Construction is mesmerising, it pulls you in and before you know it you have been there a couple of hours. Time flies when you’re having fun! Leo loves construction; whether it be Lego, Meccano, or general construction and/or building toys, Leo is all over it. This Meccano Ferrari sent to us by Spinmaster is no different.
Meccano is usually aged at children quite a bit older than Leo; Leo is 5 and this set is 10+. We never rush Leo when it comes to his construction kits because it’s so important for him to soak up the learning from it. This is one of the reasons that we home educate. Leo doesn’t feel rushed then when doing things that may take him longer to complete.
How is Meccano great for child development?
- Communicational skills, especially when using descriptive commentary
- Fine motor skills by using a screwdriver and handling nuts, bolts and other small items
- Following instructions (which can be quite difficult when using Meccano, for Leo’s age at least)
- Literacy development by reading repetitive instructions
- Mathematics by looking at shapes and sequences
- Expressive arts and design
- Personal development, sense of achievement when finished
Like I said previously, this set is aimed at aged 10 years plus. The Meccano Ferrari SF71H is part of the Engineering and Robotics series of sets. The set contains 362 parts of plastic and metal, 2 tools, a sticker sheet and instruction booklet. Yes, 362 parts.
Although the set is aimed at a higher age range, there’s nothing to say children under that can’t enjoy it too. It just means that they need help.
The instruction booklet gives you step by step build instructions, and identifies each part required. Screw sizes are also shown to scale for easier identification. I really like the fact that it’s done to scale because when two parts look the same, you can just use the scale for reference. Brilliant for a 5 year old to aid completion and independence.
The key to Meccano is making sure that the pieces are in exactly the right position before you fully tighten them. Otherwise you end up in a super sticky position. This happened to us many times and we had to go back a few steps to re-adjust some pieces. This was both time consuming and extremely annoying after a while.
Like Lego, Meccano have an odd way of packaging the pieces. A lot of the time you wouldn’t even know if you were missing pieces until closer to the end when you run out. It would make life so much easier if all the bolts were in one bag, all the screw in another, and so on. Doesn’t that make more sense?
We haven’t quite finished the Ferrari yet. But we will be updating this post when we’ve completed it with the final photos!
We were sent this item in order to write this review. All images and opinions are that of my own.
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