WOODEN WONDER TOY, 10 Sept. 2009

This is a lovely product on many counts. It comes in a sturdy wooden box which holds 5 double-sided pattern boards (so 10 pattern designs) and over 100 wooden shapes which are - hexagons, squares, diamonds (2), triangles and a trapezoid.

There are numerous ways to play:

1) Let your child construct their own patterns freestyle with the blocks for using their own imagination. This is often the most fun for little ones. My little girl likes to stack these up as well as place them side by side. She has them all on a tray so they don't slide off the table!

2) Help your child recognise different colours or shapes by using the blocks. Shame there are only 5 shapes but you can also make a rectangle, for example, by placing 2 squares together.

3) We use the boards and blocks to count with. I ask my daughter how many squares there are on a pattern board or how many green pieces. Or we do basic adding up and taking away with the larger shapes. In fact...

Verified Purchase This review is from: Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards (Toy)

Lovely toy, 15 July 2010

The product is attractive and hard wearing. It has a nice traditional feel and comes in a useful storage box. The play value of the toy is good as it can be used initially as a matching activity then progress to more creative pictures of the child's own design. It also has the advantage of having enough pieces to make it worth using as some toys of this type are limited by the small number of parts.

Verified Purchase This review is from: Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards (Toy)

Not so good for little ones, 21 Feb. 2015

I bought this toy so my 3yr old could practise copying patterns and do free play putting shapes together. The shapes themselves are fine. They are well made and a good size for little hands to work with (small enough to promote fine motor development, but not too small to be too fiddly). The pattern/picture boards included are drawn with shapes the exact same size as the shape pieces, with the idea that children will be able to place the shape pieces directly on to the wooden boards to make the picture. This was the reason I bought this version of tangrams as opposed to other versions that have smaller pictures to copy, as it is easier for young children to copy directly rather than copy a picture. However, the pieces are extremely slippery on the picture boards, to the extent that it is frustratingly impossible for young children to work with. Whenever my child attempted to join a new piece to the picture, the other pieces would slide out of place, even with the lightest of touches,...

Verified Purchase This review is from: Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards (Toy)