Let girls build with Roominate Studio DIY designing kits

Have you taken a stroll down the pink side of the toys stores lately? Slowly but surely, the days when all girls have to play with is dolls and princesses are coming to an end. Recently, there has been a huge shift in girls’ toys, and the result is really awesome.

As the revolution takes place in toy stores everywhere, we are now seeing products specifically marketed towards girls offer so much more substance than ever before. Thanks in part to companies like Roominate, girls are now hearing a message that they should have been hearing all along: girls can build and design, too.  The story behind Roominate begins with two women, Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen, who met and became friends in the master’s engineering program at Stanford. When they got to talking about why they had pursued engineering, they both said they were inspired by the toys they played with during childhood. While looking at current toy offerings for girls and boys, they saw huge gaps in toys marketed towards the different genders.

Together they set about to change it by creating a product that was not just pink and pretty, but also had a basis in STEM subjects {Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math}. And, with that, the idea behind Roominate was born.

I bet you’re wondering how this differs from just painting blocks pink, and the answer is that they are a whole lot more than just building blocks. The Roominate line combines traditional building elements with the fun of circuitry, designing, crafting, imaginative play and creativity, which makes it an educational gem just waiting to be discovered. We got to check out the Roominate Studio this fall as part of our back to school play, and I can safely say that we all adore it. Using motors, wires and circuits combined with modular pieces to create furniture, accessories, and walls, the Roominate Studio allows kids to build all sorts of one room designs or create partitions to divide multiple living and working spaces. The kids decided to go with an abstract studio so they could get more floor space for designing furniture and spaces. They used the modular building pieces to create a bunk bed, desk, chair, sofa, swing, and even accessories like a laptop and a TV, because even geniuses need to relax a bit.  Once the studio is designed, it’s time to bring it to life with DIY accessories. Simply use the included paper and colorful paper cutouts to help you decorate your space however you like. Then when you have your studio looking pretty, you can then follow the simple instructions and begin wiring your studio. You can create spinning fans, moving elevators, and more that help your child understand the basics behind electricity and circuitry. When you’re done with your creation, you can take it apart and put it back in the compact box for storage. Then, when you pull it out next you can build a whole new design or recreate your previous design quickly.The Roominate Studio includes 70 pieces:
•    4 wall/floor panels
•    24 furniture building pieces
•    16 connectors
•    1 motor
•    1 switch
•    1 battery pack
•    1 screwdriver
•    1 doll
•    1 pet
•    20 sheets of craft paper
•    Paper cutouts

The only limitation we found with the Roominate Studio set was a lack of pieces for all of our ideas, which is easily fixed by simply ordering more building sets. Since the sets are all compatible, you can combine products to make even bigger designs and models. Next on our list is definitely the townhouse set, or the RV, or both….

Want to see more ideas? Check out all these amazing DIY designs you can make with Roominate.

Roominate recently launched #LetGirlsBuild to encourage more girls to become interested in building. Check out the hashtag to see all the amazing things girls are building and learning. You can find out more about Roominate on their website or find them at retailers nationwide.