This craft kit involves macramé-type weaving with thick color cords that produce showy results that kids can enjoy wearing with pride. It comes with eight colors, buckles, stickers, scissors, glue, and clear instructions. There are enough supplies to make eight bracelets. A fun kit for play dates or sleep-over craft fun. Marked for 7 & up, but we think most kids of seven will need lots of help getting started and finishing up. We'd say it's a better choice for 8-9's.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Stephanie wants to be a superstar. She works out in her rehearsal studio with a revolving platform. She has a guitar, keyboard, and microphone. For dancing she has a ballet bar and mirror and before she goes on stage she puts on her make-up at a dressing table. A 198-piece set with one mini-figure. 5-12

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Handsomely packaged in a roundish cardboard carrying case, this 100-piece puzzle has three levels with distinct scenes: a country highway, a city roadway and city street jammed with vehicles and traffic light. There are buses, taxi, firetruck, garbage truck, as well as farm and passenger vehicles. They say 5-8. We think 5-6 will need a lot of help and the upper range will enjoy this more.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Handsomely packaged in a sturdy cardboard carrying case, this big 100-piece puzzle is challenging. The pieces are not overly large and there are lots of creatures in the sea. The horizon will offer good starting point clues, as will the bigger fish in the sea. They say 5-8. We think 5-6 will need a lot of help and the upper range will enjoy this more.

Age: Early School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Cows, ducks, hens, tractors and farmer's hat and boots are easy to match on these wooden dominos. Turn them over and play a traditional match the dots domino game. Finished in smooth natural wood these are basic gear that will be used for naming and knowing as well as for matching, stacking, or collapsing games. 28 pieces. 

SNAP: Introduce the playing pieces by finding all the cows as a first game, finding all the sheep as another game...etc. Playing a traditional game of dominoes can wait. Knowing and naming and matching builds the readiness for the old-fashioined game. These are nice for stacking and lining up, too.

Age: Toddlers, Preschool. Award Year: 2013.

Four cardboard puzzles come in this carry-all cardboard case. Each features a racing scene designed with a back background and multi-ethnic drivers drivers. The four puzzles have 6, 9, 12, or 16 pieces, each in its own plastic baggie. They need to be kept separated. Naturally, they get progressively harder, so you may want to put the harder ones away and introduce them gradually. 3-5

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013.

Four cardboard puzzles come in this carry-all cardboard case. Each features a little veterinarian at work in her office, caring for animals and doing her computer entries. The four puzzles have 6, 9, 12, or 16 pieces, each in its own plastic baggie. They need to be kept separated. Naturally, they get progressively harder, so you may want to put the harder ones away and introduce them gradually. 3-5

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013.

Four pastel teething keys on a yellow ring that babies can chew, shake and manipulate. They make a nice clattering sound and are made from 100% recycled plastic in the USA. They contain no BPA, phthalates, or PVC. Infants

Age: Infants. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

For budding scientists, here is a 12-piece kit with see through rooting trays, pots, observation jar with vented lid, watering can, trowel, plant markers and best of all--10 on-the-mark activity cards that invite kids to grow a variety of plants. Use found materials, like the top of a pineapple, radishes, carrots, popping corn kernels, and a clove of garlic. For other experiments, bring home seeds for beans and chives. The round observation jar with a lid can become a small terrarium with plants found in the yard or park. The activity cards provide realistic gardening experiments that preschoolers can do with help from an adult or older sib. True, you could use many of the containers you own without the set, but this gives the process structure in a playful way. Hopefully you will do that, too. To enlarge the experiences, take photos as each experiment progresses to make a small personal log or simple personalized book of their growing experiments. 3 & up.

SNAP: This hands-on kit is an excellent set of activities that all children can enjoy on various levels. Involving children in the process is a very satisfying ongoing activity.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

One of the clever 3-in-1 building sets. Our tester liked making the action figure, a robot and then converted it to a helicopter and then to a pick-up truck. A versatile construction set with 223-pieces and clear directions for 7-12.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2013. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.