July 2010 Notable Toys — Educational

This NYC guidebook and activity book is filled with stickers, word searches and plenty of space to journal.
Awards: 2010 - The Toy Man Seal of Approval, The Toy Man Eco-Recognition Seal, The Toy Man E Choice Award.

This book was designed to open dialog between parents and children about money issues. Moo learns the importance of saving her money, want versus need, and the importance of being charitable. "Our humorous approach sets us apart; we try to add a lot of fun and self-motivational reasons to work — no matter how young or little you are," My Cow Moo Creator Kimberly Arezzi told TDmonthly.
Awards: 2009 The Toy Man Seal of Approval; 2009 The Toy Man Eco-Recognition Seal; 2009 The Toy Man E-Choice Award

Developed by an occupational therapist, Pathquest aims to strengthen eye-hand coordination and visual perception through four different quests, with a total of 12 adventures.

Writing Center is designed to help parents and teachers prepare children for the writing demands required in elementary school. The kit focuses on the development of fine motor skills, pencil grasp and control, mastery of pre-writing shapes and the capital letters of the alphabet. Each kit contains Shape Builders Learn To Draw, Capital Letter Stories, stencils, grips, three #2 Pencils, 12 colored pencils, and Pop Beads.

This easy-to-use educational tool promotes accelerated learning, literacy and new language skills. The WhisperPhone Element is adjustable for fit and comfort, and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Developed by an occupational therapist to improve hand strength and coordination, these stenciling activities are designed to teach the young learner to find the proper shape among similar shapes to develop visual discrimination and visual form constancy. Children will also learn to place the shapes in the correct orientation in order to strengthen visual spatial relationship and closure skills. Working with the stencil encourages good hand strength and bilateral coordination.

Snip It! is designed to help young children learn proper scissor skills. Snipping and cutting activities can help develop a child’s eye-hand coordination, adherence to visual boundaries and paper stabilization skills. Awards: 2010 NAPPA Gold.

The pencil grasp trainer is designed to target and activate the proper muscles for writing. It's created for both left- and right-handed writers to improve handwriting and decrease hand fatigue. The patented ergonomic grip was designed and tested by an occupational therapist with finger guard and unique angles to place and hold fingers in the proper position. It is non toxic and latex free.

See-N-Read® MemoryMark™ is a research-based, classroom tested reading tool that helps readers see, focus and remember text while filtering out distractions on the page. It reduces word- and line-skipping and pattern glare (words which appear to move on the page) which are common problems for struggling readers. The clear reading window (ReadBar™) is cut out to allow notation, highlighting and underlining without moving the tool, thus helping readers keep their place on the page. "The shaded area reduces distractions on the page without obscuring context while the clear area is cut out to allow underlining, highlighting and notation without moving the tool away from the text," Steven R. Smith, Marketing Manager of CadenaSmith Enterprises, told TDmonthly.

People read up to 30% slower on-screen than on paper, aggravating problems of readers who struggle with reading printed materials. eSee-N-Read™ electronic reading tool for PCs focuses on-screen readers on the proper line of text, enhances transitions between lines, reducing word and line skipping. eSee-N-Read™ is a modifiable teaching tool used to highlight key on-screen information while obscuring distracting ads that clutter internet screens. eSee-N-Read™ can also open as many as needed at once. "eSee-N-Read™ works with any program to aid the on-screen reading and perception process. There is no similar product on the market (patent pending)," Steven R. Smith, Marketing Manager of CadenaSmith Enterprises, told TDmonthly.

This wooden shoe is designed to teach kids how to lace and tie their shoes. The loops are cloth and it comes with a lace.

Build your own electric vehicles and machines, and then power them up with a hand-crank generator. Assemble 11 models including a racecar, “flying” car, radar car, satellite car, propeller airplane, drilling car, bulldozer, space station, well-digging machine, and portable camping torch. Experiment with your electric generator and your models: Alter the crank-time and the crank-frequency and see how these variables affect the performance of your cars and machines. The 36-page color instruction book included in this kit illustrates the step-by-step assembly of each model and related principles so that children learn through playing. The 122 building pieces included in this set are compatible with those in all Thames & Kosmos Construction Series kits, Physics Series kits, Wind Power, and Hydropower kits.

Build wind-powered generators to energize your electric vehicles and charge your rechargeable batteries! The wind spins the turbine, which turns an electric generator, which in turn charges your rechargeable AA batteries (not included). You can then use those wind-charged batteries to power the model vehicles you build. The six models include a glider, sail car, jet car, tractor, racecar, and tricycle. This kit includes two styles of wind turbine blades and a gearbox with three different gear ratios for experimenting. You can adjust the angle and number of wind turbine blades to make best use of wind, to make the LED light up brightly, and to charge the rechargeable battery as fast as possible. Explore this amazing, free source of renewable energy and store the electricity you generate for use in practical applications. Included also is a 40-page color instruction book with illustrated step-by-step instructions for assembling two windmills and six model vehicles, and conducting various experiments. The 133 building pieces included in this set are compatible with those in all Thames & Kosmos Construction Series kits, Physics Series kits, Wind Power, and Hydropower kits.

Pneumatic-Hydraulic Engines. Build your own models powered by air and water pressure to learn about the laws of physics. This unique kit allows you to build two different air-and-water-powered systems: water-jet propelled cars and hydro-pneumo (which simply means air pressure and water pressure) powered engines. The hydro-pneumo system uses a self-contained air-and-water turbine system as a motor. Construct 15 models including a truck, excavator, radar car, tank, antique car, helicopter, motorbike, backhoe, rocket car, forklift, roadster, propeller plane, grinder, and cutting machine. The water-jet propelled cars are a fun outdoor activity, while the self-contained hydro-pneumo powered models are fun both indoors and out. The 48-page color instruction book included in this kit illustrates the step-by-step assembly of each model and related principles so that children learn through playing. The 165 building pieces included in this set are compatible with those in all Thames & Kosmos Construction Series kits, Physics Series kits, Wind Power, and Hydropower kits.

"Panda-Cutie and YOU... in Los Angeles" for SMART KIDS ONLY! features Panda-Cutie who takes children ages 8 to 16 on a fascinating city tour of Los Angeles. This E-Book on CD-ROM comes in a sturdy cover and is ready for easy download to a PC or laptop. It serves as a unique travel guide for parents who like to make a trip to L.A. with their kids and want to have a preview of what to expect. The program also includes useful information about transportation, parking, admission fees, etc. Features 177 A-4 pages with more than 150 photos of Panda-Cutie strolling around; and even having his picture taken with celebrities such as Paula Abdul, Peter Fonda, Olivia Newton-John, Hector Elizondo, and others.

Word Builder challenges children to build new words by twisting the rings in order to create different letter combinations. With the help of their caregivers, children learn how to use consonants and vowels to build words between two and six letters long. The rings are easily removed and rearranged, creating a multitude of possibilities.

The Story Starter is designed for shared use with young children and their caregivers. A child twists the rings in order to create one of several thousand combinations of story introductions. The caregiver can continue to tell a story from the introduction, or encourage the child to use his or her imagination and continue the story himself or herself.

Alphabet Matcher challenges children to choose a letter and find the five corresponding images that begin with that letter. For example, select the letter “F” and find Fish, Foot, Frog, Flower and Flag. An answer guide is included. Alphabet Matcher engages skills ranging from logic to spelling. It contains three extra sets of rings, covering 24 letters and 120 images.
Awards: Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products - 2010; 2011 PAL (Play Advances Language) Award.

The insect inventory in this charming set of lacing cards includes a pink butterfly, buzzing honeybee, spotted ladybug, darting dragonfly and a green grasshopper at rest. Little fingers will love lacing around each creature, making the pictures pop. Launch date: 2010.

Wildlife illustrations grace this puzzle. Kids can learn the names of animals like hedgehog, hippopotamus, fox and others. It is illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. Launch date: January 2010.

The Friendliest Bugs Lacing Cards enhance hand-eye coordination and sharpen fine motor skills. The heavy duty cards have faux silk laces. Roisin Ross of eeBoo told TDmonthly, "Laces will not unravel!"

Kids can learn geography, countries, states, capitols and industries with these giant 18" x 27" puzzles made from thick, sturdy board with a beautiful finish. Roisin Ross of eeBoo told TDmonthly, "Beautiful illustration with vibrant colors set these apart from the standard puzzle maps for kids."

Mudpuppy 42-piece puzzles measure 16" square when assembled. The pieces are packed in a sturdy, 5" cube box with a colorful rope handle and are CE and ASTM tested to ensure safety. The puzzle's greyboard is made of 90-percent recycled paper, and the packaging is 70-percent recycled paper and printed with non-toxic, soy-based inks. Mudpuppy Press Public Relations Assistant Shanya Lewis told TDmonthly, "With themes like robots, princesses, cars, animals and classic characters like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the Rainbow Fish, Mudpuppy 42-piece Puzzles make great gifts!"
— Kristin Dolle, manager of Playthings Toy Shoppe in Louisville, Ky., said that puzzles from MudPuppy were a best-seller in the category.

Counting Animals 3-Piece Puzzles are constructed from 90-percent recycled greyboard and designed to develop basic math skills. There are 10 three-piece puzzles and each puzzle shows a group of friends for young children to count, from one to 10. Roisin Ross of eeBoo told TDmonthly this product features "beautiful artwork by Kevin Hawkes."