Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Favorite Toy: GeoTrax





We would be lost around here without our GeoTrax these days.  It's the perfect toy for those days that my energy levels are low and I can't think beyond what I'm fixing for dinner. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has those days.



For those of you curious about what age range this toy works for, I would say 18 months-6 years.  We gave a good GeoTrax starter kit to Caden when he was almost 3.  Caden loved playing with his cousin's tracks starting at 2 1/2 years old. He loved them greatly until he was about 4 and then stopped playing with them for a month or two until Porter started showing interest in them.  At 18 months, Porter can piece the tracks together all by himself (well, mostly... he struggles with the bridges).  I was even impressed when he made a closed circle the other day!  What a great thing for a young mind!  And I'm guessing that most children are done with GeoTrax by age 6.  By then they are into more motorized toys and legos.  Correct me if I'm wrong.

Whenever asked if I would purchase these or the wooden Thomas the Train sets.  I say GeoTrax, hands down!  They are easy to snap together and they stay together.  When Caden was young, we had two different Thomas sets and there was endless frustrations over the bridge and how easily it would be knocked down by the dog, or by Caden stepping out of his sacred train circle.  The trains wouldn't ever stay together and the magnets seemed hard for him to figure out.  The GeoTrax are easy to use and Porter has little to no frustration, even with how young he is.  Plus, we found investing into two different track systems was silly so why no just start with the real deal.  Just like Thomas, the GeoTrax system has both motorized and manual trains so the child can pick which one they're comfortable with.

I highly recommend these for any young mind that likes to tinker.  These days, Porter goes straight down to play with them first thing in the morning and they will keep him busy for hours.  I'm not even kidding.  HOURS! I recommend trying to find a used set as these things are pricey.  The starter kit that we gave Caden was found on Craigslist and included about $300 worth of tracks, buildings and trains for $125.  The boys always seem to receive pieces to add to their collections for birthdays and Christmas.

I will say that storing these is kind of a nightmare.  I haven't found the perfect solution yet.  The tracks aren't so bad, but it's the big buildings and bridges that take up space.  Currently, they are stored in a big toy bucket which means there's usually a dumping party involved when we play with them.  If you have any storage ideas, please share.

|It probably looks like I was paid to write this by GeoTrax, but I wasn't paid a dime.  I just love these things so much right now.|

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