These magnetic fridgigears are on our dishwasher. Matthew has developed a keen interest in playing with these gears over the last 3 weeks or so. I love how this toy makes him think. How do I make these gears move? Where can I put this gear so it will move too? What color is this gear? From a gross motor and fine motor point of view, the toy encourages good hand grasp and hand strength to be able to pull the gears off the magnetic upright surface. Kneeling on the floor when playing with these gears also helps with abdominal and leg strength especially if he alternates from sitting on his ankles to raising himself up several times during play.
Here's a video of him playing with the gears.
However, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about this toy. I like it for the fun and educational value it offers but there are things about it that I do not like.
1. The magnets on the back of some of the gears have fallen off. I've fixed the faulty pieces with super glue but they came off again within 2 days. I threw away 3 gear pieces because of this.
2. The stickers on the front side of some of the gears are starting to peel off. Some have already come off. I threw those away. Matthew didn't mind that some of the gears were bare anyway. He was more interested in how they moved.
3. The easy tap on/tap off button on the motorized gear is great for making it easy for Matthew to operate. It's also easy enough for me to accidentally tap on with my knee when I'm standing in front of the dishwasher. I've done it so many times. The motor isn't the quietest either. That low, whirring sound from the motor is guaranteed to annoy, especially if it's been on for a long time. I'm learning to block out the sound though.
Overall, a decent toy except for the poor quality magnets (or adhesive on the magnets) and stickers. There are other similar gear toys I have found to have better reviews on amazon.com but we will keep this set that we have because Matthew likes it so much.
5 comments:
What a cool toy! I bet Ruby would love this!
Matthew looks so cute playing with it :)
Looks pretty cool to me. That would drive me crazy though with turning it on sll the time. We have the Word Whammer by Leapster and I'm forever knocking it with my knee.
That is a cool toy (even with the negatives). He does look like he really loves playing with them.
Wow.. This toy is interesting...
Will check if I can get it here in India.. thanks for sharing
Your blog is helping me a lot. We have a gear toy but it is small board and I like more this one because it is a vertical position. I was looking for a toy fridge because the one my son has is from when he was a baby. You just posted what I was looking for. So, I got one similar to Matthew's. Thank you so much for sharing.
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