product review: candy land & k’nex

Jan 07

Posted by: Scott in: blog, caleb isaiah, clever toys, games, i want that, parenting, product reviews

I had originally planned to review some of the Christmas items the week after the big day, but alas…stuff happened. Yeah I know what you thought I was gonna say. Anyway, I focused a large portion of my Christmas shopping on activities. Things that actually take up time, not just room in the toy box. We had no games.

I actually bought this Candy Land game shortly after Christmas. It was an impulse buy, I admit. FYI, Target overstocked on a lot of Christmas items, which are now on clearance to make room. Caleb knows all of this shapes and colors, so I don’t know how much “learning” can come from this game, but practice never hurts. Neither did the fact that it was on clearance. Of all the games we got, I would say this would be the #1 starter game. If you have a toddler and are looking for a very basic first game that plays quickly, this is an excellent choice. You can work with your child on shapes, colors, matching and taking turns. Since it was just the two of us, we used two game board per player. It comes with four gingerbread men, each with found shapes that must be matched to the player’s game board(s). You pull the candycane lever on the side, and a shape slides out of the castle door. If you don’t need the piece, you just drop it back in the top of the castle. Like I said, it is a basic, fun game for toddlers. There is no box, the gingerbread men store in the slot right behind the castle (as you can see from the picture) and the pieces store in the castle. I have played it approximately 72 times today. And honestly (I am trying, but haven’t had the luck of the draw I suppose) I haven’t won a single game.

I may have mentioned once or twice that Caleb loves anything with wheels, so I was looking for a creative way to incorporate that into a Christmas gift. I found a K’nex transportation set. I’m not sure who likes this more! At this point, he’s a little young for the building process I guess, but I have him help me dig through the container and find the pieces we need. This particular set (actually marketed toward educators/teachers) came with picture/instruction handouts. Again, shape/color matching, but the construction/building activity and fine motor skills required will carry this toy along to an older age.

Comments

2 Responses to “product review: candy land & k’nex”

    MamaLee
    January 7th, 2008 7:14 pm

    My inlaws got the candyland game for my youngest for Christmas. BIG hit!

    Kristen
    February 15th, 2008 7:36 pm

    My son started with kid k’nex last year and is now into the bigger kid sets. He is completely and totally obsessed with them. The things he can build with them are amazing. As a learning tool you really can’t beat it, but that’s all he ever talks about now. *sigh*

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