilities to manipulate objects. One such toy and my absolute favourite is a classic marble run, which was the precise toy that made me reconsider my approach to toys entirely. The very first one that we got was a gift from grandparents to our daughter. It was a retro wooden marble run with bricks of various shapes and sizes, some with holes that twisted into a turn making the marbles that passed through them change directions.
Initially I set the speed tracks up myself before letting my little one play with it. It took less than a minute before she removed one of the bottom pieces, making the entire marble run collapse. I fixed it she removed it, we ran in this very frustrating circle for sometime. I persevered putting the pieces that she was removing back into the arrangement that was an exact copy of the image from the box and so did she. A few days into this I started to feel frustrated, I was constantly arranging pieces back, she seemed more and more determined to break the ‘correct’ arrangement and the marble run was taking up lots of space. Until something happened – I let her destroy my perfectly set up tracks only to find that she had managed to make a small marble run of her own design. We never looked back, every time she now played with the marble run it was put away into a toy basket, she arranged it herself, at first only making small clumsy tracks. However something that struck me was that the track arrangements unlike ours were always different, every time she would build something new. Far from my first expectation, that the marble run will be set up and she will be entertained by just letting the marbles run through the set course this was a toy that kept on giving.
A month later she was a marble run master. We continued to add to her starter set. Some of our favourite add ons are: Haba Canyon, Haba Speed Circle, Columns and Curved tracks. Now the marble run has been inherited by my son only he had been given the freedom of engineering since day one and like his big sister he absolutely loves it.
At Roly Pony store and website we have a special section dedicated specifically to Marble Runs UK. We stock only solid wood marble runs for numerous reasons, one that unlike the plastic alternatives, wooden tracks are heavier and they do not fall apart at the slightest movements or get dislodged while the marbles run through them.
They are a clear choice when considering the environment as well. All Haba marble runs are made of solid beech wood, sourced exceptionally in local forestries, in Germany. They travel shortest distance to the production line where each one is made by local craftsmen.
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.