Keva Structures Sets 50-200 Planks

(Mindware $20.99 and up)

No glue, no pegs, no colors, no various sizes—this is a totally open-ended building set with 200 planks ($49.99) of smooth pine wood that can be built into more than 40 different structures. Using these all of a kind planks, the variations call for stacking, balancing, and figuring how make an infinite number of towers, bridges, and original constructions. It comes with a 24 page booklet with ideas that will introduce kids to hands-on principals of physics. We tested the 50 piece set ($20.99); a good place to start with beginners. For starters we played a Jenga style game, then we took turns building a tower, trying hard to keep stacking freestyle without making it fall. After that our six year old tester did some creative building, rejecting the idea of copying the pictures on the packages. They say 5 and up, we'd say kids of 6 7, 8 and even 88 will find these an interesting challenge.These are compatible with the original Kapla blocks, gender free, and will challenge young builders imagination, visual skills and dexterity.