Had we known about this hook on chair by Chicco before we bought our high chair, we may have reconsidered our purchase and gone this route, based on efficiency alone. Our neighbors love theirs. It’s perfect for wee homes, perfect for sharing meal time with kiddos and for taking on the road. Folds for compact storage. Fits tables up to 6″ thick and is equipped with three-point safety harness. Nylon seat pad for easy clean up. Holds up to 37 lbs. Quick-grip table clamp is solid. Heck, we still may buy one to take car camping or  to use while at the gparents houses. $35.99, here.

We love classic wooden blocks with letters and numbers. We vividly remember playing with them as kiddos and are glad they’re still around to share with our wee ones. We like this Uncle Goose set by Lindenwood for its bright colors, lowercase letters, vintage reproduction quality and because each block contains four letters, a corresponding baby animal and a number or math symbol. The 28-piece set includes four alphabets, that’s four for the price of one. Score. All of Lindenwood’s blocks are constructed with beveled edges for easy graspability and safety. Printed with non-toxic inks on basswood forested for manufacturing on industry owned land and eco-friendly land. Available with printed canvas bag or a wooden wagon. Perfect for the 3+ set, but we say younger tots can enjoy, too. Set includes 28 blocks. $34.00, here.

Typography is one of our favorite things, so we were very excited to find these beast (really not that beastly) inspired alphabet flash cards of animals built from different typefaces. Sharon Werner and Sarah Fors the award winning design team of the book, ”Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types” have created an innovative and colorful set of cards that turns into two floor puzzles when cards are flipped. Great tool for toddlers learning the ABCs and a little bit about beasties and typography, too. Perfectly compact for travel. $15.99, here.

We distinctly remember spending a lot of time at the foot of our fridge perusing the alphabet and spelling out first words like cat and go, when we were tots. Melissa & Doug’s magnetic letters are bigger than the plastic magnetic letters we remember and our kiddos love them. We’ve had ours for over 6 months and they’ve held up really well. The case is a MUST and we’re so glad it comes with a lid because we play with our letters almost every day and have NOT lost any of them, which is amazing. The letters come in bright, primary colors and each letter has the same color for upper and lower case making it easier for little one’s to find the BIG A and the little a. Magnets are cool and give learning the alphabet a different spin, when you can stick them to a surface and move the pieces around. $11.95, here.

“The Sleepy Little Alphabet: A Bedtime Story From Alphabet Town” by Judy Sierra is a book we picked up at the library and our whole family instantly fell in love with it. Not only do we like the rhyming sequence as it goes through all 26 letters, but we love the incredibly adorable illustrations by Melissa Sweet. The mamas and papas in the book are all uppercase letters and the children are the lowercase letters. Our tots started really looking forward to bedtime, getting to read this book and it also started them on memorizing & reciting the alphabet as well as distinguishing between upper and lowercase letters. We couldn’t recommend this book enough. It’s a definite keeper and one to add to any budding ABC aficionado’s collection. $11.50, here.