Blocks... the perfect educational toy!
Blocks are the quintessential educational toy. Block play develops large and small muscle control, while giving children a creative outlet. This basic construction toy appeals to girls and boys equally and is arguably the best toy investment a parent can make. Blocks are now available in a variety of materials, including wood, palstic, cloth, paper and stone.
Wooden block sets have been given a variety of names over the last two hundred years. Most often called building blocks, they also know as unit blocks (for the modular unit proportions of the basic unit -- 1.375 x 2.75 x 5.5 inches), kindergarten blocks (in reference to the block sets made popular by Friedrich Froebel, inventor of Kindergarten), or Pratt blocks (for Caroline Pratt, founder of the Country Day School, who peioneered the use of larger Froebel blocks on floor instead of tabletop).
Ironically, over the years the unit size has been gradually diminished by manufacturers as a cost-cutting ploy. These wooden blocks are nearing the original dimensions of the Froebel Gift sets they were based upon. However, several quality manufacturers still produce the original unit size sets.
