When Small Sophie first played with these round locking blocks at a little under 15 months of age, she did not know what direction to put them in. She understood that the round part aligned and accurately placed those—— but upside-down or right-side up? She had to try both if she first went with upside-down.
By the second day, she understood that they go right-side up and consistently placed them correctly. However, she often left blocks halfway locked. We would help her lock the blocks now and then, else the towers would fall. (She put them back up if they did fall.)
After a few days of playing contentedly mostly on her own, she forced an audience to watch her proudly build a tower as tall as herself. Anytime somebody walked into the room, they were not permitted to leave. Small Sophie would grab their legs and make them sit down before returning to her tower construction. We were all amused.
After two weeks, she fully locked the blocks on her own.
The blocks are Leap Frog Leap Builders, recommended for 2+ years. While it might take a 2+ child to build the robot-man shown on the bucket as an example of what can be built, I think my daughter is having plenty of fun just building high right now.
I think that these blocks were quite useful for Young Sophie learning how things work. I think it also showed me again how quickly she learns now while reminding me of her natural limitations, such as lack of strength. Babies absorb so easily and well!
