Building Bridges Blocks from Larsen Toy Lab

This post is our honest review of a product that we received for free. All opinions expressed are solely mine.

Replacing batteries in toys is one of my pet peeves. Despite the ‘shiny’ and noise that so many of today’s gadgets offer, I truly long for our kids to get back to the basics ~ using their imaginations to create, build, and learn. When I find educational toys that are created with that concept, it makes me extremely happy and want to share about them with others.

The Building Bridges block set from a new company Larsen Toy Lab is one of those toys that I want to spread the word on and get you as excited as I am about them! The set of 24 classic wooden blocks comes with a story book and the largest block is personally engraved for your child or family.

About the Building Blocks

While I can attest to the quality of the blocks, understanding the why behind the company is important as well:

Our idea is simple – to build a company around blocks.  Throughout generations wood blocks have cultivated problem solving, critical thinking, and social skills. Quite simply, blocks are one of the most educational and inherently creative toys available.  We’ve added to these values by blending a story, game or a puzzle into each of our sets.

Larsen Toy Lab produces high quality, all natural, wooden block sets that are 100% Made in America.  We strive to minimize our environmental impact and promise to give back to the communities we serve through block donations.

~ Alex and Courtney

Currently, there are three main sets that are available from Larsen Toy Lab via Kickstarter ~ Shape Match, Building Bridges, and Ten Towers.

Shape Match and Building Bridges are focused on the story of a young boy named Leif and his travels. Throughout the story, children are encouraged to build structures that imitate pictures in the book. Some of the structures can be recreated using the blocks that are included in the set, and others require children to use creativity to recreate them with what they have on hand.

What We Love About the Building Blocks from Larsen Toy Lab

There are many things to love about the building blocks from Larsen Toy Lab ~ other than the fact that they are made in the US and also eco-friendly {definitely safe when my young nephew and niece come to visit!}. Here are a few other things we are enjoying about these toys.

The block sets are personalized for your family. Our block set came personalized just for us – love it!!! The kids were all excited {and since it was the blog name it MAY have cut down on the arguing over who the blocks belonged to – grins}.

The toys tie in reading with learning. When Kaleb saw the blocks he was very excited, so he and I spent almost an hour reading the book together and recreating things that we saw in the book. Bringing them to ‘life’ and off the page was so much fun. The story isn’t just a quick read, but includes talk about building friendships as well – tying literature in with learning just makes me happy.

Creativity is encouraged when creating. At first Kaleb thought that everything he needed to build was in the box, but he discovered that there were times when he needed to think through things to build and couldn’t just copy what he saw. That is something that I LOVE about this educational toy.

The block set includes a clean-up guide! Have you ever taken something out of the box only to puzzle over how in the world to fit it all back in the way you took it out? Maybe that’s just me. When you open the box, the underside gives you a visual on how to repack the blocks so they all fit back in nice and neat. This makes a mom super happy.

Find Out More

Be sure to stop by LarsenToyLab.com and take a moment to watch their intro video – or visit them on Facebook to say hi and follow along. We are looking forward to using these blocks again and again ~ and know that you will enjoy them as well!

I was provided a set of the Building Bridge blocks from Larsen Toy Lab to review in exchange for my honest opinion ~ and the truth is we love them enough to have backed their company.