I dont want to de-rail the thread, but I have a related question:
For those who loved their blocks–how many were boys, and how many girls?
It seems to me that blocks are mostly a “boy” thing.
Especially the fond memories of building towers and then destroying them.
Of course, gender roles were defined differently 30 years ago, so that’s part of the explanation.
But I’d like to know if today’s parents have noticed differences between the level of interest in playing with blocks between boys and girls.
My daughter is four and has just recently stopped playing with the wood ones. I got them for her when she was 2 and she played with them CONSTANTLY. Just endless hours of stacking them up and making pyramids and houses for her toys. She’s moved on to the big Legos now, but she still is obsessed with building things. I’d definitely recommend them.
Of course I played with wooden blocks! My brother and I had all kinds of elaborate designs going with those things.
We also had the cardboard bricks, and Legos, and Lincoln Logs, and Tinker Toys, and those big plastic “waffle blocks” that you could build really large things out of. My parents hated electronic toys and were much happier to buy us that kind of stuff.
Blocks, building, and all sorts of pre-math skills tend to be done more by boys. The question of how much of that is biologic predisposition versus cultural (even at a subconscious level) would be a contentious debate I am sure. FWIW my experience is that the girl toddlers and preschoolers who are into blocks, building, and puzzles, tend to have quite strong math skills in the family and grow into kids who excel at math by late Middle School (early math is often more a verbal skill).
And given the other toys mentioned, I suspect you are female. As you got to Middle School and beyond did you enjoy and do well at math? (Meaning pre-algebra and beyond, not just times tables.)
Get two big sets instead. I have two big sets and the architectural expansion, and while the column blocks are nice, they are not nearly as useful as the same money spent on more blocks.
Little blocks really are sub-standard legos. Not the same toys at all.
As far as throwing and such goes, I find plastic toys with corners to be a bigger problem than blocks.
I had a set of colored blocks, in swhich no more than two had the same dimensions and color. They were mainly rectangular solids of varying aspect rations, although there was one block that had a semicircular piece cut out of one side.
I used to use there for building all sorts of things, especially the Empire State Building. I found that I could get a pretty good imitation of that building’s characteristic shape if I stood the longest blocks on end. (I was a big King Kong fan at an early age)
We had some wooden blocks, but I never remember really playing with them. I loved playing with Legos, though. We also had some Lincoln Logs (or equivalent) that I remember playing with, but Lego was the champ.
Don’t get rid of them, though!
We got ours when my daughter was 1-1/2. She loved them, her younger-by-2-years brother loved them…and no one played with them for the longest time.
Now they are 8 and 10, and the blocks are back in circulation, mostly for the boy, but the girl still sometimes augments her Lego creations with wooden block structures. They do have great lasting power.
I did enjoy playing with blocks. According to our mom, my sister did as well, but she built out not up. As apartment dwellers, I felt it was a kindness to our downstairs neighbors to get foam blocks for my son. He built with them quite a bit. He did take far more delight in the smashing of his own creations than ever made sense to me.
I grew up pre-Lego (except in Denmark, I suppose) and I adored wooden blocks, Tinker-Toys, Lincoln Logs, you name it. I would have loved an erector set but they were too pricey for my family.
When my son was 3 we got him a Lego set. I think this was pre-Duplo days. At any rate, we never got that. He was off. He has never looked back. Even at 45, if you are at a loss for a gift for him, get him a Lego set. He is a Microsoft programmer and says that is the case for 3/4 of his colleagues. But Lego has changed a lot in 42 years since he got his first starter set. In those days you got blocks, roof parts, window parts and you were on your own. Now you get these sets that are, IMHO, as much fun to assemble as Ikea furniture. They leave little room for imagination. I guess you can take them apart and use the pieces, but so many of them are really just for one use.
I’m going to go against the grain and say go for the Duplo. Or both - it doesn’t have to be either/or. Chances are, Duplo wasn’t around when most of the people here were kids. A huge advantage over blocks for little ones is that a tiny bump or misplacement doesn’t automatically mean the whole thing falls apart. I’ve still got a lot from when my kids were younger, and I pull them out when we have little visitors. Everybody loves playing with them together on these occasions (including teenagers).
I’ve already got Duplo to give her this Christmas (and it’s a daily battle to not take it out and play with it myself while she naps). I also grew up in the days when Lego was just bricks for building, not fancy sets. I made dollhouses with mine.
Yes. I was born in 1950. Had two sets of “blocks” (that’s all I ever called them"), one painted, one clearcoated. They were by far my favorite childhood toys.