Building Blocks
Children enjoy these classic toys for years.  They will begin to play with baby blocks at a year, and they will continue playing with them until the age of 8 or 9.  Around the age of 5, kids are introduced to big blocks in school.  Teachers like them because blocks encourage imagination, eliciting it from inside rather than supplying it from outside.  The stores are full of brightly colored plastic toys that are imaginative for your child . . . trying to stuff them full of ideas like little sausages.  But it's the child that needs the imagination, not the toy.  Allowed to play freely, children spontaneously create things ranging from profound to hilarious. Blocks are a medium for this kind of expression.

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