Blik Blok

One day last week a package arrived for Ben. We knew right away when we saw the Mindware logo that whatever was inside would be great! After ripping the box open Ben found what was inside: Blik Blok,  a set of wooden geometrically shaped blocks whose box issues the challenge "Can you build what you see?".  Ben was a little less than enthused as he looked at the gift. After all, at first glance it looked like nothing much more than a set of wooden blocks like those in his sister's room. Because we were in the midst of the room redos the box was set aside until this weekend.

Sunday afternoon when Ben couldn't find anything to do I suggested we check out the Blik Bloks. He shrugged and agreed to give it a whirl. Within just a few minutes he'd discovered that these were far and away better blocks than his sisters!

Included with the blocks are 100 design cards. Each design card shows a 3D drawing of a finished object and lists the blocks that were used to construct it. The goal is to build it exactly the same using the designated blocks. Think that sounds easy? Think again! Even the beginner level cards are challenging!

Ben manipulated the blocks different ways, quickly learning that he had to go beyond the obvious configurations if he was going to successfully construct the images. After a few hesitant starts and restarts Ben had completed his first and was moving on to the second, and third....and so on. Before long his excitement was catching. And addicting. Brian joined in and later Gavin joined in. Even I sat down later that day (when no one was watching, of course) to try my hand at it and found that it was hard to stop! Just ONE more card!

Luci has a set called Block Buddies which is essentially the same thing in 2D instead of 3D, for a younger age group. Ben's Blik Blok set inspired her to work on her own design cards and even to create a few designs of her own.

Thanks to Rebecca and Rich for the great gift!