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SOLD OUT Little Happy Architect

$44.95

Description

With our Little Happy Architect set, there is no limit to worlds your child can create. This construction set is creative and open-ended meaning it shape shifts alongside your child’s imagination and as they grow. It’s the perfect toy for little hands and big minds. Whether your child is two or seven, they’ll fall in love with creating imaginary worlds while crafting their fine motor skills and practicing their social and emotional skills.  

Combine with our children around the world set to make a culturally diverse village for your child to explore.  

Key Features: 

  • Pieces slot easily together to build endless designs.
  • Natural wooden pieces are lightweight yet sturdy
  • Easy for little hands to grasp. 
  • Versatile for big minds to ponder. 
  • Fosters open-ended imaginative pretend play 
  • Develops fine motor skills 
  • Includes a variety of wooden sized pieces and can be easily packed away into a small box.

Details:

  • 22 pieces in each set.
  • Comes packaged in a large Page & Pine bag to make pack up a breeze
  • Largest piece measures 15 x 9cm and smallest 9 x 9cm.
  • Made from sturdy 9mm thick birch plywood
  • Suitable for children ages 18 months and over.

Skills your child is building during construction activities: 

  • Cognitive flexibility
  • Fine motor skills
  • Collaboration
  • Critical thinking
  • Compromise
  • Planning

The Science of Pretend Play

Pretend play, sometimes referred to as imaginative play, has endless benefits for children. First and foremost, pretend play enables children to practice their social and emotional skills, allowing them to role play social scenarios in a low risk environment. 

Not only do they practice social and emotional skills they also build empathy! During pretend play children assume different roles and practice perspective taking. Perspective taking, or theory of mind, is a hard won skill developed through practice over many years in childhood, and it is the key to growing into a healthy empathetic adult. Giving children opportunities to build this skill in a way that is engaging and expansive for them is crucial. Add to all of this the fact that research finds that toddlers who engage in pretend play also tend to have stronger vocabularies and communication skills in their preschool years and pretend play might truly be the most important thing your child does each day. 

The Happy Little Architect set is the perfect play prompt to encourage pretend play from your children. There are no prescriptive rules for building. They can build a single home, an entire town or a giant castle. Add our little wooden “children around the world” set and watch them populate their own little world and navigate social interactions you never even considered they would know about! 

How you can use these toys to promote scientific thinking: 

  • Ask questions about how your child thinks their structures stay up
  • Try out some hypothesis testing (e.g., what happens if we only use one support to hold the house up? Let's see!)
  • Point out weird or unexpected things that could challenge the way they think about the world
  • Encourage your child to lead (but remember it's okay if you take turns leading - this is normal too!) 
  • Ask open ended questions

Remember: ALL play is educational, even if it doesn't look like it to you. Play is a child's purpose. Play of any kind, with or without toys, is the most important thing your child will do. Today, tomorrow and every day!

Manufacturer: Freckled Frog