Toddler’s First Reaction to Wooden Toppling Dominoes
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Learn about a toddler’s first reaction to wooden toppling dominoes by reading this blog post.
My son received this small domino set from Grandma for his 4th birthday. The way these dominoes got on Oliver’s birthday list was because he had many items from Hape that he loved so while browsing the brand’s website one day I came across the dominoes. I loved the idea of adding this classic, timeless toy to his collection.
What is Included in the Hape Early Explorer Dynamo Domino Set
This set includes about 100 pieces of wooden dominoes. There are various colors including light blue, yellow, red, green, blue, natural wood, and orange.
High-quality wood and water-based non-toxic, non-fade paints make this toy worthy of play year after year and will definitely be one you can pass down to younger children, friends, or family. Endless ways and endless hours of imaginative and STEAM play await!
Not Just Dominoes
Besides the domino blocks, there are extra pieces that make domino builds more fun and interesting.
There is a staircase bridge, a bell, a ball and other pieces for the most dramatic domino runs ever.
Expect the bell and ball to be the highlight for a young child. Secondly the spinner and the “log” will be great fun as well.
It is okay if the dominoes are secondary for a child who is 4 and under.
There is no assembly required. The total weight of the box and items is just under 3 lbs.
Warnings on the box:
CHOKING HAZARD-Small balls. Not suitable for children under 3 years. Adult assembly is required. This toy meets the European and American safety standards EN 71 and ASTM F963. Remove the packaging material before you give the toy to your child. Please keep all the relevant information for future reference. Decorations and colors may vary!
An Honest Look at a Toddler’s First Reaction to Wooden Toppling Dominoes
I encourage you to look at the video above (coming soon) as I capture Oliver’s first reaction to the dominoes.
I will reference his first reaction to wooden toppling dominoes throughout this blog post so please take a look for a better understanding. Disclaimer: This video is totally honest and spontaneous so pardon the “real life” bloopers.
He received this gift for his 4th birthday so he is exactly four years old here. Oliver was born 2 months early so at this young age he was still catching up to his peers.
At that age, it is to be expected that the child will need adult guidance and supervision so get ready to crawl around on the floor, sit, and show your little one different options of play.
But, don’t forget to let your child express themselves and play the way THEY want to.
Show the child all the pieces, the different obstacles and gadgets, and how the chain reaction of toppling works. Be patient, answer their questions, and be alert and eager to share their joy in this new discovery! Take your time, and push all the thoughts of your job and housework aside. Remember that something so familiar to you can be unknown and exciting for a child. Perhaps this is their first experience with dominos so let them show you how THEY think this toy should “work”.
The dominoes themselves were not a hit, initially. Oliver was the most excited about the “extras”.
His favorite had to be the ball and the bell. The revolving stick with the balls at the end was probably second.
Then the fidget spinner.
The log and the stairs were probably next and lastly, the bridge that should be used to launch the ball.
Truly, when first introduced, the dominoes were an afterthought.
FYI: Fast forward to 8-year-old Oliver and the actual dominoes are his favorite!
Toddler’s First Reaction to Wooden Toppling Dominoes
The most obvious thing is just how excited Oliver was to show off his findings to Daddy! He was very patient while daddy was explaining things but you could tell he was bursting to show daddy what HE learned too!
This was a little surprising to see: Four-year-old Oliver wanted to explain how the bell makes the “ding ding ding” sound.
He was adamant that we knew that he knew that the little clapper inside the bell would make the bell ring. We didn’t anticipate it would be such a big deal to him. But maybe it was because at that time he was OBSESSED with the Polar Express book and movie where it’s all about the jingling of bells.
At that young age, the most interesting items were the ones that spun around and made a sound. The further Oliver got into his fifth year the more interested he became in building things with the dominoes.
Even at that young age children will understand simple cause-and-effect behavior. Oliver understood that rolling the ball into the bell would cause the bell to ring. He also got good at using the little bridge with the post where the ball sits before being rolled.
His “domino runs” mostly consisted of the extra pieces from the set. Sometimes he would balance 2-5 dominos but mostly he was using the rolling ball to spin the fidget spinner, log, or ring the bell.
Oliver showed patience while my husband explained how everything worked. Even when my husband’s build didn’t work – Oliver was patient to see my husband try again. It was pretty funny when Oliver realized he could topple Daddy’s dominoes with just one flick of the finger (or with a run-a-way ball)!
His fingers were slightly too wobbly and lacked control and dexterity to lay down the dominoes properly. But when Oliver was four years old is when I noticed the most change in his finger strength, control, and dexterity and he was able to line up dominoes perfectly about halfway through his 4th year.
As a side note, he began playing the piano when he was four which was a great help with dexterity, reach, and strength of his fingers.
YES! Introduce Toppling Dominoes to Toddlers
There is an abundance of high-tech, light-up, noise-making, plastic toys. Yes, there is a time and place for those toys but incorporating classic, wooden toys is highly recommended!
It’s so good for little minds to take a step back and enjoy quiet games that require patience and thought.
I am honestly, 100% recommending wooden toppling dominoes for toddlers. The only thing I wish we did was get them sooner. I think introducing your toddler, in their third year, would be amazing for them!
Don’t expect them to be building Lily Hevesh quality builds right off the bat. But be part of their discovery and curiosity and spark that love of mindful activities. Not everything has to be high energy.
Stacking and toppling dominoes can bring out a wide range of emotions in small kids. It is a good time to focus on the big emotions that burst out when there is an accidental topple or perhaps the topple didn’t trigger all the dominoes as expected. It’s normal and expected for toddlers to experience frustration, stress, and anxiety when faced with a challenge. Take this opportunity to help them deal with those emotions correctly. When everything goes right your little one will feel pride, relief, and joy (maybe even surprise that everything worked). Those feelings are amazing and will help with self-esteem, regulating and recognizing emotions, and independence. Once toddlers get in the groove of building and experimenting with different domino balancing acts you will notice them being quiet, peaceful, and calm. Older kids, around the age of 7 or 8, will accept domino fails as part of the play and keep exploring the game further with more complexity and bigger challenges.
Introducing Toddlers to STEM / STEAM Activities Using Dominoes
Dominoes are considered STEM and STEM-friendly. Dominoes are designed for kids (and adults) of all ages. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. STEAM adds Art to the mix.
These classic, simple wooden blocks can help children develop skills such as hand-eye coordination, focus, patience, and combining understanding of cause and effect.
Dominoes can also be a great exercise for the brain, helping to improve concentration, memory, and perceptiveness.
Simple Domino STEM / STEAM Activity Ideas
Identifying and Distinguishing Colors
Even though these are not recommended for children under 3 years of age, with close, adult supervision it’s okay to introduce kids 3 and under to dominoes. Of course, a toddler most likely won’t be stacking and toppling dominos. However nontoxic, wooden dominos can be used for basic STEM/STEAM activities for toddlers as young as 18 months to three years.
Distinguishing colors is a STEM activity. Using dominoes to teach young toddlers colors and color recognition is a great exercise in cognitive development. These HAPE Dominoes do not have that many colors but there are other sets that have many more color options. Visually distinguishing differences is an early skill that even the youngest of toddlers exercise.
Use STEAM and Dominoes to help toddlers recognize similarities and differences between colors by holding up a domino and having the child find the same domino and hold it up. You can further use this technique by pointing to something of a certain color and having the child match the color with a domino. For example, ask “What color are your slippers?” Let’s assume they are blue. So the child should hold up a blue domino.
For older kids, you can ask them what 2 colors make a certain color, for example, yellow and red make orange.
Did you know? Color recognition and distinguishment are a precursor to learning to read and write by distinguishing between the many letters and numbers.
Dominoes and Pattern Recognition and Creation
Pattern recognition with dominoes is a simple game you can play with toddlers starting at about the age of 2. Making patterns more complicated as they get older.
A fun and simplified activity is stacking the dominoes face to face in a tower and creating color patterns. Start with one color and move to more complicated patterns such as green, green, blue, yellow, blue, green, green, blue… Have your child stack the dominoes and ask what the next color in the sequence should be.
Spatial Recognition and Position
Use dominoes to teach children where items are located in relation to other items. For example – put the blue domino above the red one. Place a yellow domino under the blue domino.
Teaching children where certain decisions are in a sequence is also a great game to play. You can ask which domino is third from the bell? Ask them to move the 4th domino into the 1st position and so on.
Recognizing Cause and Effect
Cause and effect is a complicated concept but recognizing it, in its simplest form, can start early. Three or four-year-olds will recognize that stacking the dominoes closer makes them topple in a line, but stacking them too far, won’t trigger them to topple in a line.
Having the ball hit the bell will make it “ding”. Making the fidget obstacle spin with their hands correlates with cause and effect. Exploring each obstacle can open up WHY the bell rings – because it has the clapper inside that sways to make the bell ring. Show your little one how this works and let them explore. Be ready to explain WHY.
Hand-eye Coordination and Fine Motor Skills
I decided to group these two under the same heading. Many times toddlers find it challenging to grip, grasp, and balance smaller objects. It can be frustrating for them to stack a line of dominoes so start slow. Have them stack two or three or use the ball to hit the obstacles sans domino blocks. Instead of a line of dominoes have your 4-year-old put all the obstacles in a line and see how they can be “triggered” by the ball or a fun finger pointer (which Oliver LOVES and says he’s giving the dominoes “the finger” – thank goodness he doesn’t know what exactly that means yet).
Lining up the dominions on the longer side can help or even have your toddler stack the dominos in a tower laying flat face to face for even less challenging but still fun activities.
See who can build the tallest tower!
Remember to be supportive and don’t be afraid to show your child that even you, as the almighty mom or dad, can make mistakes! Have fun with it!
Trust me, the more your child stacks, the higher their tower, and the longer the domino line will do wonders for their confidence and sense of accomplishment.
Introducing Toddler’s to Simple Math and Counting
For younger age toddlers, start easy! Which pile of dominoes is larger? Who has more blue dominoes? Teaching less than and greater than.
Count the donimos and when they are ready you can introduce addition and subtraction too!
For extra math-specific activities, I suggest you get the classic dominoes with the dots. There are so many options and they are affordable.
I suggest you choose a brand that makes dominoes from environmentally friendly, recyclable, renewable sources with limited amounts of plastics and toxins. Or, better yet, check out your city’s Buy Nothing Groups, Ask on Facebook or Nextdoor, or talk to friends and family or shop secondhand.
Using Dominoes for Imaginative Play
Making builds and utilizing other toys, such as Legos to create a simple imaginative game. There are many more as well. Let your child lead the way and show YOU how they want to use dominos to play pretend. Child-led hands-on, creative play is most beneficial so let THEIR imagination flow without interjecting.
At that age they are observing and collecting data to piece together how and why things happen so be ready for a lot of open-ended play with many questions.
Sparking Interest in Dominoes For Older Kids
Oliver took a little break from Dominoes around the age of 6 (he took on a lot more after-school activities). But thanks to the Domino Masters TV Show – Oliver fell in love with Toppling Dominoes again and he’s still at it at the age of 8!
I suspect he will be building dominos for a long long time seeing that his dad (my husband) still enjoys building with Oliver as well. And sometimes I get in on the action too! It’s quite a relaxing activity and watching the dominoes topple is so satisfying!
You can purchase episodes of Domino Masters on Amazon Prime (I highly recommend it).
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