I love coming up with new, hopefully innovative, ways to use styrofoam. It’s always popping up in some package or game.  I’m thinking this geoboard my almost 3 year old made for my 1 and half year old counts.  Geoboards are a fantastic way to practice shapes, strengthen and develop fine motor skills and encourage design.  Go team effort! And hooray for combining art and math!

I started off bringing home this real geoboard from work for a few days.  Gigi was really into it.  She was able to make squares and triangles, which turned into a game where I would make big triangles because I am “the mama,” and she would make little triangles because she is “a little girl.”  Man, this is a cute age (when they are not freaking out.)

When this rectangular piece of styrofoam showed up in a box I thought it would make a great geoboard, plus Gigi is hardcore into hammering.  I figured if nothing else, it was an excuse for her to wear her construction hat, which kind of kills me.  First she painted the styrofoam with paint dots, then she went in for the tools.  She loved hammering in the golf tees, which went in with ease.  I showed her how to use the back of the hammer to take them out too, which was so cool.  We’re very professional around here.  Eventually she tired of hammering and I brought out some rubber bands.  It was such a natural progression from her play with the “real” geoboard.  She knew just what she wanted to do…big triangles and little triangles : )

When D woke up from her nap I set out the geoboard with some toothpicks, golf tees, rubber bands and glow sticks.  I know the glow sticks are pretty random, but we had a bunch left over from our glow in the dark tutu extravaganza so I figured why not.  D actually liked sticking the glow sticks in the best.   Please consider your specific child when using materials like these.  We feel very comfortable with toothpicks, etc.  and I am watching closely, but you may not, so please use your own discretion.  Safety first.

We’ve used our geoboard a bunch of times now.  Sometimes it even acts as a great hiding spot for little figures.  It’s a really fun addition to our play and I love that both girls can use it.  I’d love to make a whole geoboard city out of big pieces of styrofoam at some point.  Hmm…I may need to buy my girls a really big present stat.