MindWare KEVA Brainbuilders - 3D brain building STEM challenges for boys & girls - Try to build the image - Practice spatial thinking - 20 planks & 30 puzzles

I bought these for my Kindergarten class and, despite reading the product description, was a little surprised at the simplicity of these at first. I initially purchased them because I have a class full of super creative 5 and 6 year olds who are obsessed with building and love any kind of "think outside the box" type of challenge. I greatly prefer to invest in open-ended materials that encourage exploration and creativity instead of more limiting toys that are forgotten once they've "finished". Still, I wasn't sure it would hold the kids' attention enough to be a favorite. I introduced them pretty simply by explaining the premise and telling them that they could try some of the challenges on the cards or make their own creations. I should have known not to underestimate my little guys and girls because they really do love these. They allow for creative thinking and planning, provide varying levels of difficulty, are challenging enough to hold interest without being impossible, and encourage children to keep trying even if it doesn't work the first time - something that can be really difficult for my students' age group. Some prefer to just build and balance with them, while others are absolutely determined to complete all of the cards. I have one future engineer who asked for my help with one of the expert cards and was so excited that we managed to do it, he politely asked for no help on the next one and very carefully did a different one on his own (pretty tough, required several attempts, but doable). When he finally did it, he said "This card says expert so I'm an expert now, right?". Would definitely look into buying more of these sets in the future.

I am a 3rd grade teacher and was looking for STEAM activities for my early finishers and as enrichment for all of my students. While small, this set is amazing. As an adult I was immediately taken by it and so were my students. It really encourages problem solving, spatial thinking, and hands-on learning. The cards do get progressively harder but the three views (side, top, front) and the technical drawings make this something students can struggle productively with. Productive struggle is such an important concept in classrooms; one that we often do not allow enough room for. Students need to struggle (productively) and make mistakes in order to grow. I can totally see this KEVA Brain Builder become one of my most popular games/activities in my classroom this year.

If your child likes to build things, then that should be right up their alley. This is really great For helping promote spacial reasoning and problem solving, because all that they give you from the pictures is a top view, side view, and one more angle. You have to visualize what the end result is, and sometimes, the object isn't very recognizable.My son has autism and I am always looking for fun, independent games that he can play. He loves building things and he loves MineCraft as well. These wooden pieces are solid and sturdy. We love this game and can't wait to get bigger and more complex building sets that are similar. This is a good, introductory type of game of this type. The levels get progressively more difficult to solve and the shapes become more difficult to recognize.I highly recommend this. Some of the patterns are a little too easy to recognize, which can make the task a little too easy to complete.

Each year my daughter and I attend a symposium on learning and science. Every time we go, KEVA is always a favorite stop in the exhibition hall. She really enjoys figuring out how to build structures with these simple planks and has learned a lot about engineering from the construction. I decided to get these for her to extend that learning to home. These are high quality and perfectly formed/flat. Both are very important to successfully using these to create structures. I have found these to be well worth the money and would recommend to anyone with children interested in engineering or science.

These are great! My almost 6 year old absolutely loved these, and they were tons of fun to figure out together (he could do about 80% alone, but needed some help along the way on a few of them). I had guessed it was much bigger than it was, but I'm not upset because it comes in a great little pouch and is perfect for travel. I wish there were an expansion pack, though; he was so absorbed by these that he figured out all 30 figures within a week. Overall, a great toy and very creative.

These are a great challenge for my 7, almost 8 year old. They are clever and the many cards give her many challenges to figure out. The fun part is that, if the kids don't "cheat" they don't know what they are building making the challenges harder. By looking at the answer, the kids will not find this very engaging or fun. But she sincerely tries to figure them out and each one takes several minutes. It is fun to watch her try to figure out what the item is she is building along the way.The reason I didn't give it more stars is that the planks are super light and thin. Trying to build some of the items is very hard as the support layers topple easily over, giving way to frustration. If the planks were built a bit wider and they were heavier this would be a 5 star!

Helps the child to think, and use her hands in building.

I bought this for my 8 year old grandson who was visiting. I found the junior version in a nearby store and the other children loved it so much that I decided this would be a good purchase as well. The cards were good guides to the projects at first but then they just took off with their own ideas. The planks are nicely made, no rough edges. I don't have a lot of space so it's nice that each set stores compactly. Because of that I would recommend this as a good travel take along.