Way to Play Roads vs Cork Roads

Video Transcript:

Hi everyone. My name is Amie and I’m the owner of Growing Kind. Today I am addressing a really common question, which is how do the Waytoplay roads compare to the Freckled Frog Cork roads? As you can see, they are both quite similar in their usability. They are both designed for the same reason, and that’s to allow children to make their own car track or train track for small world floor play.

Now, I’m going to be going into the two brands. First of all, we’ve got Waytoplay, which is a very well known European brand. It’s manufactured in Germany and it’s made from a rubber. The reason that I love these is because they can be taken outside. They can get muddy, they can get dirty, they can get wet and they can just be washed off again. I also love that you can write on these with a chalk pen. Say, if you want to practice numbers, you could write numbers. You could write letters and join them in order of the alphabet. You could do sight word practice and drive your car over them. And I love that the chalk can just be wiped off again.

Now, the part that I don’t love about these is they can be a little bit tricky for little fingers to get together at first. They do eventually warm up, but at first your little learner might need a little bit of help getting these tracks together, which can cause some frustration sometimes. Now how I avoided that was in our playroom I would set up the track for my three year old and she would come and use it. Now she’s at the stage where we can work together and put our roads together.

Now, on the other hand we have our cork and rubber roads, and these are from an Australian brand. They’re Australian designed from a brand called Freckled Frog, but they are made in China. Now, what I love about these is they’re wide. They’re much wider than our Waytoplay, and they’re really easy to get together. When these are on the ground I can literally get them together with one hand, so super easy for little learners to put together because of their bigger size, and they’re a bit more flexible. The only downfall with these is that they’re not as versatile in the form that I can’t get these muddy or soak them in water. I can’t write on them with chalk. But if you were looking for a purely indoor option I would definitely stick with these. If you were looking for a more versatile option that can be taken outside or drawn on, I would go with the Waytoplay.

Lets talk pack sizing. We have our cork roads which just come in the one variety, which has 17 pieces and they’re recommended for three years plus. So if you wanted to add on to these 17 paces you would have to buy the same kit over and over again. Whereas our Waytoplay road comes in multiple varieties. There’s all sorts of extension kits. There’s different road markings. You can buy a 40 piece set, or you can buy a 60 piece set, or a 24 piece set. It’s really up to you to build it as much as you like.

So overall, they are both fantastic pieces, really good for getting your children involved in rolling and movement on the ground, getting them in the hands and knees crawling position, which is really good for development. Overall they’re both fantastic, and we stock them both at Growing Kind. You’ll find them under our ‘construction’ or our ‘small world play’ section of the website. But I hope that helps with your decision. Thank you.