As visual perception games go, this one's a doozy - quick-moving play and simple rules, yet be prepared for some mental gymnastics if you intend to win! Each tile has four patterns on its corners. A 6 by 6 tile grid is laid out face up. A tile from the face-down draw pile is then flipped over and it's go time! Your job is to match the draw tile either to the edges of two tiles in the grid or to the corners of four tiles i...Read more

One of the many pleasures young children take in exploring these colorful, finely-crafted, solid wooden pieces stems from their smooth, cool, feel and the wonderfully tactile nature of the experience. Another stems from the variety of shapes and many ways in whch they easily mix to form new structures - steps, portals, doorways, bridges, pedestals, towers - so many options! These, and the extraordinarily bright colors, pa...Read more

Anamalz is a line of uniquely adorable, pose-able critters made from sustainable maple wood and cloth. Each Anamalz is hand-painted with child-friendly water-based paint. Their heads, arms, and legs can be posed for maximum imaginative playtime fun. The Aussie Pouch (19.95) gives you three Australian Anamalz (koala, wombat, echidna) in their own bright green pouch. Numerous individual Anamalz (larger than the pouch Anamal...Read more

Box-O-Mania's My Place Play Box brings a new level of fun to the old concept of playing house in a cardboard box. In this case, the playhouse is made of 100% corrugated plastic, suitable for indoor or outdoor play. Assembly is a snap (thank you, velcro) and the playbox we put together, called Le Petit Salon, came with all sorts of wonderful touches. Once decorated with the many large, elegant stickers that come with the s...Read more

This is something every household with a 5- to 8-year-old should have. It's really quite remarkable - an inexpensive, portable system that looks just like a notebook computer and provides 120 interactive skill-building activities for your child. From an educational standpoint, this is a very valuable tool. Kids naturally want to emulate mom and dad by using a computer, and the activities here are as highly engaging and en...Read more

Have you ever wanted to see a bug up close from every possible angle without, you know, touching it? Wild Creations has come out with Bug's World, a fantastic way to get up close and gain a high level of visual detail on bugs encased in crystal clear resin blocks. Each block (there are 6 in each pack) contains a single real and colorful insect specimen. And to enhance the experience, each block comes with a matching card ...Read more

This is a great crossword anagram game, played with dice and cleverly packaged in a design perfectly suited for families hungry for fun - a Campbell's Soup can! The 36 dice, each with letters on all 6 sides, are divided among players. The game is then played in 4 rounds, called Servings. In each round, players take turns forming words by adding letters to a communal crossword layout until someone runs out of letters. Lett...Read more

Toddlers' eyes light up when Care'n Learn Teddy's starts talking and interacting with them. Press on his hands, feet, ears, or tummy to elicit a variety of responses, both verbal and musical, while his red nose flashes brightly. Press his left ear and he invites you to take his temperature with the thermometer (included), which shows a different result each time you press the button on it. He'll also invite you to use the...Read more

Young children need to be at least as safe and secure as adults when flying, yet airline seat restraint design does not accommodate that need. CARES Child Aviation Restraint System is a simple, elegant solution, for use with children weighing between 22 - 44 pounds and whose height is 40 inches or less. Compact, light, and easy to carry, it is quick and simple to set up, looping easily around the seat-back so that its har...Read more

Chalk City Road Maker is a great source of outdoor fun for the entire family. This cleverly designed lightweight toy holds two pieces of chalk, enabling kids to easily create paths and roads for all kinds of outdoor play simply by dragging it along the ground from a standing position. How else could you draw a curving path (or a straight one, for that matter) with perfectly matched parallel lines? Road Maker creates the p...Read more

These nesting dolls, each of which acts as a canvas for children's colorful chalk artistic expressions - call them nesting 3-D blackboards, if you will - evoked a similar response from users un-nesting them for the first time, smaller and smaller, still - 'No way, another one!' Six in all - the smallest is quite tiny - their three-dimensionality allows artists to draw one or several images on each before moving on to colo...Read more

Chloe, a 10-inch plush horse, is not only a soft, wonderful, interactive companion, but, for all the child veterinarians out there (of which there are sure to be more now that we have Chloe), the Care For Me Vet Set is sure to be a cherished gift. Several of the included accessories induce sound and motion responses from Chloe. She sighs when you brush her mane, whinnies when you give her a shot. Her tail swishes when you...Read more

Citiblocs continues to expand their line of ultra-high-quality eco-friendly wooden construction blocks with one great new idea after another. Their new Little Builder Rattle Blocs are perfectly designed for younger children, with thicker, chunkier blocks for easy holding and manipulation, and hollow pieces containing built-in wooden marbles that rattle during play. The 10 rattle blocks have brightly colored window-like re...Read more

This is a great two-player or team game - fun, fast-moving, easy to play, yet strategic in nature. Each player gets a game board on which you've got a finite amount of space to be filled in with numerous pieces, each of which is a different size and shape. Easy enough at the outset when your board is nearly empty. But as the game progresses and your board fills up, you may find yourself paying for decisions you made mere ...Read more