A special thanks to The Learning Journey International for providing the Miss Frugal Mommy blog with their products for free in exchange for an honest review!

About the The Learning Journey International

“The Learning Journey has been designing and manufacturing an exclusive line of award-winning children’s interactive educational products. All products at The Learning Journey encourage learning and develop confidence as they enhance a child’s potential. All products build on the skills necessary for children to be prepared for school and beyond.“

About the Adventure Series – Techno Gears Marble Mania Quest

“Set out on a search for fun and excitement with Techno Gears Marble Mania Quest. This adventure themed marble run features a hand crank that turns a bucket and chain pulley system to lift the marbles to the top of the build where they twist and turn down the tracks for an action packed run! More than 200 pieces will provide children hours of fun construction building.”

About the Match It! – Fun With Shapes

“Learn all about shapes with this fun puzzle game. Simply take turns selecting the proper shape to fit your puzzle board, and if you are the first to complete your puzzle with the right shapes and color, you win! Kids will develop shape recognition skills as well as cooperative skills through gameplay. Game includes four puzzle boards and 24 colored shapes.”

My Review

With the new school year in full swing where we live, I decided it was time to start working on preschool stuff with my three year old son. He absolutely loves working in his books and practicing letters, colors and numbers. However, he is also a very rambunctious and active boy and needs to do more than just sit and write in a workbook. I have found that he is much more intrigued and focused when we do hands on activities and will stick to the activity for a longer time.  The Match It! Fun With Shapes is the perfect game for this busy little boy and always manages to slow him down. I always have great luck settling him down with this game when he starts to get bored and doesn’t want to work on learning any longer. What’s even better is that he looks at this as a game (not learning) so he is always more than happy to work on this with me!

The bright, fun and engaging colors immediately grabs my son’s attention every time he opens the box. This game allows me to work on both colors and shapes with my son as I always ask him to tell me the shape and color before he puts it in the proper place. I am always a really big fan of the box that the game came in, it makes cleaning up and storing the game a breeze!

I remembering setting up tracks and marbles as a kid and could not wait to share that same love and passion with my son. As a child I was very particular about how I set my toys up and everything had to be perfect. This is something that has stuck with my as an adult and mother, so when i first opened the box for the Techno Gears Marble Mania Quest, I was pleased to see everything neatly organized. Each and every single piece was labeled, making putting it together a very simple process. The set even came with a fantastic book with directions and very detailed pictures guiding you through each step. I spent over an hour putting the set together and boy was I happy when it was finally complete! It wasn’t until I stepped away to take a break and start dinner that I realized my son was nothing like me when it came to this stuff, but more like his father! I returned to the playroom to see my masterpiece taken apart and reassembled by my three year old. For a moment I wanted to be upset, but couldn’t help but laugh as I observed him taking pieces apart and putting them together his own was so that he could see how it all worked. It didn’t occur to me that he was more interested in the building process of the track than the actual track, which is exactly what his father would have done as a child. My mother in law tells me stories about my husband and how he would take apart anything he could get his hands on to see how it all works.

So this fabulous, fun and exciting marble track has now become a toy that my son can practice his new found interest of building things. I love peaking in at him when he takes out the pieces and puts them together in his own way. He puts so much time, focus and attention into deciding where to connect the next pieces. I am so thankful to have discovered this wonderful marble track! Even though it isn’t being played with how I had envisioned it in my mind, it is allowing my son to grow and learn in a while different way. I am greatly looking forward to all of the amazing creations and tracks he will build over the next few years!