© By Milk Tooth customer Chung, from @zo_bear_eats
What's not to love about Connetix Tiles? They’re one of our most played with toys at home and have been loved by Zo for many months. I’ve witnessed firsthand how the tiles have grown with her and how her Connetix play has transformed over this time. Here are some of our favourite ways to play with our Connetix Tiles.
1. Sensory Play
Sensory play is always the winner here. We enjoy incorporating our tiles in sensory play to change things up for Zo from time to time. Pictured below, we used some rainbow rice, Connetix Ball Run pieces, Grapat Lola, and papoose balls, which Zo thoroughly enjoyed! You can also use the wooden balls from the Connetix Ball Run or from Grimm’s.
2. Puzzles
If you have some spare stickers (or just cut outs from magazines/brochures), why not turn them into puzzles? This was one of our favourite ways to use our tiles when Zo was much younger. I would laminate some printed animal pictures, cut them in half, then attach them onto the tiles with sticky tape. The bonus is that you can change it up all the time according to your children's interests!
3. Connetix 2D Shapes
This activity is a great way to learn about shapes and colours with minimal effort to set up. It can be as easy or challenging as you would like it to be. Provide them with a picture to copy and let them try to figure out how to replicate it using Connetix Tiles. Matching activities like these increase a child’s visual memory, concentration, and pattern recognition ability. This activity helped us occupy Zo and keep her mentally challenged when she was in a spica cast for four weeks.
4. Birthday or Tea Party
Zo has really started to grasp the concept of birthdays lately and she just loves every birthday. She’s all about birthday cakes and blowing out candles, so we created this little pretend play party for her. She decorated the Connetix cake with her Grimm’s Large Glitter Stones and Bauspiel Lucite Cubes and used the Grapat Lola as the candles.
5. Connetix Pretend Play Restaurant
We created a restaurant for Zo using some base plates, square tiles, hexagons, and isosceles triangles (from the Connetix Pastel Geometry Pack). She enjoyed taking orders from us, "cooking" on the stove top using her play food from the Connetix fridge, then serving the meals to us in her Grimm’s Stacking Bowls.
6. Colour Matching and Posting
It’s very simple for you or your child to create simple cubes using Connetix magnetic tiles. Add a few scoops and tongs, and this instantly becomes a fun colour matching and posting activity. Over the last year and a half, we have used loose parts such as pom poms, Grapat Mandala, Grapat Rings and Coins, crystals, and most recently our Bauspiel Lucite Cubes to post into the Connetix boxes. Posting is enjoyed by toddlers of all ages and this activity fosters dexterity and hand-eye coordination, while colour matching helps build visual perception and thinking skills. The Connetix squares with the round cut outs in them are from the Rainbow Ball Run pack.
7. Connetix Tower
This is one of my personal favourites as I love seeing Zo and her daddy play together. It’s a real family activity, where they challenge themselves to build as high as they can.
8. Learning Numbers Using Connetix
One-to-one correspondence is the first step when introducing the concept of counting. It's the idea that the numbers correspond to specific quantities. This activity takes less than five minutes to set up! You can use pre-numbered items such as the Grapat Coins to Count, or simply write the numbers on post-it notes or directly onto the tiles using a wipeable marker. Zo is pictured here placing Grimm’s Large Glitter Stones onto the tiles.
9. Building Connetix Walls and Houses
A classic but brilliant way to use the tiles. It involves so much thinking during the process of creating. How many square tiles do I need to fit in this row? How high can I stack before it collapses? Why are there colourful shadows on the floor (light refraction)?
10. Home Corner Play with Connetix
We don't have many pieces of furniture in our home corner, however this was one of Zo's favourite ways to play, and we'd see her immerse herself in it since she was about 18 months old. We frequently caught Zo setting up tea parties for her Olli Ella Dinkum Doll and soft toys and she sometimes puts them to bed too.
11. Bonus! A few extra ideas for how to play with Connetix
My favourite thing of all is watching Zo play and put her own ideas into creation. Some days the tiles are bangles, some days they are glasses. They can be a plate, a wall, a castle, a phone, anything she wishes it to be. Here are a few more ideas you might like to try:
If you’re still contemplating whether to hop on the Connetix Tiles bandwagon, I hope these activities assist you in making your decision.
Words and photos by Chung from @zo_bear_eats for Milk Tooth. All text and photographs protected by copyright.
