HABA Building Blocks First Letter Fun and HABA Bambini First Counting Fun Beads Review & Giveaway (Winner's Choice!)

I have said it many times...my kids love the simple, open-ended types of toys like blocks and beads. There's just something exciting about being able to create and explore. In fact, it's toys like these that they could play with for hours on end1 I love the many skills simple products like these offer, and now thanks to HABA...the classic toys are even more educational and fun for young children!

We are huge fans of this brand and their high quality toys, and I couldn't have been happier to learn we were going to have the opportunity to review a couple of their fantastic products! We were sent the Building Blocks First Letter Fun and Bambini First Counting Fun Beads for Kaelyn and Kaden to try out.


When the toys arrived, both kids were excited to check them out.



Kaelyn is very much into anything that has to do with letters and numbers. The Bambini First Counting Fun Beads caught her attention first, as she said it reminded her of when we bead necklaces.

Upon pulling the pieces out of the box, I found extremely high quality wooden beads...something that I can tell will last us a long time! There was also 1 threader and a cord.
Kaelyn began with the threader, but found it was easier to thread the cord through the beads without it. Either way, it was a lot of fun for her and helped refine those fine motor skills as well as her hand-eye coordination.

What I love, is that this is something that really appeals to both kids. Kaden can simply use it to help work on basic skills and have fun threading...while Kaelyn can do that and more! Each bead has a number on it, and on the opposite side there's a corresponding number of pictures. We work on number correspondence a lot, as well as counting so this was something she is very familiar with and thought was a lot of fun!
Kaelyn really enjoyed threading the cord through the beads and placing the beads in order from 1 to 10. She laid them out on the floor first in order and then began threading. After she was done, she took them off and began again... only this time using the pictures on the back to help her figure out the order.
All in all, this is really a great game for children of all ages (recommended 3+) and something I know will be enjoyed around our household for years to come!

The Building Blocks First Letter Fun set was equally as impressive and fun for both kids (Kaelyn who is almost 4 and Kaden who is almost 2). In the box there's a set of building blocks with letters on them, as well as some that can be written on with the included chalk.

Kaden has really begun to show an interest in blocks and building towers with them. This is what he does with this set most often. Of course...knocking them over is just as fun! :)
Kaelyn on the other hand, really enjoys the more educational part of this toy....and likes to find the letters to her name and even writes them out on the cubes that are blank. It's been fun to watch her gain an even greater love for letters and making words. While she was playing with them one day, she said "look mom, I spelled your name". She had written the word mom on three of the four dice that could be written on with chalk. I love it! What a fun way to use such a classic toy and teach such important skills!! There's even a cloth that can be used as an eraser to wipe them off so she can start again.

We really have enjoyed both of these products from HABA. Once again, they did not disappoint. We found both of these toys to be outstanding quality, fun, and educational. I would definitely recommend them to other families with young children.

Buy It: The Building Blocks First Letter Fun retails for $58 and Bambini First Counting Fun Beads retails for $22.

Win It: One very lucky reader is going to win their choice of either the Building Blocks First Letter Fun and Bambini First Counting Fun Beads!

Mandatory Entry - Please visit HABA and let me know another product you'd love to have.

Extra Entries: (Only valid after the mandatory entry has been completed. Leave 1 comment for each extra entry)

1. 3 extra entries- Blog about this giveaway (linking to this post and HABA) and leave THREE comments with the URL to that post.

2. 1 extra entry- Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (You can tweet once a day for one extra entry every day)! You can copy and paste:

#WIN a Building Blocks First Letter Fun set OR Bambini First Counting Fun Beads from HABA (Winner's Choice)! http://bit.ly/sMx8M3 Ends 11/8

3. 3 extra entries- Post my blog button or blog URL to your blog and leave a comment with the URL to your blog. (If it already is, leave me a comment letting me know)

4. 2 extra entries- subscribe to A Mom's Balancing Act via e-mail (found along the side column) and leave TWO comments letting me know.

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6. 2 extra entries- Follow my blog publicly on Google Friend Connect

7. Enter any of my other current giveaways. Leave me a comment on which one(s)....ONE entry for EACH giveaway you enter!!

This giveaway will end November 8th and is open to the US Only

**The products for this review and giveaway were provided for free. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.