November 2012 Notable Toys — Educational

These encyclopedias are designed to stir kids' imaginations and drive their desire to explore new things. Each book presents fascinating facts, bright, colorful pictures, and a special feature: pages contain well-hidden flaps that contain even more information underneath them. Look closely to find them. Eye-catching illustrations broaden horizons. Action-oriented hidden flaps encourage kids to learn more.

This series helps children learn to think logically, count, and distinguish among different shapes, colors, fruits, and vegetables by flipping through the cards and matching pairs. Kids will be easily entertained playing this colorful matching game.

The story of Cleopatra’s life has captured the imagination of countless writers and artists for centuries. As one of history’s most enduring figures, much lore has obscured the real woman behind the myth. Was she a beautiful and heartless schemer who stopped at nothing to get what she wanted? Or was Cleopatra a tragic victim of her own heart? This next volume in the acclaimed Notebook series offers a fascinating look into the world of one of Egypt’s most notorious leaders. Featuring a fictional journal that invites us into Cleopatra’s inner world, this is an exquisite guide bursting with gorgeous illustrations and packed with fun interactive extras such as flaps featuring historical facts and pop culture references.This is a riveting volume rife with battles, passion, and even murderous intrigue — an exclusive look into the legendary queen’s dramatic life. Launch date: October 2012.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval

Marie's Words is a work of 550 original, full-color, hand-drawn vocabulary flash cards. It allows kids to learn word definitions in a visual and meaningful way. The illustrations are unique, and many use historical, geographical, scientific, cultural and generational references as a mnemonic tool for easy learning. Marie's Words harnesses the "Power of Pictures."

Flip2BFit is the first and only fitness board game in the market today!  Flip2BFit helps to fight childhood obesity and encourage a healthy lifestyle through an interactive board game – no gym or video game needed!  Kids learn about nutrition, develop self-esteem, confidence and leadership skills by performing the activities in the game.  The object of Flip2BFit is to travel through the park to meet “Springer” the dinosaur at the playground.  To do this, each player is required to perform a yoga pose, stretch, cardio move or strength training exercise.  Learning is achieved through the discovery of movement.
Awards: 2012 PTPA - Parent Tested Parent Approved; 2012 Kidlution - Solutions for Kids

Team Ten, the colorful and friendly plush number characters 0-9, encourage children to think of numbers as something fun and relevant. Each 10" number has a unique personality with a whimsical human face. Children form a bond with the numbers while storytelling, increasing mathematical language concepts and number recognition. Children love hugging their number friends and telling stories about how they find the numbers in everyday life! Great for birthdays and anniversaries, too. Launch date: November 2012.
Awards: 2012 Creative Child Magazine Top Toy of the Year

The Sukugo game set is for social Sudoku game. Designed with balance in mind, our innovative approach to Sudoku equally engages both halves of the brain - the left side works on numerical challenges and reasoning while the right side focuses on color patterns and creativity. Although the large game board and colorful numbered pieces are designed to be enjoyed collaboratively with a partner, it’s just as fun to play individually. Launch date: October 2012.

Give children their own durable touch-screen tablet with VTech's InnoTab 2 Learning App Tablet. This multi-functional tablet for children ages 3 - 9 includes a photo/video camera, a 5-inch touch screen, 2 GB of onboard memory, an SD card slot for expandable memory, and media players for MP3s, photos, and videos. The InnoTab 2 comes with an art studio, coloring app, one e-book, two motion sensor games, and 2 free downloads from the Learning Lodge Navigator. Additional songs, games, e-books, and videos are available for purchase online on VTech's Learning Lodge Navigator.

Smart Lab's Squishy Science from Head to Toe sparks curiosity and reveals the mysteries of the human brain and body for kids eight and up. This set includes transparent, anatomically correct models of the human body and human skull. Kids dissect the squishy organs and glow in the dark bones, nerves and eyeballs with lifelike surgical tools. The colorful information booklet, Organ-izer, and activity cards are packed with scientific information about the human body and the brain.
— As of 11/15/2012 this product had 4.7 out of 5 stars from 15 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: Fun and educational; includes and educational guidebook. Cons: Hard to snap the skull together.

This kit allows users to increase the size, complexity and richness of their models. The number of interesting things one can build increases exponentially when one has more parts. This kit is perfect for those who have already caught the Zometool bug or families and groups who want to build together. Total parts: 738.
— As of 11/15/2012 this product had 4.7 out of 5 stars from 9 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: A great educational tool; can be used to teach geometry, or just for fun. Cons: Rods have to be pushed really hard into the balls in order for the creations not to fall apart.

A great item for today's adventuresome girls. Each kit contains a gypsum block with 7 different embedded gemstones and a spiral pendant. Once the stones have been excavated, she can choose a favorite stone to wear in the necklace. Stones can be changed to coordinate with her outfit or her mood. Launch date: August 2012.

Class Calendar presents a visually complete representation of the day, month, year, today’s weather, and the season in 4” x 4” frames. It includes images of the seasons, weather, months, day, date, and storage basket. It is provided in both English and Spanish. Launch date: January 2013.

Children will learn to fasten buttons, zippers, snaps, shoe laces, buckles and more, while playing with these multicultural dressing dolls. Each doll measures  15-3/4" tall. Ages 3 - 9. Surface-washable. Launch date: January 2013.

Cash in on curiosity with this modern cash register that makes playing shop irresistible. Features a fun coin slide and pop-open cash drawer. Includes chunky buttons and 5 number coins. Ages 2+. Launch date: January 2013.

A complete multi-activity stacking toy with 15 colorful wooden blocks for stacking, sorting, and building.  Collapsible posts for added safety. Learn numbers and counting. Develops motor skills and hand-eye coordination. 2 strings included. Tested to meet European and U.S. safety standards. Launch date: February 2013.

There is no better way to learn alphabets, numbers, colors, and shapes than by playing with these 28 colorful wooden Boikido cubes. These cubes are also building blocks that stimulate imagination. Develops motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and problem solving skills. Launch date: February 2013.

Take a tour around the world exploring the inspiring and wondrous cites of the World Landmarks TOOB® from Safari Ltd®.Packaged in a reusable acetate tube, this set contains seven replicas, including the Great Wall of China, Mount Rushmore, Stonehenge, Buddha of Lantau, Easter Island, Neuschwanstein Castle and Colosseum. Hand painted figures measure 1.5” to 3” (4 to 7.5 cm) and are suitable for ages 3 and up. All Safari Ltd® products are 100% guaranteed and lead free to ensure children’s safety. Launch date: 2013.

Discover the explosion of life in the Cambrian Sea with the Cambrian Life TOOB® from Safari Ltd®. This TOOB® features some of the most notable of these creatures from 500 million years ago. Packaged in a reusable acetate tube, this set contains eight replicas, including the Anomalocaris, Vauxia, Naraoia, Trilobite, Ottioa, Sanctacaris, Sidneyia, and Charniodiscus. Hand painted figures measure 1.5” to 3” (4 to 7.5 cm) and are suitable for ages 3 and up. All Safari Ltd® products are 100% guaranteed and lead free to ensure children’s safety. Launch date: 2013.

Be extra careful not to touch its venomous tentacles. Its translucent appearance makes this Safari Ltd® Jellyfish difficult to spot, even if it glow-in-the-dark. This hand painted replica from Safari Ltd® measures 4.5” L x 4” W (11.5 x 10.25 cm) and is suitable for ages 3 and up. All Safari Ltd® products are 100% guaranteed and lead free to ensure children’s safety. Launch date: 2013.

Day or night, kids will never lose sight of this Glow-in-the-Dark Starfish from Safari Ltd®. It’s soft, bumpy skin will trick kids into thinking they’re holding a real starfish. This hand painted replica measures 4.5” L x .5” H (11.5 x.5 cm) and is suitable for ages 3 and up. All Safari Ltd® products are 100% guaranteed and lead free to ensure children’s safety.

Zingo! Sight Words is a fun, interactive game that teaches reading skills through fast-paced play. Designed for players ages 4-6, this game teaches early readers to recognize and read some of the most common words in the English language. The sight words featured in this game were identified by leading educators as the most fundamental. Learning and mastering them is key to becoming a successful, fluent reader - doing it through play makes learning fun. Launch date: September 2012.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval, Play On Words (PAL) Award
— As of 11/15/2012 this product had 4.9 out of 5 stars from 17 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: Helps kids learn to read; Easy to learn, but still challenging and fun.

Featuring cool transparent cards, Swish is an innovative spatial game for children ages 8 and up that challenges mental muscles to the extreme. Players must examine cards, mentally flipping & rotating to make matches, or “Swishes.” Swishes are made by layering cards so that every ball swishes into a hoop of the same color. Players must prepare their brain for a seriously fun workout during this fast-paced challenge that’s fun for the whole family.
Awards: Parents’ Choice Silver Honors award; TOTY Nominee for Educational Toy of the Year 2012.
— As of 11/15/2012 this product had 4.7 out of 5 stars from 56 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: Helps develop spatial relation skills; Well designed; innovative gameplay. Cons: Might be difficult for younger kids.

The Hot Dots pen works with dozens of Hot Dots card sets, providing instantaneous visual and audio feedback. Simply press the pen to choose an answer on any Hot Dots or Hot Dots Jr. card for an immediate response—cool, kid-friendly phrases for correct answers and gentle redirection for incorrect responses.

First Grade Activities Homework Helper provides children in first grade with extra help in learning important skills. Packed full of fun-to-do activities and appealing art, children will have fun completing the reproducible pages while learning first grade skills at the same time. Answer keys are also included where needed. These workbooks provide help for students who need extra practice with basic skills, for the accelerated student who enjoys an extra challenge, and for the young learner who is developing basic concepts and readiness skills. They also help boost self-confidence and reinforce basic skills with activities that are geared to the specific grade level.
— Gregory Sahagian, owner of Learning Express of Beverly in Beverly, Mass., told TDmonthly in a Fall 2012 survey that they sell 4-5 dozen Kumon Homework Helpers each month, making them a top-2 best selling educational products.