Recently you may have seen our new blog series, Playful Learning with Spielgaben, We were given the Spielgaben set to review and are honored to have them as a blog sponsor. Today’s post is a little different and is focused on the overall value to help you make a wise decision for you family.
One of the best and most common questions I get about Spielgaben is about the cost. It is most definitely an investment and most of us don’t have extra money to throw around. I hope this post helps you decide if it is worth the price for you. For us personally, the short answer is – YES!
What is included?
Before we go into my thoughts, let me share exactly what you get when you click order.
The current Spielgaben set looks a bit different than mine, this is v3.0. They update the version frequently which is why you may see different things on different blogs. The most current set right now contains an addition that I personally don’t have, the peg board and lacing supplies.
The set comes looking like this, with wooden trays and a top. Ours is a flat top, the new set has the top that works with the lacing and pegs addition.
The boxes have handles, and balance nicely. They are a bit heavy, but I like that since I don’t allow my kids to just dive into it. I leave ours closed like this when it’s not available for free play.
Here’s images of the inside of the trays. You can read the exact details about each tray here on the Spielgaben website.
Play Guides
In addition to the amazing learning manipulatives, you also get a plethora of digital guides. These come in an email and you download them yourself. You can choose to print them or use them on an e device, which is what we do.
There are 4 user guides, called “Spielgaben Play Guides” Thinks of these as the curriculum manuals. You can see them in action each month in my Playful Learning with Spielgaben posts.
We have only scratched the surface using the first guide. We have 3 that we haven’t even touched yet, but we will!
Below you can see more details about each digital guide. We are currently working our way through Play Guide 1 {Basic Play}.
Play guide Part 1 (Basic Play) : Focuses on how to play with each Spielgaben set in order to build competence in sensory, fine motor skills, basic math and problem-solving skills. Ideal age group: 3 to 7 years.
Play guide Part 2 (Creative Play) : Focuses on progressing creativity, self-expression and language skills to further develop your child’s brain. Ideal age group: 5 to 9 years.
Play guide Part 3 (Mathematical Play – Arithmetic) : Covers mathematical concepts that your child will learn at school from Years One to Six. It provides a solid basis for understanding arithmetical calculations, measurements. Ideal age group: 7 to 12 years.
Play guide Part 4 (Mathematical Play – Figures) : It covers mathematical concepts such as 2D & 3D figures, angles, weight and volumes that your child will learn at school from Years One to Six. Once your child has mastered all of these concepts shown in these User guides, your child will excel at mathematics and ready to tackle more advanced problems in senior school. Ideal age group: 7 to 12 years.
Worksheet Packs
in addition to the Play Guides there are worksheet packets. For each Spielgaben set there are 3 worksheet packs. These packs are organized by level, you can see my file below to give you a feel for how many packs there are. Each pack has about 20 pages.
Nature & Instpiration Guides
Two of our favorite downloadable products are the Inspiration Guide and the Nature Guide. These have provided hours and hours of play at my house.
There are also Story Mats, we personally haven’t used those yet.
We use our Spielgaben set in a few different ways…
- Guided Lessons {1-3 per week with Ladybug during school year}
- Free Play {when mom allows the trays to be opened, all kids love to dive in}
- Nature/Inspiration Guide Play {Ladybug does this a LOT}
- Mommy Inspired Play {I set up something to draw them in}
- Along side of other curriculum {especially K’s 2nd grade math}
- I am a visual person so instead of more written lists, I wanted to share a visual list with you. Here are a few images with the different categories labeled for you to see some examples. If you
click on the photo it will take you to the blog post
- where I explain what we did.
FAQ
Now that you know all that is included, and have seen exactly how we use it, here are some FAQ I have gotten regarding the value. Some of these have been posted elsewhere but I wanted to share them in this post too so you don’t have to jump around.
Can’t you just duplicate this with other more inexpensive toys?
This is a question I get and have seen a lot. Honestly I thought this before I had the set. Now that I have had the set for almost a year, I can definitely say the answer is no. It is a complete learning program, not just another set of toys. The Play Guides are another aspect that make this set unique. That’s the short answer.
My question is, now that you’ve used it for 6 months or so, would you personally find it a good investment to buy outright if you had a 3 yr old and 6 yr old, or would you use that money towards other similar “toys” and curriculum?
If I had a 3 and 6 year old, I would buy it if money were not tight, for sure. I understand it is a huge investment so if money is tight, it can be a hard decision that only you can make.
The toys themselves are amazing, and worth so much, but the digital guides are invaluable. It truly is a full curriculum, not just a set of toys. It takes the guess work out of how to use it in MANY different ways. Plus you have the amazing benefit of the open ended free play. If you desire only the toys, maybe it wouldn’t be a good investment, but if you desire the guides and having that kind of helpful direction, it is definitely worth it.I don’t feel the same idea can be duplicated with other various toys and curriculum, but it is an investment so you have to desire something like this {a play based curriculum}. If you have the money to invest, definitely buy Spielgaben and forget getting other toys with the money. I would gladly give up many of the toys we had before Spielgaben {in fact I have} that are somewhat similar. The other toys have always been just free play toys, but Spielgaben is all interconnected and I love that.
We only use the guides 1-3 times a week, mostly we enjoy the free play. But the guides have empowered me to introduce concepts to Ladybug that I would never think of {symmetry, open and closed spaces, 3D shapes, etc.}. I truly enjoy the guides beyond what I even thought I would!
This is a set we will enjoy for years. I am already excited about using it more for Kindergarten next year with Lili, and I use the manipulatives all of the time for my 2nd grader during math!
Do you use Spielgaben daily?
Yes, almost! Formal lessons 2-3 times a week {during school year}, free or guided play usually several times a day! I actually have a hard time keeping Ladybug away from it, she is in a stage of wanting to sit at our free play area many times per day and often asks me for my iPad for the Nature/Inspiration Guide.
In your opinion do you think it would be worth the money for a 5 and 7 year old.
If I had a 5 and 7 year old, I would buy it if money were not tight, for sure. But, if these are your only kids and you aren’t planning on having more I would think more about the purchase, especially if money is a bit tighter. I am using it a lot with my daughter who turned 5 in April, and can see us using it for years. She loves this style of learning. My 7 year old loves it too, I am not using the lessons with him {although I might start next year} I understand it is a huge investment so if money is tight, it can be a hard decision that only you can make.
The toys themselves are amazing, and worth so much, but the digital guides are invaluable. It truly is a full curriculum, not just a set of toys. It takes the guess work out of how to use it in MANY different ways. Plus you have the amazing benefit of the open ended free play. If you desire only the toys, maybe it wouldn’t be a good investment, but if you desire the guides and having that kind of helpful direction, it is definitely worth it.
This is a set we will enjoy for years. I am already excited about using it more for Kindergarten next year with Ladybug, and I use the manipulatives all of the time for my 2nd grader during math! I think you would get a lot of use out of it, especially if you like the idea of the guides, and your kids would enjoy this type of learning and free play.
Here’s a post from Homeschool Creations sharing specifically hos she is using it with her 4 kids, all 7 and older
Here are a couple more reviews focusing on the value from other bloggers who have reviewed Spielgaben…
Remember there is a special discount for 1+1+1=1 readers…
Spielgaben is offering an exclusive discount to 1+1+1=1 blog readers –
AUD 370 | USD 337 | GBP 200
including shipping to AU | USA | UK, which is over 15% off of the already discounted online price. Prices are approximate depending on conversion rates. All you need to do to claim your discount is send an email to [email protected] mentioning 1+1+1=1 and you will be provided with a discount coupon!
Please check directly with Spielgaben for current discount available, prices change with version updates and conversion rates.
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