Favorite Product #24

This week's favorite product is the Mega Blocks 123 School Bus

I absolutely love this product. Honestly I find it a little bit funny because it is a school bus with attachable train like cars on the back. The important thing is that kids love this toy. Both my son and now my daughter fell in love with this school bus/train the moment they played with it. This toy is great because your preemie can move it around like a car but it also has large lego type pieces on top. These lego pieces easily attach and come off so even little ones can have great fun stacking and pulling them apart.

Here are some great ways to encourage development with this toy:

1) Pushing and pulling - show your preemie how the school bus can be pushed and pulled around. Sit across from your preemie and push the bus towards him/her. Encourage him/her to do the same. Make it a fun game to play. At first your preemie may just want to pick up the bus and check out the wheels or hand it back to you and that is okay!

2) Stacking - stack the legos on top of each other. Tell your preemie what you are doing and then encourage him/her to do the same. These blocks easily attach together so after a little practice your preemie should get the hang of it.

3) Same/matching and sorting - Once your preemie understands that things are the "same" or "different", use the legos to see if your preemie can put all of the legos together based on color. First practice sorting and then stacking them.

4) Numbers/counting - the lego blocks also have numbers on them so older preemies can stack them up by number. There are also blocks that have a specific number of items on it (i.e. 2 apples, 3 pencils, etc.). Honestly by the time my son was old enough to get the concept of counting he had long outgrown this toy however it's a great way to encourage your older children to play with your preemie together.