Experienced Mom Says: Your Imagination Is Limitless WIth Zome Building Toy

As a parent of a gifted child, I have been collaborating with Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) teachers on different student activities. Although my son who is a gifted student moved onto middle school, my daughter in elementary school still benefits from all of my past GATE involvement.

Most parents have heard about Lego and some parents have heard about K'Nex, but I can say that very few parents have heard about the Zome System by ZomeTool. The Zome has won many educational award. Because I was a Parent Volunteer for the GATE program at my children's school, I have had the chance to review all of the toys purchased with the limited GATE budget. What is telling is that the GATE teachers decided to invest their GATE money on the Zome System, and there are afterschool and camp counselors who specialize in Zome.

The Basic Parts

There are Zome balls and three different colored sticks with different ends (triangle, square, and pentagon). There are three different lengths in the struts. Together, the creation that the student can make is limitless. Some say that the Zome system is more versatile than other building toys.

Zome Used in Math

Zome is a great tool to introduce a student to shapes. Do you know what shape is a "tetrahedra"? Here at magliery.com, he shows you what two intersecting tetrahedra looks like. The picture is shown below. This is just one example of the math involve. There are books on geometry and zome.

Class Activities

Every Tuesday, my daughter plays with Zome at her afterschool program. She has made coco mug with a marshmallows, a martini glass with olive, a hat, a carousel, an umbrella, and a vase with flowers.

There are games involving Zome. The first involves a timed free build in which the team that builds a named object the fastest wins. In my daughter's class, the students are divided into three teams. In 30 minutes, each team must decide how to build their 3D structure and complete the task. The second way is that the teams must decide on their own and build something that resembles a real object. One judge decides which team makes the object that best resembles their objective wins.

The next time you are shopping for a gift, maybe you might consider Zometool. To find out more, here is the link to the official website.