Smarcks Educational Talking Blocks Review & Giveaway

As parents we are always looking for modern and improved toys for our children.  We do not want toys that are going to break, show no learning path whatsoever, or are just useless.  To me it really is a waste of money.  I’m not going to say I have bought my kids all educational toys, because that is not the case.  Building blocks though have always been a favorite of mine.  They were one of the first basic toys both of my children had as infants.  Although, not the hard plastic or wood ones, the soft plush material. As a child I would build castles, and houses for my dolls and ponies.  Now I’m assisting my children build their creations. The possibilities are endless with blocks, which is why I like them so much.  There is no right or wrong way to build, just stack, the higher the better.  They go up, out, around, or straight. They are great for children, as they learn the basics of putting things together, construction and teamwork when working with others.  But now they also can learn their colors, sing, count, nursery rhymes, and so much more with Smarcks.  Smarcks are innovative talking building blocks which were created by a dad when he was watching his children play.

Like most homes the family room was surrounded by talking educational toys; however, his children typically chose instead to play with their building blocks. All this money on electronic toys and they end up playing with blocks – that is when it all began…

We were sent the complete set of Smarcks and were excited to get these out when they arrived.  They come in a large bin for storage, which is nice.  There is nothing worse than products that come with nothing to keep them in.  The blocks themselves are cute, sporting eyes and mouths…what a great thing to do for talking building blocks.  So check out the video we made and I’ll continue with the review.

As you can see they are clever blocks.  They are all different colors, and the posts have educational shapes and numbers on them.  The talking blocks do different things which the kids really enjoy.  They have different voices and sounds, which for a child is a pleasurable experience. Most are pretty self-explanatory, you just put them on a block and they talk.  The color blocks all have yellow eyes.  So if you find a red block with yellow eyes it’s a red color block.  Our favorite blocks have to be the counting, shape and ABC blocks.  They will tell you a letter.  “W” is for water, W-A-T-E-R, Water.  If you put them on number blocks it will tell you which block.  “You put me on a 5 block, which numbers are on it.” Gavyn has even enjoyed the blocks and he is 8.But the music and monkey math blocks are a bit different.  They have puzzles.  For instance.  When you place a monkey block on a two and three block it will play “five little monkeys jumping on the bed.”  After that you can place it on two blocks that add up to four, and it will continue singing the song; four little monkeys jumping on the bed…The music blocks are quite similar. They have different verses which will only play the first verse when placed on two one blocks.  The kids can’t figure all this out so they just stack.  We have enjoyed doing this as well though.  There are 15 combinations of blocks and they will also light up.  They only light up when the blocks are played in the correct sequence.  I think I would change this so kids can enjoy the full functionality of the music blocks by themselves without the help of parents.  You can find puzzles on their website, which is a nice help.

I think Smarcks are wonderful learning and educational blocks that kids really enjoy.  They are unique and would make a wonderful gift for kids for birthdays, Christmas or just because.  They are definitely “smart blocks”, which do a multitude of things.  You can see from the video that Zoe enjoys jamming to a fun toy that every child loves.  She gets to stack and build, while learning, singing, and gets to groove as well.  Great for any age, even adults!

Buy It: Can’t wait to try out these really cool blocks?  Visit www.talkingbuildingblocks.com to purchase today.  The 70 piece building block set will get you started for $29.95

Win It: Thanks to the generosity of Smarcks, one of my US readers will win a Learning Set which has the 70 Piece Building Set, both Color Block Sets, the Counting-Shape-ABC Set, and the Math Set a $100 value!

Mandatory Entry: Visit Smarcks, and tell me in a comment a block set you are most excited about or something you learned that I did not state in this review.

Extra Entries: Mandatory entry must be completed first, before extra entries will count, please leave a comment for each entry you complete.

• Like Smarcks on facebook(Please leave part of your username)
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Rules:Contest is open to US residents only. Giveaway will end February 26, 2011 at 10:00PM EST. Please follow all rules or they will not count. Winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to confirm. If no confirmation in that time frame a new winner will be chose and will have 24 hours to confirm. Winners will be posted on the winners page. Thank you and Good Luck!

Disclaimer: This is a review based on my opinion only, yours may differ.  We were sent the above mentioned items to help facilitate our review, no other form of compensation was received.  Thank you to Smarcks for this review and giveaway opportunity.