Building sets make great birthday gifts for kids of all ages. In our house, these really are the gifts that have stood the test of time. My kids keep coming back to them over and over. They are a playdate staple – a source of inspiration for creative play. It is so much fun to  watch my daughter Maya and Stefanie’s son Benjamin play their own creative version of ”Star Wars” with her pink Superstructs Lillies building set (pictured left).  And it is adorable to watch Maya construct bugs using my son Josh’s Exobonz Deluxe set, and then chase Josh around the apartment with them. Priceless.

Because we think building sets are great birthday gifts, we sell a lot of different types for each age group at GIFT HERO. While we only sell the sets we think are fabulous, I do have a few personal favorites by age.

For two year olds, I love the soft blocks made by EduShape. The thing is, two year olds are better at knocking things down than they are at building, so these soft blocks are perfect – no need to “duck and cover” to avoid the inevitable projectile blocks.

Fine motor skill capabilities vary widely among three year olds, and I have found that many of the sets that say 3 and up are far too challenging for most. Stick with something that has large pieces and is specifically created for small hands – I love Zoob JR because the large pieces are specifically designed for toddlers hands, and the pieces actually stay together very well once they are snapped together. In addition to the basic Zoob JR set, we also carry the delightful Zoob JR Zoomer Car Set- which lets kids make their own moving vehicles with the same Zoob pieces plus wheels!

For 4 year olds, my favorite sets are from Superstructs. I love how they make sets that appeal specifically to girls – Superstructs Pinklets and Superstructs Lilies have girl-friendly pieces to make flowers, fairies and lots of other fun stuff. It really feels like the folks at Superstructs sat down and thoughtfully designed a unique  building set with girls in mind (not just changing the color of the pieces like many other building sets).

Exobonz Deluxe is my favorite for 5 year olds- I love watching the kids create unique types of creepy crawlers and then chase each other around!

For six and seven year olds, I really love Zolo-a-Go-Go. This set is great for children who like to create artful sculptures – no set pieces to create here – kids just use their own imagination to create their own three dimensional works of art.

Eight year olds will be challenged by Lego Crazy Action Contraptions - a Klutz book and lego set in one that includes instructions to build 16 different vehicles using the exact same pieces. Even the most experienced Lego savant will find this challenging!

To view all of our building sets, visit our building set gift category.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 10:48 am by lisa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.