One morning, I recently filmed my children playing with A Maze and Marbles available through Young Explorers. The description of this awesome natural toy from Young Explorers is:
“When children make a marble maze with A Maze and Marbles, it’s a different creation every time. As they design chutes, bridges, and drops, they’ll be developing organization, visualization, coordination, and spatial skills. What’s more, it’s an activity all ages can enjoy together. 100-piece set is made of quality, safe, non-toxic hardwoods. Includes standard-size marbles. Ages 5+.”
As you can see from the video, my two-year-old son loves this toy, even though it is rated for five -year-olds. We have been impressed with the stability of the towers my daughter builds with the Maze and Marbles. But you don’t need to buy any expensive toys to explore gravity with marbles. At my preschool, my coteacher came up with the idea of using pipes with our existing block collection to create our own maze of marbles. If you would like more information, please visit my earlier post on this ecological toy. This is one of the few wooden toys I have seen that actually certifies it comes from ecologically harvested hardwoods.

Magic Cabin also offers two marble runs, one made of 30 pieces and the other made of 60 pieces. These marble runs are less expensive than the Young Explorer’s version; however, they do consist of fewer pieces. They are made in the USA and rated for four-year-olds. The Magic Cabin description reads, “These amazing marble maze toys are classic favorites! Working with special trough-shaped wooden pieces, kids can erect endless combinations of paths for marbles to meander down, through and around.” For an entertaining review of Magic Cabin, please read Retrocrush’s MAGIC CABIN: A review of the most interesting children’s toy catalog in the world.