Marble Ball Game

I'm always on the lookout for developmentally appropriate toys that might actually be played with. So I noticed during the evening "free play" at preschool that Niranjana liked a marble maze toy. Sort of like Legos or Tinkertoys, except you build a marble run.

We went on the hunt for the "marble ball game" the other week. Couldn't find it at Fred Meyer, not at Target. A lesson in patience ensued.

Then I had an afternoon to run errands by myself. As I was shopping for five preschooler birthday parties, I went to Toys R Us and found the Deluxe Marble Race in the Imaginarium section. Only $20! But there are 100 pieces and 20 plastic marbles. I decided to keep this in my back pocket for when a reward was needed. Of course, Andy thought my interest in this game was just another bout of consumerism.

The time came Thursday afternoon, when Niranjana had a doctor appointment for two more immunizations. Trauma ensued. So breaking all sorts of parenting rules, I told her we'd go to the toy store for some retail therapy and she could pick out one thing. "The marble ball game," she cried joyously.

I tempted her with alternatives to test her commitment — princess dresses, dolls, books, movies. Nope, she wanted the marble game. So we set some rules: clean it up when finished playing, don't lose any of the 20 marbles, and the game pieces stay inside the house.

So we got it (and nothing else, I should add). We brought it home. We immediately started playing with it. We still were playing with it 90 minutes later when Andy got home — and the TV was off! And the next morning, and the next night. Marbles, but no TV. Andy even got into it.

I'm up to at least $14 worth of fun out of the $20 expense, and I have no doubt this will be a long-term favorite.

My review? Some of the pieces are hard to fit together, it can be unstable when you build vertically, and it's so fun that it's challenging as a parent not to take over. But so far, we've kept all our marbles!