Brilliant Sky Toys & Books Announces The Top 12 Toys on Their 2013 Brilliance List

Thank you to Brilliant Sky Toys & Books for providing complimentary products samples for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

The specialty toy retailer Brilliant Sky Toys & Books currently has 15 store locations within the U.S. and I have my fingers crossed that someday they will come to Massachusetts or perhaps open their business to the world of online retail.  Not only does this retailer offer top quality toys that promote childhood develop, the stores are designed to give both parents and children a very special experience.

For children, Brilliant Sky Toys & Books offers warm inviting tones, child-height displays and fixtures, and so many fun toys and books to explore hands-on.  The parents receive outstanding concierge-style customer service, along with assistance while selecting the perfect toy plus free gift wrapping.  What a time-saver this would be around the Holidays!

The 12 Brilliance Award Winners for 2013 are as follows . . . 

1. Adventure Treehouse by International Playthings
2. Deluxe Magic Set by Melissa & Doug 
3. Doinkit Darts by Marky Sparky
4. Easel by Melissa & Doug 
5. Gobblet Gobblers by Blue Orange
6. How Big Is The Lion? My First Book Of Measuring by Workman
7. Lego® City Brickmaster by Penguin 
8. Little Chubbies by International Playthings
9. Skwish Classic by Manhattan Toy
10. Snap Circuit Sound by Elenco Electronics 
11. Switch & Spin Magnetic Gear Board by Melissa & Doug 
12. World Map Puzzle by Janod

We actually already own the Melissa & Doug Easel and the Deluxe Magic Set.  Both items are deserving of their place on this list.  We were also able to experience the How Big Is The Lion? My First Book Of Measuring by Workman and the Lego® City Brickmaster by Penguin.  I chose these items because our nearly 7 year old son learns a little differently.  He performs much better when he is engaged, which often does not mean traditional teaching methods.  

He did very well with the How Big Is The Lion? My First Book Of Measuring.  He was a little reluctant at first because he reacts that way to most books, but when he saw there was a wooden ruler attached to the book with a red satin ribbon, he became more curious and quickly became a willing participant in this learning activity.

The Lego® City Brickmaster is also a book, but this one comes with all the Lego bricks and specialty pieces a child would need to build everything described in the book.  It also came with two Lego Minifigures, which our son loves to collect.  Although he needed some assistance here and there reading the diagrams, our son did very well with building several of the models.  He thoroughly enjoyed himself and was also very proud that he was able to follow the instructions.  Little did he know that he was also developing his sorting and problem solving skills, as well as his fine motor skills.

To learn more about Brilliant Sky Toys & Books, visit BrilliantSkyToys.com.  Be sure to use their Store Locator to check for a store location near you.

Make Learning at Home Fun & Entertaining with The Magic School Bus and The Young Scientists Club!

Thank you to The Young Scientists Club for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Many children and adults alike have fallen in love with Mrs. Frizzle and her class on The Magic School Bus and now you can take the magic home with you! The Young Scientists Club has new kits out and we were given the opportunity to try out The Magic School Bus Weather Lab in our homeschool.

Undoubtedly, the very first thing kids will notice the iconic shape of the kit...the same as The Magic School Bus itself! Once you open the school bus, there are over 20 experiments with color illustrated activity cards to show you how to do the experiment and give you the science behind it. Each experiment is fairly easy and the kit comes with almost everything needed to complete them. The only things you need to add are things most people already have or are easy to acquire, such as water, plastic bottles, markers, etc. The kit also comes with a data notebook for recording observations and conclusions, so kids can track their progress and remember the science skills they learned.

One of the first things you make with the kit is your own weather lab for recording and observing daily whether. With a barometer, compass, thermometer, weather vane, and more, you can record all aspects of weather and then keep track of weather patterns using the chart and stickers.

Other experiments included in this kit are condensation, evaporation, the ever-popular tornado in a bottle, and more. We have loved using this kit with our home science curriculum and highly recommend it to everyone we know - homeschoolers or not. The included items are well made, the experiments are fun yet simple, and the learning and memories made are invaluable.

You can learn more about The Young Scientists Club at www.theyoungscientistsclub.com including where to purchase this kit, which retails for $39.99. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

What Improvements the VTech® InnoTab 3 Learning App Tablet Offers Over Similar Tablets

Thank you to VTech for providing a complimentary InnoTab 3 product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize. All opinions expressed are my own.

We are always looking for new tools to help make learning fun in our home. I think we have owned just about every electronic gizmo in our pursuit. Although most have helped to some degree or another, none have been a single solution.

Recently we received a device that has gotten us a bit closer to our goal, the VTech InnoTab 3. The InnoTab 3 is a tablet/reader designed especially for kids. We have some competing products already, so I was curious to see what the InnoTab 3 could offer us that was an improvement.

The InnoTab 3 is good-looking and solidly built. Although I haven't tested this yet, it seems like it could survive some kid-height drops without issue.

The screen on the InnoTab 3 is bright and a bit larger than the competing tablets we have owned. The resolution is comparative to other models I have seen and certainly within my expectations for a tablet in this category. I should state that tablets made for kids simply do not have the same screen quality that regular tablets have, and that’s okay. This is the reason why a kid’s tablet is typically under $100 after all. The InnoTab 3 has a tilt sensor, something its full grown cousins have and is a nice touch. A tilt sensor opens up a whole new dimension for interactivity.

I will cut to the chase and state that the InnoTab 3 does not break the mold as far as tablets especially designed for kids are concerned, but it does raise the bar a bit. It is a little bit better in just about every way but does not add any new groundbreaking features. All the books, games, drawing apps, and more that I expect to find in a kid-friendly tablet are there, and are done pretty well.

I like the fact that the attached camera rotates to become forward or rear-facing, it is a nice touch. The image quality, however, is much the same as all the other devices in this category that I have tried. To get a good picture, the cameras require a very bright room. With digital camera technology so common and basic these days, I am surprised we don’t see better cameras in these units.

The main menu is loaded with options right out of the box. I like the fact that there is plenty to do without adding anything to the device. There are 16 apps included. As always, if you want more, it is easy to plug the unit into your PC and install more apps via The Learning Lodge on Vtech’s website. The InnoTab 3 also accepts cartridges, so your ability to add content is fairly extensive, keeping the tablet interesting to your child indefinitely.

The biggest improvement in my opinion that the InnoTab 3 has over the competing tablets I have tried, is the touch screen's sensitivity. The InnoTab 3’s touch was responsive and has a decent accuracy to it, a large difference between the others I have tried. I can say from personal experience that your child will lose interest quickly if the touch is not accurate and responsive.

The biggest difference with the InnoTab 3 is the price, $69.99. The fact that Vtech was able to improve to one degree or another every aspect of a kid's tablet while also keeping the price extremely reasonable is the real story here. Is the Vtech InnoTab 3 the greatest thing to ever happen to kids electronics? Nope . . . but it’s very good, improves upon its peers in most areas, and is an exceptional price. I recommend the InnoTab 3 heartily to anybody who isn't ready to buy their kids a full-priced adult tablet yet.

You can purchase the VTech InnoTab 3 on VTechKids.com, Amazon.com, and most places where VTech toys are sold.

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The Young Scientists Club Science Kits Featuring Clifford the Big Red Dog

Thank you to The Young Scientists Club for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize. All opinions expressed are my own.

Beloved character Clifford the Big Red Dog is getting kids into science with new The Young Scientist Club science kits. These fun kits come in three themed sets that teach kids about bubbles, rainbows, or getting cooking in the kitchen. These sets are so good, they’ve just won the Tillywig Toy & Media Brain Child Award, given only to “exciting products that energize the mind while seamlessly blending fun and learning!” We were sent the Clifford Rainbow Science kit to try out and we’ve had a blast doing colorful experiments.

The Rainbow Science kit contains a full-color instruction manual that gives detailed directions to complete the experiments as well as many of the things you need to do them. We had to add our own water, food coloring, and/or oil but everything else was in the box. We learned how to make colored water “climb” special paper (chromatography paper), we saw the spectrum of color while looking at a light bulb with the included glasses, and we made fun lava lamp like bubbles that floated in oil, plus several other things too.

The best thing about this kit is that we learned why all these things happened and we got to explore the science behind it all. We had a really great time with this awesome kit and we look forward to doing and redoing the experiments over and over.

The new Young Scientists kits can be purchased at www.theyoungscientistsclub.com. This kit is very affordably priced at $19.99. The company also has new social media pges and they would love some followers, so like their FB page, and follow them on Twitter and Pinterest.

Contest Prize:

The random drawing winner will be able to choose one of the following science kits . . . 

• Bubble Science Kit
• Rainbow Science Kit
• Kitchen Science Kit
• Explore the Wonders of Nature Kit

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iLearn 'N' Play AppStart Learning iOS Learning Toys

Technology is everywhere, even in children’s toys these days. I love kids educational toys that incorporate technology because it’s exactly the kinds of toys my kids like to play with. Of course, they play with plenty of non-tech toys, but technology interests them and I understand that because it interests me too. So, when iLearn ‘N’ Play offered me one of the products from their new toy line I didn’t have to think about it, I just said yes.

We received the iLearn ‘N’ Play Adventure Explorer, a toy that helps teach and reinforce the alphabet to children. This fun app learning toy features a free app that pairs with the controller via Bluetooth and can be used with any iOS device. It is made especially for the iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini, or iPod Touch and comes with a sturdy, kid-proof case that houses your device to keep it safe while in play. The app can also be used minus the controller and you drive by tilting your iOS device.

Even though this game started out a pretty basic level (for a young preschooler), it builds as you go and eventually is more on Quinn’s level, though it’s still a bit basic for him. He loves it nonetheless and loves driving the car around and catching the letters he needs to complete the tracks.


The device itself works great, pairs easily with our device, and makes playing the game fun and realistic. The horns, blinkers, and ignition are a nice touch and make this even more fun to Quinn. It is made from sturdy plastic as well, so it should hold up well as long as it’s not used too roughly.

iLearn ‘N’ Play toys are available at Target. The Adventure Explorer retails for $39.99 and is recommended for children ages 3 and up. This toy requires 3 AA batteries, which are not included.


Thank you to iLearn 'N' Play for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a second product for our contest prize.  All opinions expressed are my own.

The prize for this contest is the winner's choice of one iLearn 'N' Play toy.  When choosing, please consider the following . . . 

• The Adventure Explorer is compatible with the iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone, and iPod.
• The Learning Tablet is compatible with the iPad only.
• Robbi the Robot is compatible with the iPhone and iPod only.

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Language-based Barrier Games for Developing Verbal and Listening Skills in Children

I have a new favorite among online stores in Super Duper, Inc. Super Duper carries amazing therapy supplies and boasts “fun learning for kids”, and they live up to that. Along with Ring Bling (a previous review), they sent me many other things like the MagneTalk Match-Up Adventures Kit. These language-based barrier games help children learn to follow instructions, give instructions, learn storytelling, improve vocabulary, and more. This set features five scenes (ocean, space, camping, picnic, and grocery store) and 10 matching magnets for each one. Because this a two-sided set, there are enough of each for both sides of the barrier, you can entertain and teach multiple children at once and it even has a workbook and instruction manual for teachers and therapists to use.

This barrier game set is amazing. I have been so thrilled with it and the valuable things it teaches. I started directing my children with instructions like, “put the empty basket on the picnic table” but eventually I moved to giving more complex ones like, “first you need to put the fish near the diver, then after you place the starfish in the center, place the treasure chest below it.” Following these kinds of complex instructions not only teaches them to pay attention, but also improves their auditory memory. My kids, like many, have trouble with following these kinds of verbal instructions and the barrier games have truly helped to improve this ongoing problem.


In addition to being educational, these are also fun and my kids have both found so much enjoyment in creating, tearing down, and recreating fun scenes with the pieces. They love making silly scenes, like putting fish in space, or creating personalities magnets and playing out dramatic interpretations. No matter how they play, they are learning and exercising their brains and that’s what I like to see.

As an added bonus, this set all stores away very nicely in a case so there is little chance of losing pieces or them being torn up by misuse. Plus, both sides of the barrier are dry erase as well, so the boys can use dry erase markers and draw their own fun scenes or do homework on it. I am also happy to report that this set is extremely well made so it is sure to last a long while. The magnets themselves are not lightweight or flimsy, they are very thick and would not be easy to tear up. I can honestly say this set has far exceeded my expectations and I am thrilled to add it to my educational collection.

You can purchase this and all of Super Duper, Inc. supplies on their website, www.superduperinc.com. Barrier games come in many varieties but this set with 10 scenes, 100 magnets, two-sided barrier, and carrying case for everything retails for $89.94.


Thank you to Super Duper, Inc. for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Zometool Smart Building Kits

Building sets are an essential part of childhood playtime, and Zometool is a fun and unique twist on typical sets. Playing with sets from Zometool helps to teach children about architecture, engineering, geometry, and math. These simple “sticks and balls” open a world of options for children and adults of all ages.

Zometool sent us their Creator 1 kit which contains 246 pieces all stored away neatly in a compact carrying case and has an idea booklet as well. We all immediately got to work playing with the struts and nodes and all had a blast creating with the Zometool set. Our favorite was making a big bucket of bubble solution and using it to make amazing 4D projects with a bubble contained inside our project. The kids (and adults too!) had a great time making stuff, using the bubble solution, tearing them apart and starting over. The boys learned so much while making structures, so that just made it an added bonus.

Zometool has been catching attention with awards from Dr. Toy and Creative Child Awards because of just how great their kits are. You can learn more about Zometool toys, including where to buy, on their website, www.zometool.com. The Creator 1 kit retails for $59 and is designed for kids age 6 and up because of small pieces. Zometool also has an exclusive discount available for 3G2S readers that gets you 15% off your order by using the Code: Garnets on their website before December 31st, 2012.  You must order by December 16th to receive your order in time for Christmas by Standard Shipping.

More Zometool kits that would make great Holiday gifts are Crazy Bubbles, Pyramid Puzzle, and the Ice Crystals and Stars Project Kit.


Thank you to Zometool for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a second product for our contest prize.

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Bananagrams Games for a Fun Family Game Night

Fun, fast, entertaining, and awesome…that’s how I’d describe all of the games from Bananagrams. You may have read my review on two of the five games (Fruitominoes and Zip-It) we received that we used from a more therapeutic standpoint for Quinn, who has Asperger Syndrome, but the other three we’ve used as a family for our regular family game nights.

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The original Bananagrams come in a banana-shaped pouch and it’s the first in the bunch (pun intended) of the series of games. In this game, players race against each other to make Scrabble-type grids of words and use all their letter tiles. There’s no taking turns, it’s a free-for-all game to beat your opponents. Bananagrams is super fun, challenging, compact, and helps older children and adults alike build their vocabulary and use their brains while enjoying themselves. This game is not really designed for younger children on a competitive level, but my 5 year old loves making words with the tiles on his own.

Appletters, packed in an apple pouch, is a more strategic game and slightly easier than Bananagrams because it offers three difficulty levels of play. The object of this game is to build a “snake” of words that span across the entire table. When it’s your turn, you add to the beginning or the end of the snake by using the letter there as the first or last letter of your new word. There are also harder variations called Applescore and Apple Turnover, which are fun for older kids and adults. My kids love Appletters! They love making the snake and even 5 year old Quinn can make simple words with the Appletters tiles.

Last but not least is Pairs in Pears, my personal favorite along with Zip-It (previous review). Packed in a pear this game has lettered tiles that are stylized with solids, stripes, outlines, and dots and the object is to make a crossword-style grids of only two words using only tiles of the same pattern. Everyone works at the same time to beat their opponents and to make a predetermined number of word pairs. It is extremely fun and is a great way for children to develop cognitive skills and develop memory along with learning the alphabet, pattern recognition, word construction, and much more. We all love this game and love to team up in adult/child teams and try to outplay the others.

All the Bananagrams games are well-made, compact and portable, and help children and adults alike to utilize their brains unlike many other equally entertaining, but mindless, games. We love to take our Bananagrams games to restaurants to keep the children entertained and engaged while we wait, which has proven most helpful in many situations. You can purchase these and all Bananagrams games on their website, www.bananagrams.com, and find out where to purchase them at retailers nationwide. They retail for approximately $15.99 each and can be purchased with Free Shipping on Amazon.com. Their site also features video demonstrations of the games that give you a much better feel for the games than my written review can.

Thank you to Bananagrams for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize.

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Teaching Parts of Speech with Sentence Buildings by Learning Resources

Grammar is a subject that many children find frustrating, but Sentence Buildings by Learning Resources makes learning sentence structures fun. With Sentence Buildings, you create sentence cities with nine buildings that teach parts of speech and you have over 300 double-sided cards that are color-coded to their appropriate buildings. The buildings are each labeled with noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, conjunction, article, preposition, adverb, and punctuation and are filled with their respective cards.

Quinn is in kindergarten, so some of these were a bit advanced for him (recommended for 1st grade and up), so we really only used noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, and punctuation for his lessons with the buildings. Nonetheless, these turned the task of learning the English language into something fun and entertaining, not boring and drab. Avery, however, is old enough at 10 years old to learn all these, so we spent lots of time going over all the parts of speech together and he enjoyed making sentences by pulling out the cards and found some of our sentences to be quite hilarious.

As a mom and teacher myself, I think this product is amazing. Instead of children being bogged down with the boring stuff that comes with language arts, these turn it into a game, of sorts. And, like all Learning Resources products, these are geared to children with bright colors but are also made to last. With proper care, these will work for children for years and years.

You can purchase Sentence Buildings at many major educational supply and toy retailers nationwide, such as Amazon.com and Toys"R"Us, as well as on their website, www.learningresources.com. This set retails for approximately $29.99.

Thank you to Learning Resources for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize.


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Finding Balance With Asperger's: Developmental & Learning Games from Bananagrams

I have known about Bananagrams for a long time because my local educational supply store carries them, and I’ve even played the game with a friends’ set before, but I’ve never owned any of my own. When they were kind enough to offer me their games to try out, I was thrilled to finally own my own Bananagrams game. For Quinn, we chose Fruitominoes and Zip-It because they are the most simple for his age level and abilities.

Fruitominoes is just like traditional dominoes, but with a fruity twist. It’s simple to master, but fun for all ages. As an added, much-loved, bonus, they are smaller sized and store away neatly and compactly in their carrying bag. This little feature has made the Fruitominoes priceless for us. Because Quinn has Asperger’s and a fine motor delay, small things are always great for developing and strengthening his pincer grasp and Fruitominoes are great for that.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Fruitominoes have also been especially helpful in situations with a lot of waiting, such as in restaurants, for keeping Quinn’s idle hands busy and thus lowering or eliminating any meltdowns he might have. For example, recently in a restaurant, we waited for 45 minutes to get our food and typically Quinn would have been melting down completely due to hunger and the large restaurant crowd, but Fruitominoes kept him so entertained, he wasn’t even aware we had waited as long as we had. Our whole family had fun passing the time playing the game and it eliminated a very stressful situation for us all by keeping Quinn’s focus elsewhere.

Zip-It is a more complicated, but still equally fun game for children and adults alike. For me, Zip-It is a fun, fast-paced game of wordplay that resembles Scrabble but with dice. Like Fruitominoes, Zip-It is compact and easily portable with its 24 lettered cubes and colored zipper bag that doubles as the scoreboard. Zip-It is also great for Quinn, my emerging reader, because he is forced to think about how to use his letters wisely, but it isn’t too frustrating because he can always re-roll his dice if he can’t find anything that works. It forces his brain to think in a way he wouldn’t normally, to put together words that he knows, and make them intersect each other all while competing against someone else. Games like this are so good for his cognitive development and the competitive portion of it adds a social aspect that is always good for children on the spectrum.

Fruitominoes and  Zip-It  are available at many major retailers nationwide and on their website, www.bananagrams.com. Each retails for approximately $15.99, which is well worth it in my opinion. You will have hours and hours of fun with the Bananagrams games and, because they are durable, they are sure to last a long time.


Thank you to Bananagrams for providing complimentary product samples for us to base this review upon.

Kindergartner-In-Training: Developing Verbal Skills with Felt Boards

Our 5 year old daughter is quite a good storyteller, although they are a bit lengthy and usually come out in one big run-on sentence.  Her twin brother, however, needs to work on his ability to continue a story with relevant information and on his enunciation.  To help our son further develop these skills, I chose the "Let's Play House" felt board from FunWithFelt.com as the perfect tool.  I actually used a felt board with my older son in a similar activity, but the "Let's Play House" felt board inspires an infinite number of stories, whereas more basic felt boards may cause a child to lose interest after being used 2 or 3 times.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

This particular Learning Fun With Felt set comes with over 20 pre-cut felt pieces to help your child tell his or her story.  All the pieces are common items and people that would be easily recognized by most children and could be incorporated into a story without much difficulty.  There is even a place to write your child's name on the back of the board and a handy reusable carrying case for easy storage and transporting.  You can also use the felt pieces from this set on other felt boards and other felt pieces on this board.

Since we have two preschoolers, we asked them to take turns telling a single story, where one child would start and the other child would pick up where the first child left off.  This activity not only was a good exercise for developing verbal skills, it also taught our twins to have patience and to adapt.  Patience was required for each child to wait for his or her turn, especially if they are anxious to tell the part of the story they have come up with in their head.  Also, sometimes one child found the other's piece of the story to be less than interesting, but he or she still had to listen patiently.  Adaptation came into play when one child did not like where the story was going as told by the other or the turn of events in the story conflicted with what they had intended to add to the story when it was their turn again.  During these instances, the child had to figure out how to change their piece of the story so that he or she could add what they originally wanted, but to have the story still flow and make sense.

By the time our twins were done with their story, there was much disorder in our little felt board house.  They thoroughly enjoyed the activity.  I actually think they liked being able to make this pretend house disorderly since they are always being asked to make things orderly in their real house.  Of course, I had to go back afterwards and put all the felt pieces where they made sense after our children were done playing . . .

To view all the fun felt boards available from Learning Fun With Felt, visit www.funwithfelt.com.  For a limited time, you can receive 20% off your next purchase when you checkout with Code: 3G2S.

Thank you to Learning Fun With Felt for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing an additional product for our contest prize.


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