Great parent / child project

I know some folks have said K'NEX is too hard for kids to put together, but IMO it is a project for a parent and a infant. My husband and eight year old daugther have put two of these together working as a team and it was so much fun. My daughter has to use critical thinking skills and learns mechanical engineering techniques. This Drop-N-Swing is number five on the list to do. I think these types of projects offer quality time for parents / infantren and really challenge their minds. We have three more that the team will be working on in the near future.

[Tuesday, January 06, 2009]

Add extra weight to the drop seat

My first introduction to Kinex. I say mine because this was too tricky for my almost 7 yr old son to put together (believe the box when it says for ages 7+). Clicking the pieces together needs nimble, coordinated and strong fingers and the instructions could be clearer (maybe they're designed that way to get the kids thinking for themselves?).

The design is ingenious and would be a great lesson about gearing and gear ratios for older kids. In our case, the drop seat needed an extra lego brick added to it, to make it heavy enough to fall all the way to the base of the tower, in time to be pulled back up again without getting stuck at the top. (The seat also included my son's Lego Agents figures who were relaxing on a day off from their adventures!).

Only just put it together, so can't comment on durability. Will be interesting to see what other designs (if any) the kids can come up with.

[Wednesday, December 31, 2008]

Swing and Drop

This is a fun product to put together and play with.

the chain is delicate and it has no extra links to use. We broke one link and had to figure out how to glue it so it would work.
The actuall drop part works now...I think. It does get stuck sometimes.

When it works properly, it is a fun toy.

[Sunday, December 07, 2008]

Customers who bought this item also bought: