Kapla blocks were invented about 25 years ago by a Dutch guy called Tom van der Bruggen. Tom had bought a ruined farm in a beautiful area in France, not too far from our house there so I know it quite well. Tom started to renovate the farm, and he was using wooden building blocks to make little scale models of his ideas for the structures. Traditional building blocks didn’t work well enough for his models so he invented little planks with the proportion of 1:3:5, and called them Kapla (short for Kabouter Plankjes, Dutch for Gnome Planks). With the Kapla blocks, he could now ‘construct with the precision of artwork and the stability of stones’.

We’ve given our kids a box of Kapla blocks for Christmas and I just love the possibilities one has with it. All the blocks are exactly the same size, making it easy to create 3 dimensional structures and challenging the children to be creative and organised. The blocks are made from untreated, very smooth wood — a pleasure to play with. I just love the simplicity of this toy — even the packaging is very down to earth and simple.
A definite recommendation if you’re looking for a toy that your kids will continue to play with; I would say it’s perfect for children from 3 years and up.

xxx Esther