Spielgaben – an investment in your child’s education
Traditional Play and learning at home with Spielgaben
Have you heard of Spielgaben – if you follow any playful education parent in Australia on instagram or their blogs you will probably have seen their children playing with amazing wooden loose parts toys – that is Spielgaben and the learning opportunities are limitless.
Aimed at:
- Parents who do Homeschooling
- Parents or educators who want to educate their children via play based learning
- Parents who believe that one on one interaction between parent and child is the best method for child’s early year development but do not know how.
So basically YOU it’s a fantastic set for all and can be used for adult led play and learning or for free flow play and learning led by the child.
Wooden Education Toy – The complete set
The complete set is made up for 3 trays each containing between 2 and 6 different wooden collections made from sustainable wood and beautiful finished (no rough edges so ideal for tiny hands) it claims to have 8 – 12 years worth of learning opportunities and as a high school teacher I could see how elements would be useful in various subjects and as a parent of young children there are endless possibilities for playful learning at home.
With plain and coloured elements to the complete set (coloured with the colours of the colour spectrum and black and white so no shades/tones to confuse when learning colours) it provides opportunities to work on colour recognition as well as shapes 2D and 3D and sequencing and ordering without delving any deeper.
Multiset 1 contains soft woollen balls of various colours and could be used with babies and young toddlers for some early years learning, also contained is a geometric shape set to work with a suspension pillars and crossbars introducing ideas for balancing and shape learning activities. The multiset isn’t complete as there is a wonderful plain coloured set of 3D shapes including cylinders, cuboids, pyramids and others working on mathematical knowledge.
Multiset 2 has 2 sections – the first contains a complete set of 2D shapes with triangles, circles, squares and rectangles it opens opportunities for lots of learning. There are elements that start of in the early years – with learning of the shape names, as the objects are coloured 2 elements can be introduced sorting by shape and by colour extending the instructions given working on language development as your play and learn with your child. As a child gets older, whole and parts can be investigated and even further children can explore different triangles as the set contains all 3 types of triangles letting your investigate through hands on learning Pythagoras’ rule and trigonometry.
The second part of set 2 has an amazing collection of coloured rings or semi-rings whereas a lot of shape investigation and play is straight line based these are fantastic and have become a favourite part of the sets for us – T loves to use them to create images and pictures combining them with the other part of the set to extend her creativity further.
Multiset 3 is the final tray in the complete set with 3 different elements the first being a variation of 3D shapes found in the first set – this time adding in colour (those same colours that go throughout the set) as well as the majority having a hole through them further extending the playful learning and construction possibilities.
Another element of this set is the rods – with 6 different lengths and following the same colours as the rest of the set they allow shape formation without the constraint of the angles of the premade shapes, we’ve started to explore length and with 6 rods each increasing by the same distance it’s also opened up possibilities to work on fractions and parts of a whole.
The last part of the set is “points” or dots of the same colours – aimed at working on showing how points of a shape but they also let us work on counting, games and patterning or sequencing.
Spielgaben in the home
We’ve been lucky to receive a set from Spielgaben to explore and play with at home – reminding me of toys that my parents brought and made for me as a child it’s helping with early learning as T won’t start preschool until autumn but is eager to learn so we have incorporated elements into our everyday activities to play and learn together. With J at school we’re using the sets to develop and consolidate learning he’s been doing at school.
With learning covered I also find the sets extend free play – suddenly the shape set is being used to build cities for cars to explore and pictures are made with the elements.
I love that the sets come with trays that can be stacked and that it is easy to see where all elements belong keeping it neat – the grided cover helps to work on some of the skills but also keeps the dust out of the sets and prevents little hands wandering away and losing elements of it.
An Investment in your child’s education
Spielgaben caught me eye as I saw the pictures flow through instagram and my facebook feed from bloggers in Australia and around the world I searched for the sets and found them only available via the Spielgaben website, I have been saving since to purchase the set for home as it’s an investment in J and T’s education – using now as a playful learning tool in the home helping to bring preschool at home alive for T as we learn together through the hands on exploration and loose parts free play to helping J understand the latest maths concepts from school “A Half is two equal parts of a shape”.
If you are a playful parenting wanting to help hands on with your child’s education then this is an investment that you can’t afford to miss and because of this I am so happy to say
Spielgaben is offering an exclusive discount to Rainy Day Mum readers- USD 327 (equivalent to GBP 200 | AUD 360) including shipping to AU | UK | USA which is over 10% off from the already discounted online price. All you need to do to claim your discount is send an email to info@spielgaben.com mentioning Rainy Day Mum and you will be provided with a discount coupon.
If you have already purchased the sets then please keep a look out over the next few months (I have 6 currently planned) I will be using the sets in some hands on learning activities for preschoolers and elementary aged children that you can do at home using the sets.
I am considering a set for my 5,3, and 1 year old, that, barring the possibility of lost and broken pieces, would like to keep as a long term tool for math and creative play. I am concerned that initial reactions to the set are very enthusiastic, but after a couple of years student interest slows or stops, and familiarity with the product will lead to boredom over time. We have a small collection of “Imaginary play” props, costumes, and dolls. What is YOUR opinion on limiting our collection to imaginary play, and the spielgaben? Could it fulfill that educational and creative “hole”? (I know that is loaded. Just asking for your observations, not the answer to life. I am asking many bloggers to get a feel of the longevity of the appeal of this set)
OR alternatively, could you give your opinion on whether the learning resources would cover all the requirements for pre-k – 3rd grade math. I would love to avoid buying any other curriculum.
And Lastly, are there multi-play board game instructions provided with this set? ( That is, does the company give suggestions for turn-taking or strategy games with the board and pieces) Thank you!!!!
Appreciate the recommendation. Let me try it out.
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I adore Spielgaben. I would recommend it as an investment over a tablet any day. My kids play with our set constantly!