Uncle Goose Blocks

ABC, 123, and Beyond

• What: Uncle Goose Classic ABC Blocks
• When: Age six months and up
• Why: Durable, wide age appeal, multipurpose, open ended play
• Where: Amazon

I love our Uncle Goose blocks. My kids have used them over and over again in a variety of ways. You can’t go wrong with a quality set of basic blocks, and these blocks have stood the test of time. We got them as gift years ago, and they still look great and work like a charm.

My seven, five, and three year olds use them on a regular basis to support their creations and extend their creative play ideas. They’ve held up wooden train tracks and supplemented magnet tile creations.

You can get Uncle Goose with a handy storage bag, though we haven’t used ours. They also come with a wagon storage option for a bit more. But I keep ours on a flat cardboard tray, tucked out of sight but in easy reach underneath the coffee table. The kids can slide out the tray to access them but I don’t constantly trip over them.

Little kids have no trouble handling the big blocks. Their chunky size makes for easy lifting and difficulty swallowing. The six sides of the blocks include not only letters, but also numbers, math symbols, and animals. Four side features letters of the alphabet, and two of those alphabet sides come embossed, so they have a nice texture, too. The other two sides showcase animals and numbers and symbols. That means even in a set of 28 English blocks, you get lots of duplicate letters for a total of 112. You can also use them for spelling practice and other games, like matching colors.

Uncle Goose goes well beyond the basic English, Spanish, and German varieties you can find in other brands. They even include Polish, which I can’t find in any other toy outside Poland. Other language options include Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Maori, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. They even come in American Sign Language!

The colors come from non-toxic ink and last well beyond your kid’s first years. You can also get a set of lowercase letters once you graduate from capital letters, or if you want more variation for fun and games. From stacking to spelling, these blocks will outlast most toddlers toys. You’ll want to save them for the next generation as well.