Hello?  Longest post title in history?  Yeah, sorry about that.

I love to play.  My kids love to play.  We have toys.  Quite a few, in fact.  It’s normal, right?  Often we will play together and (probably more often) they, too, enjoy playing on their own.  Since welcoming a third child into our family and having my middle child in her “twos”, there is not much of the “playing on their own” that goes on when they are actually playing together and nicely.  Guaranteed, as soon as the toy comes out and all three are in the same space… someone rolls over the wrong way or chews on something or snatches a toy away from someone else or wants what someone else has… You name it, it’s probably happened.  There’s something about me (and toys, specifically), though, that I should probably tell you.  I don’t do well with toys all over the place.  I can’t bring myself to embrace the toys all over the floor and all left out all the time.  I do a lot of cleaning up of toys and am always working on getting my children to embrace that job as well.  Also, I usually will only allow one “big” toy out at a time.  That way I don’t get overwhelmed with all the toys that are out and not being used.  I give my kids the option of which thing they are wanting to use and we will have it out for a while and then switch it up.  I tell myself that this helps my kids to not get bored with their toys and that they learn to clean up after themselves better.  We’ll see, I guess.

Anyhow, I do have a few toys that are always out.  As well, there are a number of things that are always within reach and that the kids can pull out on their own and use at anytime.  One of the toys that is always out is the Castle Marbleworks from Discovery Toys.  It’s a great toy for all three of my kids (ages 5, 2.5 and 8 months).  They can enjoy it together and play with it on their own!  Castle Marbleworks teaches tracking as the kids follow a jingling ball through the path and it teaches colours as we talk about which colour the ball is and which coloured-path it is on.  It teaches hand-eye co-ordination as we try and snag the ball off the track before it gets to the next level, then re-set it.  It teaches cause-and-effect as they learn what happens when they change the order of the tracks.  It’s a fabulous learning-toy.

I absolutely adore Discovery Toys.  I first found out about DT when I was pregnant with my eldest.  After he was born we invested in a few pieces that we knew we wanted to have for our kids.  Since then, my collection has grown.  and grown. and grown and grown.  We are blessed to have some seriously fantastic toys, in our house.  The grown-up version of Castle Marbleworks, MarbleWorks, was actually one of our first purchases, in December 2005.  My first son was six months old and my husband I would play with it, letting our boy watch and chew on the biggest pieces (of course).  Yes, I’ve probably played with it more than my kids have, seeing as I had about two years of good playing before my eldest was old enough to use it.  Now, you need to know (and I’m sure you do) that the marbles are a choking hazard to little ones, so it’s not a toy to have for unsupervised play, if you have out-it-in-the-mouthers, like I do.  So, we keep that one stowed, but lately I have been pulling it out more frequently so that I can build with the kids and they are really starting to “get it”.  It’s been so amazing to watch them fiddle with things until they are juuuuust right and make the path that they want.  They spend a lot of time playing with the straight pieces, using their imaginations, too… wands? long fingers? swords? light sabers? Yep.  They also like to build tall tall towers and then just drop the marbles straight down.  We’ve had it out so much and shown them how to use it, that my 2 year-old can use it, even though it says that it is for 5 and up.

I told you I was losing my marbles, right?!  Well, here are some of the latest moments of the kidlets playing together, and nicely, too!!

I happen to know a few lovely ladies that sell Discovery Toys and one of them, Alison, has a fantastic prize to offer some lucky reader of this post.  If you are the winner, you can consider yourself lucky, indeed, as you will be the proud owner of a Marbleworks set!  All you have to do is leave a comment (or e-mail elizabeth@kamloopsparents.com) to win, and there are lots of ways to enter…

1) Discovery Toys has a fantastic Summer Sale going on.  Go, check it out and tell me what looks good to you.

2) You can become a “liker” of Alison’s page on facebook and tell me that you did.

3) You can tell me when I bought my Marbleworks set (did you catch it?).

4) You can tell me what’s on your wish list?

The draw will be open until June 17th at 10pm and the random winner will be informed by e-mail an announced on the site, as well.

Another great opportunity that Alison has for you… if you place an order before June 25^th you can get 10 % off your order if you mention that you read this post on KamloopsParents.Com!

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Don’t forget about this great event, and the giveaways, too!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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