Dragons Take Over Crafty's House!

If you live in a house with kids, you know how many toys they have. They have tons and every year, they inevitably get even more for their birthdays and Christmas. I am always on the lookout for toys that are different from the millions of commercials they see on TV, and I really like toys that teach them a thing or two without them realizing it.

This year for Christmas, I stumbled upon Bloco Toys Foam Dragons.My seven-year-old son is in LOVE with dragons. He also loves Legos and other building/construction toys. So when I came across this product on Amazon, I decided I would add it to his family Christmas list and see if anyone got it for him. I actually added two different sets for him, since he can NEVER have enough dragons.

One of the sets was the Aqua and Pyro Dragon set. This set is pretty neat because you get not one, but two dragons to build. Here are the Aqua and Pyro dragons from our house.

These guys have a good amount of detail considering they are foam. The other neat thing is they are pose-able. Their legs move, as do their necks.

The other set that I had put on his Christmas list was the Combat Dragon. This cool green and red dragon also comes with a shield to help it in combat. It also breathes fire; if you are going to have a dragon, it might as well breathe fire, right?

Since the kids were off for a week for Christmas break, it took my son no time at all to jump right into putting these guys together. This is a great example of a toy that ends up "tricking" kids into learning. My son build these dragons all on his own, never once asking for help, even when he was struggling. He would simply take a break and come back to it. This is important to me because I want him to learn how to handle stress.

Since these dragons were something he really wanted to complete, he learned a way to deal with his frustrations in a positive way. Simply taking a break is not always the case for my son. If it is reading, he usually fights about it and yells. So this was a great skill for him to practice. Also he had to follow directions, multiple step directions no less, and he did it beautifully. The look of pride on his face when he completed one was priceless!

When things didn't work out as expected, he used problem-solving skills, and because you have to build the dragons using multiple parts, his hand-eye coordination was in full effect. Lastly, Bloco encourages you to consider combine pieces to make your own unique dragons, which fosters imagination. Not to mention that my son plays with them all of the time and creates all types of scenarios with them.

I have been very pleased with the overall quality, design, and educational value of these products. So much so that he's getting even more of them this week for his 8th birthday.