Important Advisory:

We are now requiring companies to provide us with documentation that their products have been tested by an independent lab for phthalates and lead.
Please click here for submission requirements for new products. However, as we are not a lab, we will not be independently verifying those results. Also, with the exception of the 2008 Platinum Toy Awards, toys submitted for review prior to January 2008 were not tested for lead.

Instructions for submitting product to the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio for review.

Contact the Toyportfolio @ (212) 598-0502 or by email at Webmaster@Toyportfolio.com.

Copyright 1995-2008. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio - All Rights Reserved. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award, and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Blue Chip Award are Registered Trademarks of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio.

Getting kids ready for the new school year should be playful. There are lots of materials you can use and games you can play that reinforce important skills that do not involve flash cards or the Inevitable tears that they can produce!  

For preschoolers and early school aged children choose:

• simple games that involve color, shape and simple matching skills such as lotto, dominoes.
  
• art materials such as crayons, clay, paint to develop fine motor skills needed for writing.
  
• construction toys that develop dexterity, language and math skills.
  
• pretend props that develop language, imagination and social skills.

For older school aged kids choose

• games that involve scorekeeping, strategy, and sportsmanship.
  
• art materials that call for fine motor tuning, patience and stick-to-it-ability.
  
• complex construction sets that call for problem solving, dexterity and following directions.
  
• science materials that invite exploration.

From low tech to high tech, there are many ways to make play more than fun.   Happily, it turns out that something kids like to do so much is even good for them. play is "fun"damental to learning!  
The trick is in making good choices for your child.

( Milton Bradley $$29.99$ ) Put the play mats on the floor and plug this into your DVD player and kids are ready for an active but not too fast moving game that gets them up off the couch. Players move from one of 24 color play mats to another collecting tokens. This type of game is ideal for developing listening skills and color concepts in a playful manner. A grown up will need to supervise. 2-4 players. Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Phone: 888-836-7025. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 2006

( LeapFrog $$79.99$ ) We told you about the Leapster last year. It's still a great travel toy, but now there's a simple cable connection that will put Leapster games on your TV screen, so it can be used either way. Now it's a good take-along that can also be plugged in at Grandma's. Without the usual frenetic pace, these games respond to your child and are more than zap and blast games. If you have been looking for a hand held game machine that's more appropriate than Gameboy for the youngest player look no further. Billed as a learning machine it’s a lot more playful than most. The games and skills are well targeted to older preschoolers and early school age kids. It has a larger screen and games that can be played at three levels of difficulty. There are math, phonics, reading and spelling games and an art program that takes some help to learn how to use. We really liked the Letters on the Loose cartridge but we'd skip the Batman cartridge (too scary looking for the age group). The Spiderman cartridge is recommended and has a softer edge to it than Batman. This is a little heavy for hand held operation, but not too big for a lap or table top. The stylus is easy to use and the screen responds well. Software cartridges are available for pre-K, Kindergarten and 1st Grade. 4-8. Best of the new-for-2007 games, Letterpillar, and Cosmic Math with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. 4–8. PLATINUM AWARD ’06. (800) 701-5327. Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Phone: 800 701 5327. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 2006

( Oppenheim Toy Portfolio $$10$ ) We know that most parents have gotten the message that reading to their children is key to growing children's positive feelings about reading and books, but what to read is sometimes less clear and so is knowing how to expand on the book experience with playful learning games. Read It! Play It! offers short reviews of easy-to-find classics and for each of the fifty books there are related games for parents and child to do together-activities that connect learning and fun through play. Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Phone: .