Best educational toys—as judged by children

Herb Weisbaum • Profile • E-mail

Kids are naturally attracted to new toys. But it doesn’t take long for them to decide whether that toy is fun or boring. Just because it’s on the shelf or advertised on TV doesn’t mean it’s a good toy. You can’t even go by what your kids tell you they want — they’re too easily swayed by TV commercials.

That’s why I do my Toy Test each year. I’m not trying to find the “hottest” toys — there are plenty of those lists around — I want to help you find toys that your children or grandchildren will play with over and over again.

This year we tested 100 different toys, all new for 2006, including dolls, board games, drawing toys, construction sets, and remote-control vehicles.  All were donated by the manufacturers.

The test was open to all toy makers who had products that fit our two categories —educational and bargains (toys for $25 or less). But I chose which ones to accept for testing based on 25 years of experience rating toys.

We gave those toys (four copies of each, so lots of kids could play with them) to 15 child care centers in the greater Seattle area.

About 2,000 kids got to play with them for two weeks. Then their teachers rated each toy for us. We asked a lot of questions. Is the toy fun and easy to use? Is it durable? Do the kids still want to play with it after two weeks? Would you recommend this toy?

Here are the winners in the educational category. (Prices are approximate.)

Best bets for toddlers
Bristle Blocks Twirlie Tots set (Parents Magazine, $35, 18 months and up)

Parents Magazine

The top-rated toy for this age group is a brightly colored construction set called Bristle Blocks. The building pieces are made from soft, flexible plastic. They’re colorful and easy to connect.

One of the teachers told me the kids “just absolutely loved them” because they were able to “use their imaginations” to make whatever shapes they wanted.

The Twirlie Tots set has 75 pieces, including wacky shapes, funny faces and building platforms that spin. Bristle Blocks are washable and come in a storage bin.

Talking Video Phone (Chicco, $40, 18 months and up)

Chicco

The Talking Video Phone is different from other electronic phones on the market. Sure, it rings, and it tells you the numbers zero through nine.

But this colorful phone has a big screen that lights up with 6 story elements — a mountain, tree, pond, park, dog, and duck. The child can make three of them light up at the same time.

The friendly voice on the phone puts them all together to make a story. “Hi, I’m at the park. Who just took a bath in the pond? The duck did!”  By the way, this phone teaches in both English and Spanish.

SmartVille Alphabet Train Station (VTech, $50, 12 months and up)

VTech

Our last stop in the Toddler category is SmartVille Station, an interactive playset that’s loaded with fun things to do and fun ways to learn.

When kids turn the handle on the big clock it tells them the time. They can push down on the piano-like keys to hear about shapes and colors. The track has all the letters of the alphabet. When the train rolls over a letter, kids hear the letter and a word that starts with that letter. There are also lots of train sounds.

The set comes with a collection of chubby animal characters who can ride in the train car. When they’re placed in one of the special “hot spots” they talk to the child.

Fisher-Price

Kids love to draw, so it’s no surprise the top-rated toy in this age group is a drawing toy. The Spark Art Easel takes the dry-erase board to a whole new level. It's loaded with electronics —more than 600 fun sounds and interactive voice prompts — that spark creativity.

Kids use the blue "inspiration pen" connected to a little sound pod to make this easel come to life. For instance, touch the letter “S” on the board and it will say, “S, sandwich, draw a big sandwich.”

“If they don't exactly know what they want, they can easily use the pen to give them an idea,” said a teacher. “Then they can totally build off of what they hear just from one sound effect.”

Here's the part I really like. Kids can add special magnets to any part of the picture that tells you its name (horse, monkey, dinosaur) and makes various sounds depending on where you touch it. For example, the car magnet makes the sound of an engine revving, tires squealing and horn honking.

The easel is adjustable to three heights. It comes unassembled and could easily take you 20 minutes or more to put it together.

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