Magical Magnet

As parents of young kids, we have to wrack our brain cells to decide what to buy for presents – whether it’s for their birthdays or Christmas. We generally avoid electronic gadgets and video games, with Hannah’s Nikon Coolpix L29 camera the only exception so far. Books are always a fail-safe when we can’t think of anything else of course. Credit again to the wife who is always a lot more observant in discovering new things for the kids – because we got Hannah and Peter a box of ‘magical’ magnets last Christmas. Basically, these are plastic polygonal pieces lined with magnets for kids to build models with. Pretty much like Lego, with the differences being that constructions are a tad more fragile but can also be disassembled very quickly, and the pieces are also much larger and hence less likely to get lost in sofas, carpets and the like.

Ling found a box of these for sale at a bazaar at a nearby shopping mall late last year, and the kids have been having a ball of fun with the pieces after getting them for late last year. They weren’t too costly too at about $45 a box.

The box comes with a fully colored guide printed on good quality glossy paper, though it’s still not hardy enough to withstand child abuse!
The first pages lay out clear step by step instructions for kids to assemble their first object.
Lots of more advanced designs for kids to figure out too.
Peter getting all creative. He rarely gets attached to a toy for long and frequently moves past them after a month or so. For these Magnets, he’s still going at it every day 10 weeks after Christmas!

The box we bought was made by a Chinese-sounding manufacturer called Xinaida, which also has them listed for sale at places like Amazon, but they should also be widely available for sale at most toy shops here.

By this point, the kids have put together all types of movable vehicles, hamster cages (!?!?), Ferris Wheels, and even simple Rube Goldberg machines . Highly recommended for kids!