What a good construction set this is! This combines the fine motor control skills associated with construction toys, with role play and imagination elements, practical replication of real world problems, and the development of skills involved in planning a particular outcome, and the problem-solving techniques required to achieve the end goal. The Learning Resources brand is a traditional manufacturer of educational toys - their usual market has been education settings: schools, nurseries, etc. More recently, their toys have started to be made more widely available. Some still seem to be priced in accordance with the high pricing attracted by the traditional, niche educational market, but this set seems to be at about the the right level. The classroom resource origins of the set are demonstrated in the photocopiable 'Planning Sheet' (in addition to English, sheets are included in Spanish, French, and German) but there's no reason that this shouldn't be used as an extension of learning at home. Indeed, you could talk about architects and planning, and how buildings are designed as well as the construction workers. When they construct buildings, the builders need plans to work from, they don't just build! It's almost impossible not to find some kind of new development going on relatively locally. Perhaps you're having home improvements such as an extension done. If so, the set could be used to mirror real world activity that's very meaningful to your child. There was a quality to the 'girder'-based city construction theme that reminded me of the amazing black and white photos of New York construction engineers in the 1930s working on the creation of skyscrapers, so I've been looking at some of these images with my 5 and 8 year old nephews. This is such an interesting set - combining construction pieces such as posts, platforms, wheels, arches, strings, gears, a pulley, planks, and cranks with a couple of characters, flags, cones and a truck. 10 double sided design cards are included. These include steps needed to create certain construction types, but also add questions and suggestions for children to attempt their own designs to address a specific need. The parts are nicely made and colourful, and easy to distinguish from one another. The design and pieces are a bit different from other construction sets. Right up there with K'Nex, and Gears!Gears!Gears! The only thing I didn't like about this set was the number of non-recyclable, separate little plastic bags the parts were packaged in. Why not use recycled and recyclable paper bags, or compostable ones?
