American Made Construction Sets for Preschoolers

One favorite gift for children at Christmas or other times of the year is a construction set. Many construction sets are manufactured overseas. A few companies have continued to make building sets for preschoolers right here in the United States.

BEKA Blocks Construction Sets
BEKA Inc. is a toy company located in St. Paul, Minnesota, and specializing in natural wood toys and classroom items. The BEKA Little Builder block sets are for children from one year old and up.

Little Builder block construction sets come in 18-, 30-, 50-, or 100-piece sets and range in price (in 2010) from $58 to $191. The smaller maple hardwood blocks look like the letter "H." The notches allow the blocks to be fitted together to construct things. By going to the company website, you can buy individual special shapes like pillars, half circles, Gothic arches, and intersections (for road building).

The BEKA Little Builder Block construction sets have received the Creative Child's Creative Toy Award. The block sets have also been included on two lists: the Dr. Toy 100 Best Products and the Early Childhood News 100 Best Products.

You can order BEKA Little Builder Block construction sets through Sears, shop.com, creativityinstitute.com, and Amazon.com, as well as directly from the manufacturer.

Roy Toy Construction Sets
Roy Toy is a family company which had its start in the 1930s with founder Roy K. Dennison. Except for a thirty year period from sometime in the 60s to 1992, the company has produced American made wood toys. Roy Toy construction sets are recommended for ages three to four years and older.

The log construction sets are designed in such a way that the structures children made from the pine logs will not easily fall down. A comparison of the "log" from a Roy Toy construction set and one from a standard Lincoln Log construction set demonstrates why this is so. Roy Toy logs are shaped like rectangular prisms with no rounded edges. Each of the pieces in a set are hand-cut and colored with non-toxic, non-allergenic dyes. The website shows construction sets which will build such structures as small and large log cabins, a silo, a barn, a tree house and a fort. The smallest log set comes with 37 pieces and is $9.95. The largest log set contains 550 pieces and is $79.95. (2010 prices)

Roy Toy construction sets are manufactured in East Machias, Maine, while Lincoln Logs are now manufactured in China. Besides ordering directly from the company website, you can find Roy Toy building sets at WalMart, fatbraintoys.com, and Amazon.com, among others.

Dado Cubes and Squares Construction Sets
Dado Cubes and Squares are manufactured by Fat Brain Toy Company. The food-grade plastic building blocks and two-dimensional three-inch squares have slits in their sides for children to join them together. The cubes are in various sizes from one inch to five inches and can nest one inside another. Dado Cubes and Squares may be used together to create many three-dimensional structures but are sold in separate construction sets. Dado construction sets are for children three years old and older.

Dado Squares are sold in original multiple colors or in shades of blue. Each set contains 35 squares and was $21.95 in 2010. Dado Cubes are sold in the same two types of color sets. Each set consists of ten nested cubes and was $27.50 in 2010.

Dado Cubes and Squares construction sets have won numerous awards from 2006 to 2009 including the 2008 National Parenting Publications Award, Creative Child Magazine's 2008 Preferred Choice Award (Squares), and Creative Child Magazine's Toy of the Year Award in 2008 (Cubes).

Dado Cubes and Squares construction sets may be ordered online on the Fat Brain Toy Company website as well as on the Smithsonian Museum website.

My First Green Toys Block Construction Sets
The block construction sets from Green Toys are unique in that they are constructed from recycled plastic milk jugs in the United States. Because milk containers in this country are free of pthalates, PVC, and other toxic plastics, the blocks are safe enough for a six month old child to play with. The blocks have rounded edges but fit together much like Legos or Duplos. These blocks are larger than Legos or Duplos. An 18 block construction set was $24.99 in 2010.

My First Green Toys Block construction set may be ordered from Amazon.com, fatbraintoys.com, and greentoys.com.

Sources:
http://www.bekainc.com/shop/1/in-the-home/ BEKA Inc.
http://www.roytoy.com/ Roy Toy company
http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/fat_brain_toy_co/dado_cubes.cfm Fat Brain Toys
http://www.greentoys.com/green-toys-blocks.html Green Toys