Blog

 House of Webs

Hello everyone! We hope this finds you well and enjoying the abundant family time that this pandemic has provided us with. We are slowing things right down on the weekends and letting our kids lead the days. This weekend, they found some string…..and oh what fun they had.

As you know…. at Mobi we LOVE toys and activities that disguise learning and make it fun, right?! Open-ended, developmental play is where it’s at! This string was no different. They literally “webbed” the entire house. The adults thought it was very “Mission Impossible-y” and pretened the string was like a lazer beam that would zap us if we touched it. The kids…..played that way with it for a while, then pretened that the string was their bridge and that if they didn’t walk on it, the pretend alligators would get them. They had a ball! Speaking of balls….they also dumped out our ball basket and tried to through the balls under, through and over different parts of the web!

Questions for the kids:

Lose or Tight:

At various places around the house, the string was either loose or tight…or somewhere in the middle. We went around and asked them to talk about the tension of the string at different points.

Long or Short:

Same idea as above. Where did you make the string reach for long distances? Where do you see a short piece of string? 

Under or Over:

Do you think you can step over the string without touching it with your body? Can you crawl under the string without it touching your body? We did this all around the house, and the kids loved it! Think high jump and army crawls! Very cute and quite an active activity!

Developmental Benefits of Web Building!

Fine Motor Skills: Rolling the string out and placing it around certain household objects like sink faucets, door knobs, railings….required quite a bit of fine motor skills!

Cause and Effect: We encouraged the littles to watch what happened when they stepped on the string. Did it tighten in other places? Did it get loose? What did it feel like under their feet?

Coordination and Proprioception: Over or Under as described above was big for coordination and proprioception. The kids had to make sure they knew where their bodies were and had to focus on where to put limbs as they moved over or under!

Concentration and Focus: Although it seems all fun and games…there is quite a bit of concentration and focus required to move through a web and even set it up! We were super very impressed with their desire to web the entire house and then play for hours.

We never thought we’d make a web in our house, but we also never thought we’d be quarantined for this long! When we took the web down on Monday, we made sure to wind the string back up nicely so we could do this another day! We will certainly do this again independent of quarantine! We also think it would be a really cool backyard activity!

Homemade Marble Run

Hello everyone! We are getting creative these days and making toys from things we have around the house. Our son is aware that we make toys for a living and continues to come up with some great ideas. Today he thought of making his own maze. We thought it was a great idea! Now what would we make a maze out of??

• Cardboard/or cardboard box.
• Popsicle Sticks
• Ball/Bell

You will also need scissors and adult supervision for those scissors!

• Okay so first is first. Determine the size and how many sticks you will need. You could also probably use sticks from outside as long as they are somewhat straight or even pipe cleaners!

• Next you have to decide what you want the maze to look like. We suggest drawing this out on paper to practice or in pencil on the cardboard before cutting.

• Get your maze on! Cut along the areas you are going to put the popsicle sticks and insert the popsicle sticks. We made a hole at the end of our maze that the ball had to go through.

Building a maze was a great family activity. We got to talk about where the ball would go, how it would move, where to put sticks. We had a little engineer on our hands. Super cute. Along with all this great family time, there are a lot of development benefits of this maze….and you know that at Mobi we LOVE toys that disguise learning and make it fun, right?! Open-ended, developmental play is where it’s at!

Here's a video of our marble run!

Developmental Benefits of Maze Building!

Fine Motor Skills: Guiding those sticks into the slits cut for them is a great example of fine motor play. As your little moves the ball through the maze, they also have to work on fine motor as little moves can move the ball a lot…so your kids have to work on controlled movement.

Visual Tracking Skills: Following where the ball goes and where you want the ball to go is great for visual tracking.

Cause and Effect: The way your little one moves the maze dictates where the ball goes. Tons of cause and effect in play!

Coordination: Just like above, as described in cause and effect … coordination is big here. Two hands on the maze, moving a little ball through a course is supreme coordination.

Concentration and Focus: Although it seems all fun and games…there is quite a bit of concentration and focus required to move the ball through the maze and into the hole. We were actually surprised at how much we as adults had to concentrate. The speed of the ball plays into this and of course how the maze is designed…but we were very impressed with our 6 year old and how he handled himself by channeling his focus on being able to get through the maze! 

As you can see, building a maze provides hours of fun and also tons of developmental opportunities.

Team Mobi here!  What an interesting time these last 5 weeks have been!  We are in Toronto and have felt so many different things that I'm sure most of you can relate to:  confusion, fear, gratitude, frustration, worry, more confusion...

One thing that we actually kinda love about social distancing is that we have so much family time together and we have seen some AMAZING Instagram posts by families having game nights that include some of our Mobi products.

SOS: Save Our Sanity (Part 5)!!

Hi everyone and welcome back to SOS! Isolation day ____ ??? We’ve lost count BUT we are still playing! Always playing. The kids have been really into boxes. As a manufacturing company and with a house full of prototypes and products, we tend to have a lot of boxes. We always keep them as we are constantly shipping things out and need various sizes.

These boxes have come in handy since we’ve been quarantined!! The kids have gone crazy for them. Each wants a box (read multiple ;)) to call their own and they take pride in making them unique!

As you know….at Mobi we are all about open ended play and discovery. The freedom to explore, create, fail and reassess all help children learn. There are so many fancy tech toys and apps that complicate play. We are all about breaking those patterns down at Mobi. Yes, yes, we do make toys and games (we promise we try to keep them simple and open ended as possible) … but sometimes all kids need is a cardboard box!

Although not considered an “academic activity”, the free exploration that comes with open ended play plays such an important role in learning. One interesting thing that has come up as parents for us is our desire to “lead” the play…."let’s make this a castle”…."don’t smash the box!” for example. What we’ve learned is that we have to let them play. Let the kids smash the box, let them build what they want to build. Let them take the lead. We are just here to take the back seat and let the kids learn. Who is to say the smashed, flatten box isn’t the finished product?! Interesting right? Boxes have actually been a really cool lesson for us as parents.

Here are some things our little Mobi kids love to do with boxes:

Draw in them

Pretend they are cars

Make them into castles/forts

Smash them (!!!!)

Layers:

Something that we’ve recently done is add options to box play. For example, sometimes when we bring the boxes out, we bring glue and pipe-cleaners, stickers and/or paint. Adding layers adds to the imaginative play associated with box play. You can also think of it as adding layers of developmental play. For example, when you add in the stickers and pipe-cleaners, the littles being working on more fine motor skills. So much awesome going on with all of these options!

Positive Box Outcomes:

It’s been pretty neat to watch the way the kids treat each other since boxes have become a thing in our living room. They invite each other over to their boxes for a chat or for a color. They play nicely together when they make big forts. Really positive, social, sweet things are unfolding.

*I just had the thought that we should make little mail boxes or mail box slots in our boxes so we can write little notes to each other! How cute would that be??! More on that in a later post!

Okay – go grab a box!!!

Enjoy everyone!

Be well! 

Xo Team Mobi

Quarantined Bunnies

Hi everyone! We hope this finds you and your families keeping safe and well. What an interesting Easter this will be! The weather is getting nice out, the trees are starting to buds and the kids are pining to get outside! Life in April of 2020 is like any we April we have experienced before and hopefully ever will.

In saying this, there are so many things to be thankful for. We want to give a shout out to all the doctors, nurses, RTs, admin staff and custodians who are allowing us to be “safe at home” during these times. We wish you and your families peace and well-being this holiday weekend. Thank you for all you do.

Even though we are living in the age of a pandemic, we at Mobi believe we still have a lot to celebrate and Easter is a wonderful way to start. There are so many memories we have as adults that come up around the holidays and we want to create those long lasting memories for our little ones.

Things we do to celebrate:

Easter Egg Hunt:

Our kids are VERY excited about the upcoming Easter Egg Hunt we do each year. This is something that doesn’t really need to be altered due to the quarantine. Eggs can be hidden inside and in our backyard! Both kids already have a set of bunny ears courtesy of Nana and Papa….so they are basically ready to go!

Family Weekend/Dinner:

Dinner will be a little smaller this year as we usually celebrate with our extended family…but we will make it fun nonetheless. We’ve got a great recipe for carrot muffins that we are going to try (the Easter Bunny’s favourite of course ;)). We will also probably go on a long walk it the ravine, or a scoot around the neighbourhood. A movie night with popcorn will probably jump in there at some point. Although every day is kind of weekend of our kids right now, we want to make this weekend a little more fun and a little less “ordinary” if that makes sense!

Flowers:

Flowers scream “SPRING!” to us. We are up in Canada….so spring can never come soon enough. We always get tulips on Easter. They are super beautiful and easy and add a nice touch of color and life to any house!

Egg Painting:

We’ve never done this with our littles, but remember this from when we were young. Have you tried with your kids? We think ours are just at the right age to be delicate enough with the eggs.

Steps:

• Take a pin and put holes on either side of the egg.

• Blow the contents of the egg out into a bowl.

• Paint/color or dye your egg! You can use paint, markers or dye (see the link below for natural ways to dye your eggs!)

https://www.parentscanada.com/family-life/easy-diy-ways-to-naturally-dye-easter-eggs/

Hi everyone and welcome back to SOS! Well, here is the news: we are still quarantined as this COVID19 is really doing its thing. BUT…we are having a great time at Mobi Headquarters getting creative, going on walks with our little family unit and of course playing.

As you can tell from what we do at Mobi …. we are all about open ended play. Open ended play is play that doesn’t have a set outcome. What sort of toys are open ended? Anything that does not have a way it is supposed to be used!!

Hello and happy Tuesday, March 24^th 2020! Like most of you …. we are still in isolation, and still coming up with creative ways to entertain our kiddos at home. Keeping everyone safe and healthy is our priority as parents! Keeping sane as parents…that’s also our priority ;)

So…what’s happening in our house??? We maybe, just maybe have some fun, educational games that we’ve created hiding in our storage room. Today we brought up Mobi Kids and started playing!

Activity Booklet!

Our son Noah is 6 and loves numbers. He always has. So getting him to playing with tactile number tiles is pretty easy for us! The picture below is actually from when he was 3! Mobi Kids comes with an Activity Booklet that takes a step-by-step progression towards making equations. So even when you have young little people in your household, they can start playing and getting comfortable with numbers! Pretty awesome right?

We’ve attached the link here so even if you don’t have Mobi Kids (or have Original Mobi and want the resource!) you can access it!

Activity Booklet

Original Game Play!

Once your kids are ready to make equations on their own…you can start playing Mobi Kids!

Mobi Kids is a gentle approach to numbers/math. Each player gets their own set of tiles and the operation tiles are communal. Players try to connect all their number tiles (using operation tiles) before the other player!

Other ways to play with Mobi Kids!

• Kate’s Way! Our daughter Kate is 2 and a half. When she isn’t hiding number tiles on us….and we are able to get her to sit still for a second, we play “Kate’s Way!”.

I say: Kate can you find all the 2s?

Kate collects the 2.

I say: Kate can you find all the 8s?

Kate collects all the 8s.

….. you get the idea. Such a simple game but for number recognition, tactile play and fun…..this is amazing when you are 2!!!!!!

• What If??? Noah always likes to shake things up, so we created “What If?”

I say: Noah, what if I had 5 pet monsters and 2 went to the park? How many monsters would I have left??

Noah finds the number 3 tile.

 Noah's Monster! 

I say: Noah, you have 3 cookies and Kate has 5 cookies. How many total cookies are there?

Noah finds the number 8 tile.

Again….you get the idea. Super simple but for the kids, mental math is at play and they get to see you as their parent get creative!

Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy! Until next time!

Team Mobi here! If you are a parent, you have probably been scouring the internet like most others looking for activities for your kids that are somewhat educational as well as time consuming.  We talked to some of our teacher friends and fellow parents to see what they’ve been up to in the first couple weeks of quarantine 2020.

 Jen is an elementary school teacher-librarian and has the 2 sweetest girls, Isabelle (age 8) and Sophia (age 5).  They’ve been spending their days doing TONS of fun, creative, and educational activities.  Normally, Isabelle is an avid dancer and Sophia loves her basketball classes, but since we are practicing social distancing in Toronto, their usual activities have been put on hold.  Here is one very fun day that secretly incorporated some educational components!

Plan a Party For Your Best Stuffy!

You can make this event a whole day of learning incorporating math, literacy, and creativity based on play.

• Create nets (ie. to make a cone shape) to make party hats and measure length for straps. For younger kids use non-standard units of measure like paper clips, cubes, or buttons - anything that is the same size.  For older kids, guide them on how to use a ruler.
• Decorate the hats. Find any of the odds and ends craft supplies in your house and use them to make super fun party hats!

• Make presents for the birthday guest – Isabelle and Sophia made little bags and wallets out of paper
• Make guest giveaway loot bags: for example, pipe cleaner bracelets and tickets to a puppet show (do your own puppet show later)

• Find recipes online and in children’s cookbooks and create a menu together
• Cook and bake together (chopping, washing, stirring, measuring)
• Come up with a theme for the party, get dressed up, take out your crystal and fancy plates... make anything possible!

Did you end up trying this out?  Leave a comment below and let us know how it went!

Tune in for more ideas from our friends and family to yours!

 Much love,

 Team Mobi