It was another snow day, and it wasn’t even a fun kind of snow day. The fun snow days, at least for kids, are the ones where we get piled on with heavy damp snow, perfect snowball snow, perfect snowman snow, the kind of snow where a kid can make tunnels and go sledding. Meanwhile parents are quietly cursing and wiping frozen boogers off their faces as they dig out from the blizzard. Those are the ideal snow days, where you can bundle up your kid and kick them out of the house for an hour or two and let them burn off all that spare energy.
No, we didn’t have that kind of snow day. We had sleet and frozen rain, and nasty gusts of wind that launch projectile ice crystals at your frozen face. It was not the kind of day you send your kid out to play. The amount of time spent bundling her up would be longer than the amount of time she could endure the conditions outside. It was a bad snow day. I was locked in a house that was vibrating with cabin fever.
These days always throw me off; the routine is disrupted. The ten thousand things becomes ten thousand and one with the addition of two agitated children in the house.
I began thinking of activities, maybe something artsy craftsy? Maybe I can build the fort for them? I certainly didn’t want the day defined by the DVD Cabinet. Perhaps a board game? No. I need something that does not involve me today. Despite the girls being Home, I still had a lot of things to do. What I needed was a babysitter–just like every other parent in this town. I wandered upstairs to the “messy room”, (the one room with the closed door whenever guests visit) and stared at the storage bins of toys. Costumes, Dinosaurs, Zoo Set…meh. Musical Instruments? NO! Then I saw the bin labeled “building blocks”. I half smiled, shrugged and brought the bin downstairs. As per usual they converged on the bin like a pack of hyenas. They were thrilled with my choice! I didn’t hear a peep from the girls for over an hour. Building Blocks! Who’d have thunk it?
We have many toys around here. We have toys that light up. We have noisy (some very noisy) toys. We have interactive toys, many, nearly all of them battery-powered. Then we have that quiet unassuming bin in the corner, full of wooden cubes, toy building blocks all embossed with various letters and a different colors.
I hit a nice stopping point with my chores so I sat down to drink my coffee and watch them. I thought about how you really can’t get much more classic than building blocks. Wooden blocks are a standard toy, THE standard toy. A play room without blocks is practically unfathomable. It’s so ingrained with childhood and play that it is taken for granted. I decided to do some research about the venerable toy building block. By “research” I mean I spent maybe ten minutes on Wikipedia. Don’t judge me. I’m a Stay-At-Home Dad trying to keep his girls alive and fed. That being clarified, can we keep calling it “research”? Please?
Here’s what Wikipedia says:
1693 John Locke made one of the first references to “dice and playthings with letters on them to teach children the alphabet by playing”

1798 Maria and R. L. Edgeworth mention in their book Practical Education “rational toys”—blocks designed to teach gravity, physics and spatial relationships. This was found through the research of Professor Witold Rybczynski. Well…I’m like doing research here too! Right?

1820 The blocks that we all know and love, the ones with the embossed colorful letters were produced on a large scale by S. L. Hill. He actually patented that embossing method before adding color. If that guy had only known…

1837 Friedrich Frobel invents Kindergarten, and goes on to invent ten “Froebel Gifts” based on building blocks principles. And there I was simply being proud that I managed to fit a shower into my morning!

Then in 1850 Henry Cole apparently decided the Christmas Card wasn’t enough to secure his legacy, he also wrote a series of children’s books called “Cole’s A Book of Stories From the Home Treasury”, included with the books was a box of blocks and a pamphlet with blueprints for things to be built with the blocks—in a way I suppose, he paved the way for modern day Lego Kits and their accompanying instructions.
(Henry Cole actually invented the Christmas Card! How cool is that?)

In 2003 The National Toy Hall of Fame inducted “ABC Blocks” into their collection. Seriously, it took building blocks until 2003 to be recognized?
So there’s a bit of interesting history for you. Someday this post will come back to you at a key moment in a conversation and you will sound really smart! Or you will sound very frustrated because you’ll only remember the post and not the details of the content. Either way, you’re welcome! I included it because I think history is an enriching subject. Knowing where something came from and being able to see where that thing has arrived brings about a better sense of appreciation. Think about it! The concept of the ABC Block was put forth just over three hundred years ago. It was considered a genuine toy two hundred years ago.
I find play fascinating. I can watch my daughters play all day long. It’s just such a natural inclination. I’ve watched Lyd approach children she’s never met before, one of them breaks the ice with a simple question, “Wanna play?” And that’s all it takes, what delightful simplicity!
What I find interesting about blocks, is that they are timeless. With building blocks, a child seems to intuitively understand what to do with them, whether the child was born in 1808 or 2008 doesn’t seem to matter. They will be stacked, they will be knocked over, and they will be restacked.
So I raise my mug…of coffee…To the venerable Toy Building Block—saving parents from their children on snow days since the early 19th Century.