Wooden blocks

Whilst at my Mum's at the weekend I found these sweet wooden alphabet blocks and loved the illustrations on them.  It got me thinking how much nicer old-fashioned toys are and how it's often the simplest things that are played with most - I once put together a tray consisting of lots of little containers and spoons / utensils, and then emptied different dried beans and lentils into the pots (these were the only things I had in the cupboard that I thought I could use!) and it kept Jamie entertained for hours.  He would scoop the beans into the pots, measure them, pour them into other containers; it really caught his attention and was worth the mess at the end!