Building Blocks - Product Recommendation?

I would duggest Magnatiles, they are expensiv, but great and easy to work with. Also if you have the space, I would recomment Gorilla blocks. They are large blocks that you child can use to make forts, benchs, ships and anything their imagination can come up with. Happy Birthday to her. Enjoy 3 is so much fun....

They're all good. I like the wooden blocks that were also suggested. They were my favorite as a child and my son really likes them now too (along with his Lego's/Duplo's)

Megabloks is great because they are not huge but large enough for little hands to easily build with. Also I love their sets- my daughter has all the Mickey Mouse club house sets (they come with easy picture directions so she can build the sets herself). There is also Ni Hao Kaylan (?spelling) sets and I think Dora sets by Megabloks. I assume they have the same easy to follow picture instructions. My daughter is 4 and has good fine motor skills so they may be slightly more challanging for smaller children but I still think they are a good place to start.
Hope this helps :)

The best "blocks" I ever got my kids were Magnatiles. They are expensive. 100 of them is about $110. It's a good gift for Grandparents to give. I bought a set of 100 for my 3 kids when my twins had turned 2 and my daughter was 4. They are now 4 and almost 7 and play with them EVERY morning. And they play together, which is so nice. You can't even imagine the things they build... so creative. And it's easier to put together than Mega Bloks or Duplo (which they grow out of pretty quickly). They are not the dangerous kind of magnetic things were kids can swallow them. The magnets are inside of the blocks themselves.
The other great product we found is Kapla blocks. Basically, a box of identical pieces of wood that are about an inch by three inches. My kids have made amazing towers with those. Your daughter might be about a year too young for those, though. The magnatiles she can do on her own with no tears.... You can get them on Amazon.

Have you looked at Bright Builders by Discovery Toys? www.toysofdiscovery.com
There's a 3-year old set, and you can add on other shapes at age 4. The pieces go together in 4 different ways, not just one way like some other building toys.

The company will also be coming out with a product called Rock the Boat next month...unusual shaped wooden blocks that also contain a puzzle design.

Happy Birthday to her!

My son likes the wooden building blocks that are all different shapes. I ordered his online at Lillian Vernon. The brand is Eichhorn. They come in a nice canister with a shape sorter top. These are a little more challenging then mega bloks or duplos.

My daughter (almost 2) has Megabloks and plays with them pretty well--sometimes has a little trouble connecting them but overall can be occupied for a while. She has played with Duplo and likes them and finds them easier to put together. For her age, maybe megabloks would give her a challenge.

Nope. I would go with wood. There are some less expensive ones from Melissa and Doug. Not too bad ones from several other companies. Google wood blocks. Best would be checking out anyone local who makes blocks. Support local! : )

Don't worry about cleaning them. : ) Just because you can't stick them in the dishwasher (friend's solution to everything!) doesn't mean they don't wipe clean.

Good luck,
M.

We have both, but prefer the duplo. They seem to stay together better for bigger projects. A little more expensive then megablocks but overall we like them better for our 2 yr old. She really loves the farm and all the animals, but not many blocks for building.

For another option look at lincoln logs. I know our godson wanted them from age 3-5. Of course I could never find them at xmas.

Happy Building

I say you should have a variety of blocks. For our daughter's 2nd birthday we got her both a set of Mega blocks and a set of 150 wooden blocks from Imaginarium (comes in a canister with a shape sorter top). We got both at Toys R Us. This way she has both the "connecting" kind and the "free form" kind. She has fun with both!

We have something different for our 2-1/2 yr old son: cardboard building blocks from Melissa & Doug. They come in 3 colors and 3 sizes and he loves them as we can build towers up to the ceiling (and no one gets hurt when he inevitably knocks them down!).