NumberBlocks

Summary: Groups of blocks (representing different numbers) teach mathematical concepts to young children. This can range from counting to multiplying.

Warnings: None, except for the songs which might drive adults crazy.

Opinion: Wow! This is an amazingly educational show. It’s very impressive how many different math ideas this show teaches and how well it does! Each episode is only a couple minutes long (there are longer episodes, but most are very short) and they pack in the concepts with rhymes and songs and silly visuals to show how all the numbers relate and can be combined in different ways.

The songs, I’ll admit, are catchy to the point of earworms and parent frustration (please don’t sing that song again in the car, kiddos, PLEASE), but by the time schooling rolled around, they knew far more than expected (they had the ‘doubles’ memorized well ahead of time, which was very useful).

I was super impressed with this show and highly recommend it!

Sequels/Remakes: There is a related show called AlphaBlocks, but it’s not quite as good as this one.

Educational Value: 3 out of 3 stars. Extra educational!

Cultural value: 2 out of 5 stars. This is a fairly recent show, so it’s hard to say how much cultural value it will end up with, but it’s good and growing and popular enough to have expanded beyond just the show itself into merchandise. My guess is that this will end up being as much a cultural icon of preschool educational shows as Barney the Dinosaur once was.

Age rating: This show is appropriate for ages 4 and older. While I think that ages 4 and 5 would typically get the most out of this show, I would also recommend it for older children who may be struggling with math concepts. It might be childish for older kids, but if it helps them learn…

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