Meet the
Founder and Craftsman
of
Howdy Y’all!
My name is Alexander O’Neil, I am the creator and founder of OlliBlocks! Born and Raised right here in Austin and father of two curious, adventurous, loving, and crazy boys (age 6 and 3).
I love immersing myself in the worlds of their imaginations, so I set out to create the ultimate way to do just that! Now I make OlliBlocks available for anyone to experience that same joy of imaginative, open-ended play…
oh, and your kids can play with them too!
I handcraft each and every set right here in my workshop, ensuring they meet my high quality standards. It’s just me, my tools, a little sweat, and quality materials!
The Inspiration
Behind the Blocks
My oldest kiddo’s 6th birthday was close at hand. His name is Oliver. He calls me DaDa,
I call him Olli.
I thought to myself “Wow, I sure do love this kid. What kind of present could I get him that would blow his mind? Well, when I was his age, what drew me in? opened my mind to create? What got me excited just thinking about it?”
As I remembered back, the answer suddenly hit me.
Play Forts!
I spent hours creating tunnels and little rooms out of blankets, chairs, couch-cushions, lamps, etc. I would practically tear my parent’s house apart to bring my little worlds to life.
I also LOVED to go out to the greenbelt behind our house, where I could scavenge all around looking for any branches, rusty tin cans, or old rotted out slabs of plywood. I would then create something resembling a lean-to, which in my mind was a secret hideout for my covert spying operations, a restaurant, or a little house of my own. Fort days would always fly by.
I thought ‘“What if I could use my skills as a builder to make something that would enable Olli to experience that same adventurous, imaginative play, without destroying the house or handling rusty cans/rotting plywood?”
OlliBlocks was born.
Montessori
In Mind
I noticed early on how perceptive and unusually sensitive my kids are to their surroundings, as described by a notable Montessori school:
“If the child finds herself in a world of beauty and order, she can use this to form a wordless confidence that the wider world is beautiful and knowable. She is afforded the opportunity to make clear choices from attractive options, to understand where things go and predict where to find them, to focus her attention and efforts on interesting materials, and to succeed at what she sets out to do. She pours her energy into purposeful endeavors that serve her needs and delight her soul — whether a delicious snack prepared with care, or a vase of flowers arranged just so. Through a thousand small actions and impressions every day, she takes this beauty and order into herself. Conversely, if the child finds her world uncared for and in disarray, she will be bombarded with a cacophony of meaningless and disconnected objects, with unpredictability, and with distraction — and might unknowingly fall into patterns of insecurity and dependency to cope with what she takes to be a chaotic world.”
And
“Montessori educators take tremendous care of the environments they design for their children. Every tool, every ornament, every piece of furniture is meticulously selected and arranged such that students are able to independently know it and access it. And more than that, it’s designed to instill in students a sense of reverence: that their everyday interactions with the world are purposeful and profound. The materials selected are beautiful, breakable, and precious, begging to be treated with care. Children are taught to take stewardship of their environment; they are taught this through continuous modeling by adults, who are trained to showcase their grace and respect.”
-Guidepost Montessori
The principles laid out by the Montessori method resonate deeply with me as a parent who is responsible for raising my kids well. This is why I took them into careful consideration when designing OlliBlocks.
I wanted them to be solid and significant.
I wanted them to be more than just another cardboard block set they play with for a week, only to become uninterested; to add beauty, structure, independence, stewardship, and attention to the environment of any child who plays with them.
Building Connection
With a Simple Wooden Playset
The book “Good Inside” by the compassionate Psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy has been my guiding light as a young parent (Highly recommend if you haven't heard of it, not a sponsor). In it, she describes how “Connection is the foundation, the currency that can be drawn from in harder moments.”
I have found this to be true on my own journey raising kids. The more I can really enter into their worlds with one on one, child-led play, the less I find myself at the mercy of a meltdown or trying to understand why they are acting out.
Kids feel safe,
when they are filled with the presence of a sturdy adult.
In my experience, the older kids get, the more they are drawn towards a screen. While it has its limited merits, a child absorbed in their show/game has almost zero chance of getting to connect with a parent. OlliBlocks are designed to be so engaging and multifaceted that you can spend a whole afternoon, a whole day, or even a week really building that vital connection and infusing your presence into your child.
Parenting is hard.
I really believe that this simple wooden playset can open a door for parents struggling to find moments to connect with their children (which is ALL parents). Who knows, you may even find that it nurtures your own inner child with play along the way!
Want to learn more?
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