Fun Games, Building Blocks for Kids

Building blocks can be great fun for kids. Both girls and boys enjoy creating with blocks so avoid stereotyping this activity as merely a boy’s game. In fact now days they make blocks in several categories and with a variety of colors that appeal to both genders.

Blocks are an important educational activity because they not only promote creativity but they help exercise fine motor skills. There is definitely higher level thinking and problem solving going on when creating with blocks.

If you have younger children, try purchasing larger building blocks for them to use. This will eliminate the possibility of choking on smaller pieces and will also diminish levels of frustration for the child. They just don’t have the fine motor skills to manipulate small pieces and will become very frustrated and perhaps disinterested in blocks altogether.
Older kids are able to manipulate smaller pieces with ease and understand the severity of putting these small pieces in their mouths.

Don’t limit yourself to looking for traditional wooden blocks, although they are both durable and long lasting, there are several different kinds of building blocks on the market that deserve to be looked at as well.

Companies make a wide range of styles; some have really interesting and brightly colored blocks. There are blocks made of wood, foam, and cardboard. Some blocks come with the alphabet printed on them while others can be used to create colorful geometric patterns. Some building blocks for kids have nubs that fasten together like legos and yet another brand use bristles that allow the blocks to adhere to each other.

As you can see there are many types of building blocks for kids available. Try to find age appropriate styles to best suit your situation. Then sit back, or join in, and watch as your children begin building giant towers and amazing castles.

New Tossing Technique for the Washer Toss Game

I don't know about you but my family and I had a great Fourth of July, lots of fun in the sun with family and friends at the lake. We spent much of the time on the water but we always seem to carve out some time for games. One of our favorites is a washer toss game. I know I've talked about this before but I actually learned something new this weekend and I wanted to share it with you.

I have a friend whose husband grew up in Mexico and apparently they played a form of this washer toss game as they were growing up. However none of us knew that before we started playing. Well you can imagine our surprise when after watching us play several rounds (and not very well either I might add,) he pipes up and says, "I bet you I can make it from here." And he was probably about twenty yards away!

None of us thought he could do it, but he stood up and tossed and sure enough it went right into the cup! Everyone cheered!

Our Mexican friend went on to explain that they played with tuna cans and washers. They would carve out a hole in the dirt wide enough and deep enough to accommodate the tuna can. The can would then be placed in the hole so it was level with the ground. The kids would take turns tossing the washers toward the can in hopes of making it.

Everyone would start at a fairly close distance, and then those that made it would take one pace back and toss again. The process was repeated until there was only one person left.

What I thought was interesting was that he didn't throw it underhand like I see most people play here. He threw it more like a Frisbee, holding the washer with his thumb and pointer finger and tossing it by flicking the wrist.

This caused the washer to spin as it flew through the air which made it fly flatter and with greater precision. I'll be honest I haven't mastered this technique yet but I'm going to keep trying it seems to work great.

If you are interested in purchasing a washer toss game check out this large selection. They have all kinds, three hole, single hole, and team logo games.