This is like the meat and potatoes of toys. Blocks. Every child must own some.

The wooden kind are the best, imo. They are also the most expensive. When Dalton was little we bought him a starter set and then, each birthday or Christmas, he asked for more. Now we have a decent sized collect to pass along to each children and, eventually, our grandchildren. They hold up unbelievably well (if you don’t have chew-y puppies!!) and ours look brand-new despite years of playing.

Blocks are in that category of open-ended toys that I love so much. They have no “goal” which means the sky’s the limit. Kids will play with these until they have graduated out of toys and they can start playing before they can even crawl! They are worth the investment.

A couple things about wooden blocks. It pays to see them in person before buying or at least ask a few questions. There are some really junky wooden blocks out there with rough edges or worse, teeny sizes that are actually choking hazards and not nearly as fun as the big ones. We personally love these wooden blocks.

But there are other options if you don’t want to go the plain wooden block route. You can go to cheap, but traditional, Lego (or duplo) route. Addison LOVES her Duplos although my boys never touched them.

Or you can get these really cool tree blocks that I’ve always wanted. They are literally made from pieces of tree, sanded smooth and level. I’ve considered making them in the past but I’m not so good with wood. I’m not sure they are as versatile or as long-lasting and open-ended as the good ole plain wooden blocks but they are cool in their own rite.

And then there are cool architectural building blocks for slightly older kids as well.

But it really doesn’t have to be any more fancy than a standard set of blocks. Definitely a staple in a child’s play diet!

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Advent, Things I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.