Baby Building Blocks

Some of my favorite building block sets for children are the wooden block sets, like these Classic ABC Blocks with a Wagon. Kids can load them up, unload them, or build a tower to tear it down.

When children use the traditional wood blocks to build with they can build more than just towers and buildings, they can help build their imagination, and improve their dexterity.

Remember playing with wood blocks when you were little? Towers aren't just towers, they can pretend they built the Taj Mahal or the great pyramids on the living room floor. Then they can tear it down and build something else. Wood blocks encourage children to use their imagination and envision what they're building as they build it.

When babies are just starting to pull themselves up and toddle around, sometimes softer blocks are better. When they fall a hard block can be a rough landing, but softer rubber or plush building blocks can actually cushion the fall.

Soft blocks are great for building and stacking, and for tearing down to be built again.

Sets like these IQ Baby Knock-Knock Blocks are really fun for babies, with their bright colors, soft satiny finish, and peek a boo windows to keep baby entertained even when he's not in a building mood.

Legos are my absolute favorite building toy. My son has been a Lego fan since before he could talk. One of his very first building block sets when he was a baby was one of the larger brick Lego Duplo sets like this LEGO Duplo First Set for children 18 months to 5 years old.

My son got started early with his Lego obsession with a couple of the Lego Duplo sets when he was only a toddler. Now he's of course on to some of the more advanced sets. He loves to make his own creations these days, and has a whole tub of nothing but Legos to create with.

I remember my son loved stacking and nesting sets when he was a baby. He'd stack them up, then knock them down, only to stack them back up again.

Better yet he loved it when I stacked them up, then he knocked them down, only to laugh and demand that I stack them up again.

One of my favorites is this Melissa & Doug Wooden Animal Nesting Block Set, because your child can stack them up to 3 feet tall, but when you're not using them all the blocks nest inside each other so they don't take up much space.