STEM-time Fun At Our GoldieBlox Bash

Growing up, my sister and I were girly girls. We wore pretty dresses, and we were well mannered, and we were enrolled in activities like twirling, horseback riding, ballet and tap. All of these things made us happy.

As we got older, our mother taught us how to clean, cook, and bake. She also taught us how to make our own food from scratch like ice cream, biscuits, bread and pasta! She even taught us how to grow and tend a garden, as well as how to mend cuts, scrapes and bee stings. Again, all of these things made us very, very happy.

Now this may sound like a lot of girly goodness going on – and it was – but it was also riddled with STEM knowledge. For you can’t bake, or clean, or grow a garden without a lovely combination of science and math, right? You can’t toss a baton into the air, or navigate an equestrian trail either, without some understanding of technology and engineering, no?

Our Mom opened our eyes to a world full of STEM activities without ever needing to force it upon us. She just paid attention to our strengths and interests, and then she helped nurture them. Our Mom knew how important it was for us to focus on STEM activities in and out of the classroom because our Mom was an OR Nurse and she used this knowledge every single day.

At some point, our Father decided that we should learn how to do some other things. You know, the stuff that boys, like our younger brother, was able to do. So he taught us how to drive his boat, how to catch a fish, and how to mow the lawn. As we got older, he taught us how to drive a car, how to check the oil, and how to pump gas. He also taught us how to chop wood and how to skeet shoot…but those are stories for a different day.

Anyways, our lives were full of balance. We were girls that could chop wood…but we did so with our hair done and our nail polish on. We were girls that could sit on a boat and catch fish…but we made our Father release every single one of them. We were girls that could fill up our own gas at the pump…but we could also go back home and whip up some homemade ice cream too.

Again, our lives were all about balance. Girlishness was respected, but it was tempered by practicality. Intelligence and kindness were encouraged, but standing up for ourselves was too.

So when we had kids, we knew that we would follow suit – regardless of whether our children were boys or girls, which brings us to today: our incredibly fun Goldieblox Party where our children, and some of their friends, spent the morning building parade floats and engaging in some good old STEM-time fun!

As parents, we really like to our kids to engage in free play, so we took a back seat to this party. Instead of leading the children in a focused activity, we just dumped all of the pieces on the ground and asked them to build a parade float. We casually mentioned that when they were finished, we would send them flying down the ramp. Then, we just hung out with them and chatted about the masterpieces they were building.

Our boys hung out too – they love building things and didn’t care one bit that the Goldieblox pieces were pink and purple. They just wanted to build, which was really cool.

During their free play time, we were so happy to hear supportive conversations like this:

“Heeey, how did you get that wheel to turn?”

“Oh, it’s easy! Use the holes on the side of the yellow cylinder-thing!”

“Ohhhhhhhh! I get it! Thanks!”

Or better yet:

“Wait! What are you using those pipe cleaners for?”

“Oh, I ran out of pieces, so I’m improvising!” (Great vocabulary word kid!)

When they finished, the kids were amazed that not only did their masterpieces make it down the ramp, but they stayed together too!

As parents, we were very impressed with their originality. Some of the kids made more traditional-type floats (think low lying and very stable), some tried to take a risk and go straight up (those were fun to watch!), and others just wanted to wrap up the characters in pipe cleaners and toss them down the ramp! The best part was watching their faces light up as their parade floats flew down the ramp!

It goes without saying that the kids had a great time. And when Goldieblox is paired with homemade muffins and fruit – what else could kids want? I should also mention that my sister and I had a ton of fun too. There was a wonderful amount of belly laughs going on today, and an equal amount of hootin’ and hollerin’ too.

Needless to say, we’re pretty impressed with Goldieblox. Their toys really do leave it up to a child’s imagination and encourage creativity in the beholder – because of this, we highly recommend them as a great toy product for school-aged children.

And guess what? You get a chance to win your very own prize pack that contains 2 GoldieBlox products: the Dunk Tank and the Parade Float….and believe us, it’s worth it. Enter now and save it for a special someone for the Holidays or an upcoming birthday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Go build something spectacular,

Denine & Daniele

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