5 Ways GraviTrax Helps to foster Key Developmental Skills

From engineering awareness, to collaboration and problem solving, GraviTrax is a great way to make learning key skills hands on, and really fun!

We were kindly gifted these GraviTrax products by Ravensburger for purpose of review. All opinions and images are our own and completely genuine. GraviTrax products are now available for sale at your local Target.

Some toys are fun, some toys are educational, and some toys genuinely help to foster the development of key skills in children. We have toys at home which fall into all of these categories (also some pretty annoying noisy ones too, but they deserve their own category!!). We also have a few absolute gems of toys, which are fun, educational and genuinely tick all of the boxes in terms of hitting skill areas I want my children to flourish in.

One such toy is GraviTrax. This is no ordinary marble run! I previously wrote a blog detailing the ins and outs of the product, which you can read here. In this blog, however, I want to focus more on why I think it is so valuable in terms of encouraging different skill areas in my kids. The product is definitely aimed more at my 6 year old, but my 2 year old is most definitely also able to join in and reap some of the benefits.

1. Problem Solving

This isn't a simple 'open the box and put a few pieces together type of product'. It is absolutely kid-friendly which is important to point out, but it will challenge your kids to solve problems. When my son constructs his marble runs he is constantly re-arranging the various pieces.

He will make a specific track, only to realize that the marble lacks the speed to make it round the corner. So what does he need to do? How can he re-design the track to give the marble more momentum? The pieces are designed very well meaning that it is easy for him to take specific pieces out, switch them round or add new ones, without the whole run collapsing on him.

It can be easy for kids to rely on parents or teachers to simply fix the problem for them. A product like this is great for challenging your child to assess the problem and attempt to solve it with a trial and error attitude.

2. Fine Motor Skills

I cannot tell you how important it is to give your kids opportunities to develop their fine motor skills. These are the skills which will later help them to grip a pencil correctly. Working those tiny muscles in their hands on a regular basis will really make a difference!

The GraviTrax pieces are well designed. Some of them are small, but they are all stable and easy to connect to either the base or each other. In order to manipulate the components of the track, my kids are constantly using their fingers and hands. This is where 2 year old baby sis really benefits. For her the main attraction is simply rolling the marble down the ramps and watching it whizz round the track. That may sound simple, but her hands are working hard to carefully pick up and place the marble!

3. Collaboration

Is it possible for a 2 year old and a 6 year old to play with a product like this together, without arguments. Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. But that's the whole point, by working on the same track my kids are learning how to collaborate!

We cannot shelter our kids from learning how to communicate even when they are super frustrated. I get that big bro doesn't want baby sis moving a ramp he has just carefully placed, but let's work through it and explain to her why we need it there. Now we have a situation where one child is communicating about the principles of science to another, amazing! It's also often the case that having a group of kids using the GraviTrax together means that the tracks keep growing and growing as all of the ideas come together. It's so cool to watch!

4. Patience and Perseverance

Is patience really a developmental skill? I think so! I'm constantly telling my kids to not give up on a task. I want them to know how to overcome barriers, and more importantly to have a positive attitude when doing it.

See that frown on my son's face in the picture above? He was super frustrated that the marble kept rolling off the track. It was a great opportunity to talk the situation through with him and get him to keep trying different solutions. Sure enough, he figured it out and fixed it. I loved watching his attitude change as he turned his energy to a solution rather than being so annoyed that it wasn't working. It was a real confidence boost for him.

5. Literacy

Wasn't expecting that one to pop up, but yes, playing with a toy like GraviTrax is such an awesome sneaky link to literacy and here's why. There are loads of cool accessories available to add to your starter kit and each one comes with a little instruction booklet. Do my kids sit there reading it cover to cover, absolutely not (although baby sis pretends to). We do, however, take the opportunity to look at them, study the diagrams and pick out a few key words.

We recently tested out the Trampoline, Lifter and Tip Tube and it was so cool to see all these new scientific words being used by both kids! We spoke about concepts such as motion, speed, acceleration, angle, gravity, force and so much more. Even my 2 year old could relate with simplified vocabulary.

So many skills can be developed through STEM products like GraviTrax, keep toys open-ended and fun and you are sure to be onto a winner.