Select a category to view our Spring 2013 winners.

Spring is always in the air with 3D Flowers Kit at your disposal. 3D Wonder Paint dries in colors unbelievably bright and vibrant, perfect for making 3-dimensional floral works of art. It's very easy. Just outline your choice of pattern on one of the pattern sheets provided. Allow the outline to dry, then fill it in with 3D Wonder Paint, mixing, blending, inventing new colors as you go. Add a variety of colored rhinestone accents. Cut out the finished patterns, slide a few layers onto a chenille stem (for ultra-realism, use the paper stamen included) and you've got something special that will brighten any room. Make an entire miniature vase full of flowers. Or create gorgeous, translucent window art - bees, birds, butterflies, flowers - and let the sun streak through them. Includes a 4-inch acrylic suction cup vase, 3 tubes of Wonder Paint, 1 tube of glitter Wonder Paint, 2 tubes of outline paint, self-adhesive rhinestones, chenille stems, pattern and project sheets.

Aqua Dragons enables kids to create, care for, and observe an exotic world, filled with living creatures, in the comfort and privacy of their own home. The Deep Sea Habitat is a mini-aquarium kids fill with bottled water, then populate with creatures by emptying the contents of the eggs pouch into the water. The Aqua Dragons (formally known as artemia salina, a species of aquatic crustaceans that does not appear to have changed in 100 million years) immediately begin to hatch, and begin to be visible to the naked eye within a few days. They can grow up to 2 cm long (about 3/4 inch) and, in appearance, resemble little hairy-headed dragons with three eyes and long tails. They swim and play, and should only be fed once every few days. The accompanying booklet includes diagrams of the life cycle and anatomy of the Aqua Dragon as well as fascinating details about this amazing species. The manufacturer, whose focus is on educational products related to nature, expresses a philosophy of love and respect for all living things, something all kids should be exposed to from a young age. Kit includes habitat (with LED lights in base), eggs, food, magnifier, aerator, and booklet.

BROBO provides a very comforting approach to solving the age-old problem of a child's fear of the dark. Parents and children alike can come to dread bedtime, the anxiety, the stalling, the multitude of unwanted and failed compromises (door open, door ajar, lights on all night). When it comes to calming that anxiety, BROBO pulls double duty by providing an immensely cute and huggable plush character with a built-in nightlight. There are currently 5 unique BROBO characters (Brobo, Dog, Mumu, Pep, and Trex), each of which, with large eyes and quirky, colorful design, quickly becomes the object of your child's affection. The BROBO light, which resides in the plush's tummy, is activated by a swipe of its hand (or paw) and has three modes, Bright, Bedtime, and Off. The light automatically turns off after five minutes, conserving power and helping your child become accustomed to the dark. The BROBO characters are further brought to life through short storybooks and online cartoons. Having a friend like BROBO can provide all the security kids need in order to get through this common, angst-filled stage of growing up.

This is an exceptional children's product in every way. Its high quality construction is evident at a glance. More importantly, the game play is perfectly suited to younger children's abilities while doing an unparalleled job of engaging, challenging, and developing their minds. It's also tremendous fun. The premise is simple. Choose a challenge card and build what's shown on the card using one or more blocks and the wooden rabbit. You've succeeded when the front view of your construction matches the image on the challenge card. The 3 wooden building blocks vary in color, size, and shape. Turning a block 90 degrees in any direction changes its front view and alters how the bunny can fit in, on, or against it. There are 60 different challenges in 4 different levels of difficulty. Some look very similar but may have completely different solutions depending on how far the bunny's ears stick out. Everything about Bunny Peek A Boo's appearance is inviting and playful. Add to that the game's ingenious ability to get young minds thinking in 3D concepts like above/below, inside/outside, invisible/hidden and you've got something truly special - a game kids can't get enough of that also has a meaningful impact on their development. Top-notch fun!

Every once in a while you come across a game that, before you've even played it, you know with absolute certainty is going to phenomenal fun. Chain Letters is one of those games. It's played using 100 lightweight plastic pieces, each of which has a hook at both ends and bears a prominently displayed letter. The goal is to form words by creating chains, hooking one letter after another, on your turn, from a pile on the table. If you drop a letter, your turn is over. If you hook a letter upside down, your turn is over. But if you make it through to forming an entire word, you earn points for each letter used. The player with the highest score once the pile runs out is the winner. Chain Letters is a quick-moving game that takes seconds to learn and has a wonderful balance of skill and luck. At times, you'll find yourself holding your breath as you attempt to complete a word (or as you telekinetically try to nudge an opponent into dropping theirs). But mostly, you'll just be laughing and having the time of your life. For 2 or more players.

Science should be fun for kids and arouse their interest in an ongoing exploration, and The Clifford Science Series does a fabulous job of achieving both those ends. It consists of three distinct kits, each with a unique focus - Rainbow Science, Kitchen Science, and Bubble Science. Throughout, the beloved Clifford the Big Red Dog provides an encouraging and familiar presence while his owner, Emily Elizabeth, narrates the story line of each experiment. The experiments are fun, exciting, and often incorporate common household ingredients. They are easy to follow and doable even for young children, making the kits a great introduction to science as well as a way to build on existing scientific skills and confidence levels. The experiments' playful, catchy titles (making slime, jumping pepper, catching a rainbow) pique kids' interest, and the results, which are clearly explained in the manuals, are equally intriguing. The kits themselves are extraordinary, each providing a highly efficient laboratory specific to the experiments at hand. Rainbow Science, for example, includes plastic test tubes, pipette, funnel, measuring cup, mirror, chromatography paper, circular cardboard, crayons, rainbow glasses, and pencil. Each of the three kits also comes with its own lab tray, designed specifically to facilitate that lab's experiments in an efficient, orderly manner.

If a product named 'Duct Tape Doggie Fashions' doesn't make you smile, what will? This playfully themed craft kit provides everything you need to clothe, decorate, and bring to life one Doggie (8-1/2 inches X 6 inches tall) and one Puppy (4 inches long X 2-3/4 inches tall). More importantly, it provides a very high level of creative gratification for the budding artist. With its high quality materials and super easy-to-follow instructions, kids get results they're proud of, encouraging and inspiring them to explore and express their creativity. The kit includes 5 rolls of designer duct tape, duct tape stickers, wiggly eyes, velcro, mini fabric marker, scissors, printed papers, patterns, instructions for making outfits and accessories, and two specially designed blank white stuffed animals that are the canvasses for all that creative adornment.

Inventors Lab is more than just a cutting edge construction kit. It's a tool that promotes innovation, problem solving, and collaboration. Its pieces are designed to fit together without the use of screws, clips, glue, or any ancillary tools. All you need are your hands and your mind. The design is such that the pieces fit and hold together very tightly, allowing the solid construction of inventions ranging from simple to elaborate. Rather than having the vast variety of components found in some kits, here there are only three - wheels, beams, and brains. Brains are black rectangular pieces into which beams can be inserted at a variety of angles and positions, and which have grooves at regular intervals along the outside. These allow them to interconnect with beams in a surprisingly high number of ways, and enables wheels to be directly and securely attached to them as well. The ingenious simplicity of these three building-blocks provides tremendous structural flexibility, inspiring the inventor within us to problem solve and to create something new. Hand in hand with the physical product, Hanz is building an online community in which inventors can compete and where challenges will be posted and solved. Inventors Lab includes 20 Brains, 40 Beams, and 8 Wheels.

When shopping for an infant's first playthings, two concerns that immediately come to mind are safety and simplicity. Of course, you want something that will also provide stimulation to your baby and promote his natural development. Lela, a serene-looking toy fawn, was designed with all these things in mind. Lela stimulates both the budding imagination and motor skills. She's made of 100 percent natural rubber painted with food coloring. Her limbs, ears, tail, nose, and torso provide a tactile playground, lots of places for little hands to touch and hold and for small mouths to safely chew and teethe. Give her a squeeze and she lets out a squeak, eliciting surprise and delight. And stay tuned for more fun - many additional children's products featuring Lela are on the way.

Boys will make cool, rugged wristbands from paracord (a material originally used to suspend parachutes) with this fun, easy-to-use kit. The process is smooth and repetitive, with simple instructions and a box that acts as your workstation. Just choose a color, slide the ends through both sides of a buckle, and secure one half the buckle to your workstation. From there on out, it's just a matter of making a succession of alternating knots (really the same knot in opposing directions), an absorbing process that allows you to pick up speed as you go along. It's so fast and fun, boys may want to compete with friends to see who's speediest. A dab of glue secures the final strands in place. Finish it off by accenting the plastic buckle (which allows the wristbands to snap easily on and off) with one of several eye-catching, masculine stickers. The kit includes everything you need to make a total of eight wristbands.

It's hard to do Copter Darts justice with words. You have to see, feel, and toss them in order to fully appreciate them. For starters, they have a distinctively fun, cool look that's equally appealing to youngsters, teens, and adults. And when you hear 'darts,' you tend to think 'pointy.' Nope, no points here, just round-nosed (about 2-12 inch diameter) black PVC heads weighted just right for throwing. And when you toss them, the three soft, foam wings sported by each Copter Dart ensure a dazzling spiral, a helicopter-like effect that tends to slow and steady them as they arc towards their target. Those aerodynamic wings are made from EVA foam, and, like the nose, bear heavy use (both indoors and outdoors) without wear and tear. As for playing, the goal is to aim the darts so that they land as close as possible to the target ball, earning varying point scores for hitting it or for being first or second closest. There are 3 different ways to play outlined on the box, and players are encouraged to invent their own games. Play 1 on 1, in teams, or solo. Includes 4 Copter Darts (2 yellow, 2 blue), 1 Target Ball, and 1 Dart Holdster for easy carrying and storage.

These miniature versions of Copter Darts (see Copter Dart review above) bring a whole new kind of excitement to indoor/outdoor play. Smaller, lighter, and faster than their big brothers (but otherwise virtually identical in design), these soft foam darts spin with the same remarkable aerodynamic motion. With their weighted PVC noses, all Copter Darts land standing straight up, wings in the air, making them easy to spot. Each package contains two yellow and two blue Micro Copter Darts, ideal for both one-on-one and team competition, as well as solo play. The packaging outlines two different games, with varying scores depending on nearness to the target or the number of throws it took each player to hit it. Players are encouraged to make up their own games, very easy to do (our players effortlessly morphed through 5 new games in the space of 45 minutes or so). Regardless of the game at hand, Micro Copter Darts are simply fun to bounce in your hand, toss, throw, juggle, flip, catch, and generally create all kinds of dazzling aerial fun with. In other words, gravity and air resistance, two inescapable facts of life on Earth, will be your new best friends. Also includes 1 Dart Holdster for easy carrying and storage.

OgoSport's products consistently have a unique look and feel, a high level of quality and appeal that immediately catch the eye. That perception, of something fun, and different, increases the closer one gets. Volo Fleet consists of 3 different Volo Darts, each sold separately - the Havik, the Fenik (with solid foam-ball noses), and the Hok (with a hollow rubber nose). With their lightweight, throw-perfect design and copter-spin action, Volo Darts get kids of all ages moving in no time - throwing, catching, running, leaping. The three wings on each dart create a helicopter-like spin action, and both spin and speed can be quickly altered by sliding the power ring up or down the dart's length. Almost any game that can be played with a ball can be played with Volo Darts. However, the darts' unique play characteristics - throwing and catching by the nose or tail, spinning flight, and variable speed and spin, generate a more razzle-dazzle kind of play and will inspire new games that would otherwise never have been born. Volo Darts are built for use and abuse, with a durability level that makes them virtually indestructible. They're also waterproof and they float, perfect for every kind of active play.

One of the many wonderful things about this game is the ease with which it stimulates improvisational storytelling while keeping everyone thoroughly engaged. The game is as much about listening as it is about storytelling. One player at a time actively spins the tale by placing Story Cards on the table while introducing elements found on those cards (a dragon, a witch, falling in love, etc.) into her story. The other players, however, are not passive listeners. They are actively engaged in seeking to take over the story, either by playing an Interrupt Story Card that matches a Story Card just played, or by playing a Story Card of their own that contains something just mentioned by the storyteller. The interrupter takes over the story, continuing the tale by playing Story Cards from his own hand. The goal of every player is to win the game by playing their Ending Card (e.g. 'The curse was lifted as had been foretold'). Doing so requires that a player first rid her hand of all other cards AND successfully steer the story to the conclusion found on her Ending Card. The beauty of this game is the ease with which it unfolds. There's no sense of pressure to be creative. It just happens, spontaneously and playfully, the mark of a very good game. For 2 - 6 players.

The components in this game are so rich, varied, and colorful that opening the game box is like peeking into a goodie bag filled with treasure. You just want to reach in, touch everything, and play with it. And you're in luck, because this is a game, and that's the idea. Each round starts by laying out 8 Request Cards on the Game Board. The content and placement of these cards indicates where each player can or cannot place each of the 8 colored Pelicans in his possession. The timer is flipped. Players leap into action. When time's up, players are evaluated, receiving one penalty stone for each Pelican he or she placed incorrectly. The player with the fewest penalty stones at the end of the game wins. Pelican Cove is a puzzle of sorts, one that requires players to quickly absorb and juggle several pieces of information. Its real magic lies in the ease with which players become engaged in fairly advanced logical, relational thinking. You'd never guess this from watching kids play the game - the human brain, with the right stimulation, becomes very adept at this sort of thing. And because Pelican Cove is hugely fun, they'll keep coming back for more, getting better and better. For 1 to 5 players.

There aren't a great many games well-suited to young players, perhaps because getting youngsters to sit still at a table for any length of time is not so easy. Both parents and kids are likely to find Pet Frenzied to be a double-dose of fresh air then, for not only can kids as young as 3 or 4 easily play, but there's no sitting still involved. The Pet Frenzied deck consists of two kinds of cards - Houses (with pictures of houses), and Pets (cats or dogs). Both types of cards have colored backgrounds, and for every House card, there's a matching colored Pet card. At the outset, all Pets are hidden around the play area, face down (with at least some part visible). The Hider yells, 'Pet Frenzied,' and players each grab a House and start seeking a matching colored Pet. As soon as someone finds a match, he goes back and grabs another House and begins searching anew. The seeking goes on like this until all Pets have been matched to Houses. The player with the most Pets at this point is the winner. The action in Pet Frenzied is continuous, with never a dull moment. Kids employ search and recognition, memory, matching, and color skills. And most important of all, they have great fun.

PicWits is an outstanding party and family game that's brilliantly simple and fiendishly fun. There are two types of cards in PicWits, Picture Cards and Caption Cards. Each round of play kicks off with players holding 8 Picture Cards apiece. The judge (a different player every round) flips over a Caption Card for all to see and reads it aloud. Players (other than the judge) review their Picture Cards to find the one that will best match the caption - in the judge's opinion. A Caption Card might, for example, say 'Be careful what you ask for,' while a Picture Card might display a beautiful young woman with her arm around a wealthy, elderly man, or a skydiver falling through the air, mouth wide open in a scream. The player whose Picture Card is selected by the judge as best fitting the caption is awarded the Caption Card, thus edging closer to a win. Many of the Picture Cards are kooky and brazen enough to elicit laughter all by themselves. But the pairings between that round's Caption Card and the players' chosen Picture Cards (flipped over by the judge one at a time) are what really send the laughter through the roof. PicWits moves quickly, takes seconds to learn, and generates tons of easy, flowing laughter and conversation, essential ingredients in great group fun! For 4 or more players.

Set your imagination free with PlayMais, an almost magical crafting material that lets you quickly and easily make almost anything your mind can see. PlayMais Basic Large contains over 700 PlayMais pieces in 9 different colors. In look and feel they resemble the foam peanuts used in packing. But PlayMais is made out of corn starch, food, and water - natural, safe, and 100 percent biodegradable. PlayMais can almost effortlessly be cut, squeezed, rolled, molded, and most importantly, with just a small amount of moisture you can join them together in an instant. No glue, no fuss, no muss. Just wet the included piece of cloth with water, wring it out, and touch the wet cloth with the side of one piece you wish to stick to another. Press them together, and voila! You'll build miniature houses, barns, cats, dogs, farm animals, trees, tractors, skyscrapers, anything you can imagine. PlayMais can also stick to glass and paper, making decorating windows or creating your own greeting cards a snap. It's amazing, the level of detail you'll achieve. With PlayMais, your creativity knows no limits.

Your hands and brain work together in crucial, sometimes frenetic, ways while playing Q-bitz Extreme. Players race one another to recreate a pattern shown on a card, using wooden cubes with various shapes on all sides. Each player is given a tray and 16 cubes. A pattern card is flipped and everyone launches into action. The first player to complete the pattern wins the card from that round. Mental muscles flex, stretch, and grow, with each of the four rounds stimulating a different kind of mental gymnastics. Round one allows players to manually rotate their cubes in any way, freely seeking the shapes they need. In round two, cubes are rolled like dice and must be played as rolled, with unusable cubes rerolled only after as many cubes as possible have been placed. Round three brings memory to the forefront, and round four requires players to create the reverse of the image they see. From your highly energized neural pathways to the tips of your fast-moving fingers, Q-bitz Extreme puts you in a state of pure, dynamic fun. For 2 to 4 players.

Radz bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, putting both kinds of fun right at your fingertips. The kooky, quirky Radz characters, wild-looking little creatures that deliver candy to your hand on command, can go anywhere with you. Clip them to a belt loop, strap, buttonhole, or just carry them in your pocket. Need a treat? Slide the Radz' hat back on its head, and a little scoop-like tongue emerges holding a small piece of colorful, delicious candy. There's also an online world of fun awaiting Radz fans. Just go to Radzworld.com and enter the 16-digit code that came with your Radz candy dispenser to gain access to online games, videos, and apps. You'll have a blast playing games like Peps Peak and Antic's Bounce (our favorite) among others, and downloading fun Radz apps to mobile devices. There's also Radz TV, featuring many highly amusing animated videos, as well as an array of other entertaining features from contests to fan art. Roll Call allows Radz collectors to get to know the personalities and characteristics of each of the Radz characters they've either already grown to love or wish to add to their collections.

Once you touch Rock-A-Bye Bear, you won't want to take your hands off her. That's how soft and luxurious she feels. And, frankly, if that's all there was to her - a beautifully well-made, stunningly soft momma bear cradling her baby bear in her arms, swaddled in a soft little blanket - that would be more than enough to make this a wonderful toy. But squeeze the momma bear's foot, and you're in for some special pleasure. She sweetly sings Rock a Bye Baby, her mouth opening and closing with the words. All the while, her body gently rocks back and forth. When her song is over, she bends forward, says 'Good Night,' in that sweet, lovely voice, and delivers a kiss to her baby bear. This unique, loving, lovable bear would melt a heart of stone. For those of us with regular hearts? We'll just want to cuddle with her all the time. Rock-A-Bye Bear is 10 inches tall and comes with 3 AA replaceable batteries.

Traveling with kids, be it by plane, train, or automobile, has its challenges. Immobilizing children (ironic, isn't it -we're moving, sit still!) while asking them to maintain an indoor voice, a sweet disposition, and, while we're at it, hurry up and have fun, is a bit like asking the sun not to go down at the end of the day. Good luck with that. But help (of the fun, playful variety) has arrived. SeatPets, the ultimate travel companions for kids, are 22-inch-long, soft, colorful creatures that attach in seconds (thank you velcro) to any seatbelt shoulder strap. SeatPets' 7 different colorful creature designs (Malibu the Monkey, LoveBug the Lady Bug, Mercedes the Cat, Yukon the Cow, Lincoln the Lion, Bentley the Dog, and Edsel the Monster), with their loose limbs and happy faces, inspire countless hours of imaginative play. Rest time? No problem. With bodies made for cuddling and large, squeezably soft, pillow-perfect heads, SeatPets are snuggle- and sleep-ready. And with pockets aplenty (both with and without zippers) for storing treasures and necessities, SeatPets pulls triple-duty - playmate, sleep-pal, carryon bag. And lo and behold, they're even machine washable, too!

Sphero is the robotic ball you control with your smartphone or tablet. Make Sphero zig, zag, spin, change color, follow any path you desire. Sphero will do your bidding. You can instantly create a pattern for Sphero to follow using your fingertip on the screen, or choose tilt mode and have your device become a multi-directional steering wheel, with Sphero following every subtle angle of your wrists and hands in real time. Or give Sphero a turbo boost and watch his sudden burst of speed. There are more than 20 free apps to download and use, including Sphero Golf (control Spero with a flick or a swing and aim for a hole in one), Draw & Drive, Zombie Rollers, and Sphero Tag. The Sharky the Beaver app lets you take a virtual 3-dimensional beaver for a walk around your house and feed Sharky by launching virtual cupcakes into his mouth. One of the first things my daughter said when she saw Sphero in action was 'Teddy would love this.' (Teddy is a ball-obsessed dog we know.) Sure enough, there's an app, Sphero Pet, for that. The apps are all very easy to use and include lots of neat tricks, surprises, and fun games for both solo and group play.

The STRIDER ST-3 No-Pedal Balance Bike proves that not all balance bikes are created equal. Rugged, lightweight, (only 6.4 lbs.) and portable, it was developed specifically to help children learn balance before pedaling. No training wheels for your budding bicyclist, just two wheels right from the start on a bike so handsomely sporty that many adult models pale by comparison. Assembling it takes seconds and requires no tools. EVA polymer tires never need air or maintenance. No flats, ever. Kids gain instant mobility, learn steering and coordination, and the bike's durable design ensures many years of active outdoor play. The welded steel frame incorporates Strider's unique Launchpad footrest for gliding, and special Quick-Clamp levers enable you to easily and firmly adjust seat and handlebar heights so that the bike can grow with your child. Most importantly, it's your child's confidence that will grow, making riding a pleasurable experience from the get-go and enabling a smooth transition to pedal-riding when the time is right. The STRIDER ST-3 is available in six different dynamic colors.

Stuffies are big, soft, lovable plush animals with seven secret pockets in which kids can carry all their favorite things. Stuffies make fantastic travel companions and all-around cuddle-buddies, perfect to snuggle and play with or use as a pillow. Each Stuffie comes with a full-sized 33-page illustrated storybook that tells a tale featuring that particular Stuffie. The stories help children learn to be their best - helpful, hopeful, empathetic, and embracing of others. There are currently 11 different Stuffie animals, including Muddzie (the pig who is not afraid to get dirty helping others), Scout (the monkey who is always watching out for others), and Prancine (the unicorn who believes everyone has a little magic inside). Stuffies are more than just stuffed animals. They inspire imagination and help instill positive values in children through specific themes and stories related to each character. Each storybook has discussion questions at the end that help kids get the most out of it. As Stuffies always say - It's What's Inside That Counts!

Vikings is a puzzle game that gets your mind working in a variety of new and exciting ways. It's so engaging that once you start playing, it can be very hard to stop. One or more ships with different colored sails are placed on a playing board that contains 9 rotating puzzle pieces. The placement and orientation of those ships and pieces are dictated by a challenge the player has chosen from a booklet. The goal is to then move the ships from their starting points to the designated end points. The only way to do this is by gently rotating the boats, (and through indirect contact, the puzzle pieces they snuggle against) by hand, easing them through a succession of positions on the board. The catch is that one puzzle piece often blocks the movement of others. As a result, the path to where you want to go may be quite circuitous. In order to avoid unnecessary detours (like retracing your steps), a bit of forethought and a sense of how the pieces move can yield very gratifying results. There are 60 different challenges, from easy to expert. Vikings builds logical thinking skills, strategic planning, problem solving, and visual and spatial perception. For one or more players.

Get ready to get happy. The music, songs, and rhythms on this action and learning CD are so fun, physical, and contagious that no one will be immune to them. We dare anyone to keep a toe from tapping, a hip from swiveling, hands from shooting up into the air. Fortunately, the idea is not to resist, but to go with the beat and the flow. Let the sing-alongs and lively dance numbers work their magic on you. Many of the songs' lyrics guide listeners through specific actions, coordinating various limbs to move in concert at different times, making sure the entire body gets in motion. Part of The Learning Station's strong appeal lies in its ability to convincingly and skillfully put forth a variety of styles - Reggae, Rock & Roll, Funk, Swing, and more - all in the service of a wily blend of original and familiar material. Their updated version of Singin' in the Rain is as catchy as catchy can be. Zumba Dance and Jamaican Dance are among the numbers that generate an intoxicating international feel. And while humor and playfulness pervade the entire CD, songs like Icky Sticky Bubble Gum and Herman the Worm will have listeners giggling from start to finish. For all the wonderfully diverse, healthy activity you'll experience with this CD, the body parts sure to get the biggest workout of all are your smile muscles!

Each Stuffie comes with a full-sized 33-page illustrated storybook that tells a tale featuring that particular Stuffie. The stories help children learn to be their best - helpful, hopeful, empathetic, and embracing of others. Stuffies are big, soft, lovable plush animals with seven secret pockets in which kids can carry all their favorite things. Stuffies make fantastic travel companions and all-around cuddle-buddies, perfect to snuggle and play with or use as a pillow. There are currently 11 different Stuffie animals, including Muddzie (the pig who is not afraid to get dirty helping others), Scout (the monkey who is always watching out for others), and Prancine (the unicorn who believes everyone has a little magic inside). Stuffies are more than just stuffed animals. They inspire imagination and help instill positive values in children through specific themes and stories related to each character. Each storybook has discussion questions at the end that help kids get the most out of it. As Stuffies always say - It's What's Inside That Counts!

This is a truly touching picture book about a six-year-old girl, Amanda, who discovers the joys of helping others and her own extraordinary ability to make good things happen when she sets her mind to it. When she learns that her teacher, Dr. Malko, is struggling to pay medical bills for her daughter Elena, who is very sick, Amanda comes up with the idea of making and selling Christmas decorations. Her project a huge success, Amanda gives Dr. Malko a thousand dollars to help with the doctor's bills, and the feeling she gets is wonderful beyond words. But she doesn't stop there. She continues to be like a young guardian angel. As Elena's health worsens (she ultimately passes away), Amanda continues to help, baking cookies for the nurses at the hospital, even winning an essay contest that enables Dr. Malko to spend the holidays with her adult son after her daughter's death. This beautiful story is given added emotional depth by the fact that it's based on the childhood experiences of the author's own daughter, now an adult. The real-life Amanda is also the book's illustrator (and quite a good one). The mother-daughter and teacher-student emotional bonds, inherent in both the story and the facts surrounding the evolution of the book (explained in the liner notes), reinforces that the spirit of giving is something that is passed on from one person to another, and that the joy that resides in the giver's heart is the biggest and brightest light of all. Includes a CD with songs written for the book.

Radz bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, putting both kinds of fun right at your fingertips. The kooky, quirky Radz characters, wild-looking little creatures that deliver candy to your hand on command, can go anywhere with you. Clip them to a belt loop, strap, buttonhole, or just carry them in your pocket. Need a treat? Slide the Radz' hat back on its head, and a little scoop-like tongue emerges holding a small piece of colorful, delicious candy. There's also an online world of fun awaiting Radz fans. Just go to Radzworld.com and enter the 16-digit code that came with your Radz candy dispenser to gain access to online games, videos, and apps. You'll have a blast playing games like Peps Peak and Antic's Bounce (our favorite) among others, and downloading fun Radz apps to mobile devices. There's also Radz TV, featuring many highly amusing animated videos, as well as an array of other entertaining features from contests to fan art. Roll Call allows Radz collectors to get to know the personalities and characteristics of each of the Radz characters they've either already grown to love or wish to add to their collections.

As I watched Surviving Infancy, a thorough and enjoyable video that covers 36 topics essential to parenting children through their first few years, I was struck by how relevant the material is. And not just some of it. All of it. When my daughter was young, my wife and I encountered every concern and situation delved into in this video. I vividly recall the barrage of anxiety-producing occurrences that one little baby girl was able to send our way - inconsolable crying, problems breastfeeding, car and home safety issues, ear infections (oh, the ear infections!), flips, falls, and head bangs when she was a toddler, emergency room visits. The list goes on. And at the time, in the thick of it, it seemed as though it would never end, the hard parts anyway. The beauty of this video, presented warmly and naturally by two female Emergency Medicine physicians and educators, is not just that it provides practical knowledge essential to increasing your child's safety, but that it also gives you, the parent, some much needed perspective. Knowing what to expect and having confidence in how to react takes a great deal of the anxiety out of parenting. And the good doctors are not wishy-washy. Much of the presentation deals with specifics - do this, don't do that - music to a parent's ears. The video is broken up into 36 practical segments that fly by while providing invaluable information. It is available in DVD format (29.95) or as streaming video (24.95).

This phenomenal educational app about porpoises, dolphins and whales has the all the appeal and entertainment value of a classic Dr. Seuss story. Written in rhyme and vividly illustrated with original artwork that features characters from The Cat in the Hat, it provides a window into the lives and characteristics of our favorite aquatic mammals. Absorb fascinating facts while immersed in the fun, playful sights and sounds this app offers up in abundance. Learn about various types of dolphins, the differing ways they move and leap, how they use echolocation to form pictures by bouncing sound off objects. Learn to distinguish between dolphins and porpoises at a glance. Kids can read for themselves or let the app narrate, with words highlighted as they're narrated. Touching any object causes the word for it to zoom onscreen and be spoken. Children can soak up a surprising amount of nomenclature (words like cetaceans, baleen, blowholes, krill), aided by a feature that speaks key words and their definitions aloud each time they're tapped onscreen. Every scene has its own mesmerizing background audio, from the sounds of dolphins and whales to the call of the sea. The whales are saved for last, with the blue whale - the biggest of the big - appearing at the story's end. A whale of a tale, indeed.

If it's true, as they say, that life is in the details, then it's equally true to say the same of apps. And details are precisely where digital publisher Auryn, and the lovely new app, Breitville, shine. Breitville is a collaboration between Auryn and renowned artist and illustrator Mary Engelbreit, an extension of the paper doll decorating she's popularized and made so enjoyable. Breitville not only let's you choose from and clothe several onscreen dolls, you get to create an entire world for them to inhabit, one that's utterly charming and feels genuinely lived in. Bring the dolls to life with a tap. They'll answer questions when you speak to them. You can even feed them by dragging food to their mouths. And they'll look perfectly at home in the houses you'll decorate for them, room by room. Take them to Breitville's beach or park. Add furniture, trees, birds, insects, toys, seashells, food to your scenes. Breitville is extraordinarily easy to use - change backgrounds and outfits, create, add, remove, rotate objects, all with a touch. There's even a TV Station where you'll record, save, and play videos of your dolls moving around the scene and saying whatever you want them to say. Breitville is both a stunning outlet and an inspiration - the best kind of creative play.

With its customizable features and built-in library of stories containing your favorite Disney and Pixar characters, this app provides endless entertainment for kids and parents alike. Whether you're reading a story, customizing your onscreen avatar's appearance, or using the Settings screen to quickly alter aspects of how a story plays, this app is extremely easy to navigate. One particular feature that can lead to rampant creativity (not to mention hysterical laughter) is the ability to record your own voiceover. Some kids simply record the story as written in their own natural voice, while others make up wild variations of stories using kooky voices that would put Robin Williams to shame. Beautiful onscreen illustrations provide inspiration and trigger wild flights of fancy. There are two reading modes, Read to Me (with narration) and Read by Myself (no narration). The app's bookshelf starts off with 3 books included and 17 more available to be added. An easy-to-use system allows parents to purchase and manage the number of story credits available to children for the purpose of activating those additional stories. Whether camping out with Woody, Buzz and Jessie or going on an adventure with Abu and Aladdin, Disney Storytime offers the largest collection of Disney stories available in one app.

Radz bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds, putting both kinds of fun right at your fingertips. The kooky, quirky Radz characters, wild-looking little creatures that deliver candy to your hand on command, can go anywhere with you. Clip them to a belt loop, strap, buttonhole, or just carry them in your pocket. Need a treat? Slide the Radz' hat back on its head, and a little scoop-like tongue emerges holding a small piece of colorful, delicious candy. There's also an online world of fun awaiting Radz fans. Just go to Radzworld.com and enter the 16-digit code that came with your Radz candy dispenser to gain access to online games, videos, and apps. You'll have a blast playing games like Peps Peak and Antic's Bounce (our favorite) among others, and downloading fun Radz apps to mobile devices. There's also Radz TV, featuring many highly amusing animated videos, as well as an array of other entertaining features from contests to fan art. Roll Call allows Radz collectors to get to know the personalities and characteristics of each of the Radz characters they've either already grown to love or wish to add to their collections.

Skylanders Battegrounds lets kids of all ages use their mobile devices to enjoy a rousing blend of physical and virtual play. The Skylanders' formidable powers are used to fight Kaos' four warlords and their minions. The game play is accessible enough and the action playful enough to be well-suited to children as young as six. Players collect treasures along the way, enabling them to unlock and upgrade powerful abilities for each Skylander. Stepping on the same tile as an enemy causes two of the player's Skylanders to be transported to a battleground, where they'll face waves of enemies. Players tap and slide their fingers either to move their Skylanders or to launch an attack. The app can be purchased by itself for $6.99 on the App Store, or you can buy the starter pack, which includes 3 collectible Skylander Figures, a Treasure Chest, the Bluetooth Portal of Power, and an app download, all for $49.99. While the Portal of Power isn't necessary to play the game, it's what connects the physical and virtual worlds. And frankly, it's pretty darn cool, allowing a player to swap any Skylander in and out of the midst of action just by switching the physical figures standing on top of the portal. Either way, you're in for a very good time.

This fully interactive storybook app provides a wealth of touch-activated animation to go along with the beautifully illustrated story. On each page, touching certain elements causes them to spring to life, often with accompanying sound effects. The story, which can be viewed and read with or without narration, follows the opening storyline of the popular Disney Junior animated series, 'Sofia the First.' The app's story is narrated by ABC's Modern Family star Ariel Winter. It's a lovely, positive tale about a girl who becomes a princess when her mother marries a king, the anxieties and challenges that go along with perceived expectations, and the happy resolutions that occur when new family members pull together. The artwork, animation, and storytelling are all top-notch. In addition to storybook mode, there is a Puppet Theater that allows kids to record stories of their own creation using characters and backgrounds from the storybook while supplying the voices. The puppets can be moved around the screen during recording to add action to the scenes and reflect which characters are talking. The results, which range from charming to wonderfully silly, are always entertaining and can be saved to be played back at will.

There are more than 20 free apps to download and use with Sphero the robotic ball (see current Tillywig review in the Toys category), including Sphero Golf (control Spero with a flick or a swing and aim for a hole in one), Draw & Drive, Zombie Rollers, and Sphero Tag. The Sharky the Beaver app lets you take a virtual 3-dimensional beaver for a walk around your house and feed Sharky by launching virtual cupcakes into his mouth. One of the first things my daughter said when she saw Sphero in action was 'Teddy would love this.' (Teddy is a ball-obsessed dog we know.) Sure enough, there's an app, Sphero Pet, for that. The apps are all very easy to use and include lots of neat tricks, surprises, and fun games for both solo and group play.

The design and content of the SuperDuper StoryMaker app gives kids tremendous freedom to exercise their creativity while developing a number of essential skills. Object recognition, vocabulary, reading, spelling, grammar, sentence making, and story building all occur naturally and fluidly with the use of this app. Kids quickly and easily create picture and photo stories, utilizing over 800 places, people, and items contained in the app, adding text, hand-drawn artwork, and voice recordings as they go. You can even insert your own photographs. The elements available to add to your story as pre-drawn images are well-organized by category (Places, People, Foods, Animals, etc.) and are quickly accessible at a touch of the screen. There's even a search function that allows you to quickly find and add a specific item you have in mind. Save your stories like books, then play them over and over again, either flipping through one page at a time at your own pace or using the autoplay feature. Saved stories can always be changed later using powerful editing capabilities that allow you to copy, insert, move, or delete items and pages. Creating and telling stories is a terrific human impulse, and cultivating it in children, when their imaginations are rich and fertile, is what SuperDuper StoryMaker App does best.

The most successful teaching tools are those that deeply engage the student. Engaging younger students, in particular, is rooted in creating a sense of fun in the learning process, something this app does very, very well. The app introduces and teaches 100 core curriculum words across four subject areas (Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math), employing four exceptionally entertaining games to do so. Students can play by themselves or against others, and the app's data tracking feature allows educators and parents to easily examine and evaluate a student's progress. Each of the four games utilizes the 100 pairs of illustrated vocabulary and matching definition cards that make up the app's vocabulary card deck. And while each of the four games is different, providing an exciting variety of play choices, at their core they are about the student being able to correctly pair a word with its definition. A student needn't be able to read to use the app. Tapping the screen causes an immediately relevant instruction to be narrated, while the illustration on each card not only allows the non-reader to play, it promotes new reading skills by showing the text for the word directly below the picture. The app and its games are so enjoyable that students keep coming back for more, getting better and better as they go. That's engagement. That's learning.

As I watched Surviving Infancy, a thorough and enjoyable video that covers 36 topics essential to parenting children through their first few years, I was struck by how relevant the material is. And not just some of it. All of it. When my daughter was young, my wife and I encountered every concern and situation delved into in this video. I vividly recall the barrage of anxiety-producing occurrences that one little baby girl was able to send our way - inconsolable crying, problems breastfeeding, car and home safety issues, ear infections (oh, the ear infections!), flips, falls, and head bangs when she was a toddler, emergency room visits. The list goes on. And at the time, in the thick of it, it seemed as though it would never end, the hard parts anyway. The beauty of this video, presented warmly and naturally by two female Emergency Medicine physicians and educators, is not just that it provides practical knowledge essential to increasing your child's safety, but that it also gives you, the parent, some much needed perspective. Knowing what to expect and having confidence in how to react takes a great deal of the anxiety out of parenting. And the good doctors are not wishy-washy. Much of the presentation deals with specifics - do this, don't do that - music to a parent's ears. The video is broken up into 36 practical segments that fly by while providing invaluable information. It is available in DVD format (29.95) or as streaming video (24.95).

It's not often you find kids fully engrossed, mentally engaged, and happy to be learning, but HearBuilder accomplishes that feat. In truth, kids may not realize they're learning, because the software is organized and presented so playfully. In other words, it's fun. HearBuilder Series consists of four CD-ROM educational software programs designed to help students improve their listening and memory skills. As a result, kids find themselves deeply absorbed in a highly enjoyable learning process. The four programs each have a distinct focus and can either be purchased as a set ($499.80) or as follows: Phonological Awareness ($149.95) includes nine activities in which children learn to segment, blend and manipulate words, syllables, and sounds. Following Directions ($99.95) helps students improve auditory processing of verbal directions, gaining knowledge of concepts in five key areas. Auditory Memory ($149.95) helps students practice and develop auditory memory for numbers, words, details, as well as closure and comprehension skills. Sequencing ($99.95) targets comprehension and critical thinking skills, with students starting off by ordering simple two-step sequences and progressing to six-step sequences. Each of the programs is progressive in nature, organized in such a way that the child moves fluidly from one level to another. HearBuilder is extremely easy to navigate, and each disc comes with its own full-sized instruction booklet. Tracking the student's progress is made simple via easily accessible onscreen progress reports.

As any world-class musician will tell you, music is very much a language. And children, for a period of time when they're young, have an amazing capacity to absorb and learn languages, music included. Little Musician enables you to take advantage of that incredible learning window by providing the means for even very young children to learn the fundamentals of music - melody, harmony, rhythm, meter - while exposing them to a wide range of instruments and world-famous music via the software. This boxed set includes everything you need - software disc, Quick Start guide, and two concise, extremely well written booklets. The curriculum spans two years (4 semesters of 6 months apiece), and each day's session includes a number of bite-sized lessons - chord recognition, note sounds, clap-along, rhythm, scales, keyboard, and much more - all without you or your child ever touching a musical instrument. The software is exceptionally easy to navigate. Both the software and written materials are so clearly laid out that parents don't need to know a thing about music in order to ensure their child gets the most out of the curriculum. Whether you aspire to have your children become musical prodigies or simply want them to have an understanding and lifelong appreciation of music, Little Musician provides an exceptional means for getting them there.