What's your favorite pattern block set for a preschooler?

[iteachmine]

I would like to purchase a set of pattern blocks for my soon to be 4yr old. There are many types to choose from. Wood,foam,or magnetic. With or without activity cards. I'd like to get a few opinions from those who have gone before me. :-)


Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[LlamaMama]

We've enjoyed Mighty Minds, which I purchased at http://www.timberdoodle.com (http://www.timberdoodle.com/)

[SandraDumas]

We have the plastic ones from SOnlight. Sonlight has a *very* nice pattern blocks kit, and their plastic ones are heavy and thick, not cheap and thin and flimsy. You can wash them and they don't make an ugly clinking sound.

However I choose wood whenever possible, for everything. So if you are just getting the blocks by themselves, try to find wood. Wood is always so nice for children!

[Tutor]

We love our magnetic pattern blocks. The kids will each grab a baking sheet, some pattern blocks and some Patternables pages and sit on the sofa or floor for ages. It's nice because they can hold the tray at a bit of an angle or bump the try and the blocks stay put. I think I got mine at Rainbow Resource, but I'm not positive.

[beansprouts]

We love our magnetic pattern blocks. The kids will each grab a baking sheet, some pattern blocks and some Patternables pages and sit on the sofa or floor for ages. It's nice because they can hold the tray at a bit of an angle or bump the try and the blocks stay put. I think I got mine at Rainbow Resource, but I'm not positive.

I just bought magnetic pattern blocks for 4 y.o. ds.

[one l michele]

nt

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I have wood pattern blocks and activity cards for my 3yo. She enjoys them a lot but she does sometimes get frustrated when she bumps the blocks from the spot where they belong. I would think that magnetic ones would help with that. HTH.

[yvonne]

We have wood and magnetic Pattern Blocks. I like the wood ones, but whenever the children pull them out to play with, they always choose the magnetic. The wood ones are frustrating, especially for the younger ones, because if the table or cardboard pattern sheet is jiggled at all, their picture can be ruined. The magnetic ones definitely don't feel as nice, but they are much more forgiving and the kids don't seem to be bothered by the feel.

[Sunkirst]

Magnetic would be my choice. However, we have ordered 3 sets of them over the years (my oldest is only 10 :D), because so many of them end up under the fridge. That said, my kids have gotten endless enjoyment out of them. Just today 10 yo ds spent 15 minutes carefully teaching and then quizzing 4 yo dd about patterns and shapes. She was just lapping it up as he rarely spends so much time focussed on her. For what it's worth, we never got any patterns etc. Just let ds discover it on his own. He makes space battles, jungle scenes, wacky machines, you name it. He also sometimes makes beautiful patterns.