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Tiger
Electronics
Franklin the Turtle has demonstrated his appeal by
outlasting many of his animated character contemporaries.
His timeless charm, sweet disposition and inquisitive nature have made
him a favorite with many preschool children.
This cute, huggable learning toy offers a wide range of options which
center primarily around the alphabet. Franklin's
sweet vocal encouragement appealed to our testers.
The variety of play, from phonics and number recognition, to sequencing
were strong, while our young testers got a kick out of finding Franklin's ever
changing tickle spot.
Recommended Age: 2 and Up Price: $29.99
This great quiet time toy entertained children again and
again to the delight of on looking parents.
The game set comes with an assortment of activity cards that encourage
matching, sequencing, as well as pattern and color recognition.
The combination of educational and fun play value impressed our parents.
They also mentioned that they liked the idea that the gears used here
could be used with other Gears, Gears, Gears sets as their children grew.
The cards make the construction aspect easier than full sized sets, but
the familiar satisfaction of turning one gear and seeing the whole board start
spinning still elicited genuine enthusiasm.
Recommended Age: 2 and Up Price: $16.95
Tiger
Electronics
This oversized play toy for young children who are
exploring their ABC's is bright, colorful and fun. Featuring the timeless characters from the Winnie the Pooh
stories, this toy has large buttons that react to your child's touch.
Familiar voices describe letter sounds in a clear distinctive manner.
Children enjoyed discovering all the letters they already knew, and then
learning the letters that weren't quite as familiar.
Kids also enjoyed the quiz and word recognition games as well.
Whether playing together with a parent or just exploring alone, there is
a genuine sense of fun built into this learning toy that makes it a winner.
Recommended Age: 2 and Up Price: $29.99
VTech
This funny and slightly loony bird had our little testers
laughing, giggling and playing along. Squawky
is a bird-brained toy that sports a wireless play feature that engages your
child with counting, music and memory games.
The handheld unit that your child holds is effective for communicating
with Squawky from as much as 15 feet away.
This was pretty darn cool according to our testers.
The bright design and motorized movements of Squawky's beak and whole
body made the play experience more enjoyable and animated for sure.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Price: $34.95
Track
& Stack City SetBRIO
Corp.
This expansive starter train set has everything your
little engineer could want in a wooden railroad toy.
There is plenty of track so that your trains can explore lots of
territory. The two-level setup
option features strong supports so you can avoid those nasty wrecks.
The working elevator and the station ticket booth were cool additions
that enhanced the experience. Many
testers told us that they recognized that this set's high price tag put it
outside the budget of many consumers, however they gave high marks based on its
top of the line quality. The Brio
name is synonymous with train play and this system is a great new addition to
their already impressive product lineup.
Recommended Age: 3 and Up Price: $130.00
The packaging on the Chou Chou doll states that it offers
a "true to life" experience. Our
testers read this with an air of skepticism, but that quickly evaporated when
they held these cute dolls. The
design of stuffing and joints made for a very realistic feel, and in fact the
doll did move very much like a real baby. When hugging or holding the doll, the distribution of the
weight impressed our parent testers. Our
younger testers liked the sweet face, the soft pajamas, and the way they felt
when they held and cuddled this very cute doll.
Recommended Age: 3 to 8 Price: $29.99
3-D
Bug Floor Puzzle
Judy/Instructo
This jumbo sized puzzle, which is designed to be built on
the floor, is a great hands-on activity that brings the world of bugs to a
larger than life size. The big,
sturdy cardboard pieces fit together easily.
The illustrations of all types of bugs, from beautiful butterflies to
several that can only be described as less-than-attractive creepy, crawly
creatures, impressed our testers. The
kicker comes with the big 3D rendered bug in the center of the puzzle.
When we donned our enclosed 3D glasses, the resulting image provided us
with plenty of reactions, from "cool" to "eww!"
Recommended Age: 4 and Up
Price: $14.95
Judy/Instructo
This package of puzzles features an assortment of
activities that will have your young child flexing their mental muscle.
The square pieces do not fit together with interlocking notches like
traditional puzzles, instead they rely on the side-by-side matching of colors,
shapes, letters, words and more. Parents
enjoyed pulling these puzzles out for a quick playtime activity.
Educators felt that they would be a great addition to their classrooms,
particularly in kindergarten activity centers, because they are self-explanatory
and self-correcting.
Recommended Age: 5 and Up Price: $7.95
Sound
FX ManiaExploratoy
This pocket sized toy offers three games that will
entertain children of all ages as they test their skills and try to better their
scores. The handheld unit features
a sound effect memory matching game and a speed/reflex game.
The unit is small and lightweight, great for throwing in a backpack for
travel. There is a headphone jack
which parents loved! The design, the packaging and the price all added up to make
Sound FX Mania a solid choice for gift giving, especially since the batteries
are included!
Recommended Age: 5 and Up Price: $13.95
Damert
Company
This challenging, yet easy to learn mind-bender will
entertain you and your children for hours.
The simple premise of the game asks players to plan routes from one point
to another using nine puzzle pieces that can be arranged in any manner on the
self-contained playing field. There
are puzzle challenges in the enclosed booklet, but that is just the beginning
since there are no rules other than testing your own ability to get from point A
to point B, or C, D etc. As a
result everyone got as kick out of creating their own games for others to solve.
The plastic game set neatly stores away for easy clean up and storage.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up
Price: $15.00
Gearbotics
- RobotThe Gears, Gears, Gears line has a new winning addition
and a new look. Using translucent
pieces and a new battery operated motion controller, this toy was a huge
favorite. The Gearbotics Robot is fun,
instantly appealing and very simple to use with clear instructions and
illustrations. The various Robot
designs were built, torn apart and rebuilt over and over.
The directions, which include four different designs, made building these
robots a snap. When the building is
completed the fun kicks into gear as children took their creation out for a
whirring, rolling walk. With its colorful gears and robotic head spinning, this is a
sight to behold.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up
Price: $46.95
Tiger
Electronics
This handheld, mind bending, electronic game posed an
interesting dilemma for our testers. While
it was perplexing and impossibly difficult for some, others were intrigued by
its game play and felt compelled to conquer the challenge.
Some testers showed a remarkable aptitude for understanding the patterns
of lights and their effect when pressed in the right order.
Redesigned for 2000, this game is designed for those that really enjoy
puzzles. If you are among those who can't rest until the mystery, or
in this case the pattern is solved, you will probably find yourself caught up in
Lights Out. The slick hand held
case appealed to all our testers.
Recommended Age: 6 and Up
Price: $19.99
GeoSafari
Undercover
Kidology
The Geosafari method of dissection is considerably less
messy and smelly than the familiar classroom technique.
This unique book series provides readers with a colorful,
larger-than-life sized plastic replica that depicts a dissected frog, bat or
shark in an age appropriate manner. The
squishy stuff is replaced with very realistic, formaldehyde-less, replicas of
organs, muscles and the like. Educators
liked that there were associated pictures that identified each part of the
anatomy. There is also a wealth of additional fun facts and
information on each animal to support and enhance the presentation.
Recommended Age: 7 and Up
Price: $11.95
LEGO
Company
Here is a toy from LEGO that has all the building and
construction fun that we have come to expect from this legendary toy company.
For once however, the building became secondary to the great fun we had
playing with the Soccer Championship Challenge.
There are a wide variety of field formations to construct apart from the
traditional soccer field and with each formation comes a variety of rules and
play options. The instructions are
well illustrated, in fact there are no words used.
The game, which involves spring-loaded players, reminded some of our
testers of foosball style play. The
basic premise of putting the ball in the net more often than your opponent made
for great competitive matches and fun.
Recommended Age: 7 to 16 Price: $49.99
GeoSafari
LaptopKidology
Geosafari is a time tested educational quiz system that
has been impressing our testers for years.
The laptop version from Kidology, a new division of Educational Insights,
is a sleek, portable unit. It
features LED lights and sounds that test and reward correct answers on a wide
variety of subjects. Included in
this version of the system is a new LCD display that gives correct answers after
3 attempts. There are 126 cards
featuring questions on science, history, wildlife, maps and more.
Whether your child uses Geosafari to test themselves, to play with
others, or just to learn some new facts and trivia, this is a fun and very well
designed product. Parents noted
that the price and packaging were also first rate.
Recommended Age: 8 and Up Price: $49.95
For more information about The Seal of Approval or The National
Parenting Center
call: 1-800-753-6667
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Last Update: November 8, 2000
