Wooden Building Blocks - ABC, Alphabet, Hardwood

The best toys require imagination

Building blocks have been cherished toys for generations, and with good reason. These simple yet multifaceted toys offer numerous developmental benefits for children. Here's why building blocks are so beneficial for young minds:

• Cognitive Development: Constructing with blocks encourages children to think critically and plan. They must visualize an end result, understand patterns, and problem-solve when their constructions don't go as planned.
• Motor Skills Enhancement: Grasping, stacking, and aligning blocks refines fine motor skills. The physical act of manipulating blocks provides essential hands-on experience for developing precision and hand-eye coordination.
• Boost in Creativity: With an assortment of shapes, sizes, and colors at their disposal, children can construct endless creations, from towers and bridges to imaginative landscapes, fostering a creative mindset.
• Spatial Skills: Through block play, kids naturally learn about spatial relationships, understanding concepts like "under", "over", "near", and "far", as well as experimenting with balance and symmetry.
• Persistence: Building can be challenging, and structures might often topple over. This teaches children resilience, patience, and the understanding that sometimes they need to try again to succeed.
• Social and Emotional Growth: Playing with blocks in a group setting teaches children to share, take turns, and collaborate. It also gives them a sense of accomplishment, boosting their self-esteem.
• Mathematical Foundations: Blocks inadvertently introduce children to mathematical concepts. Counting blocks, comparing sizes and shapes, and dividing shared resources are all foundational math skills practiced during play.

Building blocks are tools that promote holistic development, equipping children with vital cognitive, physical, and social skills that will benefit them throughout life.

Examples of Building Block Sets

Wood Number Blocks 50 Piece Set - What could be more valuable in a child's toy box than a set of wooden blocks? Beyond providing sorting and stacking fun, this collection of 50 colorful cubes helps kids learn the numbers. Each block is embossed on two sides with a number (1-9) or math computation symbol. The remaining sides feature the name of each number and its quantity expressed in dots. Children will explore math concepts as they create patterns and sequences, count blocks, and create simple arithmetic problems while having hours of build-and-play fun. The blocks are packaged in a plastic, reusable storage tub.

Jumbo 65 Piece Colored Wood Block Set - Building with blocks is a traditional part of play, and this toy is a classic. It gives children the opportunity to practice their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination and problem solving as they stack the blocks on top of each other or line them up on the table. Teaches children to count, position, sort, and match. Each block is colored to allow object and color recognition and identification.

135 Colored Wood Blocks - Considered a staple in the toy chest, this classic 135-piece block set can help spark young designer's creativity, imagination, and spatial awareness. Covered in nontoxic paint, these smooth hardwood blocks come in different shapes for imaginative building: an arch, a semicircle, round and square pillars, a triangle, a rectangle, and a square. To help builders keep track of their materials, the set can be stored in the sturdy cardboard packaging that doubles as a carrying case. Block play can teach children in and out, counting position, sorting and matching. Drop blocks into a box to demonstrate in and out. Add to that the number to help increase attention span. Let children practice intentionally releasing objects into a box, too. If the sound of the falling blocks is startling, muffle the sound by placing a soft cloth inside. Count the blocks as each is placed inside; teach the position of objects by placing them next to the can, etc. Children can learn by visual and tactical means, how to discriminate between alike and different by sorting and matching blocks by color or shape. Building with blocks enhances eye-hand coordination and problem solving skills.

Brio 50-piece Natural Blocks - Ask any child-development specialist to recommend the single most educational and creative toy for a toddler, and you're most likely to hear just one answer: a set of wooden blocks. BRIO, a trusted name in the world of toys, makes this set of 50 natural beechwood building blocks that have smoothly sanded surfaces and slightly rounded corners and edges for safety. The basic cubes, rectangles, arches, pillars, half-circles, and triangles can be combined in endless combinations to create anything from a doll crib to a castle. The cubes are the smallest blocks (1.25 inches square), and the 6-inch-long arches are the largest. The blocks are designed in incremental proportions--three cubes line up to the same length as one rectangle, and three rectangles stack up to the same height as one pillar. Such design illustrates why a well-engineered set of blocks is so educational: playing with blocks of related-but-different sizes teaches sorting, matching, grouping, balancing, and spatial relations in some subtle and very important ways. This set of blocks is a classic toy that belongs in every home with a young child.

Wood Alphabet Blocks 50-piece Set - Building with blocks is a traditional part of play, and this toy is a classic. It gives children the opportunity to practice their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination and problem solving as they stack the blocks on top of each other, line them up on the table, or count as each block is intentionally dropped into the included plastic storage container. If the sound of the blocks falling into the container is too startling, place a small cloth on the bottom to muffle the sound. Each block has colored, raised letters and wood-burned pictures to allow for letter, object and color recognition and identification. Teach children how to spell their name by using the letters on the blocks. Spell the name out with blocks and have the child find matching blocks to spell it out himself.

Wooden Block 50-piece Set - These 50 natural wood blocks come in nine assorted shapes. These blocks are perfect for unlimited, imaginative building and fun play. This deluxe set of gorgeous, durable wooden blocks will fuel your child's creativity. The blocks, which range in length from 2.5 to 8.25 inches, are made of replenishable rubber wood and have beautifully rounded edges and a smooth, nontoxic finish. The set, which comes packed in a cardboard box with rope handles, contains 50 blocks--a mix of columns, pillars, arches, half-circles, rectangles, squares, and triangles--that fit neatly together to form castles, fortresses, cities, or anything else your child can imagine. The possibilities are endless! This is a wonderful, classic toy that's sure to be a keepsake. For a great gift idea, pair this set with Ashley Wolff's beautifully illustrated version of Robert Louis Stevenson's inspiring poem Block City.

Matching and Sorting Blocks - Build your dream villa with this 25-piece block set from Plan Toys. Unfinished blocks with different shaped cutouts as well as cutout shapes in primary colors can be combined and separated in almost endless ways. Even the youngest child can create square windows and rounded doorways using the blocks with cutouts; older children can create increasingly complex patterns by combining cutouts and larger blocks. Photos on the box suggest several creative projects to fuel your child's imagination. These blocks will help your child develop sorting and matching skills as well as provide hours of entertainment.

ABC Blocks with Bag - Like the alphabet blocks in Grandma's attic, these wooden blocks feature carved letters, fancy scroll borders, and simple ink drawings. Individual blocks feature four sides with colored letters, one side with a number and one side with the image and spelling of the object below it, such as an owl or duck. Unlike Grandma's blocks, however, these are printed with nontoxic, colored ink. And to avoid destroying nonrenewable forests, they're made of basswood that's cut from industry-owned and managed land in Michigan. Toddlers and preschoolers can use the 27 blocks to make all kinds of imaginative structures and to become familiar with numbers and letters. The set comes with an attractive and sturdy canvas sack for easy clean up and storage. Each block is a 1.75-inch square. A standard shrink-wrapped cube of 27 ABC blocks with a cotton canvas drawstring bag.

Fisher-Price Easy-Build Blocks 30-piece Set - This simple, 30-piece set of durable building blocks is a classic, and rightly so. The blocks come in six shapes (triangles, rectangles, and squares) and five colors that will create an infinite number of building possibilities. And there are enough back-up blocks for when some inevitably get lost. The blocks are generously sized for easy handling, and the colors are nontoxic. These hardwood blocks are larger, sturdier, and of better quality than most wood blocks. And that means they're easier for kids to build with! A variety of shapes and bright, non-toxic colors add to imaginative fun, for hours of creativity and years of long-lasting play.

Natural Blocks (50 pieces) - Fifty building blocks in various shapes and sizes for imaginative construction fun. Natural wood finish. Many educators, including Waldorf School teachers, believe that children need access to toys made of natural materials. Small World Toys specializes in these kinds of beautifully crafted products, mostly made of wood and other natural materials. This very affordable set of building blocks allows children to tap the vastness of their imaginations while also exposing them to the soothing feel and satisfying sturdiness of wooden building blocks. The 50 blocks are enough to make a modest home, fortress, small city, or even a spaceship. Shapes include the architectural necessities--square and round pillars, half moons, arches, rectangles, squares, and triangles. It also comes with an attractive canvas storage sack. Parents of children ages 3 to 5 may need to initiate ideas and help with stacking.

Groovie Blocks - An update of the classic grooved blocks of 50 years ago, Groovie Blocks make a wonderful companion to the word-based alphabet blocks. The Groovies use the latest educational theories for teaching basic math concepts. Designed for many different uses, these blocks help children learn sorting, ordering, opposites, and pattern building. Each set comes with a list of suggested play activities for parents and teachers. The set contains 32 grooved 1 1/2" blocks with embossed numeral and math symbols, plus geometric shape sets that correspond to the number on the opposite side. The non-grooved sides feature multi-colored shapes for pattern building. These strikingly innovative wood blocks make it possible to combine construction play, mathematical discoveries, and pattern-making. Each block has interlocking grooves on two sides for topple-proof building. For starters, make two towers, or lines, each using blocks with a different color of embossed numerals (0 - 9). Opposite each number you'll see a corresponding embossed shape (one diamond, two circles, etc.). On the blocks of one tower these shapes are the same size, arranged symmetrically; on the other tower they are random in size and arrangement for greater challenge in counting. Each block also displays painted geometric shapes, math symbols, other images and paradigms.