Fractiles-7 Review and Giveaway from Toys and Games Online

When my friend Sara said she could use some extra help to write reviews for Sara's Toy Box, I jumped at the opportunity. I have been a huge fan of her blog for a few years now and my boys and I absolutely love toys. The boys are a bit less particular than I am, but that does not stop me from trying to find beautiful, useful, educational, and safe toys for them to play with.

For my family’s first review, I selected Fractiles-7 from Toys and Games Online.com. I actually selected the large Fractiles-7 set($39.95) and the Fridge Fractiles set (only an additional $10.95) since I have two little boys and I knew there would be some fighting over this toy once they figured out how cool it was.

Fractiles-7 is basically a magnetic puzzle. But it is also more than a puzzle. Fractiles consists of versatile flexible diamond shaped tiles that can be combined and recombined into an infinite number of designs. The large Fractiles set has 192 tiles and a 12”x12” textured black steel board to easily create your geometric designs. Fridge Fractiles has 48 magnetic tiles and does not come with an activity board as it is meant for your kitchen refrigerator. This is great for my family since my boys love spending time with me in the kitchen while I prepare dinner and I am always scrambling to find activities to keep them occupied so I have the time and space to properly prepare said dinner.

Toys and Games Online.com shipped my order very quickly, and I was very pleased when I found my package on the front porch. I loved the minimal packaging of my Fractiles sets. The large set is packaged in what is basically an old-fashioned album cover which makes clean-up and storage of the set very easy. There are tons of colorful examples of Fractiles designs as well as some information on symmetry and the basic geometry behind the diamond shapes that make them fit together into endless combinations.

I love the educational aspect of this information even though I feel the concept is a bit above where my boys currently are in their math comprehension. After all, one is only in kindergarten and the other is in his first year of pre-school. Even though I may not share the information with them explicitly, they really are learning the concepts by simply playing around, copying or making their own designs with this toy. I couldn’t wait to take a closer look at the new toy and decided to open it while the boys were still in school. I have to admit, once I opened it and discovered that the tiles were all stuck together in a large piece, I was a bit disappointed. I examined the pieces and it didn’t appear to me that they were pre-cut, so I pulled out the scissors and began cutting.

Luckily, it did not take me long to discover that the pieces actually do easily bend and pull apart and I was able to put away the scissors and decided to save even the taking apart of the tiles as a project to work on with the boys. Pulling the Fractiles tiles apart is a great work for developing fine motor activity in little hands and my boys happily helped me pull apart and sort the tiny magnetic tiles.

The boys were immediately engaged with the Fractiles sets. Both the large set and the fridge set come with a lot of images showing so many creations you can make with the tiles. This is a great way to build confidence in using the set for younger children who aren’t sure where to start with the Fractiles. I encouraged the boys to choose something they liked from the pictures on the sleeve and try to copy it. It wasn’t long before both my boys were trying out their own creations with the tiles and this is where the real fun began. My younger son will make something new and can’t wait to show me. Once I take a look, I get an explanation of what his creation represents and it almost always ends with the question, “Am I the coolest artist-invention ever?” (By the way, "artist-invention" was not a typo. This is his actual quote). I am especially enjoying Fridge Fractiles in this aspect. I come into the kitchen and frequently find a new design. It is fun trying to guess which of my little “artist-inventors” created the new masterpiece.

We are very happy with our newest toy! Both boys will sit and play with Fractiles with dedicated concentration for quite a while and feel a sense of pride when they have created something. I feel happy because they are subtly being education on patterns and symmetry which are two important concepts for geometry. Fractiles are also made in the U.S.A. and are lead and phthalate free. We love this toy so much, we are definitely planning on getting a few of the Travel Fractiles sets from Toys and Games Online ($24.95) to give as birthday gifts for classmates of my kindergartner.

Now, the really fun part! Sara's Toy Box is giving you an opportunity to win a $25 gift card (perfect for Travel Fractiles) from Toys and Games Online. Simply go to toysandgamesonline.com to view their great selection of educational toys and games. Then come back here to Sara's Toy Box and leave us a comment about which toy you would select along with your contact information. You can also enter by sending us the toy selection in an e-mail or a message on Facebook.

Tick Tock, a learning clock

Arielle is going to be home-schooled next year. After visiting the local school and hearing from friends who are teachers, I decided that I'd prefer that she spend her early years learning to love learning.

My husband has a degree in elementary education, so I went through my checklist of the things we plan to learn with him. He said that learning to tell time was a big challenge for many of the children he's taught. Many have never seen a clock that is not digital. I thought about it, and almost all the clocks in our home are digital as well.

So, we are very happy to review the Activity Clock from Plan Toys ($32.99)


This rubber wood toy clock comes with a set of nine activity cards (going to school, sleeping, playing, reading, etc.) that fit on top of the clock so children can match the time with their activities.

Arielle was very curious about the clock, and she was eager to learn to tell time. It took a few days, but she soon understood that the long hand at the twelve means o'clock. She's been having a great time setting the clock to 9:00 at bedtime and to 8:00 when she wakes up. After a few days of getting the idea that our activities correspond to the time of day, we were ready to move on.

We matched the clock up with a workbook My Book of Easy Telling Time: Learning about Hours and Half-Hours ($6.95) and will follow that up with My Book of Telling Time: Learning About Minutes ($6.95).

This is a fairly simple workbook that easily guides children into telling time. As Arielle fills out the information in the workbook, she also has the hands-on-experience of setting the play clock to the appropriate time. As she moves the hands clockwise, she gets the idea of how time passes (the hour hand does not move independently, so minutes must pass to make hours). We also talk about the kinds of activities we do at that particular time. Ten o'clock is usually snack time and that is when Sesame Street is on. Four o'clock is when Daddy comes home from work.





Arielle quickly mastered hours and is moving on to half hours. Telling-time works nicely with introducing fractions as well. Talking about half-past lead to a discussion about "what is half?" and a fun afternoon of chopping up snacks and learning about half-way there.

Summer is a great time to review old skills and pick up new ones in preparation for next year. And the Activity Clock is a fun way to introduce an important concept. It is safe, simple and perfect for a four-year-old. Oompa also carries slightly more complex learning clocks from the Polish company, Bajo. They carry both a manual learning clock ($59.99) and a battery-powered option ($69.99) for telling the actual time. These clocks have rotating number balls that can be used for standard time telling, 24 hours (military-style) time telling, learning Roman numerals and for learning fractions. These are nice for children who already understand the basics of telling time, and the battery-powered option could be used as learning-decor for a play room or class room.



Thank you, Oompa.