breebop.com

Will and I favour all things non-battery-powered when it comes to Wesley’s and Solomon’s toys. We’re not nazis about it, but we try to buy toys with more imaginative value than lights and sounds. I’ve had many a daydream about the day when Wes will build (and knock down) big towers of blocks. Like feeding him sweet potatoes and banging on pot lids, it’s just one of those simple baby things I have looked forward to. What’s more, a recent study showed block play may actually make kids smarter.

Children who played with blocks scored on average 15 percent higher on language tests — an early indicator of cognitive development — than their peers who didn’t get a chance to stack and pile, according to research released Monday by the Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute.”Many toys make claims they are actually educational for kids,” said Dr. Dimitri Christakis, who led the study. “The interesting thing is that things like blocks never made such claims.”

- Old-school blocks prove best for brains (Seattle PI)

Wes is getting his first set of blocks (lovely soft ones to crush and mouth) for Christmas, and maybe for his first birthday he’ll get a nice set of classic wooden ones to stack and build with. I’m partial to the vintage-y kind carved with letters and either carved or painted pictures.

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