Educational Toy Awards

Posted by Candace on Dec 14, 2009 | Comment

As a mom and an educational consultant, I believe in the power of play. A few carefully chosen toys can boost creativity and problem solving–here are a few of our top picks this year. With the best educational toys, your children will not even realize how much they are learning!

Preschoolers on up will enjoy solving the picture puzzle on these simple, yet clever Backyard Buddy Puzzle Blocks from ImagiPLAY (Wild Dill or Amazon – $12).
Young geniuses will get an introduction to logic puzzles with Animal Logic ($25 – Fat Brain Toys). Move all of the wooden animal pieces across the river in the correct order to solve the game.Preschoolers may be able to complete the first few problems with some hints but the hardest riddles will keep educated adults entertained.
For the literary-minded, Bananagrams ($15 – Amazon) is a hot, new word puzzle. We recommended this last year and since then its following has grown. Play Bananagrams with family and friends in the game format, on facebook, or as an iPhone app.
It is hard to pick just one offering from LeapFrog’s variety of educational toys. The LeapFrog TAG ($50 – Amazon) and new TAG, Jr. have given us a lot of mileage and my preschooler has been learning to write with her Scribble & Write ($17 – Amazon) and to spell simple three-letter words with her Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder.
The PlanToys Animal Domino Memo is a classic memory game that helps build logical thinking as children try to remember where they last saw an image. The chunky, convex blocks are easy for little hands to grab and turn over. Learn colors, animals, and patterns, or turn the blocks on their sides to practice balance, line them up, and knock them down like dominoes.