The game of dominoes is believed to be an invention of ancient China. During the 14th century, the game was being played in Italy and by the late 18th century, in France and England. Like many English traditions, dominoes became a favorite with American children.

Enlightened educators have long recognized that toys can be invaluable teaching tools.
Dominoes evolved from dice and while providing hours of great gaming fun they teach mathematical skills, dexterity, and life lessons. Dominoes encourage basic number identification, counting, addition/subtraction, and simple multiplication/division. Also, they can be used for the fascinating pastime of domino toppling—Stand a number of domino tiles on edge in long sequential lines, then topple the first one, which knocks the second over, which topples onto the third, and continues in a chain reaction that eventually results in all of the dominoes falling, one after another. “Everything stands together, or it falls together, one after one.”