Making learning fun is no easy feat, especially when you're competing against a range of other toddler activities, including chasing after the family dog or smearing crayons on your perfectly white walls. Thankfully, CBeebies' animated TV series, Alphablocks, has come to the rescue repeatedly. They keep our little ones entertained while teaching them a thing or two. So, we've rounded up the best Alphablocks toys to make learning fun.
After all, adding educational toys to your little one's toybox is a great idea.
Through various songs and adventures, the adorable Alphablocks characters help little ones practise their phonics skills and how to form words. Aside from the TV show, there are also a variety of Alphablocks games and toys that your little one can get involved with. The best way to learn is through play.
What are the Alphablocks?
Alphablocks is a cartoon TV show that aired on CBeebies until February. It taught children to spell with the use of four families of animated blocks known as Alphablocks. It helps with recognising letters and words. Here, your little one can learn all the letters of the alphabet, a few words and more. This is a great show to help before preschool begins.
You can catch up on every episode on BBC iPlayer. The episodes are always under five minutes, too. Bitesize!
From blocks to colouring books, we've listed the best Alphablocks toys for Christmas gifting. Our top picks are below.
Best Alphablocks Toys - UK 2022
The Alphablocks and Numberblocks wipe-clean book set feature four fun wipe-clean books for early learners to practise recognising and writing letters and simple phonics-friendly words. This book contains number learning, too, so your little one can brush up on their maths while they're at it.
Review: "My 5-year-old son has autism, so it is hard to get him to concentrate on anything for more than 5 minutes. He started school last September, and I recently bought these books to help him with his writing and what a difference it's made!
He's gone from not even wanting to hold a pen/pencil 6 months ago to being able to write most of his alphabet and numbers and shapes! His teacher is so impressed with how well he's come along, and I think it's because of these books! He uses them all the time! Very happy!"
Including 24 ready-to-colour pages, your little one will enjoy getting out their favourite crayons and colouring in shapes, letters and numbers. The Alphablocks colouring book includes many high-quality pictures from the family-favourite Alphablocks series and will help with learning to read aloud, learning phonics, new vocabulary and improving language skills.
Review: "My son loved this book. He likes watching Alphablocks on iPlayer, so we tried this – and it was a success."
www.etsy.com
Your little learner will enjoy matching the Alphablocks character to the letter and forming all kinds of words. With a little help from mum or dad with learning to sound out each word, your tot's phonic skills will improve in no time, all the while having a whale of a time.
Review: "Amazing quality. Have the number blocks from this company. These are literally my 3-year-olds' favourite toys! I am really pleased. These arrived as described, and they are sturdy and long-lasting! Love them!"
www.etsy.com
A gift set containing foam letters and activity cards is a great way to start your kiddo's Alphablocks collection. Each set of activity cards is for different teaching purposes, such as sounding letters, learning new vocabulary, and letter identification, promising a thorough yet fun learning experience.
Review: "Excellent product. We have been using them to teach my 3-year-old, non-verbal granddaughter to read (after teaching her the alphabet), with amazing results in that she is now beginning to speak. We can't claim all the glory, the Alphablocks TV programme really helped too."
www.whsmith.co.uk
Why not try this official lift-the-flap board book for Alphablocks? This fun lift-the-flap book helps young children to recognise letters A to Z, use phonics skills to blend letters and build words and match letters to sounds.
FAQs
What is phonics, and why is it beneficial?
Alphablocks are just one of many ways your child can learn phonics. Phonics is a way of teaching your child the different sounds of letters or groups of letters and linking them together – known as synthesising – to help you read.
Phonics helps children to break down every word into separate letters or groups of letters, sound it out and work out what it is. It's now a popular method that is taught in most pre- and primary schools. Children will start learning phonics at preschool, but you can help your little one along before then if you want.
Read more advice on phonics in our guide.
Are there any other TV shows that are fun and educational?
Alphablocks isn't the only educational programme for little ones. In fact, most of CBeebies' programming is education-based. We are well aware of the importance of managing your toddler's screen time, as too much isn't great and can even the development of their social skills. But on the flip side, some TV shows and apps are educational and fun.
From Peppa Pig to the Octonauts, you've got plenty of shows to choose from.
In fact, why not check out our guide to toddler TV.
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