sells directly to the consumer through this website, at retail through specialty toy outlets and directly to schools and daycare centers. It should be noted that during the last 14 years over 10,000 classrooms have been equipped with maple wooden block sets which have been manufactured and sold to schools and daycare centers by our company. We are a significant factor in the wooden block business.The first priority Of Oldfashioned Blocks is to manufacture the best hard maple standard unit building blocks made in the USA. We offer these blocks to you on this website along with the finest Rocking Horse, Toddler Push Toy, Tabletop Skittles game, and Doll Furniture products available in today's marketplace. All products are manufactured in our own woodworking shop in Rhode Island.
We start from scratch. We purchase truckloads of kiln dried Maple from the mills and produce your blocks and our other products in our Rhode Island woodworking plant. Our unit block is the same classic wooden block that you and your parents used in elementary school. These are the same type of block as that developed by educator Caroline Pratt at her City and Country Day School in the early 1900's. Sometimes you will hear "unit blocks" identified as kindergarten blocks, wooden construction blocks, educational blocks or just as wooden building blocks. We refer to them as "old-fashioned blocks"; however, their official name is Standard Unit Building Blocks.
Unit building blocks are the single most valuable toy available to children. These wooden blocks are toys that foster the opening of a child's mind by making use of their imagination and unleashing their creativity. True unit blocks maintain a fixed size relationship amongst the various shapes in a set. The "unit" is exactly 5 1/2 inches long. The "double unit is made exactly 11 inches long or twice the length of the "unit", and the "quad" is exactly 22 inches long or 4 times the length of the unit. A child's ability to learn basic math principles is improved by block play because they are actually able to visualize that 2 Units make 1 Double and 4 Half Units make 1 Double, etc.
The heft and size of Unit Block parts also contributes to the development of fine motor skills and block play fosters the growth of social skills by encouraging group play and cooperation. Block play is important to the intellectual and physical development of children. Standard unit wooden blocks fill a role few other toys can claim.
Please take the time to look at our unit blocks page. Once there you will find a clear explanation of what makes a true unit block and why being manufactured from maple makes a significant difference. Keep in mind that stores or websites using words such as "durable hardwood", "selected hardwood", or "rubberwood" are not providing you with the "best", i.e., "Maple".
How to accurately compare our sets and pricing with those of our competitors
Please click here and visit the Block Set Description page. The page contains a chart detailing the contents of the various block sets and providing links to pictures of each set. The page also contains some valuable hints to supplement our comments about maple by providing valuable information about what else to keep in mind when shopping for a quality block set and advice on how to accurately compare our sets and their pricing with those of our competitors. We are proud of our wooden block sets. They range in size from 18 to 326 pieces with 2 sets combining a wooden wagon with unit blocks and 3 sets incorporating our exclusive Block & Castle features. In addition, our twenty eight individual unit block shapes
are all available for purchase by themselves If you are looking for a smaller gift or have the need to add parts to an existing set.
