“Nins” are what Grapat calls their peg dolls. You’ll notice they don’t have a face or a gender. They can be anything the child imagines – a mom, a dad, a boy, a girl, a pirate, a police officer, a fire fighter; happy, sad, scared, joyful, tired – you get the idea!
Grapat nins are recommended for ages 12 months and up, but we gave them to our daughter well before that (always supervised). How she’s played with Grapat nins has evolved as she’s grown and will continue to evolve as she gets older.
As a baby, the Grapat nins were nice and chunky for her little hands to hold. She also frequently would put the nins in her mouth.
As she got older (around 9-12 months), she was able to work on her fine motor skills by picking up the nins with her fingers instead of her fist. She also has been enjoying playing with the nins in conjunction with the Grapat cups (more on this below).
Around the 15 month mark, we started playing with nins in a story-telling sort of way (where they actually represented people). I would demonstrate playing with them in this way and she would observe, laugh, and sometimes mimic me. For instance, I would have the nins talk to each other, walk, climb on our furniture, lay down and go to sleep, etc. We also have a car that fits the nins (made by another company), which she really enjoys playing with – she put’s the nins in and out of the car and pushes them around.
We’ve also been using the nins to teach colors to our daughter while playing.