Baby Einstein Wooden Building Block 40-Piece Set Just $12.98 on Walmart.com (Regularly $40)

This is a brilliant little kit. It is so unusual and so versatile with all the different elements – it certainly lives up to its ‘curious creator’ name. Personally, I like that it is relatively free-form, leaving the child to explore and experiment, creating structures, vehicles, and more, with the brightly colored and decorated blocks of all shapes and sizes along with the other shaped plastic pieces.

My 18-month-old granddaughter spends ages exploring what she can do with all these exciting and unusual items. Her favorite thing is to build things and knock them over, with much hilarity as everything cascades across the floor, but she is also very fond of creating little vehicles with wheels and crawling around the floor with them as she makes up stories and games. It is so lovely to watch as she works things out by trial and error and gains confidence and dexterity.