Melissa & DougBeginner Wooden Pattern Blocks Educational Toy With 5 Double-Sided Scenes and 30 Shapes

Great purchase so far. Got it for my 2.5 year old, we are able to engage him in talking about colors, shapes, numbers and dif images when playing with this set. It’s great to have the box to keep all the pieces in though it has no cover. Overall, I highly recommend!

My kid loves these, great for motor skills

The media could not be loaded. Speech–Language Pathologist Review:This Melissa & Doug Beginner Pattern Blocks is a great for the little problem solver in your life! This set is made of vibrant wooden pieces that are conveniently stored in the original packaging. The patter blocks are great developing fine motor, cognitive and speech-language skills. Your child will use spatial awareness to find the correct block placement and will problem solve how to fit the block into the spaces using hand-eye coordination.For parents/caregivers who are wanting to expand their child's receptive and expressive language skills here are some ways to play with this toy with the child in your life.- Offer your child choices of different pattern pictures to complete, "Do you want to complete the butterfly or fish?" Bring the topping choices close your face, so your child can see how your mouth creates the sounds. This activity will help build vocabulary for the names of the pictures and encourage your child to use words or gestures to make a choice.- Give your child 1 or 2 step directions of finding specific pieces to complete the pictures. Example directions, "Find the purple circle." or "Put in the triangle and then find the oval."- Spread out the blocks/puzzle boards and ask your child, "Where's is yellow?" or "Where’s the circle?" This activity will help build receptive language vocabulary.Happy Playing!!!

20 month old granddaughter loves playing with these puzzles. Naming colors and shapes. Placing the shapes into the puzzle. We give her a group of shapes and she has to figure out which puzzle they go with. Lots of options. Well made. Easy to handle. Will last to past down to her brother.

...from Melissa & Doug.Beyond the obvious shape, color & object learning, this toy is just plain fun! I'm a fan of wooden toys; the less toxic plastic in my world the better.My preschooler son enjoys this one a great deal & will get it out on his own, dumping it all over the floor. The puzzles are two-sided & along with the shape pieces, stored in it's own compartmented box. I wish it came with a lid, either sliding or flap, but not having a lid does make it easier for my son to see what's inside.The only downside, is the many pieces to pick up, but you can make it a fun game with your child by asking him or her to pick up first by color, then by shape, etc.There are points of course on the angular pieces, but with some supervision no one should get hurt. Hey, your child can get hurt walking...so far, no one's gotten poked, pricked or banged except when my son throws the pieces around, as he does with everything.A good puzzle set for the toddler in your life.UPDATE...almost 2 years on & the paint has held up, the wood has held up, all in all so far fairly durable. My son still plays with the puzzles & has fun!

I bought this for my son's second birthday. He loved it and took to it right away. He spent over an hour on it the first time. He's had it for a few weeks now and he sometimes pulls it out and asks to "make pictures". He is so proud of himself when he fits the pieces in and when he completes a puzzle, he claps and cheers for himself. I had been wanting to get him a puzzle that is made up of basic shapes so this works well. I call out the names of the shapes as he puts them in and he repeats them. It's also good for teaching colours. The only thing he sometimes has a problem with is the triangles, because they are not equilateral, so he has to turn them to fit them in. Sometimes he gets a little frustrated but I think it's good he has a bit of a challenge - he's learning to turn them so it's an accomplishment when he fits them in. I love Melissa and Doug products. This as usual, is durable and attractive. There are more interesting puzzles in the box than what the picture shows - there is a train, fire truck, house, flowers, butterfly, dog, etc. I'm really glad I got this for him.

We got this for my son when he was 21 months old. He immediately loved it and it kept his attention longer than any thing else. He was able to figure out the puzzles pretty easily and his only difficulty was with the triangles (they are not equilateral so they have to go in a certain way). The triangle actually presented a great opportunity to teach him to keep trying and not give up, even when it doesn't go right in. By the time he was 2 he had completely mastered it and has moved on to harder pattern block sets. He is now 2 years 3 months and is working on pattern blocks recommended for ages 4+ (He mastered the next level pretty quickly as well, we just keep getting a harder set, the most recent set is progressively harder so it should grow with him more). This was a great introduction (and he still loves to get this one out to this day) and I would recommend parents to get this at ~18 months and just try it. This helped my son focus on an activity, learn his shapes (saying the words), learn to combine shapes to make a larger one (2 triangle=1 square, 2 squares=1 rectangle in this set), learn to get past learning frustrations and keep trying, and generally introduce him to pattern blocks. Overall great educational toy.