I've not ever seen them before in Australia but our hotel had a children's play corner full of them. They're the simplest building blocks I've ever seen! - just wooden planks all identical in size made to a magic 1:3:5 ratio which makes them amazingly versatile...
I was just looking at the French website and was amazed at how Montessori it all sounded. I quote "The child builds to build himself". Wow! Sound familiar?! You can read more here about the pedagogical value of the blocks... I could quote everything from this link but shall leave you to look if you're interested. I also came across an American website.
They have those blocks at my favorite restruant for the kids to play with. They could spend hours (even the 12 year old) making things out of them, and putting them together in different ways.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful pictures BTW... I love the upshot of your son.
Val