Constructor “Zolo” (Ozon, My-shop)
A completely unusual construction set with oddly shaped parts and a non-standard principle of connecting parts. Such a construction set is not needed at all to build houses or fences; this construction set is needed to excite children’s imagination and create unusual shapes. You can build the most incredible creatures from it (perhaps yours will be weirdos or aliens). The creation process is very exciting, you can laugh heartily, giving free rein to your imagination. Well, when the creatures of alien origin are ready, you can come up with funny names for them like five-legged, big-eyed or bubuzyaki.
I think the most valuable thing about this construction set is that it helps a child learn to think outside the box: after all, it is absolutely not necessary for an unknown alien to have two eyes and two legs, and why does he need a torso at all and why does his nose have to be on his head? In general, we fantasize. Perhaps someone will consider this designer crazy, but it is my favorite.
I really hope that the Zolo construction set will appear in stores again, because it simply has no analogues. The Ogobild construction kit is somewhat similar to it, but with it, it seems to me, it’s better to fantasize about inanimate, technical topics. And it is much more difficult to fasten parts in Ogobild, so it is more suitable for children after 3-4 years.
4. Cubes (Ozon, Labyrinth, My-shop)
Now, due to the emergence of a large number of new unusual construction sets, cubes have lost their former popularity. But practice shows that the simpler the material for construction, the more options for buildings can be built from it and the better the child’s imagination will be used. In addition, the cubes have a significant difference from the construction set: the cubes that are not fastened together teach the child to find balance, training endurance, accuracy and precision of movements. Try to build a tall non-falling tower out of cubes!
What can be built from blocks with a small child is a limitless topic that deserves a separate article. Here I would just like to say that from the age of 2 it is advisable to purchase a set of cubes that contains not only the cubes themselves, but also oblong bars (aka “bricks”), arches, cones, cylinders, etc. Their presence will significantly expand the boundaries of your creativity. Set example.
Constructor “Animals” (Ozon, My-shop)
A very good designer, it has been our “hit” for a long time. The constructor includes many options for paws, heads, torsos, and tails, allowing you to assemble a wide variety of animals. You can collect both animals in their classic form and funny hybrids. This is the only way fantasy develops. And at the same time, the idea of animals and their body parts is consolidated.
We have a “beast constructor” from Edushape, it is made of soft foam material, somewhat similar to polystyrene foam, the parts are not connected to each other in any way. Perhaps this will seem like a minus to some, but on the contrary, I really liked the fact that while assembling it, my daughter learned to find balance, tried to place the parts carefully so that they would not fall.
Here is an example of a similar wooden construction set from Djeco.
Lego also has a similar animal constructor: Ozon, My-shop, MyToys.
3. Road (Ozon, My-shop, MyToys)
There is an opinion that girls always play with dolls, and boys with cars, maybe this is partly true, but it definitely doesn’t apply to road constructors. When my daughter was given a road at the age of 2, she was so captivated by it that for about two months, every day in the morning on the floor of the nursery we were greeted by a new shaped highway. I must say that Tasya liked the construction process; sometimes he didn’t even get to the point of rolling cars. I think boys will find any construction set in the form of a car or railroad even more interesting.
For the little ones, it is very important to choose a road construction set so that the parts interlock without unnecessary effort, and the child can assemble the road himself, without the help of an adult. We played with a car construction kit from a little-known company called Dolu. I couldn’t find it for sale, so I’m giving links to the Brio railway (Ozon, My-shop, MyToys) and its analogues (Ozon, My-shop, Read).
Lego Duplo and its analogues (Ozon, My-shop)
Lego needs no introduction; it is a constructor that has been tested by time and millions of children around the world. From the age of 2, a child will be interested in building paths, fences, houses, collars, chairs, tables, as well as some simple decorations that may be needed for role-playing games. It must be said that the animals and people included in Lego sets greatly increase a child’s interest in the game and motivate them to build this or that building. For example, one of our favorite buildings is an animal zoo. First we build fences, then we organize a game with the sale of tickets and visits to animals.
True, when buying a role-playing set with animals and other figures, you need to be more careful. Very often, sets are made in such a way that they limit the child’s imagination to only one version of the game, and also contain ready-made elements that can be used in one single way. Thus, the presence of ready-made roofs, walls, tables, chairs in the set deprives the child of the opportunity to dream up and figure out how to make the same thing from a construction set himself. Therefore, try to buy construction sets that contain many universal elements and as few ready-made solutions as possible.
If you want a construction set with even larger parts than Lego Duplo, then you can choose, for example, the Mega Blocks construction set (Ozon, MyToys). But generally speaking, all Lego analogues are noticeably inferior to the original in terms of precision of parts and quality of plastic.
