marbles plus old race set equals total fun

When the girls were little I was really loving Discovery Toys. That was the day of those home parties — you know, where everyone went and there was the hostess up front passing around super cool and almost totally needed toys. {There wasn’t much internet used during that time…so to see we had to go to the parties.} One of those toys that I just had to invest in? A colorful deluxe marble race track.

We still have it.

And I still make the super cool amazing out-of-this world tracks for the kids. Or at least that’s what they like to call them. I just like to believe that’s what they really are and I create away with them cheering me on.

Of course, sometimes we incorporate just a wee bit of learning into our marble racing fun. For instance, yesterday, we made a risky track — where the marble leaps off a jump and doesn’t guarantee landing on the next chute and the safe, but long route. Sometimes you have to take a risk, right?

Then I had the kids predict which route they thought the marble will take. Then we decided to track what actually happened for ten runs. Will it go the risky route or the safe one? For added fun, I ask them which route they’d take if they could be the marble. Gets them thinking.

So, much to my surprise, the risky route was the winner. We took our results, tallied them up {which I didn’t take a picture of} and proceeded to make a real simple bar graph. A bar graph of something that they just witnessed — something real — where the results make clear sense and the learning is easy.

Learning can be fun. And, learning doesn’t need to be forced. I just took an opportunity to add a bit of learning to our regular play. Neatest thing for me? I have some bar graphs and stats made for some marble tracks from when Hannah and Chloe were little and we did the same thing.

That was an excellent investment for that oh it feels so steep price of $29.95 in the year 2000. We still play with it, and it just never seems to grow old. Somehow it’s such a parallel to life — take a risk, you could fall, yet taking the safer route doesn’t guarantee a path without obstacles {you should have seen the twists, turns, and funnels I added to the safer side}. Point? You just have to keep moving and working to the goal.

Who knew Discovery Toys was teaching life lessons in the midst?