December 2012 Notable Toys — Educational

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.

A rich vocabulary is critical for successful test-taking, particularly in reading comprehension. Hot Dots Laugh It Up! Vocabulary Card sets are a fun and interactive way to grow kids’ vocabularies. Includes 6 Interactive vocabulary card sets in all, including synonyms (2730), antonyms (2731), multiple-meaning words (shown here), prefixes and suffixes (2735), context clues (2733), and homophones (2732). 50 double-sided, illustrated cards per set (100 questions), featuring jokes, riddles, cartoons, and kid-friendly questions.
— In a Fall 2012 survey, two out of 12 retailers told TDmonthly that Hot Dots were their best selling educational toy.

The littleBits Extended Kit is the third and biggest kit by littleBits. We hand picked all of the most fun, mechanical Bits and crammed them into one double-decker kit. This kit contains all the Bits one needs to make littleBits creations. It features a dc motor, motion trigger, buzzer, 2 wires, and more.

The Classic set consists of 36 varieties of maple blocks. Painted with non-toxic water based acrylic paints and sealed with organic beewax.
Awards: 2013 TDmonthly Seal of Approval

This handcrafted wood set includes seven pieces: A bucket drum with a natural skin head, a pair of drum sticks, a single jingle stick, a handled castanet and a pair of mini maracas. Fun for the whole family or class! Includes a parent/teacher friendly activity guide for ideas on using the items to encourage child development.
— As of 10/30/2012 this product had 4.6 out of 5 stars from 26 reviews on Amazon.com. Pros: The drum makes a nice noise; fun for kids on their own or in groups.
Awards: 2015 TDmonthly Top Toy Award

The Sounds Like Fun ABC Clappers are 3 brightly painted, hand crafted wood castanets with handles in graduated sizes and sounds. One side is labeled 1, 2,3, and the other side is labeled A, B, C. For color, number, shape and letter recognition, beginning pattern making, and hearing high and low sound changes. Includes a parent/teacher friendly activity guide for ideas on using the clappers to encourage child development. Launch date: 2005.

Kids (and grown-ups) love to learn and say silly-sounding words—not to mention impressing others with them—so we’ve created Big Word Flashcards, featuring some of the coolest multisyllabic terms in the dictionary. With fun definitions, child-friendly phonetic pronunciations, and playful illustrations, these cards will introduce youngsters of all ages to the joys of loquacity. Launch date: January 2012.

Little ones love defining what it is that makes them so special, and so do we. This fun activity book encourages kids to explore their own imaginations and preferences—treehouse or fort? Pirate or ninja? Filled with whimsical illustrations, playful prompts, and awesome stickers, This...or That? gives kids the power of creative decision making. Launch date: June 2012.

Combat a universal childhood affliction—exercise resistance—with our Kids’ Passports. Featuring fancy sticker “stamps” as rewards, this official-looking booklet will trick even the idlest of youngsters into making an adventuresome, interactive game of moving and grooving. Launch date: January 2012.

Combat a universal childhood affliction—picky eating—with our Kids’ Passports. Featuring fancy sticker “stamps” as rewards, this official-looking booklet is sure to convince even the fussiest little eater to make an adventuresome, interactive game of trying new foods. Launch date: January 2012.

Kids will discover a world of intrigue and adventure right under their noses with our Scavenger Hunt Pad. More active than any techno-gadget, this pad keeps young’uns busy and ignites their imagination as they search for “treasure” around the house (or hotel room, backyard, etc.). Launch date: January 2012.

Encourage budding creative geniuses to showcase their skills with the I’m an Artist Pad. More fun than television and less expensive than art school, this inspiring pad fuels kids’ imagination in a celebratory format that’s just as enjoyable for parents as it is for tots. Launch date: January 2012.

Players must turn over a category card then roll the letter dice. Everyone tries to match the letters with something related to the category. If they’re looking for “Vehicles” — take the “T” and yell out “Truck!”, then keep on looking for more. The first player to get 20 points wins.  For 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up. Contents: 7 dice, dice cup, 30 category cards, score pad, rules. Launch date: June 2012.
Awards: 2012 Family Fun Toy of the Year T.O.Y. Award

Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll, a gorgeous book by author/illustrator Sunny Seki, takes readers on a journey into ancient Japan and the story behind the famous Daruma Doll. Yuko-chan, an adventurous blind orphan, is able to do amazing things. She confronts a temple burglar in the dead of night, and crosses treacherous mountain passes to deliver food to hungry people. During her travels, Yuko-chan trips and tumbles down a snowy cliff. She discovers a strange thing as she waits for help: her tea gourd, regardless of how she drops it, always lands right-side-up. The tea has frozen in the bottom of the gourd. Inspired by this, she creates the famous Daruma doll toy, which rights itself when tipped—a true symbol of resilience. Thanks to Yuko-chan's invention, the villagers are able to earn a living and feed themselves by selling the dolls. Yuko-chan never gave up, no matter the obstacles she faced, and the Daruma doll is a charming reminder of the power of perseverance.

Peek into the underground world of earthworms and discover their earth-saving secrets. See how they turn waste into soil and dig tunnels to create drainage for plants. Perform experiments to demonstrate how worms live and work underground. Have fun with the "Super Squirmin" character cutouts. Made in the USA and Safety Approved. Double-sided viewing, Worm Facts and Anatomy Poster, experiment booklet, and 2 foot Super Squirmin worm cut-out with Superhero hats. Mail-in certificate (send $12.95) for live worms, soil wafers and starter food shipped Priority Mail year-round in the USA, excluding Hawaii.