Rory Story Cubes and why we love them

Rory's Story Cubes are one of the most awesome games ever invented! We absolutely LOVE them, like big puffy heart love them!  

I found these on amazon a few years back and purchased the original set. Then I purchased the voyages and actions sets a year or so later. My twins have been enjoying playing with them since they were 4. They caught on rather quickly to how they work. They are very creative storytelling cubes. You can start off even with a slightly younger child if you help them along just a bit.

Rory's Story Cubes grow with your child, the older your child gets the more detailed their stories will become. They are great for telling stories out loud, or even writing them on paper.  They are an excellent writing prompt!

They would be excellent in a classroom for individual use, or group projects. I would totally use these in my classroom if I were a teacher! They would be so great for beginning creative writing classes.

We use them for play, for homeschool, and even sometimes when we have guests over. They are great ice breakers for when you have guests.

One of my 7 year old twins has often liked to play with them independently.

I could see these being used for married couples, or group events with adults. 

Recently they came out with some new sets, and they sent some of them to us to review! They also sent us to really unique and super cute games called Super Tooth and Go Nuts! I highly recommend Rory's Story Cubes and the games they sell too. They have lots of games to choose from!

The new sets they have out are prehistoria, enchanted, clues, intergalactic, medic, and score. They also have max sets, which are slightly larger sets. I hope they keep coming out with new expansion pack sets!

We love having new sets to go along with the sets we have!

Check out their websites for more product details!

Rory's Story Cubes and Gamewright

Here are some photos of the Rory's Story Cubes we have!!

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Super Easy DIY Light Table Play Towers

This was a really fun and easy project inspired by a cupcake tower our friends at Rainey Day Play used on their light table! This project cost me under $5. We already own a hot glue gun and had some hot glue gun sticks on hand. You can use regular glue too and let it dry if you want to. 

All that is used here are clear plastic dinner plates, clear plastic dessert plates that the kids made designs on with sharpie marker, shooter and shot glasses, and it is all from The Dollar Tree!

To make these cupcake stand inspired light table play towers, just heat up your hot glue gun and set out the materials you want to use. Then come up with your tower design. We did two different fun designs. Then decide it you and your kids will be putting designs on the clear plastic plates, we only put designs on the smaller ones.  Then start gluing it all together. My kids have been trained since age 3 to use hot glue guns properly, so they helped to make the towers. 

Then let it all sit and dry, or let the hot glue harden and set. Then put them on the light tables and let the kids go to town!

Check out my twins light table play tower play pics!

You may notice our light table sensory spaghetti (that never goes bad) on the light table as pretend rainbow water! See that blog post HERE!

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Light Table Sensory Spaghetti

I found the perfect material to make sensory spaghetti with! I used plastic lacing that you use to make bracelets, lanyards, key chains and such.

I found a package at wal-mart similar to THIS, in their craft section.

It was a long pack with an array of colors. All the colors were translucent except for one which was a solid purple. I saved that for lacing and making craft stuff.

This stuff is awesome!  I cut long spaghetti size strips, with some a little longer and some a little shorter. It makes the best sensory spaghetti ever!

One of the best things about it, is you are not wasting food!  I do have some trouble justifying using edible food as play material. We do from time to time, but not very often. I will only use food from the dollar tree for making sensory pasta and rice. This plastic lacing is the perfect solution.

The very best part is that it will never go bad!

check out the fun light table  photos!

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The Ultimate Water Play Table

 My twins have always enjoyed water play. Now that we have had our water tables for a few years, some of them are deteriorating.

The water tables we have had for the past few years are Step2 brand water tables. They do hold up nicely, but the one we have had for six years is on it's last legs. It will have to be thrown away this year.
 The other ones we have seem to be not far behind. I would love to have a commercial water play table like the ones used for schools. Discount School Supply has some lovely water tables that look very sturdy. 

However, the price tags on them are pretty high. So we found something in between the Step2 water tables and the Discount School Supply water tables. It's a fishing table! I have also seen it advertised as a potting bench for gardening. Either way, it is a pretty darn fabulous table! It is perfect for water play. The reason it is perfect for water play is because it has table space, a sink, and it hooks up to a hose! The best part of it is that you can conserve water with this water play table! The faucet can turn be turned on or off, there is a drain and plug to stop the water from coming out too! 

There is a tube attached to the drain in the sink that extends pretty far and can be directed to where ever you want.  You could have it fill up a bucket below the table, or even use a nice big under bed storage container to catch the water and re-use for water play or watering your plants.  This table is a bit tall for most children, but you have a few options. You can either put a step stool up to the table, or saw the legs down shorter. There is one more option, you can dig a small hole for each leg of the table and push the table down into the holes, then replace the dirt. That way the table grows with your children, instead of remaining shorter by sawing the legs down to the height you want. 

Anyhow, this table is amazing! My 7 year old twin boys absolutely love it! From time to time, amazon has excellent sales on this table. So if you need to buy more than one. water for the sales! We got a really amazing deal on two!

Check out some of the photos of my twins playing with their ultimate water play tables! I will be adding more photos in future blog posts too!

Find the ultimate water play table HERE

Check out more fun outdoor play ideas at Awesome Summer Fun 101!

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