(Winning Moves $19.99) Give fine motor skills a workout with this clever stacking game that calls for stacking the twelve oddly shaped blocks (each has several cubes joined together). Place your block on the tight grid and then add a tiny black balancing block somewhere on the block. Fingers crossed—it the stack doesn’t fall over, you win a numbered scoring tile for the number of connected cubes your block contained. But, hold on! Be sure your block isn’t over the edge or cov

(Mindware $29.99) Not one—but a dozen dinosaur eggs, ready to excavate! For the young paleontologist, this clutch of dino eggs will be perfect to share at a dino themed party. (You could do a scavenger hunt to begin the fun and have each of the players find an egg or have two teams hunt together until they have found an egg for each member of the team. Each child will have a unique dino egg to work on. First the egg soaks in water until it sinks. Then wait five minute to allo

(BigJigs $25.00) Four little firefighters that can stand and sit and hang onto their firefighting tools (they fit into the wooden hands. They have bendable limbs and are wearing cloth black and white coats and trousers, wooden boots and helmets, all of which cannot be removed. These figures would be welcome props for block play, as well as in any fire house. Ages: Preschoolers Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 2019 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com

(Big Jigs $150.00) For pretend play, this wooden fire station has two floors with a place for firefighters to rest upstairs and a lower floor where the firetruck waits. There are big working doors on both sides of the station. The roof of the station comes off for ease of play, there is a pole to slide down, but not easy for firefighters to get on. There’s also a building next door (with graphic flames) that appears to be on fire. The building has three ladders inside that li

(Fisher-Price $54.99-69) A ride-on that's designed to be especially stable, making it easy for toddlers to get on and off. It has no wheels. Instead it’s mounted on a broad platform and toddlers use their legs to make it bounce up and down and turn around. There’s a roller rattle in the easy to grip handle that tots can spin to create a light show and music; plus another that plays the alphabet and counting songs. These lessons, that are supposed to be educational are way be

Every year we receive dozens of huggables to review—some sweet, some zany, and many overdone with fuzzy manes and dazzling doo-dads. Choosing the most wonderful ones is a task we look forward to each season. Although some parents consider soft dolls and stuffed animals nothing more than dust collectors, we know the importance of such playthings to children. Whether it's a teddy bear, a baby doll, a monkey, or a pooch, huggable toys are often the most long lasting and beloved

(Hasbro $14.99) Let’s start by saying a set of Play-Doh cans without any pre-made setting can be great fun and excellent for developing little hand muscles, creative thinking and the fun of just messing around with Doh that can become whatever they say it is. That said, the more elaborate kits are interesting on another level. This season they’ve come up with a series of “Wheels” that are packaged with a supply of Play-Doh. We think kids will enjoy the Gravel Yard that comes

(Kahootz $19.99 each) You probably grew up with Colorforms, a classic quiet time play set that invites kids to create their own mini play scenes. The reusable stickers take some dexterity to lift and stick, but once kid get the hang of it, they love arranging and rearranging. In the process, they often begin creating little stories or narrate what they are doing. We like the two Picture Playsets introduced this season. One is a Market Playset with two scenes inside a supermar

(Kahootz $19.99) Based on characters from Netfix’s Charlie’s Colorforms City, this preschool game is fast and fun. Everyone gets a blank face board and players take turns spinning the arrow that tells them what part of the face they can add to their face board. The object is to be the first to create a silly face with eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair and hat. But watch out! If you land on “unstick” you have to give a part back; and if you land on swap you have to trade a part wi

(Kahootz $9.99) A classic revisited. Children begin noticing the weather early on and this set of Colorforms focuses on the way we choose our clothes to match the weather. Playing with good sized and many pieces of this set, children can grow their knowing and naming vocabulary, sharpen their color words, and make the connections between the weather and their clothes. Colorforms demand some fine motor skills that they’ll need to use to lift and stick the reusable pieces as th