Magnetic tiles are one of the most-used toys in our home. Our kids are aged 3 years old and 18 months old, and both kids love playing with their tiles.
Ben, my husband, enjoys building with the girls, too, and it’s a great way for him to connect with the kids after he’s been away at work all day.
What Are Magnetic Tiles?
Magnetic tiles are flat, geometric (commonly square, triangle, and rectangle shapes) plastic tiles with magnets embedded along the edges.
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There are many different brands of magnetic tiles to choose from, all at different price points. The ones we have are compatible with several different brands, meaning the tile sizes are all the same, which is what makes building complex structures possible.
I’ve linked a few great starter sets at the bottom of this post, if you’re interested.
Why Are Magnetic Tiles So Great for Kids?
Magnetic tiles are open-ended and timeless. Kids of all ages can play with them in many different ways.
I particularly liked them for my daughter, who was 2.5 when we bought these tiles, because the magnets help make it easy to construct tall and impressive looking structures.
Previously, we’d been using wooden blocks to build, and she would get so frustrated when a slight touch would cause her little towers to fall down. Magnetic tiles are much stronger, so she’s able to build tall, tall towers.
I really like that they come apart easily and are fairly large, larger than Legos, for example, so my youngest daughter (6 months when we bought them, 18 months now) can play with them, too.
To show you just how versatile magnetic tiles can be, here are 20 different ways to play with these open-ended construction toys!
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20+ Ways to Play with Magnetic Tiles
- Sort tiles by color. Sort them by shape. Then, sort them by shape AND color! This was the first way our oldest played with tiles at 2 years old. Sorting the tiles continues to be one of her favorite things to do with them!
- Add different toy animals and dolls and explore imaginative play. Build a farm, garage, zoo, grocery store, school, and just watch your child’s imagination soar.
- Make abstract pictures.
- Use tiles in the play kitchen. Our oldest daughter loved making cakes, ice cream, and pizza with the tiles. If you don’t have a play kitchen, simply providing trays, baking sheets, or plates will be enough to get kids started.
- Build open boxes using a single color. Set out pom poms and sort them by color.
- Make icicles by lining up square tiles along the edge of a table and hanging triangle tiles off the sides.
- Learn about color mixing. Take tiles in primary colors (blue, yellow, red). Put two together and look through. What new color did the two tiles make? My daughter loved this game, and this hands-on way of teaching how colors mix helped her remember and enjoy the lesson!
- Stick tiles on garage door or refrigerator. Any metal surface is fair game!
- Use tiles to make patterns.
- Write letters on the tiles with a dry erase marker and use them for spelling. (See more ideas on reading sight words at The Happy Teacher.)
- Make houses for peg dolls or Little People.
- Teach basic geometry. Show kids how two right triangles make a square, or how six equilateral triangles can form a hexagon.
- Teach kids about 3-D shapes (such as cube and pyramid).
- Explore how magnets work. Magnets are fascinating. Investigate the properties of your magnetic tiles by seeing what things around the house the magnets stick to. Or test the strength of the magnets. How many tiles can you hold upside down in a chain before they break apart?
- Add a ball and make a maze or plinko. We used our large 12″x12″ magnetic tile base to create this maze, but a metal cookie sheet will do the trick as well.
- Build horizontally off the fridge. Make little shelves for toys to sit on, or build sideways houses. It’s silly and fun!
- Build roads, ramps, and bridges for small toy cars.
- Build Christmas trees and stick bells on it.
- Use for target practice. You’ll have to have extra-strong, quality tiles for this game, but it looks like a lot of fun!
- Create tangrams. Totschooling has free printables you can use to build tangrams. Or, get creative and make your own by tracing the tiles on blank paper.
- Stand tiles up on a hard floor a couple inches away from each other and line them up like Dominoes. See what happens when you knock the first one down!
- Make colorful shadow paintings by building a tall wall in the sunlight. Put paper down in the colored shadow, and paint the colors where the shadow hits.
- Build light boxes by constructing 3-D shapes and putting battery powered tea lights inside.
- Make rainbows. Bonus points if you can figure out how to build a 3-D rainbow arch.
Teaching Resilience with Magnetic Tiles
The most important lesson our oldest kid has learned with magnetic tiles is resilience. Magnetic tiles are strong, but they’re not permanent. They fall down. Buildings come apart.
Our daughter Elena, while playing, would knock down or partially destroy her complex structures on accident and be absolutely devastated.
It used to frustrate me, too, because I’d feel so bad for her having worked so hard only to see her work come crashing down.
Ben, my husband, taught Elena (and me!) the concept of resilience, by helping her calm down and saying, “It’s OK. Just build it again.”
He did this every time she knocked down a building, and eventually, she started saying it to herself and rebuilding all by herself.
How will You Play with Your Magnetic Tiles?
I hope you’ve gotten some great ideas for playing with your tiles from this post. This list is just the few ways to play that I’ve seen my girls do, and I’m sure your kids have their own ideas of how to play, as well!
I’ve discovered that more interesting play happens when I let the kids mix in other toys and play on different surfaces and areas of the house.
Try it and let me know how it goes.
Great Starter Sets of Magnetic Tiles
If you don’t already have a good set of magnetic tiles, here are a few of my favorite picks.
- PicassoTiles 100 pc. set: This is the brand we have right now. I like the 100 piece set because it gives you a good feel for all the things you can do with magnetic tiles. This particular set doesn’t have any fancy pieces. Just good ol’ squares and triangles. The 180 piece set (which is what we first bought) comes with window pieces, a couple cars, and a few odd letter and number pieces.
- Magna-Tiles 32 pc set: Magna-Tiles is the og of magnetic tiles. The difference between these and PicassoTiles is that Magna-Tiles have metal rivets in the corners. You really can’t go wrong with either set. If you’re looking for something more unique, Magna-Tiles has create some fun sets like their Ice tiles set and glow-in-the dark. Check them out here.
- Playmags 100 pc set: Playmags is another great brand. They are the only ones (that I know of) that sell the clickins tiles that stick onto the window tiles (tiles with squares cut out the centers). These also have the metal rivets in the corners and boast super-strong magnets, which are absolutely essential if that’s what’s holding your structure together!
- 12×12 Stabilizer Base: We bought this upon reading reviews from other magnetic tiles owners. It’s an XXXL magnetic square base that kids can use as the foundation for all their buildings and for transporting their buildings from one room to another. This one has double magnets running throughout it, so it makes it extra easy for kids to build.
We’re really glad we bought our magnetic tiles last year.
The girls have spent hours playing with them, and the best part is that, they’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of what they can do with the tiles.
As they get older, they’ll only get better and more creative with building and constructing. And I can’t wait to see what they do next!
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!