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Racing fans and novices alike will be entranced by the sleek beauty and rippling musculature on display in this set. You'll be dazzled by this collectible black Thoroughbred horse equipped with saddle, bridle, saddle pad, and racing tack. The fully articulated 6-inch female jockey is dressed in boots, helmet, and colorful racing silks that match the horse's racing tack. She can easily sit astride his back or stand at his side. The set includes an 11-inch by 17-inch double-sided poster loaded with information and photos about horse racing - key racing terms, historical information, and the names of some of the most famous racehorses of all time.

These 18-inch, high-quality vinyl dolls come fashionably dressed right out of the box. The stylishness of their clothing and accessories makes it easy for girls of all ages to identify with them. Their open-close eyes, mobile joints, and luxurious hair lend them an unusually life-like air and expressiveness. The theme of the 4-Ever Friends dolls, implicit in the line's name as well as language on the packaging (Dream, Aspire, Soar), is one of inclusiveness and unilimited possibility, ideas supported and reinforced by their availability in a range of diverse ethnicities. And that is what these dolls promote - friends of all stripes coming together and exploring the world through imaginative play, creating community and having fun!

It feels miraculous that a play space like American Doll Room requires no assembly. Just unfold the beautifully illustrated board that provides the floor and walls, lay down the mini plush carpeting, and add the ruffled white curtains - all in about 30 seconds. It's designed for use with 18-inch dolls and provides a lifelike miniature space in which children explore imaginative play. Both sides are illustrated, so a quick flip and fold creates different colored walls and floor (tile or simulated hardwood beneath the carpet) for an instant change of decor. The set includes a large purple duffle bag, designed with all your doll accessories in mind. There are several different colored rooms and carpets to choose from. There are nice discounts on the American Doll Room web site when buying multiple rooms (rooms can effortlessly be put together to form studios or suites), so there's good reason to expand. As it says on their web site - Flip. Play. Fold. Carry. It's just that simple.

The centerpiece of this 23-piece play set is, of course, the giant T-Rex. It's hard to imagine a fiercer, more authentic-looking one. This scaly, colorful predator has mouth open wide, plentiful sharp teeth flashing danger, and looks so real you half expect him to come to life. Even more fierce than his looks are the enraged roars he lets loose each time you tilt his head, while his eyes emit a crazed yellow light. Standing upright on massive clawed feet, his limbs can be rotated within a range of motion. 10 Fossil bones come with the set and can be assembled into a dinosaur skeleton. A tree house affords shelter and a lookout post for two human figures, one of which is a tough-looking commando. There are two smaller dinosaurs and a pterodactyl included, as well as a seaplane sized just right for the human figures. There are several other components as well. The variety and level of detail make this set perfect for imaginative play. Children will enact countless exciting scenarios, breathing life into these awe-inspiring figures again and again.

Add a touch of elegance to your daughter's world with this beautiful classic armoire for dolls. As with all Laurent Doll furniture, quality and detail add up to something special. Rather than a piece of furniture that looks like it was made for dolls, this Armoire looks like it was made for tasteful humans and shrunk down to hold an 18-inch doll's wardrobe. With inset panels, an arched top, rounded knobs, and brass hinges, the doors swing open to reveal an inside as pretty as the outside. A rack for hangers can hold up to 6 doll dresses, and the interior drawer will hold plenty of your favorite accessories. Quality hardwood construction means it's durable and long-lasting, and the smooth white finish will add luster to any room it's in.

Part of what's so engaging about Army vs. Aliens is the unique look and high quality of its components. Each of the 18 special dice has quirky, fun artwork on each of its 6 sides - for Army dice, things like Troopers, Artillery, and Generals. On Alien dice, you'll find Invaders, Death Rays, Mother Ships, and more. Each side of a die is a different weapon with a specific rank that comes into play when attacking your opponent. The object is to capture all your opponent's dice. After the initial roll of all 18 dice, players take turns attacking or rallying (re-rolling dice). The game is swift-moving - each turn takes but a moment - with plenty of action. The plastic dice cups are also niftily illustrated and snap together to form an easy carrying case. The gratification factor is high on both sides, with each player typically capturing numerous dice during a game. All this contributes to players being very engaged from start to finish. And until the last die is captured, it's anybody's game! For 2 players.

The language of Array is color and connection, but its defining characteristic is the way it gets your mind moving, assessing possibilities and weighing options. There are often several choices available on any given turn. Unless you are able to see and play them through in your mind, you are liable to make the poorer ones. Array is played in quick-moving rounds, with players placing multi-colored cards from their hands next to ones on the table whose colors match at the point of contact. This is called a Splice. Players can also do a Slice and Splice, breaking apart an existing connection and then building on the two severed cards. The goal is to be the first player to rid your hand of cards, ending the round with cards left in other players' hands counting against them. There are also special Splatter and Slam cards that can be used to put other players at a disadvantage. The beauty of Array is that the sometimes intricate thought processes that come into play unfold naturally and pleasurably, kicking your mind into high gear in the service of fun and games!

Whether your goal is to enjoy drenching everything in sight or to turn water-blasting into an art form, The Astronaut Spacepack is the tool for you. It'll make you feel like a ninja water-warrior, rapidly dispensing long-range blasts at a broad number of targets in the blink of an eye. First, there's the water supply, a backpack that provides you with a liter of water at a time. Then there's the dual-grip pump action that unleashes long, sweeping streams of water. And let's not forget the 30-foot range. Most enjoyable of all is the feature that enables you to shoot water in two directions at once. A trigger control causes the barrels to fan out in opposite directions, a feat that can be executed mid-stream. Working the trigger while pumping the action (very easy to do) creates an effect similar to firing a water blaster with each hand while sweeping your arms from the front to the sides and back again. You'll cover - and soak - a lot of territory almost effortlessly.

Bee Alert has components that are equal parts charming and brilliant. For example, the six colored bees whose positions players try to recall throughout the game, their weighted bottoms causing them to rock, roll, and weave on the table. They've got personality. In fact, the entire game is bristling with it. That's part of what sets it a big cut above other games. At the outset, those six bees are placed in a circle and covered with equally charming Beehives. The goal is to collect the most Beehives. Players take turns drawing from a deck. If you draw a bee card, lift the hive you think that color bee is under. If you're right, pull the Beehive, bee intact, in front of you. It's yours, for now, but that bee is still in play. If a subsequent player draws that same color, they must recall not only that you're the player who has it, but if you have multiple hives in front of you, which of them exactly it is. There are two other types of cards in the deck. Drawing a Beehive card entitles you to take any hive from the table's center, or if none are left, from another player. Drawing a Beary (the bear) card requires you to put one back. It's fairly easy to track the bees at the outset, but things get very interesting very fast as the bees start moving around. Concentration will boost your chances of winning, but you may not even care. It's just that much fun.

It's hard to imagine that something as seemingly simple as wooden blocks could be this much fun, but they are. They're fun, clever, gratifying, and honestly, they're a little addictive - as soon as you complete one challenge, you want to do another. Kids love'em, and more than a few adults had a hard time putting them down, too. There are 9 different colorful wooden blocks in different configurations, and each challenge requires you to assemble the blocks (and one or both of the figurines) in a very specific way. There are five different levels of play. At the Starter and Junior levels, the illustrations take you through an evolution from start to finish as you construct your building. The figurine(s), who are considered the supervisors, must stay on the building at all times as it's being constructed. At the Expert, Master, and Wizard levels, you're just shown the final configuration, and must get there on your own. Develops logical reasoning, strategic planning, visual and spatial perception.

Blind Spell is a game that shines in every way. Its simplicity and outrageously fun design make it a joy to jump right in and play. The premise: spell a word using letter shapes and nothing but your sense of touch! On your turn, you're shown a correctly spelled common 3-letter word, fitted with a pair of special glasses that block your vision, and handed 4 letter shapes - the 3 letters required to spell the word plus one extra. A timer is started and you must weed out the bad letter while arranging the others to correctly spell the word, all in under 30 seconds! The letter shapes are a good size, the words simple. Easy, right? But sightless, the ticking of the timer closing in on you, it can get a little frantic. What's more, each round is made harder by adding one more extra letter than the previous round. By round 5, you are handed 8 letters (the 3 correct letters for the word, plus 5 extra letters to weed out) . Once you're a master, you can even play using 4-letter words. For 2 to 4 players.

Bobble Bots Moshi Monsters Moshlings are a set of bobble-head mini robotic pets. Seriously, they zip around in all their cuteness, using special vibration technology to bop into, bounce off of, and generally find their way around almost anything. But where you'll want to see them in all their glory is in a Monstro City of your own making. That's where these building sets, each of which includes one ultra rare Moshling, come in. Everything snaps together in seconds, with awesome colors and detail work already complete. Each set also includes two city block cells, with curbs and accessories so that you can build a contained unit or buy different sets (there are currently four available), interconnect them, and watch your Moshlings traverse an entire town. These little robots are based on Mind Candy's hugely popular online world for kids. Now you can bring a 3-D version of that world into your own home and fill it with buzzing, bustling, little creatures. Vive le Moshlings!

The thought you're likely to have when first you lay eyes on this bunk bed for dolls is 'Wow, I wish my bed was that nice.' It is, indeed, a fine-looking piece of furniture, quality-crafted hardwood with a smooth, white finish and plenty of tasteful nuance. It's sizeable enough (comfortably fitting two 18-inch dolls) that it feels like a genuine piece of furniture, adding appreciably to the decor of any room. It comes with 2 cotton mattresses and pillows, has a beautifully proportioned ladder on one side, and is life-like, or should I say human-like, in every detail. Assembly was very easy (trust us, it was a snap), and the result will make everyone - girls, parents, dolls - proud. Playtime guests will be thrilled and envious.

Talk about a game for rainy days - CampAntics enables you to enjoy summer camp fun, regardless of the season or weather! Players move around the board on rolls of the dice, participating in camp activities and getting themselves and others into mischief. Each player starts with 3100 points (little acorns of different colors and point values). Spaces on the board provide opportunities to add to (or lose some of) your acorns, while Mischief Cards let you and others risk winning or losing points on rolls of the dice. There are 3 progressive levels of play based on experience, making it easy for young players to get in on the fun. The instructions are written and illustrated as an actual comic book, making even learning to play enjoyable. Decide up front how long a game you want by choosing to spend from 1 to 7 days at camp (each day is a trip around the board). The player with the most points at the end is the winner. There's skill, luck, and plenty of social interaction, with players sharing stories and personal experiences. Summer camp fun is here to stay, come rain or come shine! For 1 to 4 players.

Make friendship bracelets with an international flair, using My Friendship Bracelet Maker Traveler. Perfect for backpacks and carry-ons, this compact kit contains everything you need to craft gorgeous bracelets. Choose from 20 precut Prism embroidery threads (in 10 different colors) stored in the internal thread organizing drawer. The kit's beautiful surface, with the word 'friend' displayed in numerous languages, is your cleverly designed workshop. A built-in clip with a globe design anchors one end of your bracelet-in-progress while you work with up to 5 threads at a time. Numbered slots ingeniously hold the other end of the threads in place, keeping everything organized from start to finish. It's all so easy. Step-by-step instructions have you looking and feeling like a pro in no time, making bracelets your friends will adore!

This game is literally bursting with fun. The Chicken Coop in Cluck 'N' Chuck never fails to take players by surprise when it suddenly pops up, sending chickens flying through the air. Players jump, squeal with delight, and of course, count their chickens. The object is to get rid of all 9 of your chickens of various colors, and the only way to do that is by tossing them on top of the Chicken Coop, one at a time, based on repeated rolls of the color die. There's good news and bad news to that die. Being in possession of it is your only chance to rid yourself of chickens, by rolling a matching color. But if the Chicken Coop - a time bomb of sorts - blows while you still have the die, some of those chickens will be coming home to roost. And here's the big catch - you have to keep rolling until you roll a color that doesn't match one of the chickens in your front line. It's not like you get to say, 'I've had enough,' and pass the die by choice. When you do pass it, another player immediately begins rolling and chucking, fast and focused, enjoying the glory while taking the risk that the Chicken Coop is about to blow. And blow it will. You can count on it. For 2 to 4 players.

You get an awful lot for your money with this game - multiple card decks, playing pieces, rings, beads, pegs, habit sticks, a beautifully illustrated board, dice - all of which figure prominently in the unique game play. Move around the board, acquiring positive and negative karma (colored beads and rings that neutralize one another). Pass through the Earth Realm, Spirit Realm, and Cosmic Consciousness, striving to acquire the positive karmic balance and master tools needed to win. Choice and Karma Cards picked up along the way can work for or against you, but in either event present words of genuine wisdom. And that's part of what sets the Cosmic Karma Game apart from so many others - a sense of sincerity and knowledge that runs throughout. And when the game is over, you'll not only have had a great time, you'll also be the wiser for having played!

Crappy Birthday has a wonderfully simple premise, as the very best games often do. We've all gotten bad gifts before. Well, here's your chance to give back, and to be recognized for the sheer awfulness of the gifts you give. More importantly, you and your fellow players will be laughing so hard, tears will be streaming down your faces. The deck consists of 200 jumbo cards, each of which contains the name, description, and photo of a truly awful gift, everything from a hideous 'Decorative Urinal' to everyone's favorite, 'GPS with Annoying Voice.' Players are dealt 5 cards apiece. One player is the designated Gift Receiver for that turn. It is the job of the other players to select the Gift Card from their hand they think the Gift Receiver would LEAST want. These are placed face down and mixed up before being flipped one at a time by the recipient and read aloud. Players spew opinions, hilarious digressions abound, and the recipient selects the gift he or she likes least. The player who gave that gift earns 1 point. Play continues, with a different Gift Receiver on each turn, until someone reaches 3 points and wins the game. For 4 to 8 players.

Playing CUBU is like thinking in several languages at once, albeit ones in which we're firmly grounded from a young age - size, color, position, and direction. It certainly gets your brain moving, requiring players to create sequences by adding cards from their hands to ones already in play. Each CUBU card contains multiple rectangles of varying size and color, nested within one another like Russian dolls. Players take turns creating sequences using the color and position of any rectangle they choose as a starting point. You score points by being first to rid your hand of cards, so the trick is in choosing the one that will allow you to play the most cards. For example, if you see that the 3rd rectangle from the center is red, you could either play a card from your hand that has a red rectangle 2nd from center or one with red 4th from center. Inspect your entire hand to see which direction would be a better choice, since you can't change direction in the middle of a turn. The deck also contains action cards that throw curve balls and can wreak havoc on players' progress. You can also play SPEED CUBU, a faster free-for-all in which players race head-to-head instead of taking turns. Either way, you're in for thrilling competition and a full-brain workout!

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving! Day at the Spa is the ultimate way for girls to pamper themselves (and Mom). Invite friends over for a spa party or fly solo. The kit comes with everything you need for first-rate manicures and pedicures, plus all the trappings of an authentic spa experience! There are 5 different nail polishes, Hand Rest, Electric Nail Dryer, Spa Mask, Pedicure Slippers, Inflatable Pedicure Pool, Press-on Nails, and more! Special white sticker strips make it easy to create a French pedicure. Add a coat of glitter polish for sparkly effects. Nail sticker art tops things off with delicate, beautiful patterns in seconds. Day at the Spa will give you countless hours of rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, and fun!

Few things stir the imagination quite the way superheroes and superpowers do. What boy or girl hasn't pictured themselves soaring through the sky or crashing through walls, saving those in need and vanquishing their oppressors? Now you can have the creative superpower to design your own superhero cape, tailoring it to reflect whatever abilities strike your fancy or stir your spirit. First, conceive of the powerful character you'd like to be, then decorate the blue, flowing cape in ways that suit that concept. Will it have long, bold stripes? Multicolored arrows and stars, crisscross patterns? A symbol of your own making no one has ever seen before? The kit includes tips on how to come up with a great superhero concept and design. When you're ready, the cape is your canvas. The array of materials included - colored felt and EVA sheets, stars and shapes, colored pencils, glitter and craft glue - are the elements you'll arrange, slice, color, and mold into an expression of your inner superhero. And when you're done creating, it's time to slip into character and costume and let the power of your imagination fuel countless hours of super-fun play!

This game is so much fun you're almost afraid you'll wake up and discover it was all a dream. You know you're dealing with something special from the moment you open the box. The game's components are beautiful and unusual - a sizeable 3-dimensional green dragon with purple horns on her head, back, and tail, 29 soft, plastic lizards, and 15 hard golden eggs. Place all the lizards on top of the dragon, and the 15 golden eggs on top of the lizards, creating a precarious tangle of limbs and eggs. Each player gets one set of pinchers, to be used to extract as many lizards as possible without causing any eggs or lizards to fall. Each lizard you get is worth a point. Anything falls, and your turn is over, whether you've snagged a lizard or not. Each falling egg costs a point, and trust us, eggs will roll. You'll treasure Dreaming Dragon. It's a game your kids will remember when they're all grown up, along with the wonderful times they shared with friends and family. For 2 to 4 players.

This is a great game for families with younger kids. They'll love the game-play and the components, which include four brightly colored tin travelling trunks, replete with postcards from travels abroad. The idea here is that Emmet the elephant, who's late for a trip, needs your help packing. Players take turns rolling the wooden die and packing a piece of clothing (an illustrated token) into the matching colored trunk. That is, of course, unless you happen to roll a sneaky mouse, in which case the trunk closest to Emmet the elephant will be emptied and you'll have more clothes to pack. There are a couple of nice twists, such as a bonus when you roll the color of the trunk nearest Emmet, as well as the possibility of unloading clothes dumped on you by that sneaky mouse. Playing Elephant's Trunk reinforces fine motor skills, pattern recognition, and color identification. A sweet, fun game with unusually attractive and charming components. A keeper!

The eco-friendly Everythingland Mailbox is a unique 3-dimensional canvas ripe to unleash the creativity that bubbles and percolates in young minds. It is shaped just like the curbside mailboxes mounted on posts on countless suburban and small-town streets throughout the United States. An open-and-close door allows favorite objects to be stored in the mail receptacle. The white cardboard exterior is ready to receive artistic attention in all forms. The several dozen Eco-Art U-Stickems that accompany the mailbox are different from common stickers, which are typically peeled off a non-recyclable, non-biodegradable backing sheet. Eco-Art U-Stickems purposely have no adhesive. Instead, apply them using glue, paste, or tape you already have on hand, or make your own eco-friendly paste using instructions included with this kit. That real-life mailboxes hold almost magical properties for young kids as a source of both anticipated and unexpected treasures makes Everythingland Mailbox an ideal imaginative toy. Its use as both a canvas for self-expression and as a prop inspiring interactive play will give your child countless hours of absorbing fun.

It's stunning, the level of gorgeous, detailed, three-dimensional fashions you can create from paper using this creative kit from Klutz. Bodices, skirts, gowns, long-sleeved coats, shoes, accessories, and more - the beauty and volume of what Klutz enables you to make seems endless. The only thing you bring to the table is your scissors. Everything else you need is here, including a 68-page book filled with ideas, start-to-finish instructions, and plenty of inspiration for your own designs. There are 20 sheets of double-sided paper covered with bold colors and vivid patterns that range from playful to elegant. These provide your core material, while 18 plastic pattern pieces enable you to easily craft lovely, varied fashions that appear as though made by a professional designer. Just trace, snip, glue, then put your fashions on display using the dress stands and hangers provided. Sequins, ribbons, and stencils allow you to achieve a level of detail you wouldn't have imagined possible, from tiny ruffles to fancy flowers and collars. In typical Klutz style, the instructions are clear, concise, fun, and include easy-to-execute tips ranging from scissors secrets to good gluing practices. Friends and family will be awestruck by your brilliant creations.

Your friends will be amazed when they ask where you got your beautiful headband and learn that you made it! Fashion Headbands gives you everything you need to transform 10 different colored satin headbands included in the kit into personal fashion statements! An insert from the box makes the perfect workstation at which to create your wearable masterpieces. Just dab a little craft glue to affix bows, flowers, butterfly, rhinestones, ribbons, and more, all of which are included. How detailed you get is up to you. Do a little design planning up front, or just jump in and improvise as you go. Fashion Headbands makes it that easy!

With Feather Fashions, creating your own feather accessories is as easy as 1-2-3. Hair clips, headbands, hair extensions, and more - even those who consider themselves challenged at craft-making will be creating and wearing beautiful accessories in no time. The instructions are oh so simple, and the kit includes everything you'll need - fabric flowers and circles that act as bases on which to combine different feather colors and patterns; glue to hold it together once you get the exact look you're after; rhinestones to add color, sparkle, and a touch of class; headbands, hair clips, and ponytail bands that attach easily to your creations; and craft string for making lovely hair extensions. There's enough to make more than 12 feather accessories and to begin designing, decorating, and wearing your own creations. All you have to do is open the box!

This stellar hidden object game has 42 items you would find on a farm hidden among brightly colored pellets inside a cleverly silo-shaped cylinder. On The Farm will keep your hands moving and your eyes sharp as you race - twist, turn, shake, nudge, jostle - whatever it takes to bring those hidden items into sight. Whether playing alone or in a group, keep track of the items you find by checking them off the detailed score pad. Or, when you're on the road or on the go, just use the item checklist printed on the game's bottom. The 'learn as you play' element was really evident (so that's what a tiller looks like!) throughout the action. Play veered easily from fierce competition to communal cooperation, with everyone sharing in the satisfaction when players excitedly called out new finds. The replay value is very high in this game, which means it doesn't ever get old. You'll have countless hours of fun playing it again and again.

Bob Knight, creator of the brilliant 3-dimensional hidden object game, Find It, has produced a spectacular new version for everyone to enjoy. Starry Night, in a new twist, comes in a custom star-shaped container, with 40 glow-in-the-dark items nestled among the brightly colored pellets within. Planets, moons, stars, an astronaut - all things celestial, if you will - can be found if one looks carefully enough, and a few earthly items, as well. Rotating, inverting, and gently jostling the container will reveal many things. Find It Starry Night is great fun whether played alone or in a group, making it a perfect family game. Score pads listing all the items enable players to keep track of treasures by checking them off as they are found. The game is excellent for promoting focus and concentration, and the combined visual-tactile element makes it powerfully engaging for players of all ages.

I'm going to say something here I never thought I'd say about a balance bike - this is one sweet ride! Not all balance bikes are created equal, as this premium quality award-winner proves so adeptly. High craftsmanship is evident in its every aspect, from the incredibly quick and easy assembly to its look, lightness, and feel. It's so handsome that if you produced an adult-sized version, you'd soon see a stream of grown-ups proudly tooling around the block on them. As it is, this is the perfect training bike for building your child's balance, motor skills, and confidence. Its high quality composite frame avoids the pitfalls found in metal or wooden frames and is designed to minimize risk and maximize comfort. It's super durable and has a fully adjustable seat, allowing it to grow with your child and assure maximum pleasure and usage. The specialized hand-brake gives your child excellent control, while the ergonomic saddle pad seat assures comfort. Starting your child off with this premium balance bike will set the tone for a lifelong love of biking!

FitzIt is simple, brilliant fun that takes just a minute or so to learn, can be played by any size crowd, and takes only 20 minutes or so per game. Just pop open the pocket-sized box and play. Each card contains a brief verbal description, such as 'Has feathers,' or 'Coin operated.' On your turn, add as many cards as possible from your hand next to one on the table (forming an expanding grid) by naming an object all those cards' descriptions have in common. For example, if you held 'Makes a loud noise,' 'Usually runs on gasoline,' and 'Bigger than a car,' and a card on the table said 'Has moving parts,' you could announce, 'Airplane,' and lay your cards down next to it in a row or column. The object you conjure in your mind is what links the cards together, and creative thinking will take you far. The first player to use all their cards is the winner. There are also some great twists that enable you to dump cards on opponents. Hilarious, quick-moving, imaginative, verbal fun!

It's amazing that 12 colored cubes connected by an elastic string can be configured in so many different ways. But of course, therein lies the challenge - how to get the little buggers to conform to the shape and color orientation of whichever puzzle you've chosen to tackle. By twisting, turning, inspecting, then twisting and turning some more, you can make the cubes do almost anything you want. But not by brute force. Your brain will be your hands' best friend when molding the cubes into the 80 different 3-dimensional puzzles shown in the Challenge Book. There are 4 levels of difficulty. Unlike some brainteasers, in which even the beginner level seems to require genius, Flexi Puzzle's 20 Beginner challenges are gratifying and doable. And even these starter puzzles are so fun and absorbing you won't want to stop until you've proven yourself at the Advanced, Expert, and Master levels.

If variety is the spice of life, then variability, one of Fluxx's prime characteristics, is its meat and potatoes. At the outset, the basic rules are incredibly simple - draw a card, play a card. But the play of even a single card can change everything - the goal of the game, the value of cards in players' hands, even the rules. Each card, playfully designed and illustrated, tells you what action to take in order to play it. Once the game is in full swing, players often have multiple cards in their hands and on the table, as well as cards face-up in the middle displaying rules and goals effecting everyone. Evaluating which card to play from your hand requires tracking these various elements and their consequences. A player instantly wins the game if he or she meets the current goal - typically having a specific pair of cards face up on the table. Fluxx moves quickly, is easy to learn, and plays well across a broad range of ages. Fluxx is lighthearted fun, yet playing it builds resiliency and flexibility, two characteristics that are highly valuable in all areas of life. For 2 - 6 players.

This beautiful, fun-filled backpack will keep your young girls' imaginations and playtime sparkling with activity and magic. This beautiful, plush child-sized activity backpack is loaded with fun stuff to take with you anywhere. The soft Fairy doll that comes with it is beautifully designed and dressed. There are three different colored backpacks and dolls to choose from - Alexandra, Madison, or Tomar, all three of which appear in the illustrated storybook you'll find inside when you unzip the backpack. The Fairy doll slides smoothly into her flower-design holder on the front of the backpack, adorning it with her magical presence so that she can share the sights with you during all your travels. Inside there's a built-in whiteboard, 4 dry erase markers, a fairy pencil wand and magic fairy glasses. There's also room to pack some of your favorite items from home. A portable world that brings magic to life everywhere you go!

Much of the pleasure in playing Foodle comes from the fact that it's about something we all know - food, that essential ingredient of life. Most of us carry around a surprising amount of information about food and nutrition - some correct, some not - making it fun to put to the test. Playing Foodle will certainly enhance and hone your knowledge, and win you some bragging rights in the process. Players move forward or backward on rolls of the die based on whether or not you answer a question correctly. The questions are either True/False or multiple choice, making it easy to save face. Some of the answers are fairly well-known facts, some intuitive, and others are just plain fun to figure out (How many strands does a cup of cooked spaghetti contain - 15, 32, or 85?). There are special spaces on the board that require a quick physical activity (jumping jacks, jog in place). This is a fun, fast-moving game that will smarten you up with essential facts for good, healthy living.

Truly, it's amazing what you can build with the powerful magnetic components in this ingenious Geomag kit. By inter-connecting the glow-in-the-dark magnetic rods and metal balls, you can quickly assemble a variety of 3-dimensional shapes. But more importantly, you can build yourself a nifty Moon Explorer vehicle. Clear plastic panels (squares and triangles) snap right into magnetically generated rectangles and triangles, while illustrated inserts (also glow-in-the-dark) create a detailed, polished look. Attach the 4 rims to the special wheel axles, slip on the sleek tread-less tires, and you've got a highly mobile unit that looks great day and night!

Glo Glo Inkoos are adorable plush characters. They have that indefinable 'it' factor that causes them to shine with personality and seem lovably alive. They also offer unique artistic possibilities. They come with three washable markers, and, most impressively, a special light pen that allows you to draw on them and decorate them - in the dark! The washable markers can be used anytime, anywhere, and Glo Glo Inkoos can be washed over and over again. The special light pen is amazing, enabling you to turn out the lights and create patterns and drawings that immediately glow brightly. Glo Glo Inkoos are covered with cool, fun patterns you can trace and fill in, and have a green tummy patch area that's the perfect drawing board for your own free-hand imaginings. They're also huggably soft - you'll want to pick them up, squeeze them, carry them around. Their unique, quirky look and distinctive, detailed features will bring about countless hours of imaginative play as both inspirational artwork and go-everywhere-together play-friends.

Fun is often in the details, and the fine level of detail is one of the first things you notice about Building Blocks Habaland Train. The vivid sharpness and contrasting colors alone make it a treat for the eyes. Factor in the decorative flourishes, the array of movable and removable parts, and you realize you've got a playtime work of art on your hands. Speaking of hands, there is much for them to do here - a smiling conductor and wooden drum (with a built-in bell) are removable, as are the pieces that make up a stacking game built onto one of the cars. The caboose has an extra set of connected wheels riding up on its back that can be flipped down in an instant, extending the length of the train. All four cars connect via magnets, which means they can be separated into 4 nifty stand-alone toy vehicles and reconnected into a train in the blink of an eye. Unstoppable fun!

This simple, highly enjoyable game can be played quite easily by young children. Each player starts with 4 wooden tiles, randomly pulled from the cloth bag. A starter tile is placed on the table and players take turns adding to it. The winner will be the first player to use all their tiles. The tiles have 3 different jigsaw profiles - round, pointed, and angular, so that some tiles fit together, while others don't. For example, a tile with a protruding peak fits into one with a triangular notch. If you can fit a tile to the existing chain on your turn, do so, and play passes to the next player. If you can't, you must draw one from the bag, and in doing so try to find one, by touch alone, that fits. Because everyone's tiles are visible at all times, you can make strategic choices to hinder other players or further your own next move. The game play here goes deeper than at first you might think, making it a game adults and older children will enjoy as much as the young ones! For 1 to 4 players.

HABA's products have a distinctive quality, a uniqueness that makes them incredibly appealing, dynamic, and fun. Treetop Trouble is an outstanding game in which memory, strategy, and luck come together to create a playful race to get all your animals home where they belong. Each player has 6 animal tiles randomly placed face down on the Tree House (game board) and Elevator. The object is to get each of your animals to their proper floor. Each roll of the die sends the elevator up or down one or more floors, where all players swap their elevator tile with their tile on that floor. During the swap you're allowed to peek at your tile as it enters the elevator. Then it's just a matter of getting it to the right floor. When you roll, you control whether to go up or down, and there's a star on the die that, if rolled, lets you choose any floor, enabling you to make clever choices that help you win. Great fun for the entire family! For 2 to 4 players.

The makers of HEXBUG keep outdoing themselves, no small feat given that each product they've come up with has been among the most exciting playthings of the year. HEXBUGS are high-tech micro robotic creatures that use the physics of vibration to propel themselves along any horizontal surface. HEXBUG Warriors are fiercer-looking than their predecessors. And rightly so, given that their purpose is to represent one of four dueling science academies in the future by doing battle. Equipped with mechanical weapons and armor, they zip, flip, and careen around the enclosed track, pivoting corners and delivering broadsides to their opponents. When in Battle Mode, a Damage Indicator Light enables you to track a battle's progress. Each hit a warrior takes reduces its health, its light changing from green to yellow to red while blinking with increasing speed. With enough hits, a warrior is disabled, becoming still and lifeless. The battle may be over, but the push of a button is all it takes to revive it to fight another day. There are two assorted sets available with different pairs of opposing warriors. The stadiums are inter-connectable and customizable, allowing for the creation of a mega-stadium in which all comers can join the fray!

Hue Turn is a clever game in which the object is to position colored wooden pegs on a game board so they complete a pattern shown on one or more of the Pattern Cards in your hand. It's a conceptually simple game that, as it progresses, creates an array of possibilities for your mind to juggle. That's the beauty of Hue Turn - brilliant simplicity that unleashes tendrils of possibility with every move. Pegs placed on the board are a different color on top and bottom (except for the yellow Starter Peg, which is wild). Every turn consists of one player either adding or flipping a single peg on the board in an attempt to match pattern cards in their hand. If that player succeeds, he or she reveals the pattern card(s) matched, earns points, and replenishes their hand. An exciting and unpredictable aspect of game play is that one player's flip may undo another player perched to make a pattern on the next move. Hue Turn gets the mental juices and the fun flowing every time!

Nothing attracts kids like fun, and one of the many great things about this kit is the sense of freedom and play it fosters while providing structure that enables children to explore and learn. Kids warm up with Muscle Movers, a game in which a roll of the die determines which card to flip and animal to mimic. They then use Magnastix (17 colored magnetic pieces) to form letters on the magnetic dry-erase board, with a special color-coded key to guide them. Next, the colorful Lower Case Writing Tablet has Max the Monkey providing playful instructions that make forming each letter seem like a game in itself. The back of the tablet contains reward stickers for when each page is completed. Both the tablet and dry-erase board (includes a marker) use a green-at-the-top, red-at-the-bottom approach to help kids remember to start letters at the top. Kids will improve fine motor skills, sharpen visual perception, learn proper letter sequencing and, best of all, enjoy every minute of it!

The first thing that jumps out at you about this new game is how tiny the box is, perfect for a game named IOTA. The second thing, as soon as the game is in motion, is how much fun it is. Each card has a color, shape, and number on it. Players take turns adding cards from their 4-card hand to a grid on the table, making sure that color, shape, and number are either all the same or all different across the line being created or expanded. For example, you could create a line in which each card has the same number and color, but the shapes are all different. What matters is that each of the 3 characteristics must conform to one of those two extremes - all the same, or all different. On each turn you score points by totaling the numeric value of all the cards in the lines you created or expanded on that turn. The maximum line length is 4 cards (called a 'lot'). When you create a lot, your score for that turn is doubled. Doubling also occurs when you play all 4 of your cards at once, sometimes leading to massive jumps in score. Wild cards add to the possibilities. There's nothing small about IOTA. The brain power brought to bear as players survey the terrain for the highest scoring possibilities is considerable. What's more, it's massively fun. For 2 to 4 players.

Here's an outstanding way to keep little ones (up to 80 lbs) active and engaged, both physically and mentally. They'll hop their tails off on this specially designed kids' trampoline, burning energy while participating in virtual adventures that let them learn as they play. Built-in handles provide stability and safety, while a special mount securely holds an iPad or other tablet device (tablet device not included) in place so that the trampoline user can view and play along with the 12-minute RompyRoo exercise adventure video cartoon that comes with the iBounce. You'll follow RompyRoo, a young kangaroo in search of his favorite teddy bear. He'll put you through your paces counting, hopping, climbing, and stepping along with him as he covers all manner of terrain, giving you visual and verbal cues on just how to move. JumpSport will keep the adventures rolling by introducing a new video every few months. Fun, active, learning - the perfect triple play!

One of the most effective ways for parents to lay the groundwork for their child's landmark first ride on a two-wheeled bike is to put them on two wheels from the very beginning with a Kinderfeets balance bike. This handmade wooden pushbike preps kids for that big ride from day one. More than being just a means to an end, however, Kinderfeets is a pleasure unto itself. Children can get around either under their own power, feet pushing off the ground, or by placing their feet on the Kinderfeets footpegs and cruising along under the influence of a parent's steady hand. The former creates an early sense of independence, while the latter provides a familiarity with the feeling of feet off the ground on a two-wheel bike. The low frame and adjustable seat allow the bike to grow with your child. There's very little assembly (literally a couple of minutes), always a plus. Kinderfeets is available in natural finish or in six different colors in Chalkboard finish. Carries up to 70 lbs.

The Kool Rider provides a sonic boost for bikes, turning even quick jaunts around the block into genuine thrill-rides. This clip-on accessory mimics the sound of a speeding motorbike. It took our testers less than 30 seconds to install the Kool Rider, and less time than that for the smiles to light up their faces as heads turned while they zoomed down the block. The Kool Rider is aptly named, not just for how it makes your ride sound, but also because it looks extra sharp. Its magnificent clamp force and spring action are made possible by a blend of performance polymers from Dupont. Moms and dads used playing cards and clothespins to create similar effects when they were kids, but inspiration and modern technology have brought Kool Rider and your bike hurtling into the 21st century!

If you would like your kids to be able to break out those super-fun toys and games (with gazillions of pieces and whose packaging is likely long gone) and play to their heart's content, then Lay-n-Go LITE is a necessity. Lay-n-Go LITE is an activity mat, cleanup, carryall, and storage solution, sized (18 inches) and designed for families on the go. When playtime is over, just pull the drawstring, and the circular mat closes up around the play items, encircling and securing them for carriage in an almost effortless cleanup. Its 100% nylon fabric is durable and water repellant. The nylon cord keeps toys securely inside, and the handle makes it easy and comfortable to carry. Whether making an outing to a restaurant, the park, a friend's house, or taking a road trip or flight, Lay-n-Go Lite makes it a snap to kick-off the fun, as well as to wrap it up when playtime's over. Available in blue, green. or pink.

LEGO Life of George brings together two great play media for a special dose of competitive fun - 144 LEGO bricks that come in the packaging, and a touch app that's available free from the App Store. The app (for iPhone, iPod, or iPad) provides timed building challenges for you to create with the LEGO bricks. The moment the app shows you a model to build, the clock starts ticking, and off you go, racing to finish before the clock hits zero. When you're finished, place your model on the play mat and snap a picture. You'll be given a score based on speed and accuracy. As you complete the challenges, your snapshots fill up George's photo albums for different destinations in his worldly travels. There is also a My Life album that allows you to create your own models and save pictures of them, then return later to use them as timed challenges. LEGO Life of George will keep your brain active, your creative juices flowing, and your fingers moving nimbly!

Part of what makes Let's Drive so exceptional is that many of its outstanding aspects - how you get around the board, the strategies involved in doing so and in scoring points - exist separate and apart from its subject matter. In other words, it's a blast to play, and would be so even if the game had nothing to do with U.S. geography. The fact that it does means your geographical knowledge will catapult into the stratosphere, becoming second nature. You will also become adept at surveying many elements at the same time (cards in your hand, cards, locations, and pieces on the board) and making choices that serve your goal - winning the game. We won't go much into game play here, other than to say you move your vehicle from place to place on the board via roads and airports, collecting points along the way. There are many flourishes that keep you actively engaged at all times - you can even score points on other players' turns. Fun from start to finish! 2 - 5 players.

Beautiful, fashionable, and stylish are not words one normally associates with industrial metal school lockers. Until now. With LockerLookz Accessories, Middle and High School students can make their lockers as homey or glamorous as they desire in minutes. And everything's held in place by small, powerful magnets, easy on, easy off! Gorgeous wallpaper? Check. Elegant motion-sensor chandeliers and locker lamps? Check. Colorful shag rug? Check. There's much more, including mirrors, white boards, even stunning organizational bins that make items as mundane as pens, pencils, and markers look hip. Each piece in this mix-and-match collection comes in several different colors or styles, and it's impossible to overstate how attractive and well made they are. See for yourself at LockerLookz.com, where brief videos demonstrate how easy it is to transform your locker into a space you'll enjoy and want to show off. Priced at $6.99 & up.

Part of the fun and excitement of Look Look stems from the wildly imaginative illustrations players scan while looking to solve a challenge dictated by a card that's just been flipped. It may be as simple as finding the symbol or creature that's on the card. Or to seek out two numbers found within specific colors and perform quick addition or subtraction. Whatever the challenge (and there are a variety), the first player to solve it collects the card. Each card has a letter on the back, and the first player to spell LOOK LOOK is the winner. There's a fair amount of visual terrain to cover (8 large tiles, each with numerous images in various sizes), and playing Look Look cultivates visual discrimination, matching, strategies for effective search, and simple math skills, among others. Everyone's in on the action from start to finish, making Look Look a fantastic, fun, energizing game for 2 to 6 players!

This utterly charming doll from British toy company Arklu is distinctive in so many ways. First and foremost, she makes an inviting playmate, one who is fashionably and age-appropriately dressed, conveying happiness and good cheer in every aspect of her appearance. Unlike many dolls, her proportions are appropriately childlike, creating a look that accurately reflects the innocence and aspirations of the 3- to 8-year-old audience for whom she is intended. Her 7-inch height not only sets her apart from many of the oversized fashion dolls on the market, it makes toting her (and her playmates) as easy as pie. Her hair is of truly unusual quality, giving it a lifelike appearance and feel. Her stylish outfit consists of premium-quality clothes and accessories, including detachable Velcro patches that elevate the level of detail and swap-ability. Her flexible, pose-able form, like the other features mentioned above, make her an ideal imaginative play-toy, one that inspires fun, creativity, and positive self-perception in young girls. Oh, and she comes in a lovely, reusable tote-box. Further accessories are available separately.

Everyone loves expressing their own unique style in various ways. This wonderful creative kit provides everything you need to design and make your own colorful bracelets. The instructions explain a variety of quick, easy techniques - knotting and wrapping ribbon, wrapping the bangle with embroidery thread, gluing fabric and ribbon, braiding fabric strips, making friendship bracelets, and more. Using either of the two included wooden bangles (1/2 inch wide and 1-1/4 inch wide) as a base, it takes no time at all to turn your ideas into fun, wearable, accessories. Be original, take chances - you can re-design them again and again using the extra materials provided. Or, to create a thinner bangle, use cord, ribbon, or embroidery thread as your foundation. In addition to the wooden bangles, the set includes four different colors of embroidery thread, two brightly patterned fabrics, red and striped ribbons, and non-toxic craft glue. The components are very high quality, packaged with an unusually distinctive flair.

Kids have a special love of snow globes. Something about holding a world-in-miniature in their hands and being able to animate it with a shake stirs their imaginations and makes them feel less small at a time when they don't necessarily want to be small. So the sense of excitement and empowerment they exhibit while molding and crafting this Make your own Snow Globe kit into their own creative vision should come as no surprise. The kit has everything they need to jump right in and start creating. High quality polymer clay in four different colors provides the core medium from which springs their little world - houses, castles, foliage, creatures great and small - whatever their imagination desires. Two different color glitters provide the ethereal snowflakes. Detailed instructions take them through the steps of how to work with the clay, make sure everything fits and sets nicely inside the recyclable globe, and sealing it properly once water and glitter have been added. The recyclable globe sits on the strong cardboard base provided, decorated care of your child's imagination. A parent's assistance is required for baking the clay in the oven to harden it.

If you've been pondering getting your thinking cap out of the closet and dusting it off, fear not. Mentagy will have you flexing your mental muscles in no time. It is a series of puzzles whose solutions each use all the letters of the alphabet in a grid consisting of nine 2 X 2 boxes. There are puzzles ranging from beginner to advanced. Each new puzzle has different blacked out cells that cannot be used and different given letters in place at the outset. Your challenge is to fill in all the empty cells with letters such that each new letter is adjacent to the previous letter of the alphabet and each row and column, once you're done, contains exactly one vowel. Also, once you place a letter in any 2 X 2 box, you must fill in the remainder of that box before proceeding to a new box. How challenging you find Mentagy will shift over time. As you gain experience, you'll happily move to the more difficult puzzles. Regardless of your level, one thing is certain - logic and reasoning will get you everywhere. This set includes a paperback book loaded with Mentagy puzzles that can be solved right on the page, BUT, it is so much more fun to solve them in 3 dimensions using the hardwood game board and pieces that are included. Your brain will thank you!

The startling bursts of color and dramatic effects made possible (and easy) by Metallic Mania take art-making to a new level of fun and excitement. Just flip open the Black Paper Sketch Pad and whip out the Metallic EcoPencils, Gel Sticks, and Markers. Every stroke on the page takes on a vivid depth and boldness, inspiring you to new heights of creativity. Experiment with touch when using the EcoPencils to create varied, original effects. Gel Sticks create a smooth, creamy consistency, while the Metallic Markers create colors that jump off the dark backgrounds. Add water and use the brush to create watercolor effects. Use the blending stick to meld colors together. Pre-cut black cardstock shapes (rocket, butterfly, motorcycle, and more) make unique canvases, each with its own little exhibition stand. Sheets of black velvet paper add to the variety. Join in the fun - your art never looked so good!

We've encountered few games that get the wheels in your brain turning as quickly as Mine Shift does, while generating a massive dose of fun. 10 tiles (from a 27 tile deck) are laid out to create a playing board. Each player starts with 4 same-colored jewels on his/her home tile and strives, during the course of alternating turns, to advance all 4 jewels across the board onto their opponent's home tile. The first player to do so, wins. Each player makes 3 moves per turn in, and there are several types of moves to choose from: stepping or jumping jewels, pivoting tiles, or shifting entire tiles within the board's perimeter. However, every turn must consist of at least one Jewel Step. These simple rules open up endless ways to advance and defend in this remarkable two-player game. Each twist and turn of play unfurls new possibilities. Each glance at the board reveals things you didn't see a moment before, making this one of the most exciting new games of 2012! For 2 players, ages 8 to adult.

Kids need to be actively engaged, their minds challenged, imaginations nurtured, their artistic and creative talents encouraged and rewarded. Creativity for Kids, the maker of Mossy Meadows Gnome Garden, should be applauded for the diversity of high quality hands-on creative/craft products they release each year, products that give kids the opportunity to explore and create. Mossy Meadows Gnome Garden is a prime example, a set that gives children the experience of creating a living, breathing space, decorating and arranging the components of this lovely mini-garden while introducing them to the pleasures and responsibilities of doing some nurturing of their own. First, kids paint and decorate the plastic garden dish, toadstools, perhaps some of the rocks, using the acrylic paints provided. Next, they add potting mix to the garden dish and begin arranging the multitude of accessories (Gnome House, moss rocks, river rocks, foam mushrooms, 3 charming little gnomes, and much more) in whatever way inspiration directs them. Wheat grass seeds are added, gently watered, the garden placed by a sunny window. Within a few days, seeds sprout, and kids tend the garden on an ongoing basis. Everything you need to plant the seeds of a lifelong love of crafts and gardening is included in the kit.

We dare anyone to play with Mr. Bubble Bathtub Monsters without breaking into a huge smile! This bathtub treat lets you build your own soap monsters in the blink of an eye, really cool-looking creatures that turn bath time into exciting fun. Just press the nozzle on the can and the foam flows. Shape and mold it as you like, then add the colorful soft foam pieces that bring instant detail to your creations - silly or sinister eyes, gnarly teeth, funky tentacles, and assorted other limbs. The foam is ultra-soft but firm, so the pieces stay where you place them but can be effortlessly moved when you want to change things up. There are 29 monster pieces in all, in varying shades of red, grey, green, and blue, including a floating pedestal on which to perch your beasts as they prepare to battle. When playtime's over, your monsters serve a different purpose altogether. Just use them to wash up. Then pack everything into the water friendly mesh bag until next time. Pure, imagination-pumping, fun!

With Mr. Bubble Ice Cream Shoppe, bath time becomes filled with a sense of magical adventure. Set your imagination running free with your own soapy ice cream shop in the tub. The Ice Cream Station attaches to the side of your tub with suction cups, and will hold your cone creations as you create them. Swirling designs spring forth from the can of Mr. Bubble Foam Soap, just by pressing the nozzle. The surprisingly ice cream-like foam comes flowing out into the plastic cones, holding its shape until you're ready to use it to wash up. Or spray it straight onto the water, wherever you want - it's soap! Add pretty sprinkles to your cone using the Bath Soap Confetti. Throw in the soft floating decorations stored in your Ice Cream Station's mesh bag, and you're in business. The business of fun!

Mungi Bands are jewelry with a twist. The bands - interchangeable, silicone strips that come in a variety of colors and patterns - connect to one another through magnets built into the ends, enabling kids to design (and re-design) their own jewelry in a flash. A single band becomes a ring or earring. Two bands form a bracelet. Several can morph into a necklace, headband, an anklet. They're soft, very flexible, lightweight, and the magnets, though small, have more than enough power to connect to one another firmly. Mungi Bands are collectible, trade-able among friends, so put your heads (and bands) together - form belts, ties, the world's longest Mungi chain! You can even use them to personalize your backpack, bike, or other belongings. Be creative. Let yourself be the artist AND the canvas and Mungi Bands your medium for self-expression. Each package includes 3 Mungi Bands for 6.99.

My Plate Food Bingo comes with a stunning array of information and bonus features, enabling kids to easily absorb knowledge on nutrition, healthy eating, and active living while playing the classic game of Bingo. And judging from the onslaught of statistics in the news media about children and obesity, it couldn't have come at a better time. Based on the USDA's MyPlate food categories, the game is designed and organized in a way that makes it easy to identify and differentiate food groups. There are three methods of play, including one in which the Caller reads a clue rather than stating the food or activity. In addition, the Bingo Cards incorporate 25 tips on healthy eating, 30 ideas for healthy meals and snacks, 19 physical activities, and 5 thought provoking questions. There's also an information sheet loaded with invaluable information. My Plate Food Bingo seamlessly blends fun and learning. What a great way to play! For 2 to 30 players.

Noah's Ark 2-in-1 Floor Puzzle has 48 jumbo pieces, each sized so that it can be easily manipulated by hands large or small. There's artwork on both sides of each piece, meaning there are two puzzles in all. The two-sidedness adds a wee bit of intricacy, but once you've decided which puzzle you're going to build in a given sitting, it's very doable even for younger children. The artwork on each side is different enough, and the puzzle is round, with a different colored border around the edge of each side to make things easier. The flipping while searching for pieces just adds to the fun.

OgoBild Bits is similar to OgoBild Nexus (see review directly below) in that the component pieces included in this smaller set are ingeniously designed and act as a springboard to instant creativity, construction, and fun. There are enough pieces with OgoBild BITS (about 17 attachments versus the 90 or so found in OgoBild Nexus) to create a variety of creatures - a propeller-powered asteroid, for instance, or a friendly cyclops. The ease and speed with which the strange, colorful parts interconnect kick-starts your imagination. You'll find yourself exploring uncharted territory (we're pretty sure we saw a dancing alien with a foot for a head and springs for feet). You'll be amazed and inspired by your own creations, find yourself reshuffling and attaching the pieces in new and different ways. Your brain has unlimited creativity, and OgoBild gives you the means to express it. Which is to say, it's wildly fun.

The sheer creativity that must have gone into thinking up the strange, fantastical, inter-connectable pieces of OgoBild Nexus pales next to the creative impulses it unleashes in those playing with it. It's a little like suddenly being able to be the mad scientist you always knew you were meant to be, without the need for test tubes, power tools, or, for that matter, a degree in physics. The central component that makes OgoBild Nexus work so well is the flexible OgoBild ball, of which there are 4 included. The more than 90 attachments (colorful paddles, wings, wild-looking hands and feet, wheels, scoops, pincers, and assorted other pieces mere mortals have no names for) pop instantly into the holes in the balls, enabling the rapid creation of everything from alien semi-robotic creatures (It lives! Moo ha ha) and futuristic vehicles to your very own inter-planetary system. Why settle for the ordinary when there's OgoBild Nexus?

OgoSport RAQ is one of those rare outdoor action toys destined to be popular for generations to come. This set includes two RAQs and a Flux ball. RAQs are ingeniously designed, ultra-lightweight discs with handles. The high-strength nylon-spandex membrane has a surface about 11 inches in diameter and is highly effective for batting the Flux ball through the air, sending it sailing up to 150 ft. The RAQ is highly adaptable to your needs and imagination, excellent for volleying between players, against the wall, or developing your own highly stylized solo aerial tricks. Its flexible frame is nearly indestructible. Instead of the long stick-like handles found on traditional racquets, each RAQ has a semi-circular handle on one side, allowing for an easy, natural grip that makes it feel like an extension of your hand. It also means that the RAQ doubles as an excellent throwing disc, allowing for two completely different types of play. The hollow Flux ball, no less unique than the RAQs, has 12 holes that contribute to its aerodynamics and allow the varied placement of up to 3 tails (included) that alter speed and predictability. OgoSport RAQ is perfect for developing coordination, athleticism, staying in shape, and - most of all - for having a blast!

We dare anyone to not enjoy the heck out of Penguin Panic, a game that gets players laughing right from the get-go. Players take turns removing plastic ice blocks from the midst of a pile stacked on a tray in the penguin's arms. The goal is to do so without causing the pile to fall, but there's a big twist that makes the game extra-unpredictable and giddily fun. After removing a block and stacking it on top of the pile, a player must press a button that causes the penguin to shiver and shake, sometimes for longer than others. As soon as the shaking begins, the ice blocks begin to move and slide, making the tower ever more precarious. If the blocks fall, that player is out. The penguin adds to the fun by regularly making hilarious, somewhat anxious sounds, as if he, too, dreads the possibility of a fall. Sometimes the shaking, slipping and sliding helps the next player, as when a block slides well out from the middle of the pile and hangs there, as if to say, 'take me.' But mostly it gets players on the edge of their seats, everyone but the player who's just moved hoping for a mishap. For 2 - 4 players.

There's nothing quite as enjoyable as family members seated around a table, intently assembling a really good puzzle. Now it just got even better, because with the new Pieces of History series, putting the last piece in place doesn't mean the fun is over. Instead, it signals the start of the next phase of fun - hunting for dozens of objects hidden in the puzzles' gorgeous artwork. Accompanying each 300-piece history-themed puzzle is an item key on parchment-like paper, listing the objects to be found. Each listed item includes a mini-lesson, short paragraphs about the objects that, cumulatively, represent substantial knowledge about the time, place, or event contained in the puzzle. There are currently three puzzles in the series, each of which captures a significant event of historical relevance. Pharaoh's Egypt vividly portrays ancient Egypt. The Parade of Animals depicts the world of creatures when Noah gathered them. On Dry Ground captures the crossing of the Red Sea. Enjoy this brilliant melding of historical events, gorgeous artwork, and hidden object adventures. Powerfully fun!

This exciting craft kit from The Orb Factory makes it remarkably easy to fashion a personal, artistic expression of friendship. It's a plush pillow whose centerpiece will be a photograph of you and your BFF framed by an elaborate decor of your own making. The result, even when completed by young children, is professional-looking and requires no cutting or sewing. Just use the stylus (included) to quickly anchor small, colored fabric pieces into tiny holes in the pillow, creating a beautiful, lush, swirling effect. Each small hole is numbered, enabling color choices to be guided in a manner similar to paint-by-numbers. There are more than 275 pieces in all, including foam flowers with small, sparkly, stick-on gems that easily affix to their leaves. Kids of all ages will find this craft kit doable and satisfying, with the result an object of lasting pride and beauty - a testament to the friendship that inspired it!

Puzzle Match puts a new spin on memory and matching games. Play starts with 24 puzzle pieces face down on a surface. On a given turn, one player flips over any two pieces. If the two pieces are halves of the same picture, that player connects them together and keeps the picture. If not, the pieces are returned face down and it is the next player's turn. For example, if you turn up a dolphin's tail and the top half of a seahorse, there's no match, and the pieces go back down. A player a few moves down the line with a good memory who picks up the front half of a dolphin will remember where the tail is and make the match! With each matching pair forming a little two-piece puzzle, players display great satisfaction when fitting them together each time they find a match. Once all the pieces are paired, the player with the most completed pictures is the winner! Promotes abstract thinking, fine motor skills, concentration, memory, recognition and recall, problem solving, spatial thinking.

Qualities is a game in which players learn about themselves, other players, and what other players think about them. Not in a judgmental way. In fact, it's very positive and enlightening, not words one normally associates with a board game. That's part of what recommends it, the fact that the game itself has uniquely enjoyable qualities, and a level of depth that adds to the fun in surprising ways. On each turn a different player is the subject and chooses a question card. For example, the question might be, 'Which trait characterizes me the most,' and the three answer options, drawn from a deck of cards, might be, 'Strong-minded,' 'Sensitive,' or 'Extreme.' The other players then use voting cards to try to predict which answer the subject will choose, winning tokens and cards along the way. The first player to collect 2 Quality Cards from each of the colored sets is the winner, which for some will be beside the point. Qualities takes the measure of how well players know one another while simultaneously furthering that knowledge in a fun, highly interactive way. I'd call that a win-win. For 2 - 7 players.

When it comes to activating young, developing minds, there's beauty and perfection in simplicity. A single three-dimensional object can be held in the hand and inspected in near infinite ways. Rainbow House Pegging Game, comprised of numerous such objects (19 in all), presents the perfect playscape with which to stimulate safe, joyful exploration of the physical world. Squares, rectangles, and semicircles of varying size and color slip easily off and on three wooden pegs rising up from a single platform. The young mind ceaselessly sees, absorbs, and creates. Hand and eye interact, creating striking contrasts as your child rearranges the interchangeable pieces, inspiring and executing one surprising possibility after another. Made from beech wood and colored with water-based, non-toxic stains, this brightly colored pegging game is of the highest quality.

What better way to make a personal fashion and artistic statement than by wearing rings you designed and created yourself? Show the world your creativity with Rhinestone Rings, a kit that makes designing and making beautiful rings quick and easy. The kit comes with everything you need to produce a dozen rings. A foam flower holds the ring bases in place while you add layer upon layer of beautiful precut floral and butterfly shapes using little bits of foam adhesive. Stagger the patterns so that all the gorgeous colors show through. Add personal flourishes, glittery accents, colorful gems that have their own adhesive. These finishing touches ensure that the end result will dazzle, sparkle, and shine. Friends will be envious, so be prepared for them to ask you to make them a ring. Or better yet, have everyone over for a ring-making party, wearing and sharing the hours away in pure, creative fun!

RINGSTIX is an active, fun outdoor game in which players, each holding a pair of specially designed curved sticks, launch a brightly colored plastic ring back and forth. Launching always involves using both sticks, and is an important part of where their curvature comes in. Just place both sticks through the ring, curving outward, and pull them quickly apart. The ring sails forward into the air where it's caught by the other player, with one or both sticks. RINGSTIX takes just a few minutes to learn (the brief how-to video on the RINGSTIX website is particularly clear and helpful). After that, the sky's the limit. With a little practice, players can become surprisingly adept, increasing speed, accuracy, and cultivating some awesome tricks along the way. RINGSTIX works well even when windy and floats, turning pool and beach play into especially lively fun. One of the included rings glows in the dark, enabling dusk and night-time play. Builds hand-eye coordination, athleticism, and an all-around sense of enjoyment.

ROBO FISH fits in the palm of your hand, but that's not what he's made for. Drop him in water, be it drinking glass, fish bowl, bathtub, or pool, and watch the little fellow immediately kick into gear. Or gears, I should say. In addition to swimming energetically the moment he's placed in water, ROBO FISH automatically alternates among several different speeds. One moment, he's swimming along the surface of the water, the next, he's diving and swimming along the bottom, as if feeding. ROBO FISH comes in eight different colors/styles. Two major categories include Robotic Shark and Pet Fish. ROBO FISH runs on two 1.5 volt batteries (pre-loaded, with two bonus batteries also included). While one ROBO FISH is fun, two or more are downright exciting - tail fins flapping, emitting little clack-clack-clacks as they make they're merry, mechanical way through the water. Lucky for you, an entire school of ROBO FISH is headed your way!

Rodeo Rummy is quick-moving fun for 2 or more players. Its 9 special patented dice have traditional playing card faces on the six sides of each die, so that you have a complete deck of cards plus 2 jokers at your disposal with each roll. In addition to playing Rodeo Rummy, you can use the dice to play just about any popular card game. In Rodeo Rummy, the spinner dictates what you're aiming for during the three rolls you're given on your turn. The spinner conveys two pieces of information - what types of sets or runs will be worth points to you, and what bonus or penalty you may receive on that turn. For example, the pointer may dictate that only a clubs run will be worth points AND that any hearts face up at the end of your turn will cost you 5 points apiece. Or it might indicate that you must have sets of Aces and 10s and that 8s are wild. This information will guide your choices as to which dice to put aside and which to reroll on each of your first two rolls. After the 3rd roll, tally your points, adding or subtracting any bonus or penalty. Playing card games with dice has a more exciting, visceral energy than with cards. The clacking of the dice in the Dice Cup and as they hit the table, the fact that the results are suddenly visible for all to see - to the elation of some and disappointment of others - gives it a bated-breath quality, one that produces frequent cheers of delight.

Rolling Bones is an ingenious game that requires making strategic decisions as you go. The goal is to assemble a human skeleton by placing special bone dice into their proper places on the board. On your first roll, all 18 dice are used. After placing as many as possible, you may re-roll the remaining dice. But each subsequent roll requires a given number of unplaced dice to be taken out of circulation, reducing your scoring potential and eventually causing you to run out of dice. All dice placed on the board must be connected - no gaps. To avoid a gap, a bone can be placed incorrectly, but doing so costs you points. Also, in order for bones you've placed to be worth points, you must first roll and place a Checkmark, an act which ends your turn. Thus, a player is in a frequent quandary - to place the Checkmark now and take the current score, or go for more points and risk not getting a Checkmark, resulting in a zero. There's nothing dry about this game. It's tremendous fun, so much so that it's highly entertaining even when playing solo. The decisions players must make - whether the cost of placing a bone incorrectly is worth the gain, which bones to take out of circulation when re-rolling, whether to place a Checkmark and accept the current score or re-roll and risk no score at all - are part of what makes it truly exceptional. Both its entertainment and educational value are off the charts, and its replay value is endless. For 2 - 4 players.

The telling and hearing of tales makes for a fertile imagination. It also can be a raucous good time. So we're fortunate to have Rory's Story Cubes to provide seedlings that sprout into spontaneous full-fledged stories. With this 'Actions' version, each of the 9 cubes has an image on each side, representing 54 different verbs. Just roll the cubes and start talking, spinning a story from the images you see. The cubes act as a creativity tool, sparking wild flights of fancy. Eyes flit from one image to another, activating minds to weave imaginings into a cohesive whole. Tell stories one at a time, or as a group. Relate what you see on the cubes to characters in a movie or other famous story. Or mime the actions shown on the cubes. The possibilities are endless, and there's no right or wrong way to play. Whether solitaire, or as a party and family game, Rory's Cubes keeps the fun and creative juices flowing. For 1 or more players.

Part of what makes Scallywags such great fun is its simplicity and variety. And of course there are the gold coins (40 to be exact), which figure prominently in game-play. The coins are dumped in the middle at the outset, face up or down, however they land. On each turn, a player does one of 3 things 1) Take one face down coin, or 2) Play one action card, or 3) Discard one card and pass. The variety stems from the numerous actions at your disposal from the cards in your hand, which include taking, swapping, stealing, or blocking the theft of - you guessed it - gold coins. When you take a coin from the middle or from a another player, it becomes part of your take, and whoever has the largest take at the end is the winner. You'll love the hilarious pirate illustrations on the cards, and there's never a dull moment - players employ deduction, math, and visual discrimination skills in acquiring their bounty. All in a day's work for you and your fellow pirates! For 2 to 6 players.

Scramblitz is pure action! Players use quick eyes and nimble fingers in a head to head race to recreate what's on the Puzzle Card, using their own set of 16 pattern tiles. First player done wins the round. But not so fast! Each tile is double-sided, and either side may appear to work at a given point in the solution. If you don't consider which side to play as you speed along, you may get to the end and find that your puzzle won't work due to a prior bad choice. You can still go back and fix your mistake, but that takes valuable time. The trick in Scramblitz is to strike the right balance between speed and care. Too much of one without the other and your opponents will zoom right past you to the solution. Each Puzzle Card is worth a score (shown on the card) based on the difficulty of that particular puzzle. The first player to collect enough Puzzle Cards to total 25 or more points is the winner. For 2 to 6 players, ages 8 to adult.

Kids love to personalize their belongings, especially things near and dear to their hearts. This journal-sized personal notebook, made from recycled, recyclable materials, comes with 100 elements - letters, numbers, cool icons. They're perfect for personalizing the notebook's soft flexible rubber cover, fitting easily and snugly into its more than 150 holes. Adorn it with your name, message, and musings. Make a statement! The 140 pages are divided between unlined and lined paper. Use it as a journal, sketchbook, scrapbook, whatever strikes your fancy. There's a mix of capital and lower case letters included, and the 15 icon elements make it especially easy to add quick, playful flourishes to suit your mood. It's also simple to add to or remove pages from the plastic binding. Available in Black, Cherry, Grass, Orchid, or Violet covers. Easy and fun to take with you anywhere and everywhere.

The squeaky-toy Starfish in the game Shrimp Cocktail is pure genius. Why? Because it's an integral part of the action and produces instant hilarity. Players eyeball it, grapple over it, squeeze it, even long for it. And sometimes, amazingly, they forget to use it, an offense that costs them part of their prior haul of shrimp. Here's how it works. There are 3 Fishing Zones, each represented by a circular piece. Players take turns flipping cards from their Shrimp Piles face up onto these Fishing Zones until all 3 are covered. The first player to spot one or more characteristics-in-common among all 3 top cards calls them out while grabbing and squeezing the Starfish, and in doing so reels in a catch. The characteristics are quantity, size, color, and origin. One characteristic-in-common earns you all the cards from all the Fishing Zones. Two earns you that PLUS 7 cards from the player(s) of your choice. Three wins you the game on the spot. But you've got to be fast, and keep your wits about you. Forgetting to squeeze the Starfish or call out the characteristics, or getting the characteristics-in-common wrong will cost you a penalty. It's a rare and special game that engages a player's visual, mental, and physical acuity, punctuated with wild squeaks and frequent peals of laughter. For 2 to 6 players.

Shrinky Dinks Fashion Boutique is its own wonderful little world. It comes with a 3-D Pop-up Playscape - a very colorful, pretty, and detailed 3-sided boutique in which kids dress and model cardboard fashion dolls using the more than 50 pre-cut Shrinky Dinks. Shrinky Dinks - in this case, assorted dresses, hats, accessories, even pooches, are amazing. Give them detailed colors using the included Faber-Castell colored pencils. Then shrink them, using a conventional or toaster oven. They transform very quickly to about 1/3 their original size, while becoming thicker and harder without altering their color or shape. Then you're ready to dress and accessorize. Re-positional sticky dots adhere the clothing to your dolls, allowing you to mix and match different outfits, layering on hair, hats, purses, and more. Foam stands let you position your dolls throughout the shop, creating an air of hustle, bustle, and fun. The process of preparing the Shrinky Dinks and dressing the dolls is creative and satisfying. Showing off the beautiful results while engaging in hours of imaginative play is just pure fun!

There's a brief pause right after you pull the cord on the handheld SkyScraper launcher, before the plastic disc goes sailing up into the sky. That tiny moment between action and reaction somehow adds to the thrill, perhaps by creating the impression that nothing much is going to happen here. Then suddenly - whoosh - the level of lift and thrust, often greater than 100 feet, far exceeds your expectations. Another surprising element is the degree of directional control the SkyScraper gives you. Aim it straight up (get ready to crane your neck) and straight up it goes. Or get out in an open area and angle the launcher slightly with the intention of having the disc come to earth at a targeted spot. There are countless games you can create. Have two or more friends with SkyScrapers launch simultaneously and watch them cross paths or collide high up in the air. The soft plastic discs always gently return earthward. There are 3 discs included. There's also a pack, available separately, of 6 glow-in-the-dark discs (3 green, 3 yellow) for nighttime action. No batteries necessary - this exciting outdoor fun is powered by you!

Belly Banter is an ingeniously simple, affordable way to share your pregnancy and your baby's special moments with friends and family. Each Belly Banter set includes 15 different 4-inch stickers, enabling you to easily and fashionably communicate a unique moment in your child's development. Just peel-and-stick one on a shirt or onesie and snap a photo. The text makes clear what was being celebrated at the time, and each sticker enriches the occasion with bright colors and good cheer. The Mom-to-be set includes stickers such as '2nd Trimester,' and 'it's a GIRL, ' while the Baby Onesie stickers mark each month of baby's exciting first year of growth. Milestone and Holiday stickers celebrate special occasions such as the first time baby rolls over or sits up, as well as Mother's Day, Halloween, Easter, and much more. There are currently six different sets, each of which would make an excellent, inexpensive gift or a perfect memorable touch for your own growing household!

Every once in a while a children's product comes along that takes things to a whole new level of fun and excitement. SmartMax Stunt is one of those products. This collection of brightly colored magnetized bars, metal balls, ramps, wheels, and panels enables kids to create a stunning array of designs and shapes in a matter of seconds. And this truly is an all ages product. The simple instruction guide contains examples and advice for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and school age children. Adults learned a thing or two as well. In addition to squares, cubes, triangles, and myriad fascinating 2- and 3-D shapes, it's a snap to build super-nifty futuristic cars in a jiffy using the components provided. The ramps and panels can be whisked together to create daredevil stunt platforms for the vehicles. And it's all held together by magnetism! Your child's creativity and curiosity will be catapulted to new levels. Every moment spent with SmartMax Stunt will be remarkable, invaluable fun!

Snuggle Buddy is an outstanding companion and playtoy for babies - a soft, irresistably cute plush toy and security blanket all in one. The fabric and satin are soft and soothing to the touch, while the internal rattle rewards baby's actions with intriguing sound stimulation. Each different Snuggle Buddy character is quite unique, with its own enchanting qualities. Though intended for babies up to 2 years old, more than a few parents emitted an appreciative 'awww' at first sight and couldn't seem to keep their hands off them. But it's baby who gets to squeeze, rub, cuddle, and hold Snuggle Buddy all day long.

Ever try to sound like a whale? How about nails on a chalkboard? Everyone laughed so hard playing this game! And the biggest laughs came in response to the often ridiculous and outrageous sounds made by the Sounder, the player whose job it was on that turn to communicate what he or she saw pictured on a card, using nothing but sounds. Meanwhile, the rest of the players race to locate that item's picture somewhere on the scene board, which contains a large number of items amidst a crowded illustration. Their only clues? Those sounds emanating from the Sounder's vocal chords. The player who finds the item first keeps the card and becomes the new Sounder. The player with the most cards at the end, wins. There are various play options - such as using several scene boards at once - or even playing the Super Sound Round which involves players scouring all 8 boards in an effort to be first to find an item that fits a spoken clue. And when you find it? Make its sound!

Which would you rather play, regular old checkers, or Space Checkers - a new game in which alien invaders battle for control of the planet Earth? Yeah, that's pretty much what we thought. With 2 to 4 players, directional movement, flying saucer pieces in four different colors, and the ability to 'warp' your pawns from one edge of the board to another, Space Checkers is light years away from the classic game your ancestors played. What the two do have in common is this - players capture opponents' pieces by jumping over them. On any given turn, one of two dice rolled dictates how many spaces you move, while the other determines direction. There are exceptions. Two sides of the direction die are marked 'WILD,' enabling the roller to choose the direction for that move. Or, when traveling within the last four rows on the opposite side of the board (known as the wild area) from your starting side, the player can ignore the direction die. These variables make Space Chess less predictable and leave more room for strategizing. Certain things can get in the way of your completing a move - that big old planet Earth in the middle of the board, for example. Each player has 10 prison cells on the board - empty at the outset - into which they place opponents' pieces as they're captured. The first player to fill all 10 prison cells wins the game.

An outstanding use of brain-power, fueled by fun! Space It! allows you to dazzle your friends with displays of mental acuity as you gleefully place tiles on the table - creating, and adding to, sequences. Each tile has a number on it (except jokers, which are wild), and each player starts with 12 tiles. Players open the game by each creating an independent sequence of 3 or more tiles, such that the value between adjacent tiles is equal - for example, 7, 11, 15 (spaced by 4). Players then take turns adding as many tiles as they can to their own or others' sequences, by either extending an existing pattern (7, 11, 15 . . . 19), or by inserting 2 or more tiles, changing the spacing (7, 11, 15 becomes 7, 9, 11, 13, 15). As the table fills up, your mind continually performs simple but lightning-quick assessments of where to place tiles. Failure to play at least one means drawing another tile from the bag. The first player rid of all their tiles, wins. For 2 - 5 players.

Spectrix is a quick-moving, easy-to-learn game that gets your mind working in new and different ways. The Spectrix deck contains 96 cards, each of which is a single color on the playing side, with 12 different colors in the deck. Everyone is dealt a hand, and the goal is to be the first player to get rid of all your cards. On your turn, you can place combinations face up on the table consisting of 3 or more cards of the same color or 3 or more cards containing consecutive colors (based on the color spectrum found on a special guide card). You can also use cards by adding to existing combinations on the table. Or, and this is where real skill comes in, you can reorganize any and all of the current cards on the table to form new combinations that help you play cards from your hand. For example, you could break up several sets of matching colors and reorganize them into valid color sequences, or vice versa - whichever helps get the most cards out of your hand. This is where your thinking cap really comes in handy. Your ability to survey the table, to see and weigh the possibilities in your mind, can win you the game. Whether you're dabbling for the sheer fun of it, or on your way to becoming a Spectrix master, Spectrix will keep your mind sharp and engaged, open to a world of possibilities!

Speedeebee! keeps players immersed in nimble-minded word fun, with all players happily engaged every step of the way. There's no turn-taking. Just read a challenge from one of the cards, roll the alphabet dice and go. Any player can answer, and the first one who correctly does so wins the card. Get it wrong and you have to give up a card previously won. The player with the most cards at the end of each 20-card game is the winner. There are 50 cards in all (a total of 150 different challenges) and 4 alphabet dice, some or all of which are rolled each time. The challenges are nicely doable and wildly diverse (Name a city containing one of these letters . . ., Name a cartoon character containing none of these letters . . ., Find a word containing this letter twice . . .). As a result, the game moves swiftly, with all players hunting inwardly for a word that intersects the challenge with the required letters. That's part of Speedeebee's beauty - that there is no one correct answer. Its diversity, ease of play, speed, and all-hands-on-deck game play mean everyone's on their toes, brains whirring, from start to finish. For 2 to 6 players.

In Spell Trek, players traverse the board based on their ability to complete words using vowel tiles drawn throughout the game. What elevates Spell Trek to extraordinary heights of fun is its combination of unusually attractive, high-quality components, and nuanced game play that makes every step of the way a pleasure to play. Each Word Card, with its missing vowels, has a delightful illustration of a noun, leaving no doubt as to the word to be filled in. Complete a word, and you get to move your playing piece the number of spaces equal to the total letters in that word, spelling it aloud as you do so. Be first to cross a bridge, and all the vowel tiles used thus far are returned to the draw area. Can't use a vowel tile? Inspect your opponents' cards - you may be able to swap and score! These fine details are part of what makes Spell Trek such engaging fun. That it so effectively reinforces word sense and spelling is icing on the cake - or the main reason to play - depending on your perspective. Either way, be prepared to have a blast! For 2 - 4 players.

The Spooner Board is instant fun for anyone who enjoys getting physical. It's a board for balancing, riding, and doing tricks - like a snow board or skate board (without wheels) - except that it works on any surface, indoors or outdoors. Many of the tricks for which instructions came with the Freestyle Board (The Flipper, 180-degree Spin, The Cave Man, The Shuv-It, to name a few) could be performed fairly well on the first try and mastered quickly. A visit to the Spooner Board web site yields free instructions for numerous additional tricks. The Freestyle Board, described as the board of choice for riders under 4ft. tall, is 24 X 12 inches and weighs only 3 lbs. However, it can accomodate virtually unlimited weight, and works well with taller kids, too. Kids of all ages will have a blast while improving balance and coordination and getting a great workout. It comes with a Lifetime Guarantee, in seven cool colors, and put a smile on the face of every kid to whom we showed it!

You'll get a lot of fun - and variety - out of this great travel and party game. You get six great games in one ingenious deck of cards, packed in a compact, colorful tin. Every card in the 55-card deck contains 8 different symbols (things you might see while driving down the road), with a total of 50 unique symbols in the deck. There's a version of the classic road game in which players simultaneously flip cards, looking out the window to try to be first to match a symbol on their own card. The other five games make use of the fact that one - and only one - matching symbol exists between any two cards. The immediate aim is always to be the first player to spot a match and call it out, but the details and end-goal vary substantially from game to game. A crowd favorite was The Poisoned Gift, in which players race to search for a match between a draw-pile card and any other player's card. The player whose card is part of the spotted match receives the draw-pile card - a most unwelcome gift, since the winner once the deck is spent will be the player with the fewest cards. All 6 games are quick and easy-to-learn, fast-moving and fun to play. Enough action, variety, and fun to keep a group entertained indefinitely. For 2 to 8 players.

It can be difficult to find games well-suited to younger kids, one of many regards in which Spuzzle is a boon to parents and children alike. It's an excellent game, highly entertaining and with a design and challenge level perfect for its targeted age group. The board contains 4 identical projects, each of which consists of 5 different 4-piece animal puzzles (tiger, panda, elephant, parrot, kangaroo). Each player starts with the 20 puzzle pieces (color-coded to differentiate yours from another player's) necessary to complete their project. On your turn, flip a card from the center deck. If it shows one of the five animals, place a piece corresponding to that animal in the appropriate place on the board. If it's the special monkey card, remove a piece of your choice from an opponent's project (completed puzzles are protected). Or, if it's a Spuzzle card, all players scream SPUZZLE and place the puzzle piece of their choice on their project. The first player to complete all 5 of their puzzles wins. Spuzzle's simplicity of execution enables a young child to learn the game-play in a matter of seconds. Yet the variety of action and amount of visual and cognitive stimulation is just right for keeping all players fully and happily engaged. Loads of fun! For 1 - 4 players.

Young ones will enjoy this classic stacking toy for its visual, tactile, and auditory (clack clack) cues, as they stack and reorder the colored circular pieces. Parents will love it for its safety, longevity, and the care PlanToys takes in making products that contribute to a sustainable world. Smooth, cool, solid and strong, these sectional pieces can be flipped and sorted according to color and size, helping your youngster begin to make sense of the world while learning and applying principles that will carry them through all their learning endeavors for years to come. The wooden rod on which the pieces stack is bendable for added safety. The pieces themselves are highly durable, strong enough to be passed down from generation to generation. PlanToys uses only safe, non-toxic water-based dyes on their toys, products made with clean, natural rubberwood.

These hilarious fictional cartoon baseball trading cards contain players from teams such as the Midwest Cow Tippers, New England Lobstahs, and the Arizona Rattlesnakes, among others. Collect umpires, coaches, mascots, pitchers, and players. A typical player card displays name, cartoon picture of the player, his likes and dislikes, stats, and team insignia. For example, there's Phil E. Cheestake of the Pennsylvania Groundhogs (Likes The Gym, Dislikes Dirty Laundry) and Aster Knot of the Florida Reptiles (Likes Astronomy, Dislikes Gravity). There are four levels of card rarity - common, rare, epic, and prime, with the level of rarity boldly marked on the back of all but the most common cards. Each 2.99 pack contains 8 cards. In addition to all the fun word-play, the illustrations on each card are kooky, colorful, and outlandish, with lots of tie-ins to the silly player and team names. With Stax Trading Cards, you're not just collecting players, you're collecting laughs!

This adorable handbag is beautiful even before you begin adding the dazzling sprinkles. Its cupcake design, with two bright red cherries as its clasp, will add style and flair to any outfit. And kids get the pleasure and satisfaction of decorating it themselves. It's so easy - just place the bright little gems (sticky on one side) on the numbered spots, following the legend that tells which colors go on which numbers. There are more than 150 of the sparkly stick-on jewels - red, pink, aqua, purple, gold, and more, in round, heart, and tear-drop shapes. Kids were astonished at how quickly they progressed, and showed immense pride in the finished result. It's fast, easy, and gorgeous to behold - sweet, fashion fun!

It's a rare game that generates real excitement simply from glancing at the box. Rarer still is the game for which that excitement continues to grow as the components are eased out of the box, as the instructions are read, and, most importantly, after the action begins. Stomple is such a game, and there is plenty of action to be had. One of the many wonderful things about Stomple is that, while there's skill and strategy involved in playing well, the game moves very quickly. Rarely does a turn take more than a few seconds. And anyone can play - young, old, people who love to think, people who hate to think! In the mere 60 seconds or so it took to set Stomple up and learn to play, each new glimpse of information added to the sense that here was something special. The game pieces are so unique and cool-looking, the board so cleverly yet simply designed, the game-play so rapid and gratifying that trying to give it a detailed description here wouldn't do it justice. Instead, here is a five-word description of Stomple: Massive fun, no dull moments! For 2 to 6 players.

This delightful concept releases tension from the potty training process while introducing fun and excitement for both parent and child. Super Dooper Pooper is a set that contains a children's book, t-shirt, and before-you-go bathroom spray for kids. The hardcover book is the humorous, brightly illustrated tale of Danger Monkey and his bear-friend Scout that turns potty training into an adventure. The toddler-sized T-shirt (available in pink or blue) gives kids at the potty training stage a boost of pride, boldly proclaiming, 'I'm a Super Dooper Pooper.' The 2-ounce spray bottle (also pink or blue) creates magic all its own - just spray it into the potty before your child goes. When your child is done, flush, and the only scent you'll smell is the refreshing, calming aromatherapy mix of grapefruit, orange, and ylang-ylang. Not surprisingly, the sprays work just as effectively for adults. The items in the set are also available individually - Spray 9.95, Book 11.95, and T-shirt 11.95.

Tolo's Igloo Play Set is wonderful fun for young children, encouraging imaginative play while nurturing a range of developmental skills. The Igloo itself is a simple, cleverly designed puzzle, with magnets at key points to hold it together. Everything is of the highest quality, extremely durable. The set includes an Eskimo Girl, Husky, and chair. The moveable arms, legs, and heads (and dog's tail) make the signature Tolo clicking sound, and both the Eskimo Girl and chair fit comfortably inside the Igloo. Press the flower on the Eskimo Girl's outfit to produce a squeaking sound. The bright colors and moveable parts, in conjunction with the pleasantly surprising sounds, attract children's eyes, hands, and minds while stimulating dexterity, color recognition, hand-eye coordination, and sound recognition. So much fun and so many benefits!

This is a fabulous game in which players collect colored dice (removing one die on each turn) in an effort to match the dice combinations shown on combo cards held in their hand. Some cards are very specific (a blue die showing 6 and an orange die showing 3) while another might require any combination of blue and orange dice totaling 15. This game is all about decision-making. The biggest risk is that another player will take a die you need before your next turn. So you stay aware of how many of each die you need are available on each turn, and choose wisely. There are 1 or 2 wild dice per round that can be any color you choose, as well as Action cards that influence dice in the tray. At round's end, keep the combo cards you completed - they're worth points. Kids will learn probability, visual discrimination, and strategic thinking. Even with the luck of the draw and the roll of the dice, a keen eye and alert mind are what determines who wins Take it or Leave It! 2 - 5 players.

This pegged playset gives children the freedom to fully express imagination and creativity. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' approach to using the more than 50 pieces to build and explore. And yet, the way the pieces are constructed and interconnect continually suggests a logical framework for that freedom, thus promoting spatial awareness, color recognition, even critical thinking, during play. The green pegboard has 100 holes in it, and each of the colored Tall-Stacker and Mighty Monkey pegs has a hole of its own to build upon, leading to infinite possibilities. Monkey figurines become active inhabitants of the play-land under construction, and the slide, elevator, wheel cart, and swing bring added elements of action and motion to the mix. The instructions include suggested activities and numerous outstanding questions to pose to children that will enhance their understanding of choices made while playing and building. And it all packs up neatly in the handy storage box when finished!

Truly hilarious party games only come along once in a great while. Telestrations 12-Player Party Pack is one of those games. Exciting, funny, easy to learn and play, it'll blow the lid off any party. Every player gets a multi-page sketch book and a card with words on it. Each player, working with a different word, has 60 seconds to sketch it. Books are passed, and the next player writes a guess based on that sketch before again passing the book to the left, where the next player now sketches based on that guess. The round continues in this fashion until your own book comes back to you and the scoring begins. The hilarity really ramps up when players see just how far off the final guess is from the original source word and how it got there, sketch by sketch. Everyone's in on the action from start to finish, and the game comes with Timer, Die, and enough Word Cards, Sketch Books, Dry Erase Markers, and Clean-up Cloths for up to 12 players and thousands of games!

Tell Tale Fairy Tales is a surefire way to get friends and family members engaged in playful interaction, with their imaginations going full-tilt. The deck of 60 cards contains 120 illustrations (one on each side), the sort of imagery found in classic fairy tales. Players use the cards to inspire their own made-up stories, unspooled one image at a time. For example, a hand of 4 cards might consist of a sleeping dragon, an idyllic forest scene, a cave entrance, and a pirate with a parrot. This first player might lay down the dragon card and say, 'Once upon a time, there was a sleeping dragon, dreaming of a time when she was young, before she'd learned to fly . . .' The next player would then turn up a card chosen freely from his own hand and build on the first player's story, followed by the next player, and so on. This communal approach is called Round 'N Round, one of four distinct play options offered in the instructions. Each of the four play options is unique and delightful in its own way, but the central premise - using the cards to inspire stories - remains the same. This non-competitive game is a wonderful way to build language skills, foster creativity, and most of all, to connect kids and adults of all ages through imaginative, highly entertaining play. For 1 to 8 players.

This wildly entertaining game is in a class all its own. For one thing, it comes with 150 bright red, fuzzy mini-tomatoes and 2-inch tall baskets that serve as tomato patches. The object is to be the player to harvest the most tomatoes while defending your patch against weeds, varmints, tomato zombies and flying hippos. These latter oddities come your way in the form of cards played by opponents aiming to undo your progress. But fear not! You've got more than a few cards up your sleeve to help defend against them. Each card contains a brief, humorous explanation of its power to attack or defend, making it easy to quickly familiarize yourself with the wide variety of possible actions. And then there's the hilarious artwork. (Our personal favorite is the Remote Control Mole.) In other words, this game is a treat just to look at, but don't stop there - everybody deserves a chance to play The Big Fat Tomato Game! 2- 5 players.

Open up the THE BIG IDEA box and, boom! - you're instantly playing and laughing, creating outlandish, sometimes intricate, inventions. The best ones gets the most votes, leading to an ultimate winner after several rounds. Total time per game is a sweet, satisfying 25 minutes or so. Each round, all players receive 3 item cards and 3 description cards whose function is to inspire and generate ideas. This they do surprisingly well - for example, magical shampoo that turns your hair into Krispy Kreme donuts, and atomic sunglasses that convert the sun's rays into caffeine were a couple that came up during our playtime. The beauty and creativity of the game is that the cards provide only a rough foundation for your ideas, paving the way for your brain to make crazy connections and concoctions that have everyone laughing uncontrollably when you make your colorful sales pitch. THE BIG IDEA moves at a snappy pace, and everyone's in on the action from start to finish, making it an ideal party or family game. But only if you like laughing and having a good time!

The first thing that strikes you upon seeing the Pocket Referee and holding it in your hand is how desirable it is. The weighty gold coin looks and feels so good you just want to carry it with you all day long, running your fingertips over its raised images, hefting it in the air, idly gliding it between your fingers. There's something reassuring about it. And that desirability is an integral part of why the Pocket Referee works so well. The function of the coin is to help kids deal with daily conflict and choice-making by giving them an agreed upon means for quickly and easily settling matters. Whoever is in possession of the coin at the time gets to make the decision, but must then pass the Pocket Referee to the other party. If the coinholder feels that a particular situation isn't worth giving up the coin, he or she can keep it for another time, but must concede the current decision to the other party. The Pocket Referee could just as accurately have been named the 'The Peacekeeper,' for in actuality that is what it is. By giving each child the same opportunity, a balanced approach to taking turns occurs. Fairness reigns, and Mom and Dad needn't be called on to settle matters. Hurrah!

This is a remarkable game - fun, fast-paced, and highly effective at helping kids learn to read. It consists of six illustrated storybooks, each of which is accompanied by a deck of cards containing the 30 words used in the book's story. Before opening a book, a series of 6 simple word-matching games is played with its corresponding deck during which the student becomes familiar with the book's words. Each game moves quickly, with a winner every few seconds. Only once the student can read all 30 words without hesitation is the book brought into play. The student then experiences the pride and sheer pleasure of successfully reading the story. The games within each deck, and the decks and books themselves, are used in a specified sequence that makes the process unfurl in a highly systematic way that feels utterly natural, leading to a pleasurable experience for both student and tutor. The stories themselves, while purposefully simple, are professionally written and highly entertaining. Excellent!

Here is a wildly fun game in which no one is ever left out of the action. Every time a new card is flipped from the top of the Scramble deck, players are alert, keen-eyed, and ready to pounce. Each Scramble card flipped has a playful geography-related challenge on it, and the winner of each challenge collects a state card. For example, 'find a state whose nickname starts with H, K, or L.' Or 'find a state whose border touches 2 or more states directly below it.' Players then race to find such a card among their own 5 face-up state cards. Other Scramble cards require players to determine which of their own state cards is closest to a given state. Once they have, the player whose card was closest of all collects 2 state cards. The Scrambled States of America is fast-moving, plays exceedingly well across a broad range of ages, and has not one dull moment among the many moments you will hungrily spend playing it!

Few games are as deeply engaging as Triage, or nearly as fun. There's lots of action and quick decision-making, choices that determine how many of your citizens make it to safety and the condition they're in if and when they do. Players develop skills on several fronts, weighing priorities, making and executing plans and strategies in the midst of various crises. Players evacuate as many citizens as they can from natural disasters occurring in different zones across the map. They do this by traveling the board and picking up citizens with 3 vehicles (bus, car, and helicopter), each of which has a different capacity in terms of both the number of passengers it can carry and its range of movement per turn. Each player is responsible for 20 citizens (playing pieces of a chosen color). Citizens are evacuated by transporting them to airfields, and the positions of these little wooden figures upon arrival (standing upright, lying on their side, or flat on their back) communicates the extent to which they've been impacted by disasters. Win by being the player to evacuate the highest number of citizens, or, if those numbers are equal, the citizens least impacted. For 2 - 5 players.

Trifusion is one of those rare games that, while presenting plenty of opportunities for thought and strategy, is often just played full tilt - spot a move, make the move, score points - next player's turn! And moves are easy to find, at least early on. After divvying up 48 Game Tiles, most of which contain more than one color, players take turns laying them down one at a time. To do so, every color on the tile being placed must match the color of every tile it's touching, at each point of contact. You'll earn points for each game tile in the color chain your tile connects to when you place it, even when it extends to several tiles already on the table. The game's central concept is very easy to understand, so you'll be playing in no time. How deep you want to go, how many connections and points you aim for, is up to you. That's where a keen eye, one that quickly takes in all the possibilities and the scores that go with them, comes in. The sky's the limit! For 2 to 4 players.

With TURBOSPOKE bicycle exhaust system on your bike, you'll sound like you've got enough power to gain lift-off. Earthbound or not, you're definitely not in Kansas anymore. TURBOSPOKE doesn't just make your ride sound cooler, it takes your bike's appearance to a whole new level of hip. With a visual design very much like the exhaust system of a motorbike, the Megaphone Exhaust Pipe amplifies the revved-up sounds coming from the plastic Motocards. There are 3 different cards, each of which makes a unique engine sound when inserted into the system. There are no batteries. The sound is generated by you being on the move. TURBOSPOKE attaches quickly and easily to your frame and fits 95% of all bikes. Includes a full fitting kit and 15 custom stickers, everything you need to get your bike souped-up just the way you want it in no time at all.

This fast-moving, fun game combines color recognition, mental mapping and quick thinking. After rolling the Color Die, players race to figure out which character on the Game Board is flying that particular color kite. There are six different kites at the top of the board and six different characters at the bottom, each holding a string that connects to a single kite. The spacious blue sky in between is lined with twisting strings that cross and loop around one another before connecting character to kite. Using eyes only, players mentally follow the string to its source. The first player to get the correct answer wins a pinwheel tile (used to keep score). The Game Board is made up of 4 reversible panels, with different string configurations and character order on either side, so there's no memorizing the board. There's no turn taking - everyone's in on the action from start to finish, and a couple of special twists help keep everyone on their toes. For 2 to 6 players. Great family fun!

Wangle is pure action, with a little sneakiness and lots of laughter thrown in for good measure. Players each hold a hand of 5 cards dealt from the Wangle deck, which has six special theme-based suits. The Dealer starts the action by drawing a card from the deck, which he can either pass to the player on his left or keep (in which case he passes one of his other cards). Continuing clockwise, each player does the same, keeping or passing the card handed to them, until the last player discards one. Meanwhile, the Dealer keeps drawing and passing, fueling the rapid-fire action. Players aim to be first to acquire either 4-of-a-kind or a run of 5 of the same suit. Now this is where the red, mini-dumbbell-shaped Wangle Sticks (perfect for grabbing) come in. There's always 1 less Wangle Stick than the number of players. The first player to get one of the desired hands inconspicuously sneaks a Wangle Stick off the table, continuing to pass cards as if nothing has happened. Those players savvy enough to keep their eyes on the table amidst all the action quickly grab one themselves, until the last player to notice grabs thin air. The first player out scores 100 points, the others holding Wangle Sticks score 50, and the poor Wangle-less player earns - you guessed it - zero. The player with the highest score after a designated number of rounds is the winner. Pure, unfettered fun! For 3 to 8 players.

Games that reinforce math skills and are as much fun as Who's Counting don't come along every day. Its great balance between simple equation-making (anyone with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division skills can do it) and use of special cards to enhance your score or reduce an opponents' makes it a blast to play. Those special cards mean you're actively engaged at all times rather than just sitting by while other players take their turns. Your opponent might place her highest scoring equation yet on the table, only to have you use any one of several different Red cards to steal her thunder. For Example, you might turn her score against her, steal it from her, or even force her to split it with you. There are also cards that can grant you an extra turn, or double your points, as well as some very useful wild cards. This high level of variety, engagement, and interplay keeps kids coming back for more fun, while their speed and skill with math shows no bounds! 2 - 6 players.

Zip Zap erupts in flurries of action. Players must be alert at all times, using quick hands to execute fast choices that will help or hinder them mere seconds in the future. Sound intense? It is, in a fun, exhilarating way. Game play occurs in rounds. Players, without taking turns, rapidly rid their hands of cards by playing them in numeric order onto the card just played. The color suit must also be matched, or wild cards used. The goal is to end each round with as few cards as possible. Those remaining in your hand count against you. Players often possess more than one playable card at a given moment, leading to choices good and bad. There are also powerful Zip Zap cards that can keep you rolling. Everyone's in on the action from start to finish and until the final card is played, it's anybody's game. If you like fun, fast-moving card games with a great balance of luck and skill, welcome to heaven! For 2 to 6 players.

Part of what makes listening to this CD so much fun is that you can feel the enjoyment and exuberance of the performers coming through clear as a bell. More importantly, there's a great deal of talent at work, lending authenticity to the often silliness-laced variety of tunes presented here in grand style. From Gospel to Funk, Caribbean to Rock'n Roll (and even some good old down-home New Orleans style), there are plenty of sounds on parade, and lots to do while you're listening. Just pop open the accompanying booklet, and mixed in with the lyrics you'll find dances, moves, sing-a-longs, and other lively activities that map to the songs and take the fun into the stratosphere. The often silly lyrics and matching kooky voice-work will get you laughing but won't overshadow the fact that you're listening to talented musicians with a love for music and performing!

Kids often struggle with their multiplication tables, but it doesn't have to be that way. Just as many of us learned our ABCs almost without trying by singing them to the tune of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,' kids can now memorize times tables to the tune of eternal favorites like 'Pop Goes the Weasel,' and 'My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean.' The specially written, easy-to-memorize lyrics are playful and efficient. With a different song for each times tables 1 through 12, (and another for multiplication by zero), kids can sing the whole kit and caboodle in just 8 minutes. Each of the 13 songs appears twice, once with lyrics and once without, enabling kids to practice both ways. This is also a wonderful tool to use along with the Best Multiplication Workbook EVER! (See current Tillywig review under Books). An engaging, fun, spirited approach to learning something every one of us needs to know!

For the very young, every day contains landmark moments, and even the simplest daily routines can be a source of wonder. One of the remarkable things about this CD is the degree to which the music captures and conveys that magic. It is also why children are drawn to and connect with it so well. While many of the songs evolve around simple childhood activities and events (riding a bicycle, getting new shoes, waking up in the morning, a loose tooth), there's a visceral and visual quality to the lyrics and melodies that plays much like the soundtrack to an exciting motion picture. It is this quality - experiencing the spectacular in the ordinary - that sets the songs apart. That and accordionist Jane Christison's performance (she also wrote all the music and lyrics). It's easy to imagine, while listening to her strong, clear voice and spirited delivery, that you're listening to the audio portion of a new PBS children's show, one that celebrates the innocent pleasures that permeate the lives of young children. The songs are upbeat, dramatic, well-written (with strong, catchy, verse-chorus-verse structures), and elicit interaction and activity in listeners of all ages. Lyrics booklet included.

Now you can listen to the original songs from the interactive musical brain game on CD (14.95) or as individual downloads from iTunes (.99 each). As with the game, the power and uniqueness of the songs stems in large part from what we effortlessly learn as we play. While enjoying the tunes, the lyrics enlighten us as to how our brains work, what the individual parts are called, how they work together and what they do for us. Listening to these songs, one develops an immense fondness for, and appreciation of, the brain. We realize its essentialness, its centrality to everything we do and experience. That we glean this amidst the playfulness and musicality of these songs is a tribute to the songwriters and performances. The selections are varied, some with strong dance beats, others sweetly lilting. There are 17 songs all told. The overall feel is upbeat and playful, leaving us enchanted and enlightened about the very thing we are using while listening - our brains!

'Is Love a Fairy Tale?' uses spoken word and song to tell the story of Aoede the Muse and her search for love in the magical kingdom of Wonderhaven. Along the way she meets and befriends a cast of strange and wonderful characters - Morpheus, Binkle the garden gnome, Albert the ice cream vendor, Amala, and others. The lead vocals, script, and songs are by Lisa Sniderman, aka Aoede. This talented songwriter has a gift for crafting pop melodies and lyrics so catchy you'll find yourself humming and singing along from the very first listen. Her voice has the unique ability to be simultaneously upbeat and plaintive, a quality that keeps the listener actively engaged. The arrangements are awash in warm harmonies and delightfully quirky, well-suited instrumental choices. The standouts include 'Make It Up As You Go,' a buoyant, catchy whistle tune that shows us that anything we can imagine, we can create. 'Little Things,' a delightful song about the pleasures to be had from life's simpler offerings, makes us wonder why the ukulele isn't used far more often in pop music. And the joyful 'Reason To Smile' uses trombone and tuba to great effect in ways that brings the Beatles to mind. As the narrative and musical selections take Aoede through the ups and downs of love and life, an overall philosophy emerges, one that seems to say, 'love is real, love is life - and life is good.' Amen to that.

This is a CD children will love and parents will enjoy listening to with or without their children. Susan Reed is a top-notch singer and multi-instrumentalist, and the selections on this CD consist of beautifully crafted songs and a few spoken-word stories that kids will find mesmerizing. The variety of stringed instruments and lack of percussion gives this highly melodic music a distinctive folk flavor. The lyrics, too, are exeptional, running the gamut from playful to genuinely inspiring. Susan's lovely vocals are sometimes backed by and interwoven with those of a very talented five-person chorus, lending the tunes a particularly rich quality. Listen to the chorus, for example, on the playful call and response of 'Echo.' Some of the tunes are achingly beautiful (the soaring vocals and instrumental harmonies on the lilting triple-meter 'I Am The Song,' for one). The minor key instrumental, 'Strawberry Moon,' is equally compelling. This is a CD that gets better with every listen!

The remarkably intuitive approach taught here using the image of a balanced scale with equal weight on both sides makes perfect sense, given that algebra is largely about equalities. Throughout the book, each scale represents an equal sign, with geometric shapes (circles, squares, etc.) resting on each side of the scale representing unknowns such as x and y. The scale being in balance means the two sides are equal, and one can apply to the objects on both sides of the scale the same principles used in solving algebraic equations. It's a perfect, functional metaphor that makes the concepts and processes used highly visual and much easier to absorb. The book moves from simple to complex, with later sections building on concepts absorbed in earlier ones. The puzzle-like problems are engaging and instructive, with students finding their critical thinking and algebraic skills catapulted to new levels without some of the roadblocks encountered in standard algebra courses.

Everything you need to help kids master multiplication can be found within these pages! Loaded with examples, hints, tips, and playfully designed worksheets, this workbook is strongly geared to how kids think and learn. About half the workbook is devoted to mastering times tables 0-12, broken down into four levels based on ease of memorization. A scaffolded approach builds skills and confidence, and certificates are included with which to reward students upon completion of each section. More than 100 of the workbook's 260 pages are devoted to long multiplication, a typically challenging area for students. Age appropriate word problems appear throughout, building much-needed skills and confidence at working with real-world applications. The final section provides standardized test-taking tips and strategies. If you're looking for a systematic, comprehensive, highly-organized curriculum that makes learning (and teaching) multiplication fun and easy, you've just found it!

The large, hardcover BUGS 3D book, with its colorful photos, illustrations, and well-crafted and informative text, will deeply engage many young readers without any help from the accompanying technology. Just flip the pages, scan with your eyes, and read - old school. Each pair of pages highlights a different bug, with lots of vivid imagery. As for the webcam 3D technology, the trick, first time out, is figuring out the best place to position the webcam, a matter of trial and error. Once you get the hang of it, BUGS 3D becomes a very different experience from that of reading a book. When the webcam hits the page properly, you see on screen an image that incorporates the bug into whatever else is being captured by the camera - you, your chair, your bedroom. Then, by positioning a little plastic thing called an 'i' paddle on the page, the audio is activated, narrating part of the text while a different image of the bug appears on screen. The combination of physical and virtual, tactile and onscreen, makes this a unique and entertaining experience.

Coin Blasters is a collection of competitive table-top target games in a book. But it is so much more than a book. The coin blasters themselves are sturdy plastic chutes (includes 2) that hold a coin on its side while a player unleashes it with a flick of the finger, often at stunning speeds. The built-in sight allows you to aim with surprising accuracy. The pages of the book are actually brilliantly constructed game components. By opening it to a given page and standing the book upright, you can enjoy a wide variety of targets and challenges using your coin blasters - take slap shots at a goalie, shoot baskets with Hot Shot Hoops, measure your shooting power with the Blastometer, enjoy coin versions of Miniature Golf and Skee Ball! There are 10 different games in all, with additional free stunts and tricks available on the Klutz website. And the instructions and descriptions are as fun and entertaining as the activities and games they're illuminating - simply brilliant!

Klutz has long published a fantastic array of clever, laugh-filled activity books and other fun stuff. The Klutz Guide to the Galaxy is chock full of great things to do that will expand your knowledge of our galaxy through hands-on activities (well, as hands-on as you can get with things that are millions of miles away)! Want to know how old you are on other planets? How to spot the moon any day of the year? How to estimate a star's altitude? It's all in there! So are four star maps, components and instructions for making both a sundial and a telescope, a Galactic Passport that contains a Sneaky Solar Noon-o-Graph, and oodles of other fun, cool stuff that will smarten you up without making your head explode! So get ready to laugh and learn - with the Klutz Guide to the Galaxy, you'll actively explore the workings of our galaxy, come rain or come shine!

Quincy Moves to the Desert is the gorgeously illustrated, lovingly told story of a horse named Quincy who lives in a tan and white barn in New York State. Quincy loves his owner, Cam, and his best friend Beau, an older horse who also lives in the barn. One day Quincy learns from Beau that the two of them will be going on a big trip to the desert where they will reunite with Cam. Along the way, Quincy learns a great deal from Beau, about states, about types of horses - Standardbreds, Thoroughbreds, Arabians, and more - and how different types of horses perform different tasks. He even learns that he and Beau are both American Quarterhorses. As reluctant as Quincy had initially been about going on a big trip, it opens his eyes to the world at large and the world of possibilities that exists for all of us. This is a wonderful connecting tale that demonstrates growth, maturation, friendship, and mentorship. It also includes a map of the U.S. that shows their cross country progress.

These are the paper starfighters you might make if were born a hundred years in the future and had a team of top aeronautic engineers at your disposal. But no need to wait. The Aerodynamics Team at Klutz labs has put it all together for you in this book - the designs, the paper, easy-to-follow folding diagrams, everything you need to create a fleet of high-flying paper aircraft. The full-color custom-designed pages means your handiwork will look out of this world as it zips through the air. You've got the Naboo N-1 Starfighter, the Millennium Falcon, the T-65 X-Wing . . . six different designs in all, with five copies of each for you to build. With typical Klutz flair and clarity, the book gives you folding and troubleshooting tips for optimal results as well as background information on each craft, written by their pilots. This is paper aircraft-making raised to the highest standards, with masterful results.

To describe the contents of OLLY OOGLEBERRY as warm, charming, humorous, and unconventional is an understatement. The number of smiles, laughs, and quizzical expressions giving way to satisfied understanding that break out during a typical reading are just some indicators of how much fun this book is to read. The author's moving forward explaining how he conceived of Olly's character at the age of twelve gives way to the tale Olly and his band of alien misfits heading off to save a tiny, seemingly insignificant planet called Earth. The author's storytelling and language make for a rich array of vivid characters. You'll meet creatures called Squizzleskwaks, Fiddlefunks, and the Kometen (who Olly enlists like reindeer to pull him across the galaxy faster than the speed of light). The success of the mission puts Olly and crew at risk, forcing them to eject and disperse to Earth. Each page is filled with colorful, unusual illustrations. In addition to the storyline, tucked in the corner of many pages are direct asides to the reader - some humorous, some containing genuine wisdom or fun facts. Upbeat, fun, clever, and uplifting, the story ends with us readers looking forward to what we hope will be the next installment in Olly Oogleberry's adventures.

This is one of the best educational DVDs we've ever seen. It's hugely entertaining. The experiments are easy to do. And your jaw will drop at the things you see while performing these experiments. You'll learn fundamental principles of science the good old-fashioned way - hands on, with your sleeves rolled up. The DVD's host, Jason Gibson, is excellent, a natural, relaxed presence who's easy to follow. There are a whopping 23 experiments, most of which take just a few minutes to perform. Jason takes you through them, step by step, helping you ask the right questions about what you've observed before sharing the science behind it. Some of our favorites - Color Changing Milk, for example, or Amazing Magnetic Force - play out much differently (and more excitingly) than their titles might suggest. You'll perform every experiment. Then you'll want to perform them again for friends and family, just to see the looks of amazement on their faces!

This outstanding educational app for the iPad makes full use of its multi-sensory nature, providing stunning visuals and tactile interactions throughout grand adventures, puzzles, and games. Ansel, an adorable inter-galactic travel photographer from the planet Virtoos, and his robot companion, Clair, take you to explore three African locales - the Nile Valley, Sahara Desert, and the Serengeti Plains. But you're not just along for the ride. In each locale, you'll take photographs of things you've learned about - animals, plants, places, landmarks - collecting and arranging them in a travel log. The app's visuals are gorgeous, and the interactions, such as cracking an egg on the hood of a car to demonstrate heat, or wiping away rain or sand with your fingers, are delightful. Ansel's questions and observations, and Clair's encyclopedic knowledge interweave perfectly, while games and puzzles reinforce learning concepts that span geography, history, science, and more!

This remarkable online learning platform ($79.00 per year) is organized around several lovable animated animal characters, each of whom guides kids through a variety of highly engaging games and activities. Children tend to be immediately wowed by how much fun these activities are, while parents are struck by how seamlessly the learning component has been woven in, and by the depth and variety of learning experiences available. There's math, reading, foreign language (Bilingual Bingo!), art and music recording studios, a creative storytelling activity, and much more. There's a game in which kids match emotions to facial expressions. There's also a powerful section on the site called the Learning Tree that provides easily accessible and digestible information regarding activities engaged in thus far, enabling parents to track their child's progress in each of the key learning areas. There are many other parent resources as well. What's particularly impressive about Curiosityville is how every detail and nuance (visuals, sounds, screen layout, organization, character choices) is so carefully calibrated towards guiding and rounding your child's development. The individual games and activities cover all the core skills, but more importantly, they teach kids to explore and think for themselves, preparing them for a lifetime of successful learning.

There's such a perfect blend of fun and learning to be had on this DVD that the learning almost seems beside the point, at least while you're playing. But afterwards, you find yourself remembering detailed information about this part of our bodies too many of us know too little about. Go to Brain Island to access games relating to the Cerebellum, Hippocampus, Cerebral Cortex, and Brainstem. With each game, you'll learn about a specific part of your brain while using that part of your brain to play the game! Each brain part has a couple of different games, with several levels of play, as well as songs and stories. The DVD is very easy to navigate, and does a great job of engaging through a number of relatable characters like Miss Hippo, Brian Stem, and Phoebe Brainheart, whose brain we enter and explore in an effort to help her. Here is a rich source of information on this essential topic, delivered to us in such a way that we can take it all in through pleasure and play - and retain it!

K5 Learning is an outstanding educational program designed to build reading, math, and study skills for kids from kindergarten through grade 5. Part of what makes K5 Learning special is that it's format is so engaging (lessons are animated, interactive, and simple to navigate) while at the same time delivering material in a concise, effective manner. It's fun, interesting, compelling, and entertaining, yet its function never wavers from kids' progress. Lessons consist of a quick introduction, a couple of examples, and off you go, learning and doing. And kids won't want to stop, because both the process AND their progress are enjoyable, doable, and gratifying. An online assessment helps ensure kids work at levels appropriate to their skills, after which they work independently through over 3,000 lessons and activities at their own pace. A parent dashboard (including tracking and reporting) is a boon. Kids yearn to learn - it's in their hard-wiring. Give them access to K5 Learning, and they'll have all the tools they need to last a lifetime. $25.00/Month or 199.00/year.

This fantastically creative, highly entertaining musical program represents a quantum leap forward in musical education. Viewers are provided with an in-depth understanding of music fundamentals via 30 episodes on 15 DVDs. The DVDs feature an energetic Englishman named Quaver, proprietor of a magical music store in which he humorously deconstructs music while statues of famous composers yak and teenage musicians perform. Each DVD comes with a matching Teacher Guide that provides parents or educators with an overview of the disc along with tips and guidelines for teaching and reinforcing the material. Each extraordinarily well-produced episode has a different focus. From tempo and rhythm to harmony and songwriting, from the Baroque Period to Reggae and Country music, Quaver will grow your child's love and knowledge of music almost effortlessly. Includes one-year full access to Online Quaver Classrooms that contain special learning resources.

There's something so inviting about this gift set, which comes playfully and portably packaged in a reusable tote bag. Its enticing visual appearance conveys from the get-go that you're in for loads of fun. The set includes a DVD, musical CD, and a board book, as well as a plush Little Pim bear. The DVD, titled 'eating and drinking,' introduces 60 words and phrases related to mealtime (knife, fork, bread, butter, napkin, milk, bananas, strawberries . . . ) over the course of several 5-minute episodes during the 35 minute running time. Live action footage of children is interwoven with animation, providing visual demonstrations of Spanish-spoken words and concepts. English subtitles can be turned on and off. With the 'Colors' board book, children help Little Pim find items of a particular color by flipping flaps and pulling tabs, revealing answers (and color photos) in both English and Spanish. The Spanish Bop CD includes 12 great traditional songs from Spanish-speaking countries and 3 original songs from the well-known children's band, Milkshake. Lyrics are printed in both Spanish and English in the accompanying booklet. The DVD, CD, and board book are each invaluable learning tools in their own right. Together, they form a delightful triple threat that enables children's brains to absorb the Spanish language like the miraculous sponges they are.

It's amazing how quickly children learn Spanish by watching Speekee TV, an online Spanish language course ($7.50 per month or $60.00 per year). One component of why it works so well is that Spanish is the only language spoken during the 10 cumulative, carefully conceived and executed video episodes. Subtitles appear simultaneously in Spanish and English, but are optional. Turning them off creates a deeper immersion experience that can enhance learning. Another reason for the program's effectiveness is that it is so deeply engaging to children. Speekee, a cute, purple life-sized puppet with big eyes, an impish smile, and a tuft of gold hair, interacts with Spanish children, his friend Jim, and even the viewer. There's plenty of playful repetition, both when a word is first introduced, and when it is revisited for reinforcement. The videos make invaluable use of catchy singalongs containing the verbs, nouns, and adjectives being learned. Speekee TV also includes FastTrack, a 40-week plan designed to maximize your child's progress. The activities and worksheets easily accessible through the FastTrack page enrich and enhance the program's effectiveness. Young children have an extraordinary facility for learning languages that diminishes over time. It would be a shame to let that window of opportunity pass your child by when there are effective, inexpensive programs like Speekee TV available.

The Global Game Changers story may revolve around fictional superheroes, but the organization and concept behind it are all about making a difference in the real world. This illustrated children's story, available as both hardback book and mobile app, details the exploits of Global Girl and her sidekick Little Big-Heart as they recruit real-life kids to help make the world a better place. We're introduced to three real-life heroes - a girl who helps fight hunger by aiding a food bank, a boy who started an organization to combat bullying, and a girl who formed an organization to provide socks to people in need. The mobile app, which kids can read to themselves or set to be read to them, has several interactive features - swipe an arrow onscreen to cause a superhero to fly, touch orange sparkles for an array of surprises, tap the GGC symbol or the villain, Krumi, and see what happens. The story inspires us to be a superhero, and a call to action at the end invites us to make a difference by joining the Global Game Changers' online community. On the website, kids enjoy activities, create avatars, share their own stories of helping others, earn points and badges of honor, vote for their favorite charities (top choice earns a share of GGC proceeds), and more. The book, app, and website are entertaining and engaging, and the theme - fighting apathy, making a difference, being a force for good - couldn't be more timely.

Curiosity is such an innate human quality, and every parent can recall the barrage of questions with which we were greeted almost daily by our growing children's growing minds. But our minds never stop growing, or at least they don't need to, now that Wonderopolis.org, a website and online community, is here. Part of what makes Wonderopolis.org such a fabulous experience for child and adult users alike, and such a potent resource for parents and educators, is the highly appealing and very digestible manner in which topics and information are organized. Each day a new 'Wonder of the Day' is presented (recent Wonders include 'How Hot is the Sun?,' and 'Why do you Sneeze?'). Both text and video are provided, each of which is, in itself, plenty informative and engaging. One of our favorite things to do is to print out the text portion and use it, during meals, as a launch pad for stimulating, enjoyable conversation. We can't speak highly enough about Wonderopolis.org - and yes, it's free!

Based on Dean Koontz' book by the same name, this app is loaded with great features. Trixie, a very happy golden retriever (based on Mr. Koontz' real life dog), explains that not everyone can be a dog. She expounds on many non-dog creatures, mostly in terms of how their existence benefits canine life (except perhaps for skunks). Read the story on your own in Read Myself mode, or hear it read to you in Read To Me mode. Learn to pronounce words by touching them on screen to hear them spoken. Touch objects on screen to hear their name spoken and see it written. Edit mode allows you to personalize the story by coloring images, recording your own narration, even altering text. During Read To Me Mode, words are highlighted as they're spoken. The endearing story, interactive vocabulary-enhancing features, and personalization options in this beautifully illustrated storybook app make it a treasure valued and enjoyed by both parents and children.

Based on Rhonda Fischer's book and illustrated by Kim Sponaugle, this app has a number of features to help sharpen vocabulary skills. The clever and endearing story is about Randy Kazandy's challenges with self-image on his first day wearing eyeglasses. Despite his efforts to lose, hide, or destroy them, his mother is always there with another pair. On the verge of teary-eyed defeat, he learns to love his glasses when he discovers his father wears them as well, and begins enjoying the new freedom his improved eyesight yields. Readers can choose to have the story automatically narrated, with each word on the page highlighted as it's spoken, or can simply read to themselves, in which case they can hear any word spoken just by touching the text. Touch any image, and the associated word will be spoken and displayed. Kids laughed and related to Randy's predicament, while the beautifully rendered illustrations and features captivated their attention such that they wanted the story again and again.

Based on Laurence Anholt's book by the same name, this enchanting app contains gorgeous imagery and offers a captivating introduction to Vincent Van Gogh, including many of his most famous paintings. It tells the tale of Van Gogh's touching friendship with the postman's son, a story of compassion and tolerance. The watercolor illustrations are startlingly beautiful. With a tap, kids can paint the characters as they please. The personalized characters then reanimate, becoming part of the artwork. Kids can also tap to play a fascinating game in which a machine-like armature that makes the characters move appears. Parts of the armature collapse and must be returned to their proper place within a given time to win. Tapping a painting provides an amazing 3D experience as one navigates a museum, viewing and learning facts about 10 different Van Gogh paintings. Throughout, the narration is superb. In fact, everything about this experience is magical and enriching.