Fun with Magna Tiles

 My twins really love Magna Tiles. They have a nice sized set of them to build all sorts of spectacular creations with them. We have been collecting Magna Tiles for a couple of years now, they are so awesome! Magna tiles are great on the light table, or in dim light with LED lights, on the floor play tray with the sun peeking through the window to make them reflect color onto the floor, on a magnet board, and pretty much anywhere! Here are a few impressive structures that my twins, Graham and Parker (age 4) have built recently!  The first set of photos is their version of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. They had watched the Halloween episode of Little Einsteins and then ended up building this the next day! Once you add LED lights and dim the lights, the results are amazing!  The second set of pics is a Haunted Mansion for Scooby Doo & the gang. Graham and Parker became really big Scooby Doo fans recently! They prefer the Scooby Doo series than ran from 1969-1971, awesome huh!!  I am impressed, they have great taste!! I love that Magna Tiles are so versatile for educational play  and can also be used for math purposes too! Kids are involved in critical thinking, tactile sensory, problem solving, etc.  I am really sorry that I did not know about them when my older children (16, 14, 12)  were young. They play with them occasionally now though. I enjoy them too, we have a lot of fun with Magna Tiles here. So the purpose of this blog entry is to show our love and appreciation for Magna Tiles in all their glory!

So..... Thank you Valtech Company for making such a wonderful toy!

Please be sure to check out our Reggio Inspired Block Play pin board on pinterest!! Each photo links back this the blog post they are in on this blog!

You can buy Magna Tiles by clicking HERE




Neuschwanstein Castle

Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion

Couches out, Beds in

I decided to stop trying to pretend that the couches and tv center needed to be in the living room, which over the past few years has become Graham and Parker's indoor play space.  So we moved them. With the help of a friend, we converted the dining room into the living room/computer area. The living room is now Graham and Parker's bedroom/indoor play space. Now my older son has his own room, My two older girls share a room, and Graham and Parker share the former living room as their room.  We did not need a huge living room and actually everyone likes the dining room as the living room now. We had taken the dining room table out a long time ago and use the kitchen table for eating. So now it is all worked out nicely. The rooms are separated by a half wall, we enclosed the rest with a large room divider that was passed down to use from Grandparents.  Just in case you wondered, we use everything, all the time and have other preschool friends over to play and learn as well. We also use both the light table and light box areas daily as well. They serve different purposes for light play. We have a lot of what I like to call smart toys. They are open ended toys that foster creative, imaginative play.

You can see many of them here. Feel free to ask toy questions, it's my specialty!

I used their Thomas the train play table to create a new Mirror play center.
The mirrors are the unbreakable ones from discount school supply.

7 mirrors around the light table, the large one in the middle was mine since age 10. 

Book nook complete with tons of books, pretty lighting, teddy bears, puppets,  fluffy pillows, a sitting bench covered in a fuzzy, fluffy over sized blanket, and a really soft and velvety rug

There are 2 of these in their room

overview angle 1 *beds too*

overview angle 2

car table, car and ball ramp boards, magnet center, some toys, big cardboard blocks, 

closer view of magnet center and overhead projector, games on the black shelving, as well as some supplies. 

toy kitchen "nook",  art center, and the light box

Toy shelving 

another view

Our Waldorf playstand, mirror play center, and clear easel

another view, sorry it is fuzzy

magnet center

light on in the Waldorf Playstand

another view of the mirror play center, interlox on it currently

closer light table view, the hanging pouch has the small light table manipulatives in it.

Indoor play environment (update 7/12)

Here are some updated pics of Graham and Parker's indoor play environment. The last update can be seen here. I can answer questions about toys and such in the comments or by email.

The light table setup. You can see more views below that show the mirrors better!

This shelf has tree blocks, tree chips/cookies, stones, as well as other nature play and wooden toys

Games and Puzzles on the shelving, overhead projector in front of the puzzles (it gets moved around) You can also see the magnet play center there to the right, I have made them over 100 magnets!! It usually looks less clutered when the overhead projector is in a different spot. This is a good view of the overhead projector screen though. The screen is made of a shower curtain hung on it's rod and hooks, attached to the wall.

This mirror is used for magna tiles and other building toys that are not heavy in weight.

book nook and mini craft/art center

air walker, monster stompy feet, manipulatives, etc.  The floor play tray is behind it resting on the wall.

I have pretty much the whole window done in cascading rainbow sun catchers 

waterbeads in the vases

easel and kitchen play area

bean bag toss (bean bags are inside the bins right now)

this is the side of the craft/art shelving

for cars. marbles, small balls, and hexbug nano's

You can see the full length of the mirror in this pic. It is a mirror that my Dad bought for me when I was 10!!

2 tables, 4 chairs and YES we do need and use them very much daily. Twins need space when they build and create. They have friends over quite often as well!!

Our handbuilt Waldorf Playstand was made by a relative (Christmas 2011)

these small kids mirrors make great accents for fun lighting

the compartment bag thingy that is attached and hanging from the light table is from IKEA, it is holding all of our small light table manipulatives, like the translucent numbers, letters, dice, gems, shapes, bears, etc.

I move these small kids mirrors around to accentuate candles and other things sometimes

see the mirror under the chalkboard?