Veronika hasn’t shown much interest in her building blocks lately. But you can add novelty to any set of blocks by adding family pictures. Suddenly each block has a name and a face!

I cut up old calendar pictures for this game, but you could also have a set printed cheaply at the drugstore. Cut out faces until they fit on your child’s blocks. I think classic rectangular wooden blocks would have worked best, but the game was fine on our foam blocks.

I attached one relative’s face per block, using clear contact paper to stick them on, while Veronika was napping. She woke up to discover her family!

This game was great for building of course, encouraging her to use the blocks for quite some time.

It was also great for putting names to faces, especially for family members we haven’t seen recently due to coronavirus.

All that aside, there was a definite silly factor. “It’s the daddy block!” she said, stacking the block with her dad’s face. “It’s the Travis block!”

Her favorite was of a baby cousin, and she almost lovingly carried around the block for a while, cradling it and giving it the best spot in her creations.

“Let’s but the baby right here,” she narrated as she played.

This activity was a great way to make an old toy new again. We might have to try it on something other than blocks soon.