My son has loved playing and building with blocks of all kinds ever since he was able to stack things. I was more of a girly girl when I was little, and never really did much with blocks. Occasionally I'd put two or three together to create a chair for a Barbie doll, but that was the extent of my interest in blocks. My husband, on the other hand, loved blocks as much as my son does. He is pleased as punch that our son enjoys blocks, and many nights the two of them disappear into Aiden's room, building things for hours on end.
Just in time for Aiden's third birthday, we were sent two building sets from K'NEX. The first was the Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection Ice Cream Truck Building Set.
This is an adorable line by K'NEX, featuring Sesame Street characters, for ages 2-5. The Ice Cream Truck set has eighteen pieces, including Elmo in a white uniform and cap.
There are three other sets in the Sesame Street Neighborhood Collection by K'NEX; a Police Car Building Set, 1-2-3 Brownstone Building Set, and a Police Station Building Set. They're designed to coordinate and create a neighborhood, but stand alone individually as well.
As you can see from the pictures, the parts in the Sesame Street sets are chunky, so little hands can easily manipulate them. Even though the set is called the "Ice Cream Truck Set" it's not limited to that. It's basically a set of blocks, and only limited by a child's imagination.
The K'NEX Ice Cream Truck Building Set retails for $9.99 and is available at Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The second item we were sent was the K'NEX 400-piece tub.
Designed for ages seven and up, this tub includes building ideas for more than twenty models. Mama likes it because everything stores in the tub itself! Daddy and Aiden pulled out the step-by-step building instructions and got to work:
Aiden made sure everything was sorted. (Obviously, he's too young to play with this set by himself. It had some very little parts. So Daddy kept an eagle eye on things).
This is a piece they built using their imaginations. K'NEX sets include parts that allow for movement (wheels, propellers, a ferris wheel, etc). This was some sort of portable swinging device...so Aiden is putting a little person in the swing seat:
This piece was created following the directions in the step-by-step book included in the tub. I think it's a hot air balloon.:
The K'NEX 400-piece tub retails for $20.99 and is available at Target, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was my first exposure to K'NEX. The Sesame Street set was familiar enough to me, since we've had similar style blocks in our home for some time. But the pieces in the 400-piece tub were foreign to me. I looked at the big pile of jumbled rods and blocks and wheels and had zero interest in it. My husband?
If you'd like a chance at winning $1,000 worth of K'NEX Sets, check out the "Make a K'NEXion" video contest! Capture your child building and creating with either the K'Nex 400-piece tub or the Sesame Street Building Sets, submit it before December 7th, and you could win $1,000 in K'NEX!
Keeping it real: I was provided with the K'NEX 400-piece tub and Sesame Street Ice Cream Truck Sets by Team Mom in order to write this review.
