(Peaceable Kingdom $13.95) DA giant 44 piece floor puzzle with a colorful unicorn shape that will be 2' X 3' when it's put together. The pieces have a shimmery foil finish and sone of the pieces are die cut in familiar shapes such as a star and butterfly. Comes in a sturdy storage box with a cord handle.Marked 3 and up, but we think 44 pieces are a lot for preschoolers to handle independently. Ages: Older preschoolers, early school Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(Peaceable Kingdom $13.95) Hablas Espanol? If your child is learning Spanish, here's fun way to build vocabulary. It's a pictorial Bingo game with pictures, words, and a pronunciation guide. There are six double sided playing boards and plenty of markers to cover the images. Use this for family fun, classroom groups, or even a solo matching game. The pieces are sturdy and the images are for familiar items and basic words. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(eeboo $11.99) Early school age kids can explore the Ocean's Treasures with this colorful 64-piece puzzle illustrated by Monika Forsberg. Try this as a cooperative task and talk about the fish as you give beginners strategies for putting the outside edges together first. Kids enjoy doing their puzzles more than once, so don't worry about spoiling the challenge or fun. The finished puzzle will be 15" x 15". IF this seems the right level for your child, consider the 64-piece Solar System and Otters at Play puzzles from the same maker. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Peaceable Kingdom $17.95) Who doesn't love a picnic? Here's a perfect picnic basket loaded with plates, a cloth to spread on the ground, and an assortment of foods in three different shapes and colors. Each player gets a plate and takes turns digging into the basket to find one of the three shapes to fill his dish. OR turn the plates over and players take turns pulling out a food of three different colors. There's no race to be first—this is a cooperative game that ends when everyone has a full plate. Designed for the youngest players, this is more about taking turns, identifying and matching shapes and colors. Marked for two and up, we think this is a better choice for threes and up. The p
(Mindware $19.95) Welcome our feathered friends back to your yard with this little wooden birdhouse. Kids will be able to follow the easy to assemble parts that they glue together. Next they'll paint the outside and with help attach it to a tree where birds will make their nests. This kit comes with 9 solid-wood pre-cut birdhouse pieces, 13 paints, wooden hanging hook, twine, 2 paintbrushes, craft glue, instructions and full color guidebook to attract birds and identify them. The finished house is about 7 X 8"—a great way to get kids started as birdwatchers. It's marked 5 and up. Obviously younger kids of 5-7 will need more help in the assembly and reading instructions. For them, this will
Mindware $14.95) A playful scene with fruit characters in a silly pool party. The 77-piece puzzle includes seven special shaped pieces that include Banana, Strawberry, and Pineapple scents. Our tester loved the scents and the challenge of getting it all together. 5 and up. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(Mindware $29.95 ) A plain white rocket comes out of the box along with 12 pots of paint, two paint brushes and instructions for decorating a porcelain space ship. After the rocket ship is painted and baked (by an adult) they can load it with one of two battery powered tea lights that produce a warm glow/ How neat is that? A night light kids can paint and use. Also special, a lamp with a different theme—a Paint Your Own Unicorn Light ($17.95) 8 and up Ages: Older Early School, Tweens Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020 Click here to purchase the Rocket product from Amazon.com Click here to purchase the Unicorn product from Amazon.com
(Mindware $13.95) Young dino-holics are going to love this big T-Rex floor puzzle with its shiny foil accents. When it's all together, the giant meat eater will be 2 X 3 feet big. The fifty-one thick sturdy puzzle pieces include seven die-cut dinosaurs that fit into the bigger puzzle. KIds will recognize Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and several other familiar dinos. Comes in a sturdy storage box with cord handle. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020 Click here to purchase the product from Amazon.com
(Creativity for Kids $26.99) A craft kit with a science edge. It comes with 11 sensory experiments. It comes with two test tubes, measuring cup, stirring wands, scoops and pipettes to mix and stir the compounds included. Kids will have hands on fun exploring putty, crystals, bubbles, and more. This is a good parent child kit to dip into from time to time. Of course, kids will want to do another one and then another. But take the time to talk about what happens and why they think it happens.The kit comes with a booklet of experiments with a place for their observations. Better yet, video the process as well as their hypothesis as to what will happen and then what happens. This is what scient
(Creativity for Kids $19.99) DA charming decorative combination—tie on a fringe of precut tutu netting pieces between the light clips. Add gemstones to the light clips. Next, decorate the pastel photo frames with stick-on gemstones and load with photos of friends and family. Add the picture frames so they dangle on the wire. Now hang the tutu photo lights over the desk or above a mirror. This is a project that will take creativity, patience, and fine motor skills with a delightfully decorative payoff. The finished light strip is a little over five feet long and includes adhesive wall hooks, and complete instructions. Marked 6 and up, but probably a better bet for 8s and up. Ages: older early
(Mattel $29.99) No doubt about it, Barbie was ready for the summer Olympics. Now she has an extra year to get ready. She comes with the own balance beam where she practices and perfects her moves. The elaborate set comes with sweatpants and jacket, a metallic workout suit and a sparkly red white and blue outfit for her performance. For practice time there are batons, towel, shoes, sneakers, even a banana for some extra energy. She can pack it all away in the lavender gym bag. For sure, she’s going to wear the gold medal with pride. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Mattel $19.99) Barbie has taken on a new job this season. She’s coaching the girls’ soccer team. She comes with one little girl player, a goal net, soccer ball, a bench for other players, water bottle, green apples for a snack, and a trophy for the winning side. Coach Barbie wears a blue outfit and has a whistle and clipboard. Both Barbie and the child player wear shoes with cleats. There is a blonde version of this set, but we like this multicultural set with a coach and child of color, although we don’t understand the child’s bright blonde hair. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Mattel $ $19.99 - 24.95) For Spring 2020, Barbie is springing into fitness and active fun. A red-headed Girl PWR Barbie ($24.95) wearing a Girl PWR shirt and colorful tights arrives with an exercise mat, water bottle, hoola hoop, and weights for herself and her pooch. When exercise is over she will pack it all away in her monogramed gym bag, which is pink, of course. Also available as Surprise Career Barbie ($19.95) this African American version comes without the accessories. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Creativity for Kids $9.99) For travel or quiet time activity, sticker sets with pre-made scenes are often good for pretend play, storytelling and using fine motor skills. These new sets from Creativity for Kids feature three play scenes with fifty sensory stickers. Some stickers are shimmery, sparkly, smooth, puffy, and some even rattle. Unlike the usual play scenes and stickers, only the puffy ones are reusable. So, as they design a play scene, that’s the way it’s going to be. No changes possible. There’s an undersea play set with mermaids, treasure and plenty of sea creatures. Or, try the Sweetsville set with a cast of sweet animals dressed up like Richard Scary characters and plenty of t
(Mudpupppy $16.99) A one-thousand-piece puzzle for the family to do together...a colorful puzzle that celebrates our diversity with messages of kindness in the illustration. Set up a card table where family can stop and add a few pieces or pull up a chair and work together. This will take time, but cooperative projects often do and help kids learn about patience and persistence. Marked 6 and up , but we think this is more like a puzzle for tweens and teens with adults. Ages: Tweens and Teens Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Mudpuppy $12.99) Twenty-four colorful die-cut butterflies are ready for matching up games that will challenge memory and visual discrimination. It’s a classic game of concentration that kids are often better at than their parents. Let the Wookies win! This set comes with a small field guide that introduces kids to real butterflies found in nature that inspired these butterflies. Marked 3-8, but we think this will be more appropriate for early school years. Ages: Early School Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Creativity for Kids $14.99) Learning to embroider needs to start with something simple but special. This Banner with a puffy cloud and rainbow will likely please beginners. The letters are preprinted and easy enough for the young needle-crafter. It comes with stick on rhinestones for the rainbow, sun and bird stickers, and threads and pom-poms to hand from the cloud. Once it’s all decorated, use the dowel and yard to hang it. This comes with a darning needle, glue, adhesive squares, needle threader and instructions. With a functional needle, this is a craft that will need adult supervision, especially if there are younger children in the home. Marked 7 and up. We think some 7s will be able
(Creativity for Kids $14.99) Like last season’s Big Gem set, this is a smaller kit featuring 12 stickers and 2 sun-catchers with sea creatures. No messy glue is needed to make colorful gem studded stickers and sun catchers. A stylus, loaded with a tip full of wax, is used to pick up the little gemstones and place them on the stickers. This calls for fine motor skills and a good deal of patience. It’s a challenging project with rewarding payoffs. Once they get the technique, it's an easy and pleasing project. Kids will want to use these stickers on notebooks and backpacks. The sun catchers can go on a window with small suction cup hanger or on a small stand (both supplied) along with 1000 dia
(Mudpuppy $14.99) You’ll find six thick and sturdy puzzle boards with one shaped puzzle piece—the baby animal—that must be fitted into the big scene. Kids match the babies to the parent on each board. Introduce one board at a time and talk about the scene. A good chance to introduce the names of baby animals and their parents. Add some sounds and maybe a story. These are marked 1-3 although we think discovering how to turn the pieces to fit into the board would be challenging to toddlers, they will enjoy the images if you add your own stories and sound effects. Ages: Older Toddlers, Young Preschoolers Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2020
(Mudpuppy $9.99) First games for preschoolers are often about matching and these dominoes that feature colorful dinosaurs are sure to please. Young dino lovers will like matching the colors, shapes and images of these teethy meat and plant eaters. The set of 28 sturdy dominoes are fun for solo matching games as well as turn taking. These are a little more challenging than most pictorial dominoes since the dinos that match do not always appear in the same direction and call for making a small visual leap. These are two-sided dominoes with arrows instead of dots on the reverse side for even more advanced visual discrimination. Also available: Wildlife, Outer Space and Unicorn dominoes with the
