June 2010 New Specialty Toys — Educational

Designed to be fun and educational while encouraging good habits and character, this plush platypus speaks humorous and uplifting phrases.

Flower Feelings are emotions brought to life as a garden of eight adorable plush characters, each with a distinctive facial expression identifiable by the feeling name embroidered on the back. Accompanying the toy is a full-color booklet describing the individual traits of each emotion, along with playful questions and answers designed to help children recognize feelings in their own life. A sing-along CD about the Flower Feelings is included in the package, along with lesson plans for home or classroom. "The colorful and engaging plush allow children a tangible way to embrace their feelings while the activities and song included in the kit provide many ways to create a positive setting in which children can express their emotions," Ei Kids President Daniel Nix told TDmonthly.

In this novelty peek-a-boo book, children are invited to look through the holes on every other page to answer the repeating refrain, "Who’s coming to see how my garden grows?" The energetic, rhyming text introduces all sorts of creatures that are busy foraging and frolicking in the garden.

With 40 interactive activities and games, Kids’ Garden encourages children to engage with the outdoors and appreciate the green world around them. Each double-sided card has step-by-step instructions with colorful collage artwork.
Awards: 2010 Ippy Award Best Children's Interactive Category

This lively "un"cyclopedia gives young readers an eye-opening broad basis of general knowledge. From a tour of the human skeleton and the five senses to modern technology and inventions, from life in a desert to a day at the fire station, children will be delighted and fascinated at every turn of the page. "Special features throughout make information fun and accessible: Kids' Questions sidebars, What About You? bubbles, Figure It Out! activities, Did You Know? sidebars, Number Time bubbles, Day-in-the-Life pages, and more," Kendal Gerard, Marketing Associate, Owlkids, told TDmonthly.

Everyday childhood activities, such as an excursion to the park, splashing in the bathtub or fixing a snack in the kitchen, can prompt many questions from young children. This special edition of Why? celebrates the book's 10th anniversary and provides kid-friendly explanations for nearly 100 of the most common questions kids ask. "Each of the questions included in this book was carefully selected from a pool of thousands of questions submitted by real children," Owlkids Marketing Associate Kendal Gerard told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2002 American Association for the Advancement of Science Best Books for Children; 2002 Canadian Toy Testing Council 25 Great Books for Children

This pair of zimbi shoes can be painted and erased again and again. The kit includes a pair of zimbi shoes, six waterproof paints, 32 magical erasing pads, two paint brushes and a mixing palette.

With this kit, kids can paint their clogs and erase them to paint them again. The set comes with a pair of clogs, six waterproof paints, 32 erasing pads, two brushes and a mixing palette.

With this kit kids can learn about symmetry, then create their own symmetrical cut paper designs. Based on a traditional South American craft, the Amate Cut Paper Kit contains everything needed to make seven cut paper designs, right down to the pencil and glue stick.

With the Sumi-e Painting Kit, kids can paint in the Japanese style with watercolor ink, then stamp their creations with a hand-crafted symbol. The kit contains everything needed to make eight paintings and one scroll painting, along with enough extra ink to print dozens more. Easy-to-follow instructions are also included.
Awards: 2008 Parents Choice Award; 2009 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal

With the Eye Can Art kit, kids can draw a pastel picture or make a collage inside a frame, then melt a layer of wax and draw on top. This wax drawing kit contains everything needed to make two ready-to-hang encaustic artworks, along with easy-to-follow illustrated instructions.
Awards: 2010 A+ Education.com Award

These bean bag activities, blended with world traditions and rich musical rhythms, are designed to teach unique customs and cultures. These activities include circle and partner activities, traditional dances, games, fiestas and original action fun, with the goal of teaching important concepts, motor skills and language.

WOKER is Word Poker. The cards represent letters and the goal is to make the highest scoring words based on the points associated with each letter. The cards are dealt as in three popular poker games. "It can be a family game, a party game or an educational tool," LCT Enterprises President Lisa C. Teore told TDmonthly.

Children can get actively engaged with these easy circle time ideas for a daily routine. Circle time activities and games are designed to provide structure and help children develop important concepts and skills, such as listening, color and letter recognition, patterns, rhythms, body identification, weather and counting. "The music and movement action will help calm kids down and get them ready for learning," Elaine Murphy, Kimbo Educational director of sales and marketing, told TDmonthly.

The Sterling Police have just announced a major breakthrough in the case of the pirated video game MazTech Ultimate SK8 and need help breaking up the piracy ring. In this game, kids can join the Ectropy Secret Science Team, using science skills to help solve the mystery. "Secret Science Team is about taking what you learn about science and applying it to everyday situations ... it is more than science experiments, it is truly a science experience," Ectropy Science President Walter Thompson told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2010 Parents' Choice Approved

Word FRENZY is a fast-paced, word-forming card game that aims to foster spelling, vocabulary, word association and math skills. Playing with letter cards, players try to be the first to collect cards that spell a four-letter word relating to a category. "It's stealth education made fun!" Tame Tiger Marketing VP Steve Kam told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2009 Parents' Choice Approved Award; 2009 Dr. Toy's Best Picks; 2009 The National Parenting Center Seal of Approval; 2010 Family Review Center Gold Award; 2010 Family Review Center Editor's Choice Award

"A Sunny Day" captures all the fun and wonder of a child's day from sun up to lights out. With an eclectic mix of melodies, playful lyrics and inviting vocals, Julie K takes children on an exciting train ride, a trip to the zoo, flying high jumping like a jumping bean and more.
Awards: 2010 Parents' Choice Award; 2010 Dr. Toys Best Vacation Product Award; 2010 Dove Family Approved seal from the Dove Foundation

This DVD is designed to help children thrive with daily physical workouts featuring brain-based, guided movements to stimulate learning. The program also shows how these fitness exercises can be used with children who have special needs.
Awards: 2009 Dr. Toy's 10 Best Active Products; 2009 Dr. Toy's 100 Best Children's Products

Children can take up ribbons, streamers and scarves, plus get ready for hand-clapping, foot-stomping, repetitive rhythmic routines. Diverse rhythms, such as African, Reggae, Cha Cha, Bossa Nova and Rap, and cool musical action songs with a pattern and a purpose, are meant to encourage movement and imaginative play and improve motor skills. Awards: 2010 Parents' Choice Award Recommended

Mini No Ends is a table-top version of No Ends that contains more diversified beam parts and wheels in every kit. The pieces snap into place and can be easily pulled apart to later become new easy-to-build creations. Kids are encouraged to build structures while having hours of fun. "There is no end to what the child can design," Taurus Toy President Dawn Baird told TDmonthly.

Race N Roll comes complete with a starting gate and a light-up finish line. All of the pieces are red or black. Kids may have hours of fun racing the marbles against each other or competing with a friend. Race N Roll can be used with any Block N Roll set and is compatible with age-appropriate  Lego, Duplo or Mega Blocks. Two AAA batteries are required.

Snap together pink and white block parts to create a butterfly that can be attached to the LaQ Headband. The Kit includes one headband part and 35 LaQ parts. The Headband Part can also be used with block parts from other LaQ kits to create bunny ears, dog ears, a tiara, silly head pieces, or whatever you can imagine. "LaQ is a snap together construction toy completely unique in how the joint parts connect in various angles so that a child can create geometrical and spherical shapes from toy blocks," Mo Saeki, Overseas Division Manager for YOSHIRITSU CO., LTD, tells TDmonthly.

This two-to-four-player addition and subtraction game takes kids on a journey through Sum Swamp. Players make their way over the crocodile shortcut and through the endless loop by adding and subtracting the numbers rolled.

These three cute birds can be stacked and nested like Russian dolls.  This set is designed to help children develop spacial, counting and fine motor skills.