Goldieblox
Recently, I had a little triumph involving tools*, and it finally got me to sit down and post about Goldieblox. A draft of this post had been sitting in my outbox since Chanukah (when my wildly trendy sister Rivkee gifted 5-year-old Freida with Goldieblox and the Spinning Machine), and while we've been enjoying fiddling with the thing, mastering the many prototypes in the users manual, and even coming up with some of our own creations, I haven't yet spread the good word about this goody for girls here.
Goldieblox - dubbed 'toys for future innovators'- has been blowing my mind. We all know the ins and outs and young women in the business world in general (and as #banbossy goes to show, it's still a serious issue), but this toy just took things to a whole new level. Forget pushing education and college courses, and try cultivating the innate love for puzzles that is in every child. Toys like these not only encourage children to think outside the box (much like legos do), but they inspire young minds to problem solve and work through things on their own - resulting not only in their own solutions, but in their own creations.
Freida found it a bit difficult at first, but once she got the hang of the concept she fully took off, and has been happily messing around with it since. Once they understand the basic concept and know the logistics of the different pieces, it's a refreshingly fantastic toy for kids to play with on their own. On the weeks that I have the girls with me for Shabbos, I break this out when I want to keep Freida occupied while I put Hudi down for a nap and even sneak in some "me" time with an iced Irish coffee and some pages of the latest Vogue. The fun with this toy is never fleeting, and it's a great gift to consider for girls ages 4-8.
Here is their original commercial (feat. the Beastie Boy music they were allegedly sued for, but it's still so stinkin' cute!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvEsVFbyoL8
And here's their latest commercial from this years Super Bowl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVCC83cDch0
How cute, right? This totally makes me nostalgic for that 90's catchphrase: #girlpower
*I had been living in this apartment for a whole bunch of weeks with a broken play kitchen. The fridge had some loose screws and 2 cabinet doors had fallen off. I stashed them behind the kitchen, and figured I'd get someone to come fix it. I didn't. It wasn't exactly an urgent priority, and so it sat idly somewhere on my to-do list. Until one day recently - I just got fed up with looking at a broken piece of furniture in the girls room - I just grabbed a lonesome screwdriver that had been sitting amongst a slew of pens and pencils at my desk, and fixed it all up like new. It was so easy! And I felt so dumb! I couldn't get over how ridiculous it was that since I was always used to someone doing the handywork for me, I figured I shouldn't even try. It made me think about how many other things I leave waiting on the back burner because I think I don't know how or am not able to do them as well as somebody else... And so this lil' tool triumph has taught me to (at the very least) give things a try.
Yes. She's cooking Foofa. And frying Plex. I know, perplexing.