Wooden Building Blocks |
Wooden building blocks are a premier educational toy and few other playthings come close since building toys were, from the beginning, not merely for fun. Building bricks were called "rational" toys, and they were intended to teach children about assembling many small different parts into a whole, about gravity and physics, and about how buildings were made. The "unit" concept continued to evolve into such famous offshoots as Erector Sets, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Legos, and K'NEX. These are the survivors among hundreds of other innovative, though less successful unit construction toys that have passed from the scene. Whenever someone wishes to impart the idea of an organizational structure, the "building blocks" concept is invoked. These are the wooden building blocks of legend. Kids love them and they teach a basic idea of life.
The term hardwood refers to the tree being an angiosperm. Many hardwoods are soft (like Aspen or Boxwood) and many softwoods (gymnosperms - like Fir and Pine) are quite hard. It isn't a question of blocks being made of hardwood, but of a hard hardwood. The premium choice is the American Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) which has been used for years for floors, bowling alleys, and countertops. The downside is that Hard Maple is a premium hardwood and this kind of quality comes at a price. An additional virtue of Hard Maple is that the blocks are fine grained. For example, Oak and Walnut are very hard hardwoods, but they tend to have large pores which result in very rough blocks. The Soft Maples (Red Maple, Silver Maple, Big leaf Maple. Western Maple) have a similar color and texture to Hard Maple, but these woods are materially lighter and softer than Hard maple. Wood blocks take a terrible pounding over a lifetime and there is no substitute for quality. Hard Maple is the best. Hard Maple blocks are like good tools, good pots and good tires - they get the job done and they last. That's why they have been the smart choice for Unit Blocks for 100 years.
These Wood Blocks are rounded on the edges and corners in order to avoid splinters. They will begin to play with baby blocks at a year, and they will continue playing with them until the age of 8 or 9. Around the age of 5, kids are introduced to big blocks in school. Teachers like them because blocks encourage imagination, eliciting it from inside rather than supplying it from outside. Kids' engagement with wooden blocks goes through a number of stages. At the youngest ages, children turn the different shapes in their hands and look at them. They also show them to their parents, learn the names, and evidence interest in how they fit together. At about 1 1/2, children will begin to sit on the floor and stack them into small towers. During this period, learning the ideas of balancing, bridging, and bracing is a key accomplishment. Children will then begin to make walls, and following this, four walls with a roof. By the age of 3 1/2, children will be able to make taller towers, balance a wider block on top of a narrow one, and will begin to make identifiable structures like skyscrapers. They also like to make roads and drive small cars on them. Maybe more important, kids from the earliest age know exactly what to do with blocks and their play evolves over the years so that blocks evince an extraordinary range of appeal across age groups.
The peak age for toy unit blocks is 4-8. Children will often come across these large blocks at quality pre-schools and kindergartens and will yearn for some at home. Children can build amazing structures if given a wide range of shapes and sizes, but the shapes must be substantial enough to stand firmly. Interest in them may taper off a bit after the age of about 9, but many children will haul out their wooden blocks on a rainy day, and will frequently help younger siblings accomplish tasks that they have mastered at an earlier age.
The term hardwood refers to the tree being an angiosperm. Many hardwoods are soft (like Aspen or Boxwood) and many softwoods (gymnosperms - like Fir and Pine) are quite hard. It isn't a question of blocks being made of hardwood, but of a hard hardwood. The premium choice is the American Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) which has been used for years for floors, bowling alleys, and countertops. The downside is that Hard Maple is a premium hardwood and this kind of quality comes at a price. An additional virtue of Hard Maple is that the blocks are fine grained. For example, Oak and Walnut are very hard hardwoods, but they tend to have large pores which result in very rough blocks. The Soft Maples (Red Maple, Silver Maple, Big leaf Maple. Western Maple) have a similar color and texture to Hard Maple, but these woods are materially lighter and softer than Hard maple. Wood blocks take a terrible pounding over a lifetime and there is no substitute for quality. Hard Maple is the best. Hard Maple blocks are like good tools, good pots and good tires - they get the job done and they last. That's why they have been the smart choice for Unit Blocks for 100 years.
These Wood Blocks are rounded on the edges and corners in order to avoid splinters. They will begin to play with baby blocks at a year, and they will continue playing with them until the age of 8 or 9. Around the age of 5, kids are introduced to big blocks in school. Teachers like them because blocks encourage imagination, eliciting it from inside rather than supplying it from outside. Kids' engagement with wooden blocks goes through a number of stages. At the youngest ages, children turn the different shapes in their hands and look at them. They also show them to their parents, learn the names, and evidence interest in how they fit together. At about 1 1/2, children will begin to sit on the floor and stack them into small towers. During this period, learning the ideas of balancing, bridging, and bracing is a key accomplishment. Children will then begin to make walls, and following this, four walls with a roof. By the age of 3 1/2, children will be able to make taller towers, balance a wider block on top of a narrow one, and will begin to make identifiable structures like skyscrapers. They also like to make roads and drive small cars on them. Maybe more important, kids from the earliest age know exactly what to do with blocks and their play evolves over the years so that blocks evince an extraordinary range of appeal across age groups.
The peak age for toy unit blocks is 4-8. Children will often come across these large blocks at quality pre-schools and kindergartens and will yearn for some at home. Children can build amazing structures if given a wide range of shapes and sizes, but the shapes must be substantial enough to stand firmly. Interest in them may taper off a bit after the age of about 9, but many children will haul out their wooden blocks on a rainy day, and will frequently help younger siblings accomplish tasks that they have mastered at an earlier age.
