During her 15 years at Good Housekeeping, Rachel has had the opportunity to evaluate thousands of products, including toys and cars for GH’s annual awards programs and countless innovative breakthroughs in consumer tech and home improvement.

Rachel Rothman (she/her) is the chief technologist and executive technical director at the Good Housekeeping Institute, where she oversees testing methodology, implementation and reporting for all GH Labs. The lid is reversible with the Lego platform facing up or a plain wood side so it becomes a little coffee table (if it's in your family room) or art table (if it's in the playroom). Our Good Housekeeping Institute Parenting Lab tests some 500 toys and their accessories each year for our annual Best Toy Awards and Parenting Awards. Note that the retailer also has its own bag of 201 mixed Lego bricks, sold separately, to jump-start open-ended brick play. Note that, despite some of the brand's marketing photography, this tabletop is not compatible with Duplo blocks, just the small Lego bricks.It's a genius collab between Lego and IKEA, a retailer that's great at serving families with small spaces. There are many STEM skills kids learn through play with bricks and other construction toys, including problem-solving and critical thinking. We've seen people get tricked by tops that they think work as baseplates for their favorite bricks when they do not.

The perfect first building blocks for little ones, Mega Bloks are super chunky and easy for little hands to grasp onto. Having storage for your kids' Lego play sets is key, but what we find to be most beneficial — as parents, toy pros and play advocates — are Lego tables that encourage your child to build and display their creations while also keeping stray bricks off the floor. This wooden table holds Lego bricks and also gives kids a roughly two-foot-square tabletop on which to build. Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.Having a dedicated table for building and storing Lego bricks might increase your child's likelihood of playing with them independently, building fine motor skills and flexing creative muscles.