So many parts of the day do not allow for creativity. Our children's busy lives are often shaped by daily routines that leave little time for daydreaming. Click here for suggestions that will spark your child's imagination.

Patience is one of those skills that does not always come naturally or easily. Yet, developing the ability to wait for an event or to deal with the frustration of working at a difficult task and bring it to completion. These are important life skills children need. Whether they are learning to read, writing a term paper, or baking cookies, patience is often the key to success. Unfortunately you can't teach patience by talking about it. Lectures don't help. Click here for ideas that do help!

It used to be a huge stretch to come up with our green list.  Happily, that's no longer the case.  Toy makers are responding to consumer demand for green products for their kids.  We have rejected many of the "good-for-you-but-looks-sad" green toys...you know the ones - they're very muted in color or made from material that may be climate friendly, but you really don't want to cuddle up with!  We are particularly thrilled with the 100% recycled trucks from both Sprig Toys and Green Toys, the gorgeous Plan Toys Green Dollhouse (complete with solar panels) and the ever so huggable dolls from blablakids.com and Fair Indigo.  Congrats to all our winners!!

Craft kits are among the best holiday toys. Kids love trying their hands at cutting, pasting, and painting. They don't need to know that crafts are more than fun. Click here to read more.

Unlike a lot of novelty toys that often lose their luster, games are returned to again and again. They are not just entertaining; many have solid learning built into the fun. Here are some of the top choices we've tested and think you and your family will like playing. Click here to see our list!

Read our review of the new Jenga Max

Our mascot of the season, Mr. Robot, tries his best to engage Ugly Doll.

What do underwater sea creatures, sheep, and storybook characters have in common? You'll find them all on our short award list of DVD winners. Read the reviews!

If you spend a great deal of time going from point A to point B, having some wonderful stories and music to listen to can make the journey part of the fun (even if it's just coming home for school, soccer or Grandma's house).  As you know we complain most about this aspect of what we review.  So much of children's audio is really annoying...sugary sweet and full of good-for-you-messages. When we started reviewing children's audio, we literally used to sit in the car and anyone (young or old) could throw the audio out of the car. (The car was parked.)  After several afternoons in the car, the lawn would be full of rejects.  While we don't do that anymore (it is so not green), we do have the same high standards.  So a special congratulations to the winners this year!  Click here to see our list of award winners!

Read our Review of this new novelty toy!