10+ ways to use our Rainbow Set for Skills Development

From the earliest days of their tiny lives, babies are observing and taking in the world, neurons firing away, making connections and growing their brains. As they grow, they start reaching for objects, delight in new sounds and textures, and begin to experiment through play. From early activities building hand-eye coordination for a young baby, to problem-solving games for the preschoolers, our Rainbow Stacking Set grows with your child. This simple, plastic-free toy has so many uses and is so adaptable to different stages, it is sure to become an integral part of your child’s play sessions for years.

ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR BABY (0-1YRS) 

Grabbing and squishing.
Each ball is the perfect (safety) size and texture for tiny fingers to grasp and start building manipulation skills. 

Peek-a-boo.
The rainbow colours of the Stacking Set give your child a spectrum of bright, contrasting colours to observe, assisting with vision development. Hide a ball under a bowl and play peek-a-boo, developing baby’s object permanence. 

Roll the ball.
As your baby grows and starts sitting on their own, practice rolling the ball towards them, challenging them to reach for it and eventually roll it back. This encourages creeping and crawling. 

Point and ask.
As they are approaching their first birthday, babies start to point. Ask your baby to point to different bowls and balls. By asking questions such as Where is the yellow ball? Where is the red bowl?, you’ll also be building vocabulary and language skills. 

Drop and repeat.
Babies also start to develop a sense of cause and effect at this stage, experimenting with objects to see what happens. This is the age where your baby might torment you with dropping something to make you pick it up, only to drop it again. Try doing the same to them.

In and out.
Babies love putting the colourful balls into the bowls, taking them out and starting all over again. You can work on vocabulary skills as well as spatial relations by challenging your baby to put the green ball into the orange bowl.

ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR TODDLER (1-2YRS) 

Stack the bowls.
Using trial-and-error, toddlers will learn how to put the biggest bowl first before stacking smaller bowls. Because the bowls don’t neatly click into one another, it helps develop fine and gross motor skills. You can encourage development of size and space concepts by asking questions such as “Which bowl is the biggest? Is the red bowl bigger or smaller than the green bowl?”

1,2,3…
Toddlers love to count (and they don’t always get their numbers right, which, you have to admit, is utterly adorable). Practice counting, and adding and subtracting objects, important pre-numeracy skills.

ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR PRE-SCHOOLER (3-4YRS) 

Make believe.
Pre-schoolers are the masters of creative play. The Rainbow Stacking Set now becomes a tool for make-believe games and developing creativity. Balls can be put in a pot and ‘cooked’ while the bowls are used to serve up ‘meals’. Bowls are hats, and balls are eyeballs. The possibilities are endless. 

Advanced balancing.

Pre-schoolers may surprise you by their stacking ability, adding other objects to their towers and experimenting to see what balances and what doesn’t. You can challenge them further by asking them to balance one of the soft crochet bowls on their heads as they walk.

Toss and Catch.

Toddlers will be great at throwing by now (much to your dismay, at times). Have them try throwing one of the balls up in the air and catching it with their other hand. Five and six-year olds like to try out juggling, usually without success but with lots of giggling. That counts as a win in our books. 

So many ways to play and learn.

Much like a toddler learning to count, we’ve lost track of all the ways you and your child can use the Rainbow Stacking Bowls and Balls for skill building, development and plain old fun. The brightly designed set comes with 6 nesting and stacking bowls and 6 colour matching balls, and is packaged in its own 100% cotton, fairly sewed and fairly printed drawstring bag. 

Order yours here, and send us your favorite way to play.