Review on Ready2Learn Tack-A-Tile - Wooden Hammer Toy for Kids 4+ - 100 Shapes - Large Corkboard - Kid-Friendly Tacks - Enhance Imagination, Fine Motor Skills and Reasoning by Christy Jones

Love this activity! I used to work in pediatric occupational therapy and it was one of my favorite things to do. And the kids loved it. This activity is so easy to increase or decrease to focus on fine motor skills, hand-eye skills, visual perception skills, problem-solving skills, multi-step instructions - the learning opportunities are endless with this activity. I HATE that people rate this less than 5 stars due to sharp nails. Firstly, it is for children over 4 years old. A normally developing 4-year-old is able to understand and remember sharp objects. Second, the side of the box says LITERALLY that sharp buttons are included, so you can't penalize it if there are actual sharp buttons included. If your child is young enough to put things in their mouths, or if your child does not have the skills to do this task on their own, then common sense dictates that you should supervise your child. This activity is not responsible for some children may need supervision. The only thing I want to include in this assignment is a "diagram" with some templates to reproduce. An older version of this activity that I've used in the past had a table that I laminated with lots of patterns for the kids to copy. I love that making objects with tiles can be a creative challenge for kids, but I think the visual aspect of the REPLICATION pattern is missed without providing examples with activities. As a parent, you can make the patterns yourself and take photos for your child to follow, but it's too much work for a busy parent. Also, I'd like to answer someone's "complaint" that you can just insert the buttons with your fingers and don't need a hammer. This ability is of course something for the little ones! Pincer grip and pressure gradation for button pressing. However, older children also learn to modulate their pressure, and the visual-motor component of hammer use is another skill. This activity is expected to be judged differently to challenge the different ages and abilities of the children using it.