I got my children this foam puzzle mat with alphabets a few years ago. At that time, K was still very young (about 3-4 years old) and all she did was try to put the puzzle together - matching the parts. After a while I put the foam mat away as it was messing up the house. A few days ago, the foam mat found it’s way out of the ratan basket where I stored it and the kids had fun with it again. And it is interesting to note that the kind of fun they had this time round was different.

Playing with foam alphabet
This here is K 2 years back doing a funky dance with the foam alphabets. She would also use them as fancy dress props.

Playing with foam numbers
This here was a few days ago. With the number foam, she put the numbers together and then try to figure out the name e.g 1062 = One thousand sixty two.

Playing with foam alphabets
Instead of just pulling it over her head, this time she made it into a crown first.

Other games and activities they created for themselves with these foam alphabets and numbers:

  • They would fold it to resemble a book and then pretend to read it.
  • They would put it down like a mat and make up game rules such as no jumping on certain colors or alphabets.
  • They would pretend the foam were pieces of bread and make sandwiches. Coins were made into jam and a toy plastic butter knife was used to spread it.

So I guess these foam mat was a good buy after all. They have played with it over the years. And this is another fine example of how playing encourages creativity. I would never have come up with such games. Maybe now you can teach them to your children. Heheheh.