If you have a five-, six- or seven-year-old who would happily build all day, the real challenge is not finding blocks. It is finding sets that are honestly priced under $50, sized right for this age, and likely to keep getting used after the first weekend. Many boxes say “Ages 3-99” while the price tag…
Picture a toddler stacking smooth maple blocks whose curves echo the churning blue of Hokusai’s Great Wave. That is the idea behind Hape x The Met, a collaboration between toy maker Hape and The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s store. The line takes famous artworks from the Met’s collection and turns them into early-learning toys: building…
Engineering is not only for labs and high-school classrooms. Long before children meet formal science lessons, they are already testing how things stand, roll, balance and break: a block tower that topples, a ramp that sends a car flying, a bridge that holds a toy truck. Toys that invite this kind of experimenting can introduce…