If you are looking for a fun gift to buy a child this Christmas then you can’t go wrong with a Quercetti Marble Run from educationaltoys.co.uk.

The company kindly sent my daughter the Quercetti Marble Run Vortex 80 to review on my blog and here is what she thought of it (in her own words)….

“I like the marble run because it has a really cool interesting spiral that the marbles go down. I love the vortex bit and the shoots as well. I like this toy because I can use my imagination with it. It is fun because the marbles go down the run really fast and I enjoy playing with it. I like the colours of all the pieces. My grandad helped me build a marble run using our imagination and we had lots of fun playing with it. Mummy made the ones from the box with me “

The 80 piece marble run set is currently on offer on the educationaltoys.co.uk website for £22.99. They are very speedy with their delivery but I would still recommending ordering from them as soon as possible to guarantee getting your order in time for Christmas. ….not long to go now! Exciting! 🙂

The marble run all comes packed neatly into a box with a handle and the box size is fairly substantial so your child will love to see this wrapped up under the Christmas tree.

At first when I opened the box and saw the pieces I was a bit taken aback as there were so many bits and the instructions don’t really explain how to make the marble runs. Instead you have to look at the picture in the leaflet and then follow what you see. If I’m completely honest I kind of dreaded having a go at making the marble run in case it didn’t work and I disappointed my daughter…but do you know what… I needn’t have worried! The marble run worked perfectly and after making the first one from the leaflet (seen in the photo at the top of the review) we then proceeded to make another one that is shown on the box. It does take a bit of patience to study the photo to see which pieces go where but it is rather addictive and both my daughter and I had loads of fun making the marble run.

I home educate my daughter and I feel that this toy really is educational as well as fun. I think it is teaching her a very important skill – the skill of thinking about actions and consequences. When she uses her imagination to construct a marble run of her own choosing she needs to think carefully about where she puts each piece so that the marble will run smoothly down the shoots, glide down the spiral and spin around the vortex until it drops into the marble collection pool at the bottom of the run.  If she puts a marble shoot the wrong way up the marble will not drop down to the next level and then she needs to have a re-think. If the spiral isn’t at the right angle then the marble will not run around it….all of these things need thinking about it and she really is enjoying having this toy and the opportunity to think things out and plan what she is going do to make the marbles succeed in their journey from the top to the bottom of the marble run.

Here is a video of the marble run we built. I love the sound of the marbles click click clicking their way onto the track!

The Quercetti Marble Run Vortex is a great toy as it makes learning enjoyable. Both me and my daughter really recommend the toy to you all. It is well made and is sure to last for many years if looked after carefully. In the future we could even buy the bigger Quercetti Super Marble Run (currently on sale for £44.99) to combine with it.

Educationaltoys.co.uk sell lots of other great toys and learning resources too. They sell things such as magnetic paint (wow…this sounds amazing!), a house building set, the Hoberman sphere toy and the Xa Xa ball.

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