We got a little kitchen when my oldest child was about 3. He's 10 now and still plays it with his 7 yr old sister with it. Sometimes they get new stuff for it, like once a year. That helps keep it intersting.

Anonymous wrote:OP / all - what age for the Magnatiles? My twins are 4.5 and it seems like they'd be into them, but I'm not sure if they'd be close to aging out.

Not even close. My 8 yo still loves them. Just depends on the kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4 and 6 year olds definitely spend a TON of time with Magnatiles. The 6 year old spends as much time with: keva plank knock-offs, unit blocks, and a bin of Legos. They both play with art supplies at least as much. 4 year old puts figurines (her usual choice is My Little Ponies or, oddly enough, counting bears) in the Magnatiles every time she plays with them.

They have asked for straw connectors and brain flakes for Christmas - remains to be seen if those will get as much play.

My 4 year old does the same thing. She’s constantly making houses for her various figurines. Either that, or she’s lining them up on her windowsill, “Because it’s time for them to go outside.” They’re also having endless birthday parties, with the magnatiles acting as cupcakes, or they’re going to sleep. It’s always somehow a birthday party or nap time.

Yes! So many birthday parties. We also ended up with a substantial Calico Critter collection, which are also frequently found in Magnatile rooms/houses. Once, all of the figures had to go potty, one by one, before leaving for an outing. “You don’t have to be here for this, mommy, it’s kind of boring.” - 5yo

First quoted PP - yes, there are endless birthday parties. I, along with the figurines, have eaten so much pretend cake!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:4 and 6 year olds definitely spend a TON of time with Magnatiles. The 6 year old spends as much time with: keva plank knock-offs, unit blocks, and a bin of Legos. They both play with art supplies at least as much. 4 year old puts figurines (her usual choice is My Little Ponies or, oddly enough, counting bears) in the Magnatiles every time she plays with them.

They have asked for straw connectors and brain flakes for Christmas - remains to be seen if those will get as much play.

My 4 year old does the same thing. She’s constantly making houses for her various figurines. Either that, or she’s lining them up on her windowsill, “Because it’s time for them to go outside.” They’re also having endless birthday parties, with the magnatiles acting as cupcakes, or they’re going to sleep. It’s always somehow a birthday party or nap time.

Yes! So many birthday parties. We also ended up with a substantial Calico Critter collection, which are also frequently found in Magnatile rooms/houses. Once, all of the figures had to go potty, one by one, before leaving for an outing. “You don’t have to be here for this, mommy, it’s kind of boring.” - 5yo

small LEGOs and playmobil, we seem to alternate which we are into and then it switches back (like every couple of weeks)

Anonymous wrote:4 and 6 year olds definitely spend a TON of time with Magnatiles. The 6 year old spends as much time with: keva plank knock-offs, unit blocks, and a bin of Legos. They both play with art supplies at least as much. 4 year old puts figurines (her usual choice is My Little Ponies or, oddly enough, counting bears) in the Magnatiles every time she plays with them.

They have asked for straw connectors and brain flakes for Christmas - remains to be seen if those will get as much play.

My 4 year old does the same thing. She’s constantly making houses for her various figurines. Either that, or she’s lining them up on her windowsill, “Because it’s time for them to go outside.” They’re also having endless birthday parties, with the magnatiles acting as cupcakes, or they’re going to sleep. It’s always somehow a birthday party or nap time.

4 and 6 year olds definitely spend a TON of time with Magnatiles. The 6 year old spends as much time with: keva plank knock-offs, unit blocks, and a bin of Legos. They both play with art supplies at least as much. 4 year old puts figurines (her usual choice is My Little Ponies or, oddly enough, counting bears) in the Magnatiles every time she plays with them.

They have asked for straw connectors and brain flakes for Christmas - remains to be seen if those will get as much play.

Anonymous wrote:What toys do you have that get as much use as Magnatiles? The Magnatiles get so much use in our house compared to other toys. Would love to find some other toys the kids will play with as much.

LOL Surprise
Sphero
Happy Atoms
American Girl
Playmobil
Lego

Anonymous wrote:OP / all - what age for the Magnatiles? My twins are 4.5 and it seems like they'd be into them, but I'm not sure if they'd be close to aging out.

Well, my HUSBAND builds with them after the kids go to sleep sooooo

And I occasionally babysit some neighbor kids, and they all love them. Kids are between 6-10. They all play with them.

Playmobile doesn't work for us. Kids lose all the pieces

Anonymous wrote:OP / all - what age for the Magnatiles? My twins are 4.5 and it seems like they'd be into them, but I'm not sure if they'd be close to aging out.

They will not age out until 8-10. But you will need to buy more for a 4-5 yo. We started at 18 months and probably have like 500 now that my oldest is 6 and needs more to build more complex things

playmobil
lego
art supplies
playdoh

OP - if you don't have a lot of magnatiles then just buy more magnatiles. in the end, we ended up with two 100 piece sets in addition to the original 35 piece set. the kids loved creating elaborate huge structures.

Train tracks.
Playmobil.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 4 year old spends a lot of time with magnatiles, legos, Rescue bot transformers, and superhero figures

I have a question about marble runs! My kid would probably love that, but he has a history of putting things in his mouth (swallowed a coin 6 months ago) so I am super paranoid about marbles. When did you feel safe with the marbles?

Also, a follow up question - when did you move from Duplos to regular legos? I see there are basic lego boxes marked age 4+. I kinda think my 4yo would like that, but he is still enjoying his Duplos... again, I am paranoid about small parts because he is impulsive.

My 4yo has been playing with regular legos since she was maybe 3 1/2. She has an older sibling, which may have contributed to this. She loves to take apart her lego sets and put them back together - we have a lot of the 4+ sets. She also likes the Playmobil sets with small parts.

My 5.5yo loves LEGO sets with instructions. They are mostly Friends and Disney Princess, ranging from ~65 pieces to ~550. She has built, deconstructed, and rebuilt them all at least 3x each. Plus mixing them up for free play. We also ordered $10 worth of accessories from an Etsy reseller...over 60 pieces for all the minifigs to have parties. Best ROI so far! (Note that age is more about difficulty of the build vs the pieces themselves.) I want to get the Creator 3-in-1 that allows you to build multiple things from the same base components, but she’s not very keen currently.

For my Magnetile lover at prime Magnetile age (3-5)

Unit blocks
Art supplies, especially playdough
Pretend wood working tools
Hotwheels
Basic sports equipment (scooter, soccer ball, bike)
Play kitchen
Little animals and little dinosaurs
Wooden trains

This kid is a huge builder, and still sometimes incorporates them into other building projects now, at 10, but doesn't play with them nearly as much once he became proficient at lego, and some other things