Almost all children spend too much time in front of their iPads or other screens. Not only do they use tablets and computers for school, but in the afternoons and weekends they’re also their source of entertainment. While these devices do keep them busy and teach them things, they also affect their mental health, emotional well-being, and cognitive development.
According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, a lot of screen time can cause adverse negative effects such as problems sleeping, reading, interacting socially and even expressing your emotions. This last point is especially important to you today because of everything that has been happening in the world and that has impacted everyone regardless of their age.
This is a big problem however the good news is that society in general now cares more about issues related to mental and emotional stability. This includes toy companies that are now becoming more aware of launching products that promote self-care in all its formats. They know that Millennial and Gen Z parents are paying attention to wellbeing and mindfulness, and that they intend to reduce the use of screens, so they will look for alternatives to entertain their children in a way that’s consistent with their healthy mindset.
As a result of this, there are now toys that are not only didactic, but also help to develop skills such as communication of emotions, self-soothing, coping with problems, resilience, teamwork, and many more. Children of all ages learn something while playing. It’s all a matter of choosing the right toy that will be the tool to help them maximize their potential.
The toys we suggest below are age segmented and cover a range of interests. What they have in common is that they provide the fun and wonder of traditional toys, with the added benefit of being designed to educate children or promote wellness.
| 6 MONTHS – 12 MONTHS | |||
LAMAZE – Rainbow Stacking Rings Toy
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Increase your baby’s fun with the Lamaze Rainbow Stacking Rings developmental toy. With interesting textures, patterns and sounds, these colorful stackable rings are perfect for helping the baby develop dexterity and hand-eye coordination. |
$22.99 amazon.com |
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TOUCHTHINKLEARN: ABC (Sensory Books for Toddlers)
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ABC is a book with great design, brilliant graphics, essential learning skills – these features set TouchThinkLearn titles apart, presenting knowledge in a new dimension. Stamped numbers and shapes stimulate understanding of essential concepts, inviting younger readers to engage in a meaningful and tangible hands-on experience of numbers, tracing shapes and forms to coordinate concepts and images. |
$22.49 target.com |
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FISHER-PRICE Butterfly Shape Sorter
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With the removable top, babies can use the Fisher-Price Butterfly Shape Sorter for learning while having fun. As their motor skills grow, increase the challenge by fitting the shapes into the correct holes. It helps develop important fine motor skills like finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination and is even a fun way to introduce baby to shapes and colors. |
$13.22 amazon.com |
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ABC Affirmation Card – Emoji Edition
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It’s never too early to start reassuring your children how loved and important they are, which is exactly what these fun cards are for. Each card has an emoji character, a letter, and a statement – for example “A is for amazing”. Designed with black and white color contrast for visual stimulation and brain development. In addition to being inspiring, flashcards are a fun way to learn the letters of the alphabet. |
$19.99 darlyngandco.com |
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FAT BRAIN TOY CO. -Tobbles Neo
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Specialists recommend this set of colored spheres from Fat Brain Toys, because thanks to its rubber finish, shape and weight, it makes it easy for little hands to grasp. The rounded shape of the spheres means that they can also wobble, twist, tilt and roll, making them a more dynamic toy |
$29.95 fatbraintoys.com |
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HABA Musical Eggs – 5 Wooden Toy Eggs with Acoustic Sounds (Made in Germany)
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These little egg-shaped shakers fit perfectly in babies’ hands, helping them practice grasping and holding skills while teaching cause and effect. Dr. Patricia Cantor, a specialist in Early Childhood Education, recommends: “If they wave their hand and this little egg shaker makes noise, it will get their attention, and then, over time, they will begin to realize that their action is what causes noise”. |
$35.00 target.com |
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JANOD ABC Buggy
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Get ready for a very colorful walk! This wooden activity cart is perfect for kids who are already around and want to have fun taking their things with them! In the cart there are 30 wooden cubes of the alphabet in lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers. From the 1st year, the little one will discover letters, numbers and colors at their own pace. If you wish, you can also empty the contents of the cart to walk your favorite stuffed animal or toys that you like. |
$89.00 smallable.com |
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SLUMBERKINS Creatures Full of Feelings Bundle
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The Creatures Full of Feelings pack teaches your baby about feelings, big and small, through the cute creatures of Slumberkins. The package includes one of these snugglers and the book “Creatures Full of Feelings Board Book”, which will teach your little one to identify the feelings they feel and to empathize when they see those feelings in others through verbal and non-verbal signals. |
$33.75 slumberkins.com |
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BABY EINSTEIN & HAPE MAGIC Touch Piano Wooden Musical Toddler Toy
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With the Baby Einstein Hape Magic Touch Piano Musical Toy, children will play classic tunes or create thousands of different songs. They will practice color coordination by matching the color-coded notes on the sheet music to the keys on their piano. Made of wood, this piano feature magic touch technology – just press the printed key and the speaker will sound the selected key. It’s a great way for babies and parents to play together. |
$22.49 amazon.com |
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B. TOYS Wooden Activity Cube – Zany Zoo
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This wooden activity cube has everything the little ones need to have fun for hours. They can easily move the colored beads through the winding tracks, open the peek-a-boo doors to discover colorful surprises, and learn about letters and all kinds of animals by turning the illustrated alphabet tiles. |
$59.99 target.com |
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HAPE Pound & Tap Bench with Slide Out Xylophone
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Created to support emotional well-being, “The Feels Set” helps the little ones to be more aware of their emotions, to recognize them as healthy and offers tools to help express and support them. The set includes 5 Mini Feels plush toys, Slumberkins Mountain Pillow, “The Feels” book and a parenting guide. |
$32.99 amazon.com |
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SLUMBERKINS The Feels Set
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Created to support emotional well-being, “The Feels Set” helps the little ones to be more aware of their emotions, to recognize them as healthy and offers tools to help express and support them. The set includes 5 Mini Feels plush toys, Slumberkins Mountain Pillow, “The Feels” book and a parenting guide. |
$78.75 slumberkins.com |
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| 2 YEARS – 5 YEARS | |||
VTECH Sit-to-Stand Ultimate Alphabet Train
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The V-Tech Train helps develop your little one’s motor skills as they learn with a variety of items, including a storybook, a clock, gears, and 13 double-sided letter blocks that your little one can plug into the side of the train to learn letters and their vocabulary. As your little one grows up, the last wagon becomes a wagon that they can fill with toys and pull to help develop gross motor skills. |
$49.99 buybuybaby.com |
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LEARNING RESOURCES Big Feelings Pineapple, Social Emotional Learning Toy
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This pineapple has tons of feelings! Children will develop social-emotional learning skills with the fun activities in this toy that support healthy emotions and communication. |
$7.29 amazon.com |
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FUNZBO Flower Garden Building Toys
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Develop creativity and imagination in children when playing with this playset from Funzbo. This garden features an array of vibrantly colored flowers that will help stimulate the visual sense and color recognition. With all the interchangeable pieces, your little one can make hundreds of flower arrangements to decorate their room. |
$17.98 amazon.com |
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LEGO DUPLO My First Number Train
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Introduce STEM toys at an early age with the LEGO DUPLO number train. This colorful train can be put together over and over again, and in the process, kids will learn to recognize numbers and colors. They can create thousands of adventures together with the included figures to make this learning process a lot of fun. |
$19.99 amazon.com |
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MAGNA-TILES 100-Piece Clear Colors Set
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These colored, translucent magnetic pieces teach spatial relationships, mathematics, logic, magnetic polarity, etc. They drive creativity, which is the key factor for success in today’s ever-changing environments. The kit is designed to encourage hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills for all ages. |
$119.00 target.com |
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HAND2MIND Mindful Maze Boards, 3 Double Sided Breathing Boards with Finger Paths
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Each Mindful Maze game comes with three double-sided mindful maze boards. They’re a way to teach children to calm down without the need for screens, with practical resources that help develop children’s social-emotional skills, providing them with clues and physical objects to guide them in breathing exercises. |
$12.59 amazon.com |
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VTECH Explore and Write Activity Desk
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This interactive desktop features five activity pages packed with engaging content such as letters, numbers, music, colors, and more. The flip-up writing pad and illuminated display encourage children to practice writing by tracing letters, numbers, and shapes with a stylus. The desk can also be transformed into an easel to let children paint and draw like all artists. |
$57.99 target.com |
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Feelings and Emotions Flash Cards – Memory Game, Social Skills Games, Emotions Cards
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Teach your kid social and emotional thinking skills and to identifying emotions and facial expressions using these picture cards. Talk about the expression of emotions and the reasons for those feelings. The game includes 48 large, colorful and chunky cards to play a memory and matching game while learning about emotions. |
$20.95 amazon.com |
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EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS My First Game: Bears in Pairs, First Memory & Matching Game for Toddlers
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The game of hide and seek takes an adorable twist with this memory game for toddlers. This game introduces little ones to the pleasure of playing, with simple three-step instructions and no reading required. Players begin by hiding an animal in each compartment of the colorful barn and closing each door. Take turns opening a door to find the pair. If they get the pair of white bears, they win the game! It encourages sustained attention and cognitive skills such as memory, pattern recognition, and matching. |
$23.99 amazon.com |
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LEGO Build Me “Emotions” DUPLO Set 45018 (188 pieces)
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Build Me “Emotions” invites preschoolers to explore emotions and physical characteristics in a fun and engaging way. As children engage in a series of character-building experiences, they acknowledge feelings and identify similarities and differences. Building cards provide support and inspiration so children can keep building and rebuilding characters over and over again. |
$79.95 amazon.com |
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PAI TECHNOLOGY BOTZEES Coding Robots for Kids
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Botzees robots offer many modes of play: move, dance, make sounds and light up with the companion application. They feature 30 interactive augmented reality puzzles that teach even more coding concepts with visual cues. They greatly develop children’s creativity, patience, concentration, and logical thinking ability. |
$129.99 amazon.com |
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SMARTGAMES Smart Farmer Board Game, a Fun STEM Focused Cognitive Skill-Building Brain Game and Puzzle Game
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This innovative board game set on a farm “challenges children to really think about their every move,” says NAPPA Awards Director Elena Epstein. It works by creating a route for cows, pigs and other animals that must be kept separate using the limited number of fences included in the game; the child must figure out the perfect location for each challenge, using logic, spatial reasoning, planning and visualization. |
$23.99 amazon.com |
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MANHATTAN TOY Making Faces 34-Piece Emotion Toy
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Encourage children to recognize a variety of different emotional expressions. This set will help little ones to identify and manage feelings in a positive way, fostering confidence, resilience and maturity. Making Faces features 3 magnetic boards for creating faces using the 31 die-cut magnetic face pieces and comes with a magnetic closure travel case. |
$30.00 target.com |
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EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS GeoSafari Jr. Talking Microscope Featuring Bindi Irwin: Microscope for Kids
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The GeoSafari Jr. talking microscope from Educational Insights uniquely introduces preschoolers to learning more about animals, plants and their environment at home. This children’s microscope has a double eyepiece, so there’s no need to close one eye to use it. The microscope includes 20 sheets with magnified images for the child to learn much more about the world around him. |
$33.99 target.com |
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PEACEABLE KINGDOM Monkey Around Game
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Children love to move while they play. From cuddling to high-fives, they’ll learn simple skills like balance, jumping, and walking. The game cards will get you and your child on the go. This game creates opportunities for the development of social skills, numerous cognitive benefits, and can improve emotional well-being. |
$18.99 amazon.com |
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EEBOO Create a Story Mystery in the Forest
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This set of 36 illustrated cards will allow your little one to create different narratives each time he or she plays with it. “I love this little gift for vocabulary and language development,” says Dr. Alexandra Figueras-Daniel, associate director of the Straus Center for Young Children & Families at Bank Street College of Education. |
$11.99 barnesandnoble.com |
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| 6 YEARS – 11 YEARS | |||
ELENCO Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Electronics Exploration Kit
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Give your child an exciting hands-on introduction to electronics with Elenco Electronics Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100. This innovative kit contains over 30 color-coded real circuit components that snap together to create electronic circuits and devices that work. Create 101 different electronic projects! |
$20.97 amazon.com |
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WONDER WORKSHOP Dash – Coding Robot for Kids
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Dash teaches code language in a simple way for girls and boys ages 6-11. Using one of the 5 free Wonder Workshop apps, like Blockly or Wonder, your kids can program Dash to move, sing, dance, turn on its lights, respond to voices, make sounds, and even tell a story. |
$149.95 amazon.com |
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For Keeps London with Cupcake Keepsake
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For Keeps dolls reflect core values and ideals such as empowerment, aspiration, affirmation, kindness, compassion, acceptance, positivity, and fun. Encourage positive communication – passing positive affirmations back and forth using the small Cupcake Keepsake accessory that has messages of love and acceptance inside. |
$9.79 amazon.com |
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THINK FUN Laser Maze (Class 1) Brain Game and STEM Toy for Boys and Girls
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With Laser Maze your children will play through different challenges that will sharpen their mind improving logical reasoning, spatial reasoning and planning skills, all through a fun game. Laser Maze features mirrors and beam splitters, so a little science and brainpower can guide the laser through a series of challenging mazes to illuminate the target. |
$32.99 amazon.com |
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Janu the Koala, Positive Affirmations
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Meet Janu, an interactive toy that teaches positive affirmations, self-love, and conscious thinking. This educational toy is designed to increase self-esteem, confidence, happy thoughts, and imagination. |
$27.00 mindfulbuddiez.com |
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RAVENSBURGER Gravitrax Starter Set Marble Run & STEM Toy
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With the Gravitrax interactive track system you can build your own race tracks and experiments with gravity, magnetism and kinetics to propel your ball to the finish line. Experiment using different heights and angles to control the speed of the ball. Find out how the laws of physics affect the trajectory of your ball with curves, crossovers, free falls and even a cannon. |
$59.95 amazon.com |
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OMANO JuniorScope, The Ultimate Kids Microscope
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The new Omano JuniorScope is the perfect microscope for your little scientist. The JuniorScope is a high-quality, easy-to-use microscope built for children in mind. Your children will be able to observe everything from plant cells to water bears. Unlike other children’s microscopes, the JuniorScope has precision glass optics, is easy to use, and provides a sharp image of what’s on the slide. |
$89.00 microscope.com |
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SCIENTOY Fidget Toy Set, 35 Pcs Sensory Toy for ADD, OCD, Autistic Children
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Scientoy sensory toys come with various relaxing toys which your little one can squeeze, stretch and flip, making it the best stress reliever toy. |
$25.44 walmart.com |
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CRAYOLA Arctic Color Chemistry Set for Kids, Steam/Stem Activities, Educational Toy
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Make it snow in the colors of the rainbow! Design your own snow globe and create a frosty exterior on your Christmas tree decorations with the Crayola Color Chemistry Arctic Lab set. Winter fun is a blast all year long with this set. It comes with instructions for 50 winter experiments and supplies for 18 activities. Each experiment was developed by real Crayola scientists, but the step-by-step instructions make it easy for kids to recreate them. |
$24.99 amazon.com |
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SMARTLAB Toys Outdoor Science Lab Bugs, Dirt & Plants
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Catch, observe and release insects safely with the Bug Nabber. Collect samples of soil, rocks, and plants to examine and experiment with. Identify common trees, leaves, mushrooms, rocks, and critters with two colorful drop-down charts. It includes fun and robust science tools carefully designed to study the natural world around us. |
$28.99 amazon.com |
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PEACEABLE KINGDOM Friends and Neighbors: The Helping Game Emotional Development Cooperative Game for Kids
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Can you help a girl who’s sad because she’s left outside in the rain or a boy who’s afraid of the dark? Take a token from the aid bag and see if you can help someone. Friends and Neighbors is a game in which, by playing and reading about the feelings and needs of the characters, parents can help their children to recognize the feelings of others, the first step in developing empathy. This game will cultivate emotional development, shared decision making, positive self-esteem, creative problem solving, and develop a sense of community in a non-stressful gaming environment. |
$18.01 amazon.com |
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MATTEL Apples to Apples Junior, The Game of Crazy Comparisons
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Apples to Apples game is the family party game that even grandma can play. This Junior Edition for ages 9 and up will keep players laughing as they develop their vocabulary and thinking skills. The game is so easy: just open the box, deal the RED APPLE cards to each player and that’s it! The judge begins each round by taking a GREEN APPLE card and has to describe it, then the rest of the players must look at their cards in their hands and select the one they think would best match the judge’s card. If the judge chooses your card, you win that round! |
$11.99 amazon.com |
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300-Piece Calm Jigsaw Puzzle for Relaxation, Stress Relief, and Mood Elevation
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Spin Master has partnered with the number one sleep and meditation app Calm to bring you Calm Puzzles. Enjoy assembling these relaxing puzzles with your little one while listening to peaceful audio content, which allows them to reduce stress and improve their mood. It comes with a free 30-day subscription to the Calm app. |
$6.00 walmart.com |
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MAKEDO Discover Toolbox Cardboard Construction Tools for Kids
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Makedo is an easy system for teaching the use of specially designed tools to offer unlimited opportunities to make thousands of cardboard creations. Encouraging creative thinking, problem solving, and imagination, the Makedo open-ended children’s tool system teaches children not what to think, but how to think. |
$50.00 amazon.com |
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GAMEWRIGHT Outfoxed! A Cooperative Whodunit Board Game for Kids
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Mrs. Plumpert’s precious cake is gone, and now the case must be solved! The game is easy for children to understand: a series of clues and a group of suspects are discovered, and the guilty fox must be found through a process of elimination, but the decisions to be made each turn require critical thinking, planning and teamwork. The collaborative nature of the game minimizes conflicts between siblings or friends, and allows parents to participate in the action as well. |
$19.99 amazon.com |
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The Art of Children’s Conversation
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The Art of Children’s Conversation is the perfect way for children to become great communicators as they learn more about themselves and others, develop concepts and ideas, and build strong relationships. Professionally researched and developed by teachers, counselors, health educators, parents, and a wide variety of children, the Art of Conversation brings extraordinarily positive results. |
$10.95 amazon.com |
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| 12 YEARS – UP | |||
SNAP CIRCUITS My Home Science Kit
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Electricity is everywhere, even in your house. Whether you live in a skyscraper in the city or in a house in the country, our homes run on electricity. It’s not magic, it’s science, and it’s easy to learn. Build a house or a city tower with real and functional 3D circuits, like the ones you use every day. With seven colorful base grids to make your own structure, learn how electricity travels and powers your home. |
$57.99 target.com |
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FAT BRAIN TOYS Simpl Dimpl – Orange/Lime Office & Desk Toys
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Whether you are young or old, this small and exclusive keychain will provide you with endless hours of fun. It’s like a bubble game, but you can take it everywhere. The Fat Brain Toys keychain will help you with tactile stimulation, calm and concentration. |
$12.99 amazon.com |
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LITTLEBITS Rule Your Room Kit
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With this kit, older children will learn to connect power sources with inputs and outputs. The kit is color-coded and comes with circuit blocks that can be used for a wide variety of projects. Modular circuits snap together, and colors identify their types. |
$29.99 amazon.com |
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TECH WILL SAVE US Gamer Kit
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Through Tech Will Save Us’ free online platform, children learn to hack and code classic games to develop their skills before designing and coding their own games. Gamer Kit teaches kids about technology and coding, making them create with it. Built with Arduino and using an 8×8 LED matrix display, kids can create anything they can imagine. |
$66.14 walmart.com |
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TANGLE Relax Therapy – Tangle Therapy Toy
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Tangled Therapy toys are intended to be disassembled, assembled, and used over and over again. Tangles Therapy allow to fully exercise the imagination, creativity, learning capacity and thinking capacity of children. The Tangle toy allows children to activate both hemispheres while learning and working to increase brain activity. |
$13.40 amazon.com |
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MINDWARE Science Academy Bath Bomb Lab
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This DIY Bath Bomb Kit makes understanding the fundamentals of chemistry fun, easy, and safe. Your children will learn about the unique chemical reactions that occur when making and using bath bombs. MindWare Clean Science Labs combine the fun of spa and beauty kits with educational science lessons. |
$25.95 amazon.com |
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GRIDOPOLIS – A 3D Strategy Game & System: 1-4 Player Family-Friendly Build & Play Tabletop Game
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The world’s first 3D strategy game with a building and playing system. For 1-4 players, it includes 217 high-quality pieces, enough to build hundreds of unique boards. The objective of the game is to be the last player standing or to have the most points at the end of the timed game. On your turn, you can move, jump, or build. |
$39.99 amazon.com |
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Emotional Rollercoaster | Anger Management Board Game for Kids & Families
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Emotional Rollercoaster is a fun anger management game for kids of all ages, it helps kids learn to cope and calm down when they get angry. It will also help them explore what makes them angry and how to fix it. |
$32.95 amazon.com |
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LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox 17101
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Bring your LEGO creations to life with the new LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox, a fun and easy way for your little builder to learn the fundamentals of coding, engineering, and robotics. Just choose one of the 5 models available with the BOOST set, download the free and easy-to-use app and you’re good to go! |
$159.99 target.com |
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THINKFUN Circuit Maze Electric Current Brain Game and STEM Toy for Boys and Girls
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With Circuit Maze, your goal is to create a real electrical circuit that illuminates the designated beacons. The 60 challenges are tricky and ingenious and provide hours of electrifying fun. The game provides a stealthy learning experience, in which players develop logical reasoning and planning skills as they play and gain knowledge of electrical currents and circuits. |
$31.99 amazon.com |
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TableTopics Teen: Questions to Start Great Conversations
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Kids will love these questions to start a conversation with each other and their closest friends, or even for a fun, informal chat with Mom and Dad. With questions ranging from funniest to thought-provoking, you never know what you might find out about your closest friends. |
$25.00 amazon.com |
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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Science Magic Kit – Perform 20 Unique Experiments as Magic Tricks, Includes Magic Wand and Over 50 Pieces
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These 20 science experiments are mind blowing! Girls and boys will bend the metal with water, create a disappearing test tube, make a coin float, and much more! You won’t find experiments like these anywhere else. Each experiment is specially designed to be performed as a magic trick but based on science. The magic wand and white gloves are included so your kids can dress up for the show. |
$29.99 amazon.com |
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THAMES & KOSMOS Architectural Engineering
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With this fascinating STEM experiment kit, children can construct different buildings while exploring the engineering principles behind the planning and development of real buildings and structures. Follow the 44-page full-color manual to learn how architects and engineers apply scientific principles to their designs, and how they use those principles to push their buildings to the limits. |
$48.95 fatbraintoys.com |
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OORT 4 in 1 DIY STEM Kit Useful Tool Kits Education Science Experiment Project Wooden Assembly Toys
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Oort is committed to children learning many aspects of knowledge while playing. Let kids learn physics, math and electronics while playing. They will be able to create a safe, binoculars, flashlights, and much more. The wooden pieces are easy to assemble thanks to the detailed instructions, which allow children to enjoy the fun of assembling at ease and increases their self-confidence. It also encourages hand-eye coordination. |
$22.99 amazon.com |
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