Maze Adventure

By Shepherd Kit, Inc.
Price $54.99
Age 3-8 yrs.

In its attention to detail, the Maze Adventure kit feels blissfully like a throw-back to a bygone era. The components appear to be handmade, and all but a few are made of wood. The packaging and contents appear as though assembled with care by someone preparing a gift for a loved one. This kit is really two kits, one of which lets kids assemble their own wooden-maze cities and run a marble through its streets, and another with which they create a functioning Mini Rube Goldberg Machine. With both activities, kids employ a combination of logical and creative processes, figuring things out and having a good deal of fun as they go. They'll reconfigure the mazes and enjoy the altered outcomes. With the Mini Rube Goldberg Machine kids create a brilliant collection of interactive elements (like tipping dominoes) that trigger one another until arriving at a practical outcome, powered by nothing but gravity. The kit's guide booklet also shows how to draw Celtic labyrinths, make mazes out of paper tape, and encourages children to modify the Rube Goldberg Machine with found items from around the house.