As a certified Primary and Early Childhood teacher, and an active homeschooling mom I think this collection of Connetix tiles is among the most useful educational tools we have at home.
My children enjoy playing with them and play with them every day and every day, but they’re also educationally wealthy. I’m going to describe here for you how they help my kids’ development and also their education. I’ll give you a quick summary of our most favorite methods to utilize them too!
The benefits of development of Connetix tiles
Fine motor skills – it’s essential for kids to be able to practice exercising the small muscles of their fingers and hands. These muscles aren’t only essential for everyday activities, but also to write. The development of these muscles will increase strength, dexterity and endurance (meaning the hand muscles will be less likely be fatigued during the later years of schooling as children are expected to write longer or for long periods). Connetix tiles strengthen these muscles as they require precise grasping and placement in use.
Problem solving skills – problem-solving skills are essential to the future of all tasks as they are essential to schooling as well as in everyday life. Connetix tiles help with problem solving as they’re open-ended and children must think of ways they can use the tiles. This encourages children to have a desire to solve problems! A few of the questions that kids will have to ask themselves while playing with Connetix are:
What should I do/make?
What are the shapes I can choose to use?
Where should I put the tiles?
What can I do to fix this? (when issues arise during play or construction)
Language skills – regardless of whether playing by themselves or with family or friends, Connetix tiles require children to explain what they are doing/how they’re playing, discuss their designs, discuss their choices, and communicate their ideas and deal with social issues.
Playing independently The open-ended character of Connetix tiles makes them can be used to promote and practicing independence play. There’s no one method’ of playing with them. Children have to choose the way they play in the future, what they’ll construct and the length of time they play for. All of these are essential capabilities needed to to play by themselves.
Persistence and perseverance – Children are required to solve problems each time they play Connetix tiles. The process of identifying problems, figuring out solutions to the issue, and then successfully resolving the issue, is essential to the process of learning. This is done in a safeand secure manner every time a child plays with Connetix tiles, providing them with plenty of opportunities to practice persistence and persevering in solving issues they encounter.
Benefits to education of Connetix tiles
Talking about maths and maths Talking and mathematical thinking Connetix tiles foster incredible maths and vocabulary. Thinking mathematically is the foundation of mathematics education, as is the case when you use Connetix tiles, children must think about, solve problems the world in a way that is creative, critical and imaginative in order to develop their mathematical thinking abilities.
2D exploration and recognition of shapes The variety of 2D shapes in the range of Connetix tiles means that children are exposed and are familiar to 2D shape in a concrete manner that gives them ample time to learn and understand the various characteristics of each shape in addition to the ways in which 2D shapes are connected with 3D objects.
3D objects and exploring – the capability to design 3D structures and objects using Connetix tiles provides children with an unprecedented insight into the design and properties of 3D objects. Through the process of creating and manipulating the objects themselves they create significant connections that mean increasingly complex neural pathways for understanding are being created.
The manipulation of concrete materials concrete material is most crucial aspect of the development of mathematical skills early. When children are engaged with various senses during play and develop deeper perceptions of the world around them and how things function. Connetix tiles permit an abundance of concrete manipulation and exploration that children can develop a broad understanding of the work they do.
