I wanted to ensure that my son's toy box was filled with a combination of more modern toys and games and more traditional, basic toys. One of the toys that I was keen for him to have was a set of wooden building blocks. Ideally I wanted them to be all the same size and shape rather than a variety of shapes. I had quite a bit of trouble finding a set I liked that fitted these criteria but eventually I came across these alphabet blocks in Early Learning Centre. I bought these for £10 for 24 blocks. They are suitable for use from 12 months of age.

The blocks are all cube shaped and the same size. They come neatly stacked in a cardboard box (which is handy for keeping them in when opened). The blocks are in a variety of colours - red, blue, green, yellow and orange. You have 5 of each colour except in one colour (yellow, I think) there are 4 - handy to remember when you are clearing away and looking for lost blocks!! The blocks are wooden and fairly heavy, although not so heavy that I would be worried of injury from falling stacked blocks. On each face of the cube there is a black letter, number or maths symbol painted on.

The colours are bright and attractive to children. They are also a nice size to fit into toddler's hands and my son loves to use these to stack with. They stack easily and are suitably weighted so that they are not knocked over at the drop of a hat - ideal when your child is learning to stack as this can get frustrating. I love the fact that there are added benefits to these on top of encouraging my son to develop the motor skills and co-ordination needed to stack and build. Firstly, when my son builds we discuss the colours that he is using in an effort to help him learn these. At 18 months, he could stack pretty well so, whilst he still enjoyed using them for this purpose, it is nice that there are other aspects to the blocks that will increase the longevity of the toy. It will be nice to use the blocks as a learning aid in later months/years too as the letters can be used to help him to learn spell his name etc. The numbers can also be used when learning to count and, later, to perform simple maths sums.

The paint on the blocks did begin to chip at the edges even from first use. Given the nature of the toy and that you would expect them to do a fair amount of bashing and tumbling, I would have expected them to be a slightly better quality. We have other blocks in a trolley that are coloured and have not shown any wear and tear in this way, so this is a little disappointing. They have also dented in some places, although I am a little less bothered by this as it is less obvious.

Overall, these are nice blocks for a child to learn to stack with and develop motor skills. They do not wear incredibly well but I still think that we will get good use from them.