Especially in fall and winter, when you can no longer romp and play outside with the children as often, you need ideas to fill the long afternoons. When modeling clay, colored pencils, and craft folders have been used to the fullest, PlayMais offers an ideal change of pace. The colorful building blocks, which are made of corn, water, and food coloring, are not only fun for children, but also bring a smile or two to the grown-ups' faces.
What is PlayMais?
PlayMais is available in cardboard boxes or plastic buckets. You can order various sizes and colors online or in stores. For our children, it was to be a pack of PlayMais Basic Medium . The price here is just under €10 and the package contains around 1,000 colorful corn building blocks. The scope of delivery also includes instructions and craft ideas, a child-friendly plastic craft knife, and a small, flat, orange cloth. No other craft tools are needed – I can confirm that. Uncomplicated and fun crafting is possible with PlayMais. With a large box, hours of crafting fun are even guaranteed!
At Amazon you can order PlayMais, among other things.
How can you craft with PlayMais?
At first glance, the building blocks look like colorful peanut flips or packing material in shipping boxes. Since the soft, feather-light building blocks are made from corn flour, the whole thing smells a
little like popcorn. The building blocks have the brilliant ability to stick to each other simply by being combined with water – and they do it very well!
The colorful corn pieces can be torn, crumpled, squeezed, twisted, and of course cut. The supplied mini cloth can be used to create the connection to the individual building blocks. Simply soak this cloth under running water and then wring it out well. I placed the cloth on a small plastic plate so that no little puddles could form on the table or floor. The desired PlayMais building block is now briefly touched with the cloth (a quick dab is enough), and the damp end can then be connected to another building block. Within a second or two, the two building blocks stick firmly together and do not come apart again quickly. The clever part: no dangerous or smelly adhesives are needed! Water alone is enough to create a strong bond between the building blocks. Simply ideal for children!
What happens if my child puts PlayMais in their mouth?
PlayMais is made from corn semolina, water, and various food colorings. This means these colorful corn pieces are 100% biodegradable, completely harmless, and entirely safe for health.
The building blocks don't really taste good – at least according to my son's best friend, who couldn't resist taking a little sample during a small craft afternoon. It did seem to have tasted okay, though all he had was a blue tongue.
What does PlayMais do for children?
Children are always especially easy to get excited about new things. We hit the mark with this PlayMais too. The little ones quickly get the hang of lightly moistening the building blocks. B
They naturally find it especially funny that the sticking works even without glue, Pritt, and the like. Recognizing shapes and colors not only stimulates the imagination but also trains motor skills. By shaping, pressing, cutting, and rolling, even 2-year-old children can form small imaginary creations; the older ones create trees, cars, little monsters, and with Mommy's or Daddy's help, even little landscapes.
The PlayMais building blocks stick particularly well to cardboard, but wood and paper as well as ceramic are also supposed to be suitable for sticking them on. We used colored craft cardboard, which allowed us to conjure up a small landscape along with a watercourse and a knight's castle. The other half of the box contents had to be used for a giant dino.
Now our supply is used up, the children had a lot of fun, and we were able to pass several afternoons with the PlayMais. A larger box will be needed for the next order, that much is already certain. Because in his mind, my son is already planning the next PlayMais craft session with many more dinos and cars.
Also read: Making lanterns from empty pickle jars with children
Images by Janine, meinhaushalt.at
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