As my kids continue back in public school for the first time in two years, they’re finding ways to keep themselves occupied beyond school work. Both kids are in a Scouts program, while Adelaide has joined a running club. Although we’re not sure if there’s a board game club at their school yet, Marshall is constantly wanting to dive into several different activities, especially with me or his sister, and there’s one building activity that many kids might love doing, if they have the chance.

Board games have been one of, if not Marshall’s favorite, activity, but he also has an affinity for something else that’s quite challenging – dominoes! Not only is Marshall (and Adelaide and me) a big fan of Lily from Hevesh 5, a wonderful YouTube channel dedicated to monumental domino structures, he wants to try and push himself to complete such wondrous things.

Building dominoes is something where time and patience are needed. This is an excellent exercise for kids to tackle as they understand the potential failings with the drop of a single domino before a path is completed. This is one activity I wholeheartedly recommend to any parent. Whether you want to participate with your kiddos or help them try to better understand having patience, building dominoes is a great reminder that failure is something we all must go through and learn from.

What Do My Son’s Structures Look Like?

First thing’s first: My son loves doing things, even when the way he’s doing it might be more difficult to achieve. For example: Marshall will use books along with dominoes, and he’ll even build his structures on different types of carpet. Although he knows rugs aren’t a flat surface, sometimes, he just gets into it and decides, “I’m going to try it this way.”

This is a great way to also see how our kids can be so resilient and adapt to various situations. After having dominoes fall, he would resort to grabbing hardcover books to build upon; he made the decision to maintain his path and he found a way to work around it. It’s encouraging to watch him brainstorm and try to figure out, “Will this work?” He even asked to use my phone to record his dominoes topple over.

Marshall has been doing dominoes off and on for over a year or two. Even though this hasn’t become a daily thing for him, when he gets into it, he really wants to succeed. Yes, “practice makes perfect” is a sentiment that carries weight, but if it’s an activity he’s still trying to decide if it’s going to be a long-term thing, I think it’s okay for him to dabble here and there when he finds the time. Hence, if a domino path doesn’t work out completely, his desire to keep going means he doesn’t want to give up – and that’s a big deal.

Building structures with dominoes is complicated, but a channel like Hevesh 5 (and the H5 Domino Community) is the pinnacle of what I want my kids to learn. She even shared a “Fail Compilation” to show “we all make mistakes, and you know, that’s okay.” If your kids decide to tackle dominoes (or any activity) and they get frustrated, show them this video. The YouTuber definitely takes these failures with a positive attitude, and it doesn’t deter her from pushing forward.

Do your kids love dominoes? Are there any fun activities your kids enjoy that require patience and plenty of trial and error? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below, or head over to Facebook and Twitter to share with all of your geeky friends.

Until next time, happy parenting and happy geeking.