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"As a seasoned preschool teacher, this has been hands-down the best toy in my classroom for many years. We have a few sets combined and it encompasses every skill you would want to develop in 4 year olds. The children play alone or in small groups to create terrific, complex structures. It encourages language development between children and cooperation. Imagination soars and each year, the different children create more amazing structures. Even at clean-up time, its a brain strengthening activity as we have them sort them by shapes. The 4's have even learned to NAME the types of shapes they are putting away. Once in a while, I actually have to hide the Magna-tiles so that the children will play with some other toys! we LOVE our Magna-tiles!"
-J. Meltzer
"This is a great toy that both my six-year old and two-year old love to play with. Its pieces are well made and can take the rough handling of my two year old. There are enough pieces to create a variety of structures. However, both love the car part the most and spend a lot of time using that to make different vehicles."
-Keyvan
My almost 5-year-old loves the Magna Tiles DX. He received it as his 4 year birthday present a year ago & immediately went to work building. Sometimes he builds the suggested shapes/forms, sometimes he creates his own, & sometimes he creates patterns with the colors and tile shapes. He continues to enjoy this toy. I highly recommend this toy for any preschool aged child - & probably most elementary kids too. It lets kids be creative, inventive, play w/ colors and observe the properties of magnets as well.
-C. Field of Huntersville, NC
We've had magnatiles for approximately two months now, and my daughter has played with them every day. Magna-tiles are very open-ended and can be incorporated into practically any game. Rocket ships. Parking garages for matchbox cars. Jail cells and homes for little people and weebles. My daughter constantly amazes me by what she builds.
As a parent, I really love magnatiles too. I can see educational opportunities in them from preschool to geometry. Right off, my daughter learned that two right-triangles make a square, three isosceles triangles make a trapezoid. She instantly figured out how to build cubes and pyramids and she said, "I'm a cube builder! I'm a pyramid builder!" In addition, I use magnatiles to teach about patterns.
We have both translucent and opaque magnatiles. At times, my daughter will yank the opaque ones away from me and give me a translucent one instead. That way she can see her weebles and little people inside of her structures. So if you're choosing between the two, I'd buy translucent. So, in conclusion, buy the translucent magnatiles! This is the best toy ever!!
-book lover of Los Angeles, CA
"My friend had always raved about her son's magna tiles, but they seemed kind of pricey to me and I figured my kids could play with lego's or blocks, which are much less expensive.
For Hannukah this year, I decided to buy my three kids (4 1/2 year old girl and twin 2 1/2 year old boys) a set of 100 magnatiles. I was concerned that the boys wouldn't understand how to stack them up, but I was totally wrong.
I got home from work last night and my nanny and three kids were building a huge tower with the magna tiles. My nanny told me that they had played ALL DAY LONG with the magna tiles and that the kids built all sorts of things with them. I was thrilled!
They were totally worth the money - just to see my three kids sitting there all working together to build something. I highly recommend the 100 piece set. 32 pieces just isn't enough. In fact, I think we need more than 100 pieces because each of my kids wanted to build a huge Empire State Building tower!
For those of you who are scared about the price tag, I assure you it is worth the money. I store them in a clear plastic container so they are easy to clean up and store. At approximately $1 per piece, I also don't want to lose the pieces!!!!"
-Hilary P of Scarsdale, NY
No other toys needed this holiday :-) My 4 year-old has these at school, in opaque colours, and loves them there; but I didn't realise quite *how* great they are until we bought these. Technically, they're both interesting and impressive - the magnet arrangements had our engineer-science geek family playing for several hours - but pale beside the engrossment (OK, that's not a word) which enveloped Aidan after he opened them. Just glorious to watch him constructing - the tiles are easy to use, easy to keep together, easy to knock down. Remarkably good.
-Ewan C. Mcnay
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