Dunkin’ Doggies with GoldieBlox

– Posted in: Elfie, Things To Do with Kids, Toys, Women's Issues

I’m generally not a fan of gender specific toys. The fact that we have Legos “just for girls” pretty much makes me want to smack somebody. That said, since there’s apparently an entire segment of society that believes the only way girls can do anything “buildy” is if a toy is “for them,” I’m happy GoldieBlox came along.

If you haven’t heard of GoldieBlox (and who hasn’t at this point, thanks to the whole Super Bowl ad blah blah blah), it’s a building set that teaches basic engineering concepts. But they hook the kids (girls) by telling a little story, posing a problem, and then solving it by getting them to create a “machine.”

For Christmas, my 9-year-old, Elfie, got a set that built a parade float (among other things), and although I felt good about the concept, I was a little bummed that there was still a pageant involved in the story (because we always have to have a tiara involved somewhere, right?). But now GoldieBlox has come out with a new set, and it’s pretty awesome.

Enter The Dunk Tank. In this story, Goldie’s dog, Nacho, needs a bath, so she constructs a dunk tank to con him into the water.

GoldieBlox Dunk Tank with dog

Jasper isn’t sure this is a good idea…

Elfie had much more fun with this than the parade float. You chuck a ball at a target and drop animals into a glass. And incidentally, even her 11-year-old brother had fun with it.

As she was constructing it, I started realizing she really didn’t understand the concept of how it all worked until she put it together. I think as an adult, you forget exactly how you learned about hinges and levers as a kid. Funny part is, she ended up doing her science project on pulleys, so it was really cool to see her interest in engineering take off all at once.

Building a Doggie Dunk Tank

The Dunk Tank has just come out, so until the end of March, you can only get it at GoldieBlox.com or Target ($19.99). It’s recommended for ages 4-9, but I can tell you that there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve associated with it. Elfie has always has trouble with fine motor skill stuff, so she ended up getting kind of frustrated. But hey, she pushed through and got it together. And I think it’s so valuable to be able to look at a model, figure out how the pieces fit together, and copy it exactly. I mean, have you ever seen the Amazing Race?

Because who cares about college, right? You’ve really only failed as a parent if you let your kids out of the house without properly preparing them for a reality TV show…

Anyway, I’ll leave you with some Vines that show exactly how psycho my kid really is. Happy building!

 

GoldieBlox was nice enough to send us a Dunk Tank to test out so we could do this review for you guys. But these are our opinions, not theirs.

 

And hey, are you on the Blogging Betties email list yet? Sign up and you’ll be the first to know when I launch myself into podcast land. You really don’t want to miss it. We already have some great bloggers lined up for the show…

10 Comments… add one

Andrea February 13, 2014, 1:35 pm

Those toys seem like they might be too advanced for me. But I appreciate that they are upfront about teaching girls problem solving skills, and they make it look fun to boot.
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Tammy March 27, 2014, 5:03 pm

I feel like just trying to get toys out of the box is sometimes too advanced for me…

AlwaysARedhead February 13, 2014, 3:52 pm

It reminds me of the TinkerToys I played with as a child, we always loved them.
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Tammy March 27, 2014, 5:04 pm

It is a bit of a rip off. I guess whatever works, right? And they remake everything nowadays.
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Lady Lilith February 13, 2014, 10:00 pm

Looks like fun. I have two little girls who I am sure would love it.

Tammy March 27, 2014, 5:05 pm

Definitely worth a try. I’d like to give a set away in the future, so we’ll see!

vanita February 14, 2014, 3:28 am

your kids are just super adorable. a bloggy friend sent damian and tash a box of old school tinker toys over the summer. she deserves a visit from the cleaning fairies cause that box kept my kids super busy and out of my hair. truth be told i played with it too. with the kids, of course. i love these building sets. why they need to be gender specific…i get from a marketing viewpoint…having 3 daughters i can see where some girls need a bit of extra enticing to play with something that seems boyish. my oldest teen has 3 circuit sets in her closet from when she was little. she didn’t care that it looked like a “boy thing”. she was all for learning how to make things work. my younger teen shied away from anything that wasn’t pink or purple. she hated that her blue jeans were blue when she was little. tash is only 4, but because she has damian to influence her, she’s racing cars and building towers to knock over when she and her barbie pretend they’re the 50 foot tall woman. some girls just aren’t interested. marketers want that market. i can’t wait for a toy to come out that’s specifically for boys that will “teach” them to nurture a baby or cook.
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Tammy March 27, 2014, 5:08 pm

I think a lot has to do with the kid, a lot has to do with the parents being chill, a lot has to do with the people around the kid who are saying stupid stuff like, “You don’t want to play with THAT do you?” I feel really lucky that my kids are cross-players. Fewer fights, lots of imaginative stuff going on.

rachel February 14, 2014, 5:36 pm

You have it the big time- doing reviews! 🙂
I agree the whole pink lego thing makes me mad!!! Looks like you have a solid little engineer~

Tammy March 27, 2014, 5:09 pm

Haha! Yeah, talk to me when I start doing cars and washing machines…
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