My new favorite purchase for my kids- Chinese language blocks from Il Cocco di Mamma

I'm going to go ahead and subtitle this review as "someone please hide my wallet and block Il Cocco di Mamma on my computer so that I don't spend all my money there".

As you all know, my husband is Chinese, so I'm always looking for ways to bring elements of Chinese culture into my kids' daily lives.  One thing that I've been looking for for some time is a set of blocks with Chinese words on them. And I finally found them at Il Cocco di Mamma! 

I was not familiar with this site, but when I found it, I was in love and before I knew it I was entering my payment information into the site and pressing "buy".  This is the best site I've ever seen for children's products in other languages. They have shirts and toys and games and music and socks and shoes in a number of languages, including French, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese, English, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish.

These are the wooden alphabet blocks that I purchased. 

Aren't those great?  They're handcrafted here in the USA out of basswood. Since they arrived, Ethan just can't get enough of them.  And besides being fun, this has been a great way for Daniel to teach the kids some new Chinese words and for me to learn to read a few basic characters and numbers!

 Daniel and Ethan having fun with their new blocks

I love that there are so many things that you can do with these blocks. One side makes up a map of China (perfect for display when not in use!), another side shows a picture of an animal or body part with the transliteration of the word in English, another side shows the Chinese character with the English word under it, another side has instructions on how to write the character and the last side has a number in English along with the Chinese characters for that number.

You can also get these blocks in Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Russian and English. I used to speak Russian, back before the kids managed to run off all my brain cells, and I'm thinking about getting the Russian set for my kids as well.   I'm also tempted by so many other things on this site- the shirts are adorable, and the books all look great. So if you're in search of toys and books in other languages, or just want a fun and unusual gift idea, check out Il Cocco Di Mamma!

Disclosure: I received no product and no compensation for this review. Just writing about something that I purchased and love!