What Rebecca Thinks of Spielgaben: 
This is a testimonial from Rebecca, a mum of a 3 years old girl. She kindly shared her finding with others here.
First thing my daughter, Ollie did was used the blue ball with the string as her necklace. I then showed her how we could make a triangle with the ball, then without prompting from me, she used the balls to make the letter ”A”. We tried with B, but that was a little too ”challenging” in terms of hand movements for Ollie, so she did ”E”. She really enjoyed the worksheets for the Gift 1. We did them all and she asked for more.
I liked the hiding of balls under the cup idea as well. When I asked her to name the colour of the balls hidden under the cups. I could observe she really had to ”think” about it. She had a frown and a concentrated look on her face.
The best thing is because the play with the balls engages her in a completely different way from other ”toys”, she has learned to ”respect” the gifts and she removes them and packs them back into the box properly.
I try to instill in her the packing of the gifts properly at the end of the play is just as important as removing the gifts from the box to begin play.
The use of the open end play such as the Gift 1 makes her use both sides her brain. She has to engage her fine motor and gross motor skills to manipulate the balls to create the alphabets. She also has to use her cognitive abilities to use the balls as tools to complete the worksheets.
Even as I guide the play of the balls with Ollie, I find my own brain opening up and thinking of other possible ways of using them. I can only imagine how much more Ollie’s brain is stimulated and imprinted with the infinite possibilities of play as she uses the gifts.
Ollie has been asking for Gift 2, so I will have to do my ”homework” and have a better set up ready for her when we open Gift 2.
Looking forward to it.
I am sure I will discover new aspects of Ollie’s play and best of all through the play with the gifts, as parents we will get to know and understand our daughter a little better.
