Kiva Planks are fun for kids but they are also a terrific party game.

That’s not even a flashy PR shot from Keva. We built this ship using Keva Planks in our living room at a cocktail party!

TLDR: Maple Keva Planks are building blocks that are fun for the kids, for the grandparents, and at cocktail parties.

Keva Planks are highly engineered building blocks. Every plank is precision ground to exacting dimensions, which obviously makes these great for schools, museums, and families. But I got them out at a cocktail party and the adults had fun for hours.

We recently had a few friends over for drinks, now that we are vaccinated and can get together again. We put our new favorite music on the stereo, relaxed, and poured a round of drinks. Then I pulled out two canvas bags full of blocks. I suffered a few jabs at first.

“So, we’re going to stack blocks now?” someone quipped. “Are we in kindergarten?” asked another adult, trying to be mature. I know. It always starts like this.

It takes adults a few minutes to let themselves play with Keva planks

Adults have, for reasons, I do not comprehend, that playing games is for children. I tried being one of those adults. It was no fun. Playing with blocks, though? That’s fun. But I let people arrive at this conclusion all by themselves.

I laughed along and started building a tower while sipping a drink and chatting.

Within fifteen minutes, everyone was elbowing each other out of the way and vying for space around the coffee table, building ships and towers.

After an hour, I noticed everyone building bridges between the individual towers each person had built while figuring out how to work with these slender rectangles. They were turning the scattered structures into a cohesive archipelago village.

No one was laughing at me anymore. Everyone was deeply focused on their own creations. In fact, one neighbor had to run home to get a step ladder because his tower got too tall to reach.

Keva planks are engaging enough to stack, build, and rebuild for hours. I’m even planning to bring them next time we go away to a beach or mountain vacation getaway because I can see spending a relaxing, stress-busting weekend building a world, small pieces at a time, all while hanging out with friends who might watch or add their own structure.

I love games but I am careful when pulling one out at a party because either the party will make playing the game impossible or the game will take over and isolate non-players. That’s not true with these blocks. People who don’t feel like stacking won’t feel left out because it’s easy for “stackers” to build and talk at the same time.

We have 800 planks, which is great for 1 to 4 people. I think it’s worth the extra money to buy the more durable heavy maple planks, rather than the light pine planks, although they are the same size and are interchangeable.

• Buy about 200 planks per person.
• Playable for many hours.
• Age: 5+
• Playable again and again.
• Engages enough of your brain to keep stacking, but leaves you free to interact with everyone around you.

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