Melissa and Doug Ms. Rachel Sort and Count Nesting Blocks with Wooden Fish Review
A counting and sorting set themed around Ms. Rachel's "Bubble, Bubble, Pop!" song. It includes five sturdy cardboard nesting cubes printed as fish tanks, which nest inside one another for storage and stack into a tower, plus 15 wooden play fish in matching colors. Each cube face shows a numeral, the matching number of fingers, the corresponding count of fish, and an underwater scene, so children can match fish to blocks by color and by number. Includes a caregiver Learning Card with play ideas. FSC certified; designed for ages 2 and up.
Kylie Harker's review
By Kylie Harker ·
Category scores
- Durability 2.5
This is the weak point and the reason to think before buying. The cubes are printed cardboard, and owner reports are properly split, with some saying theirs have survived a great deal and others reporting dented corners early on. Water is the real enemy, since a spilled drink permanently changes a block's shape, and printed edges can peel if picked at. How long it lasts depends almost entirely on your particular child.
- Value for money 3
You are paying a licensing premium for the face on the box, and that is a straightforward trade rather than a scandal. Reasonable value for a two-year-old who will play with it for a year and a second child who might inherit it, given cardboard survives that long. Poor value for a four-year-old, who will be finished with it in an afternoon.
- Storage and space 4.5
The best practical feature and the one that keeps it in the house. The blocks nest inside one another, so at the end of the day you put away a single cube rather than five, and the fish go inside it. For anyone short of shelf space, that is worth more than an extra learning feature. Only the loose wooden fish stop this being a clean sweep, because some of them will escape.
- Learning value 3.5
The design does the job properly. Each face pairs a numeral with the matching number of fingers and the matching count of fish, which gives a child three ways into the same idea and suits the age where counting is physical rather than abstract. Sorting fish by colour into the right tank is a natural game rather than a worksheet. It is solid early maths rather than anything ambitious, and children move past it fairly quickly.
- Would a child actually want it 4
For a Ms. Rachel household, immediately and enthusiastically, and the fish are appealing enough to hold up once the branding stops being the draw. Stacking a tower and knocking it down remains undefeated as a toddler activity. If your child has no idea who Ms. Rachel is, it is a decent set of nesting blocks with fish and nothing more, which is a noticeably smaller sell.
The review
If you have been through the Ms. Rachel years you already know whether this is going to work in your house. That face on the box is doing most of the selling, and there is no point pretending otherwise. The fair question is whether what is inside earns its keep once the novelty of the branding wears off, which in my experience takes about four days.
Mostly, yes. The five cardboard cubes nest inside one another and stack into a tower, and each face is printed with a numeral, the matching number of fingers, and the matching count of fish. That is a genuinely well thought out bit of design. A two-year-old gets colour matching and stacking. A three-year-old starts counting the fish onto the right block. The fingers on each face are the detail I liked most, because holding up three fingers is how small children actually count before they can read numbers.
The fifteen wooden fish are the good bit and the annoying bit at once. They feel nice, they are the right size for small hands, and they are the pieces you will be finding behind the radiator in six months. There is no world in which you finish with fifteen.
Now the cardboard, which is the thing to think hard about before buying. The cubes are printed cardboard, not wood, despite the wooden fish and the Melissa and Doug name suggesting otherwise to a lot of people. Owner reports are genuinely mixed on how they hold up. Plenty of parents say theirs have survived heavy use, and a fair number say the corners dented quickly under a determined toddler. Cardboard also does not forgive water, so a spilled beaker or a damp cloth changes the shape of a block permanently, and the printed artwork can peel if a child picks at an edge. Treat it as a toy that lives on a table or a rug, not one that goes in the bath or the garden.
The age question. It says two and up, and two to three is where it belongs. My four-year-old enjoyed it for an afternoon in the way you enjoy something that is slightly beneath you, then went back to things with more moving parts. If you are buying for a four-year-old expecting a counting toy that stretches them, this is not it. If you are buying for a toddler, or for a second child coming up behind the first, the timing is right.
What I genuinely appreciate is the storage. It nests into itself. One block-shaped object goes on the shelf at the end of the day rather than five, which is more than most learning toys manage, and it is the reason it has not been quietly moved to the loft.
The verdict. Sensible, well designed, nicely judged for the age it is actually for, and priced with a licensing premium you are paying whether you like it or not. Good if your toddler loves Ms. Rachel. Merely fine if they do not.
Who should not buy it: anyone with a child much past three, anyone expecting wooden blocks rather than cardboard ones, and anyone whose toddler is still in the chewing and hurling phase, because cardboard has a limited tolerance for both.
Frequently asked questions
Are the blocks wooden?
No, and this catches people out. The fifteen fish are wooden, and the five nesting cubes are printed cardboard. The Melissa and Doug name and the wooden fish in the title lead a lot of buyers to expect wooden blocks. They are decent cardboard and they are FSC certified, but they are still cardboard, which means they dent under real force, they never recover from a spilled drink, and the printing can peel if a child works at a corner. If you specifically want wooden blocks, buy wooden blocks.
Is a four-year-old too old for it?
Honestly, yes for the most part. It says two and up and two to three is the sweet spot. My four-year-old happily stacked the tower and matched the fish for an afternoon, then moved on to things that do more. The counting it teaches, matching a numeral to a quantity up to five, is something most four-year-olds are already comfortable with. Buy it for a toddler, or for a younger sibling arriving into the Ms. Rachel phase, rather than for a preschooler you want to stretch.
Does it still work if my child does not watch Ms. Rachel?
It works, it just is not special. Underneath the theme it is a well designed set of nesting and stacking blocks with counting on the faces and some pleasant wooden fish, and that stands up on its own. But a decent part of what you are paying for is the character on the box and the recognition that comes with it. If your child has never seen the programme, look at plain nesting blocks first and see whether you prefer what you get for the money.
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