Welcome to The Examiner Play Kit for 4-year olds

Have you noticed your child is eager to understand, maybe asking “Why?” more than before? Through wondering and testing, your child develops critical thinking skills. 

The playthings in The Examiner Play Kit are designed to facilitate critical thinking by making abstract concepts more concrete. Through games and useful tools, harder-to-grasp ideas like empathy, time, and math are broken down in ways that make these tough concepts fun to learn.

Understanding how other people feel is hard—for adults, too 🙃 The Show, Tell & Think Empathy Game is an interactive game that helps your child build an understanding of how other people feel by providing three ways to practice taking someone else’s perspective. 

It’s also hard to be a child and not understand when different events in your life are happening. The Plan Ahead Week Board makes it easier for your 4-year-old to visualize what happened, what’s happening, and what will happen soon. 

Early math concepts can be confusing and frustrating to understand. The Modeling Sand and the Unit Block Builders & Activity Cards add sensory play into the mix so your child can see and feel quantity and numbers, combining and dividing. Research has found positive effects of multisensory activities on young children’s math learning.*

Every Play Kit includes The Play Guide. It offers prompts, questions, and activity ideas to help you support this “Why?” phase.

What’s inside
The Examiner Play Kit

Plan Ahead Week Board

Use this visual representation of the week to understand ‘past,’ ‘present,’ and ‘future’—with magnetic tiles to customize.

Rhyming Rings

Organize the pieces by sound, then identify which ones rhyme to form a ring or rhyme family.

Modeling Sand & Wipeable Mat

Use modeling sand to mold and shape for sensory play with the organic canvas mat that keeps the fun mess-free.

Unit Block Builders & Activity Cards

Explore number units and solve puzzles using the sand, molds, and wooden block board.

Show, Tell & Think Empathy Game

Engaging prompts have your child act out scenes, retell a story, or imagine what they might do in a situation.

Time & Compare Stopwatch

Set the number dials and digital display on this tool to track and compare how long it takes to finish activities.

‘The Appropriate Game’ Book

Isabel and Luis learn what words and actions are appropriate for their family in different situations.

The Play Guide

Ways to play, expert tips, development information, and at-home activity ideas during months 52, 53, and 54.

The Examiner Play Kit

The Examiner Play Kit encourages critical thinking skills to help your 4-year old gather the information they need to make informed, logical decisions. See what’s inside!

Learn more

Learn more about the research
Eissa, M. A., & Al Huseini, H. H. (2013). Effect of multisensory approach on increasing math skills children with mild intellectual disabilities. Psycho-Educational Research Reviews, 2(3), 73-82.

Jordan, K. E., & Baker, J. (2011). Multisensory information boosts numerical matching abilities in young children. Developmental Science, 14(2), 205-213.