wooden blocks for 4,5 and almost 3y old??

[ernalala]

Hi,

we've just purchased presents for our children's Sinterklaas (like santa) celebration, group event on 30 nov and home visit 6 dec.

I got my eldest (4y7m)a wooden building block set with a booklet (the brand fails me now) with a book showing some models (like buildings, towers, animals, dragons) you can build with those. I hope he'll like that since he likes to build (or have me do it) with our dominoes at home and he's been enjoying building with wooden sticks at another person's house and he loves making constructions with Duplo too. The set claims it's for 3 and older but I'd more like to think at least 4 or 5plus.
http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_comp..._with_book.cfm
I thought of getting him Jenga at first but came across this creative building toy with examples. It was more expensive than Jenga though. But do your children like Jenga or similar? Still it could be on another future list :-).
And what age do you switch fom Duplo to Lego or do you switch at all?

So in the same theme, I got the youngest (2y9m) a wooden blocks sets with some different colours and shapes and animal part shapes (of Pintoys). At first I thought of getting him a playmobil set or sth else with a crocodile (he loves those!). Now this block set also includes a crocodile, but it claims to be 18m plus and he's getting close to 3... And now I wonder if I did right and shouldn't have gotten him something more 'age appropriate' or even for a little older kids (like age 4)?? Do 3y olds or older still enjoy playing with wooden coloured/shaped buiding blocks at all? It cost us about 40 USD. I can still return it next Satıurday if I change my mind :-).
http://www.mailorderexpress.com/PINT...ive_Blocks.asp

cross posted in toddlers.


Thx.

[Mama2Bug]

My DD will be 4 this month and she has just begun to be interested in actually "building" with her blocks (as opposed to stacking a few, then knocking them down), so I think you'll be fine. DD plays with all kinds of blocks. We have colored, wooden blocks, traditional alphabet blocks and wooden, geometric shape blocks. She plays with all of them.

I bet your boys will love what you bought.

[ernalala]

up

[swissgirl]

In regards to Duplo and switching to Lego, we switched at the age of 5, though we could have probably done it a bit earlier for my daughter. Though now at 5 1/2, she is able to build Lego people, vehicles and buildings by studying the pics in the accompanying Lego booklets and I don't think she would have accomplished that at the age of 4. Also, some Lego blocks are tiny, so an older child will have more dexterity using them (and hopefully will be more mindful of not losing the little pieces).

I really think blocks of any kind appeal to kids over 5, especially blocks or other building toys like Lincoln Logs, that are adaptable as kids use their imaginations more to construct acutual things like houses or forts or whatever.

[ernalala]

Originally Posted by swissgirl

I really think blocks of any kind appeal to kids over 5, especially blocks or other building toys like Lincoln Logs, that are adaptable as kids use their imaginations more to construct acutual things like houses or forts or whatever.

As an update:
Our kids received their presents tıoday and I do think it was a HIT!
My lo was overly excited at seeing the pack of colourful blocks (including a crocodile figure, and he loves crocs - btw without the croc included I probably would have gotten another toy lol) and my 4,5 year old was as excited about these as him!! Which I really thought about on buying them, that both my kids would like those, even though it is 'only' 18 months plus. I can see thenm play and construct happily with those.

As for the Kapla beginners' set, it seems to be a hit too for both of my sons. Really constructing balanced shapes is still very difficult for both of them but my LO has been sorting them and had a lot of fun and my DS1 can make towers and of course we can build together. He also likes to bring my buildings down lol. He's really excited about going to build some of the examples from the booklet with me.

So: for thse block sets for my kids. It makes me more relaxed about my instinct of what my kids would like to play with rather than what should be 'age-appropriate' according to the label...