{disclaimer ~ I was sent the Spielgaben set to review, no other compensation was provided}

Don’t you just want to reach in and grab the toys in the photo above?  It’s amazing how beautiful, quality toys can draw us in, even as adults!  When our Spielgaben educational toy set arrived for us to review, I think I was even more giddy than the kids.  The early childhood educator in me goes wild with ideas and inspiration when presented with materials such as these.  Wooden, natural, colorful, open ended, simple, small, inspirational, creative, engaging. 

Once I had our enormous box opened up and all of the sets on display, my kids went nuts.  Seriously, all three of them.  It was like they’d never seen a toy before! The appeal of this set is very strong, from the display, to the actual materials.  It draws them in.

Before the set arrived, I wasn’t sure if it would be another review item or something I would actually incorporate into our curriculum.  I am thrilled to share that I have decided to use the set with Ladybug as a part of her home preschool.  This really is a play based curriculum, not just another set of toys.

You can see below, our review set is a bit different than the new set in production for US and UK residents. 

You can see the set in production on the Spielgaben website…same toys, different organizational system.  Here’s a small image showing the basic differences…

Spielgaben is both for open ended imaginative play AND for structured learning!  How cool is that?  Along with the actual toys themselves {and the amazing storage system} you get access to several PDF files which you can download. 

The user guides are filled with activities for you to do with your child, and these activities progress in skill. The manuals are beautifully designed, although tough on color ink so I was choosey with what I printed. They tell you exactly what to do with your child, which materials you need and have photographs to guide you!

You could easily put the manuals on an iPad or other device, I chose to print mine to start out with, I only printed the first 10 activities to see if I want to continue printing or switch to using the manuals digitally.

Along with the highly detailed user guides {4 total} there are amazing worksheet sets, and inspiration cards.  You can see everything in more detail on their website! We haven’t started using the worksheets or activities in the user guides yet, but the kids have been enjoying the inspiration cards {shown below}!

Ladybug {age 4} is by far the biggest fan of the inspiration cards!

Massive amounts of free play has been happening, with all 3 kids {ages 4, 7, 11}. They are playing freely, but they are not allowed to get these items out without my permission, way too many tiny pieces to get mixed up and lost.

The big boy made this silly face.  He isn’t really into the inspiration cards, but loves doing his own creative thing.

There is so much learning going on while playing AND while cleaning up!  The storage system itself is a great teaching tool for children!  The user guides share exact storage placement images also, so you can always fit every last block perfectly into the little squares! {note~ the new set won’t store exactly like the one I got to review}

You will be seeing more of Spielgaben on my blog in the future, mostly in my preschool posts since we will be using it!  I only wish I would have had this set when my boys were young, it would have replaced many of our other learning toys!

Is it for YOU?

Spielgaben is for children ages 3-12, which I have so it’s a great fit for us!  The cost is higher, but you get all of the toys shown, the organizational system, and the downloadable worksheets, inspiration cards, and parent guides {curriculum guides}.  I believe the price is reasonable now that I have seen and explored all that is included and the quality of the items. If cost isn’t an issue for you, I would say go for it and add it to your home early childhood collection!  Knowing cost is an issue for most of us, I wanted to give my recommendation for who I think would benefit most from investing in this.

Spielgaben would be great for the parent who is looking for an all in one play based curriculum to use with their child exclusively in the early years and as a supplement up through age 12!  I am using it with Ladybug {age 4} for her PreK and we will see where it take us!

I do believe the quality of the set is very high and this would be a toy set that could be passed down to grandchildren.  I feel extremely blessed to have this set and am thankful the review opportunity came my way. 

A few other questions have been asked on my Facebook page about this set, here is the link to the thread where you can see my answers.  Questions regarding the value, would I buy it myself without hesitation, and more!

Want to learn even more and purchase Spielgaben for your family?

Spielgaben recently launched a campaign to bring these amazing learning sets to the US and UK.  {outside of US/UK can get them too, with a shipping cost}

You have the opportunity to learn more and be a part of the launch by purchasing at a special discount price. 

See the Spielgaben campaign here, and the website here.

Also, be sure to “like” Spielgaben on Facebook, lots of good info!