5 Reasons Every Kid Should Play With Hot Wheels
I remember watching my little 9-month-old baby boy pick up a car toy and automatically start pushing it around on his hands and knees. How do they just know how to do that!? I was convinced it was a boy thing, then I had a daughter. I learned very quickly that all kids adore playing with cars, and as my kids grew they became obsessed with Hot Wheels.
I received samples and compensation for this post, all opinions are my own.
I can’t say that I blame them, fast cars, loops, ramps, and jumps, what’s not to love? As a mom I became obsessed with these tracks as well, but not for the same reasons as my kids, even though I am a fan of their flashy paint jobs. As I watched my kids build and play with their track sets, I started to notice that this kind of play goes way beyond racing cars. Here are five traits I have watched my children learn while they play and, as a mom, reasons I think every kid should play with Hot Wheels.
Problem Solving– When you can’t quite get that car to jump to the ramp you want it to, you have to reassess the situation. It is the same thing that happens when you can’t solve a math problem or tie your shoes, but when kids are playing they are more willing to figure it out on their own. I have watched my son build and rebuild a track until it does exactly what he wants it to. From these situations he has learned to think ahead and make changes as needed.
Teamwork– “Pass me that track!” “We should put that over here!” “Hey, what if we tried this trick?!” These are all exclamations I have heard my kids say to each other while playing Hot Wheels. Everything is more fun with a friend and working together towards a common goal is a skill kids should learn early on!
Creativity– For the longest time the only Hot Wheels track we had were just the straight orange pieces with blue connectors. We didn’t have any turns, ramps, or launchers. My little two-year-old would pile books on the floor with his daddy and wedge tracks into dresser drawers to create ramps and obstacles. Now that our collection has significantly grown, so has his imagination. The room he shares with his sister frequently looks like this:
Their tracks will stay up for days at a time.
Imagination– After using all their creativity to build elaborate tracks, they always come up with elaborate scenes and scenarios for their cars as well. Along with their Hot Wheels, I always find the bin of small animal figurines and blocks nearby. Can you see the little dinosaurs in the backs of the trucks in the pictures above? So fun to listen to them play.
Education– Did you know that Hot Wheels has a whole free curriculum that is matched to national standards for math and science called Speedometry? It helps kids use cars, tracks, and everyday items to learn concepts like mass, slopes, and kinetic energy. Talk about motivating a kid to learn. It is geared towards 4th graders, but I am pretty sure that I can make some of it understandable for my kindergartner. Really Cool Stuff. Check out more educational ideas on their Pinterest page.
Hot Wheels has some impressive new sets out. Have you seen this Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage™? 5 stories tall with spaces for 36 cars, working elevators, spiral ramp with shark escape stunt, gas station, helipad… it just keeps getting better! This set is the start of hours of imaginative play.
My son spotted Hot Wheels® Track Builder Volcano Blast at the store a few months ago and has been talking about it ever since. Check out this video of his Hot Wheels surprise and how much fun we had unboxing and playing with it:
Hot Wheels is giving away an AMAZING prize package to one of you that includes: 1 Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage, 1 Hot Wheels Track Builder Volcano Blast, Assortment of 10 Hot Wheels Basic Cars, Hot Wheels Stickers, and 2 Kids’ Hot Wheels T-Shirts. Enter to win below!
i love that my children use their imagination while playing with these
I love the different ways that they can build and use the sets. The sky’s the limit when building.
My favorite thing they learn is teamwork.
I like that it brings out their creativity and imagination
I love that my kids can learn the skill of organization.
My favorite thing that they learn is how to use their imagination. They learn that with one toy there are thousands of possibilities.
I love it encourages imagination makes it come to life for creative play
I love when they use their imagination when they play
I think that it teaches them cooperation when they have to come together to build the track. Clean-up time, too, is a shared responsibility.
Kids can learn creativity by building the ramps. There are 10 cars in this set so it would be a great opportunity to teach them how to share and trade off with one another if they both like a certain vehicle.
Sharing – they’re the easiest toy to share and most kids have a ton of them so it’s easy to share and play with them for siblings!
I love watching my boys play with their hot wheels! They share and use their imagination. They would be so excited to have this.
I love that it gets them using their imagination.
I like that they learn to share, use their imagination and motor skills.
How to use his imagination!
they learn about gravity
They are learning to play together.
My kids learn how to share.
I love that kids learn how to be imaginative with Hot Wheels toy!
i have to agree with you. CREATIVITY. I really get to see my son’s imagination at work when he plays with hot Wheels. It’s a great thing.
ways to use their imagination
I love how it teaches them to use their imagination.
My kids learn creativity when mixing the various sets.
There are some physics lessons of gravity and inertia to be learned with HotWheels!
I think motor skills are the first and foremost thing they learn. And maybe learn a little about cars?
I think the best thing is to learn to share. It is so cute to watch my twin grandkids pick out the cars from their older brother and share with each other
It teaches them how to share and to use their imagination!
I love how they can create whatever track they want and it will usually work so it makes for hours of play with different tracks!
My son learns to use his imagination in building his own tracks.
I love that it teaches them sharing.
love that he can use his imagination to make slopes and curves in his tracks
I love how they use their imagination playing with their hot wheels
My son learns colors and pretend play skills!
I really love how it sparks their imagination and brings daily living into their play! He loves playing with cars!
He is amazing at making crazy tracks that shoots the cars all around my house.
My son learns to use his creativity and imagination. He loves to make his own courses and have his cars do stunts.
My son loves playing with these. I love that he can use his imagination with them.
My kids learn to share the cars and track along with having an imagination. They also learn how to clean up after playing.
I love the imaginary play the kids do with hot wheels. I also love to see the different tracks they build. Thank you
My favorite thing is that it encourages imagination
They learn they can have fun! Plus they can build the tracks and learn to design the tracks!
Sharing is caring. Another hot wheel set was a life saver yesterday. All four kids played so well together for hours?\!
My favorite thing that kids learn from playing with Hot Wheels is problem solving. It’s good for kids to learn at an early age that things don’t always go smoothly the first time. Learning how to problem solve helps them understand how to deal with things when they don’t work the first time.
I am not quite sure what they learn from their hot wheels other than “cars are sweet” LOL. Oh my gosh they love tracks, and putting them together and having races. I like it too, it keeps them busy for hours.
Probably how to share.
I think the most important thing for the kids is to respect each other and share.
how to be creative and make parts fit
My kids get creative with tracks and making different buildings with blocks for their hot wheels.
I think it helps them use their imagination. My daughter loves collecting Hot Wheels. She’ll line them up, race individual cars, sort them by color, and invent all kinds of games to play with them. So glad they are still around after all these years!
Hot Wheels were such a big part of my son’s life when he was little. As he got older and grew up, he boxed them up and is saving his for his future son one of these days.
I love the story telling that comes with the play and of course the sharing!
Love that it encourages imagination!
Love that my son has learned all his colors from them and has improved his fine motor skills 🙂
all the cool styles of all the cars
I just got my son his first set. He will open it up on Christmas morning!
This looks like so much fun! This will keep the kiddos busy while mom is cooking Thaksgiving dinner!
Hot Wheels are such fun for young boys and girls to play with. And that giveaway sounds great for those who have little ones at home now.
My kids would 100% love to win this set! It is such a fun place for my son to store his cars.
This is way too cool. My son was crazy over Hot Wheels when he was little.
HE STARTS to learn to enjoy cars at an early age
My favorite thing is that it encourages imagination, and since these sets are so large they can ALL play and share. Thank you for the wonderful giveaway.
Erin
My favorite thing my grandson learns from playing with Hot Wheels is improving his fine motor skills. He loves to roll them around on the floor and make ramps!
Okay that ultimate garage is pretty insane. I completely agree with the notes about Hot Wheels supporting teamwork! I used to spend hours making various tracks!
My son loves to play with his Hot Wheels. I think my husband enjoys them almost as much as h does!
Hot Wheels is one of my kids favorite toys to play with. I like how creative they are when they are building tracks.
This is one serious track they built. I love how big it is. I bet it is a ton of fun to play with. I will have to get some for my kids to play with this Christmas.
My Son had a huge Hot Wheels collection when he was little. He would spend hours building tracks all over the house.
My son is obsessed with the little Hot Wheels cars. Every time we go to Target he just has to have one. Now I know his baby sister will have plenty to play with when she gets a little older.
Oh my gosh my son loved building tracks with his Hot Wheels sets. There’s some physics involved when the kids work out how fast the cars need to go to make those loops.
My children love that it inspires their imagination and problem solving skills.
My boys are OBSESSED with hot wheels. Especially my 4 year old who asks for Hot Wheels every time I leave my house! This is great.
I remember my brothers had a huge collection of hot wheels when I was growing up and I was always envious of them. So my boys ended up having hot wheels as kids, and I’ve saved them so my daughters can play with them too. I don’t think they are a gender toy, but one that both girls and boys can equally enjoy. And yes, my girls love playing with hot wheels too!
There is no doubt we are a hot wheels family we have so many hot wheels is is crazy! He plays with them a lot and I love listening to him play.
I didn’t know Hot Wheels offered Speedometry. What a great learning opportunity for children. Hot Wheels have been around forever it seems. My friend’s son has over 500 cars.
My nephew used to play with Hot Wheels all day every day. He had all the ramps and everything. He loved them.
My boys had about a million of them when they were little. We probably still have a bunch around here somewhere.