When I first discovered the Haba toy line I knew I was on to something. Not only are they lead free and non-toxic, but they are also educational, developmental and creative. Plus children are able to work through problem solving on their own.

I purchased this Marble Track for my son at Christmas and it is his favorite present. In fact, he asks to play with it everyday. My brother got the Ski Jump to add to the bottom of the track, and he loves to launch the marbles off onto the hardwood floor and chase them through the house.

My son is 4.5 years old and developmentally delayed with both fine motor skills and gross motor skills, and he has a visual processing disorder. This toy is perfect for him because he has to construct a three-dimensional track using his fine motor skills and visual perception (alright it’s my fine motor and visual perception…he just likes to zoom the marbles).

All of the Marble Track components are made from unfinished, solid wood and made in Germany. Haba’s large selection of toys are worth taking a glance at.

Written by Marcie, a full-time mom and wife, a part time writer, and a Chicago native. You can find Marcie at My Two Boys, A Child Chosen, Discussing Autism, and Chicago Moms Blog where she writes about adoption, special needs, and about living life in both worlds.

What’s not fun about a name like Wiggity Bang Games? The name alone is fun to say and after reviewing a few of their new games I can honestly say they are even more fun to play! They recently introduced Whizizzle Phonics (another cute name) which is a line of card games aimed at helping kids ages 4 and up learn words.

I tried this out with our 5 year old who just completed pre-k and has learned most of the sounds of words and he loved it. The Whizizzle game comes in two sets, games 1-2-3 and 4-5-6. As you increase levels, the phonics builds upon what you went through in the previous game. For instance, in level 1 the game focused on short vowel sounds and level 2 concentrated on long vowel sounds. We are working our way through level 3 right now and I’m amazed at his attention span while playing this game. It is more unique than traditional flashcards because it concentrates on using sight, sound and color.

The other fun new game we got to try was FlapDoodle, a family-fun board game for ages 6 and up. Our entire family played this together and what we loved is that the game encouraged us to be creative. So often we cruise through the day on auto-pilot and forget we even have an imagination. With FlapDoodle players move ahead when they draw a card and complete the task. One task might be to answer a crazy question like, “If you could build a house out of any material what would it be?”

At first I found the tasks to be childish and silly, but after jumping up and down and singing, ‘I’ve got ants in my pants and they want to dance!’ I was even laughing at myself. The key to FlapDoodle is to unwind and have fun. There are all kinds of obstacles and the first player to make it through the FlapDoodle factory wins.

I give this game huge props for bringing the family together in a way that lets them have fun, use their creativity and learn new things about each other.

Written by Emily, who is a married working mother of a very energetic 5 year old son. They reside in Southern Indiana (a little too close to the Kentucky border). Someday she’d like to visit Intercourse, PA and have her picture taken with the welcome sign. She writes at her personal blog, Fenicle and loves free samples and trying new things!

Visit My Pedz for other great gift ideas!

Wild Planet Hyper Dash
Hyper Dash is an award-winning fast-paced race course game from Wild Planet that encourages kids to be active and think on their feet. Designed to improve listening, coordination and math skills, this exciting game is easy to set up and is an ideal way to help kids aged six and above to practice addition and subtraction while exercising and having fun. It’s four games in one and costs around $25.

Visit Wild Planet for other great gift ideas!

Crayola Glow Board
With the Crayola Color Explosion Glow Board, kids can take their creations to a whole new level of fun. The glow board comes with six vibrant neon markers, which can be used to draw on either of the board’s two drawing surfaces. Once their drawing is complete, kids can illuminate the colored inks with the touch of a button, as the board’s lights give the ink an intense glow.

Visit Crayola for other great gift ideas!

EyeClops Bionic Eye
See your world as never before with the EyeClops Bionic Eye! With this fun and easy-to-use electric magnifier, kids six and up can view everyday objects at up to 400 times their regular size. The simple, hand-held bionic “eye” displays magnified images on any TV, providing hours of fun entertainment for the entire family. The hand-held EyeClops magnifying “eye” is made of brightly-colored, lightweight, durable plastic and features an ergonomically shaped handle that fits comfortably into small and large hands alike.

Visit Jakks for other great gift ideas!

Mozart Magic Cube
A true breakthrough in music education, the Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube will be music to your baby’s ears. Providing hours of interactive play for budding young composers of all ages, this award-winning toy is the perfect musical foundation for little ones. Fun, creative, and inspiring, the Magic Cube teaches how sounds combine to create eight Mozart masterpieces.

Visit Munchkin for other great gift ideas!

Wii Music
When it comes to music and rhythm games, Wii Music stands in a class of its own. Unlike other music games, which penalize players if they don’t play perfectly, Wii Music is a musical playground where there are no mistakes. Here anyone can pick up and master the huge array of instruments available, through simple motions like strumming and drumming. Musicians in your band jam by simply playing their instruments to the beat of a song or by improvising to their heart’s content. Play faster. Play slower. Skip a beat, or throw in 10 more. No matter what you do, Wii Music automatically transforms your improv stylings into great music.

Visit Wii for other great gift ideas!

Disney Wheel of Fortune
Disney Wheel of Fortune includes such classics as Cinderella, The Lion King, Snow White, Ratatouille, Monsters Inc. and Toy Story. It is a combination of two all-time family favorites. Combine the puzzle-solving fun of Wheel of Fortune with the magic of Disney-Pixar movies and you get a game that’s entertaining for the whole family. Spin the Mickey Mouse wheel, and then ask for a letter to the puzzle. Categories include: Heroes and Heroines, Villains, Movie Titles, Song Titles and more. All this family fun for under $25.

Visit Pressman for other great gift ideas!

Zero Gravity Air Hogs
The ultimate in indoor RC racing! Zero Gravity Micro is a full function RC car that drives on the floor, up wall, sand, even upside-down. Outstanding scale speed performance on any smooth surface. Working headlights also act as charge level indicators. 2 power settings – floor mode with venturi fan off, and suction mode for vertical and upside-down action! (Prices vary by models.)

Visit Spin Master for other great gift ideas!

You’ve Been Slimed!

Now kids at home can take part in the in the fun with the introduction of Nickelodeon’s first line of SLIME products! These safe, non-toxic, washable and water-soluble toys will be one of the hottest toys in 2009 and you can give them this Christmas and be a bigger hit. Some of the new products include: the Super Slimer that shoots 25 feet, the Slime Ball that hits a wall and oozes down, cans of Slime in six different colors and a Slime Bucket of course to hold all the gross stuff.

Visit Nickelodeon for other great gift ideas!

Goldilocks & the 3 Bears Show DVD

Get ready for a very good time as Unstable Fables presents The Goldilocks & the 3 Bears Show. When Goldilocks, a sassy reality TV star decides to film her next show at the humble home of the Bears, she gives them a taste of the celebrity sweet life they’ve never had before. But the bears will teach her something even more important: what it’s like to be part of a family. Tune in for all the fairytale action in this funny, heartwarming movie, featuring the voice talents of Tom Arnold, Brooke Shields and Jamie Lynn Spears. It’s just right for a night of family fun!

Visit Disney for other great gift ideas!

Smart Baby Kid, also a product and resource review blog, focuses specifically on educational toys, games, websites, books, DVD’s and much more. With a PhD in Education, Curriculum and Instruction, Language and Literacy, and over ten years experience as an educator, Smart Baby’s editor, Dr. Cecelia Mecca, utilizes her expertise to help families find the best education products.

Ask Baby Kid, grew out of an overwhelming response from Cool Baby Kid readers for more information. In order to keep Cool Baby Kid’s focus on reviews, Ask Baby Kid allows readers to ask questions about parenting and blogging, and receive quick answers they actually have time to read. After receiving many questions about specific posts on the original blog as to how to pack and travel overseas with kids or how to start and maintain a blog, Cecelia wanted to give readers a forum to have their questions answered.

Go check out each of these cool sites. I’m certain there is something for everyone.

Written by Emily, who is a married working mother of a very energetic 6 year old son. They recently moved out in the country and live on a rock road. Emily had to give up high-speed internet and she blames the realtor for not informing her ahead of time that it was not available. She writes at her personal blog, Fenicle and loves to review new things.

Preschool Prep Company’s Meet the Sight Words DVD is designed to help children learn common sight words. Sight words are those that commonly appear in the English language, but are difficult to decode because they don’t follow regular patterns. Recognizing letters, developing decoding strategies to figure out unknown words, knowing what sounds letters make (phonemic awareness) and sight word recognition are all important parts of learning to read.

Meet the Sight Words is 35 minutes of immersion with a set of words. We previewed Meet the Sight Words 1 which teaches children to recognize of, play, it, he you, in, I, to, have, and, a, said, is, the, for and that. Each word is presented in big and bold on the screen and turned around so kids can view it from multiple angles. Then, the letters in the word are transformed into colorful character that acts out scenes to help children remember the word. Finally, the word is seen again in big and bold font before the next word is introduced. All the words that are shown during the lesson are put together for a simple story at the end of the DVD. Each word is highlighted as it is read so children begin to make the connection between the written and spoken word which is crucial for sight word recognition. The story also helps children learn the word in the context of a story.

All kids learn how to read differently and while I thought my daughter would enjoy Meet the Sight Words, she didn’t. She’s a child who loves sitting down with a book and being read to. Her sight word vocabulary has increased dramatically because of the amount of time we spend reading to her and her love of using her LeapFrog Tag, which has helped her become a more independent reader.

Unfortunately, the format of the show didn’t really interest my 4 ½ year old reader. She could already read the words that were part of the first DVD and kept wondering, “When is it going to start?” I was surprised when she said, “Oh, I hate this because it is nothing but words I know,” since she rarely hates anything having to do with reading. She felt that it would be better for her 2 year old brother, “because he doesn’t know how to read.” Indeed her brother was fascinated by the DVD and repeated the words as they were being said and laughed at some of the short skits that featured each words, but he doesn’t have the attention span to sit down to watch something on the screen. He prefers having stories read to him.

Meet the Sight Words is designed for ages 15 months to 6 years. I think it would be worthwhile for children who need active visuals to help them remember common sight words that they will frequently encounter in text, but it wasn’t the right fit for our family.

Meet the Sight Words DVDs are available through the Preschool Prep Company’s website for $14.95.

Written by Leticia, a part time working multitasking mama who loves spending time with her husband and two children, exotic vacations, and cooking great meals. Leticia writes about technology products and technology issues affecting children through her blog, Tech Savvy Mama.

I myself was not all that impressed with the DVD, but my husband will beg to differ. He thinks it’s a great DVD that provides entertainment along with some fun action. I definitely would not say this DVD would not appeal to girls though, there are female characters and it is geared towards both male and female.

Save the Planets has three adventures that teach about envy, moderation and sharing in a fun filled way. Yet I do believe that the message is a bit subtle for a 3 year old to completely grasp, it is always good to expose toddlers to something that sends a faithful encouraging message. If you’re looking for something very similar to Veggie Tales but just a bit different I think 3-2-1 Penguins is a good DVD to try!

Written by Andrea, who is a stay at home Catholic wife and mother. She strives daily to perfect her vocation as wonderfully as possible. Andrea has two young children and hopes someday to have more. Her interests stem from being a mother and living her faith. She blogs for fun about things that interest her at Momma In Flip Flops.

There was also a death to deal with in the hyena segment, but as we learned, these animals are not necessarily the heinous creatures they are always portrayed as. The baby we followed was playful and loving toward her handler and it was very interesting to watch the slow process of integrating the baby hyena back into the pack.

Growing up Zebra was perhaps the most informative. We learned a host of things, such as the fact that zebra’s stripes are totally different on both sides of them. I had no idea. We all watched in fascination at the way the zebra interacted with refuge owner.

Perhaps the Growing up Rhino was the most surprising. I suppose we all thought of rhinos as tough hearted as their tough exterior, however, it seems rhinos are very sensitive to their surroundings. Watching two abandoned rhinos grow up was quite amusing. They made having a mud bath seem like the place to be!

All in all, this entire video held our attention for the entire 169 minutes! It’s a great value for your family and you won’t be sorry that you bought it.

by Perri

After reviewing Growing Up Wildcats, I was fairly sure we’d enjoy Growing Up Safari from Animal Planet. My son is an avid animal lover who watches very minimal television (like, 10-15 minutes a week, and sometimes less) so he’s always excited when a new DVD arrives in the mail. Too often though, it’s some cheesy cartoon for review that holds his attention for a few minutes before he’s running out the back door to play. Growing Up Safari features baby elephants, zebras, giraffes and hyenas growing up with the help of some professional human caregivers.

Not only did it hold his attention but it held mine, and that’s saying something. Each of the animals has their own unique story and we were both eager to follow them to the end to see if they reached their goal of returning to the wild. Any animal lover, young or old, is sure to love this fabulous addition to the Growing Up Wild series.

by Nicole

Jane Goodall believes that all animals can talk, as do I. We don’t often understand what they’re saying, but when we do it is truly amazing. In When Animals Talk, Jane shares the amazing stories of animals that have changed the lives of the humans they’ve touched. She shares instances of animals learning our language and shares how we can learn their languages through science. Watching the inspiring human-animal relationships that are shared in this DVD will make you feel good and you’ll learn how communicating with animals brings humankind closer to the world of the gorgeous animals that we can learn so much from.

by Nicole

I have known of the work of Jane Goodall since I was a child and it always fascinated me. I can remember watching her on television and being amazed that she could even get so close to chimpanzees, much less teach them to communicate. When the DVD, “When Animals Talk” arrived at our house to review, I was very excited to share Ms. Goodall’s work with my children.

In this 90 minute video, your family will see not only take a glimpse over how Ms. Goodall learned to interact with chimps, but also the amazing things animals do. By teaching animals cues, instead of spoken words, animals can be trained to do virtually anything. Animals are a great indicator of when natural disasters are about to strike because they instinctly run for cover.

There is a segment showing the amazing rats of Mozambique who are trained to sniff out land mines. Also included is the story of a parrot whose vocabulary and conversational skills can’t hardly be believed. The bond between the parrot and its owner is fascinating. You will get to witness the bird and owner in a controlled environment, where the bird appears to be seeing what the owner does in pictures — from a room 55 feet away. You will experience the secrets of elephant whisperers and many animals who have literally changed lives. Animals are now even being used to sniff out cancer in people.

There’s a lot to be learned from animals and Jane Goodall takes you into many different areas of interest. Any animal lover would find this a fascinating video. I’m not even that much of an animal lover. Heck, truth be told, I don’t even like my husband’s fish. That being said though, after watching this amazing video, I had to fight the urge to go out and buy an animal just to see what I could teach it to do.

by Perri

Jeff is a very personable host who draws you into to his world almost instantly. He has, in fact, won an Emmy for his performance for Outstanding Performance in a Children’s Series. My children enjoy watching Jeff as he gets into and out of situations that most of us only dream about as children and realize we want nothing to do with as adults. His vast knowledge of the creatures he just stumbles upon as he is on his adventures is very impressive and you find yourself learning about many different insects, reptiles and mammals in every episode.

This DVD included adventures with giant manatees, a 14 foot alligator, venomous snakes, great white sharks, humongous coconut crabs and even a real Tasmanian Devil. His travels encompassed Guyana, Costa Rica, Zanzibar, Tanzania, India, Nepal, Morocco, Spain and other exotic places. Your child will be exposed to and learn about these places just from relaxing in the TV room.

Jeff is constantly relaying the message that if everyone does their part our planet will be conserved for future generations. Through education and awareness Jeff Corwin is certainly doing his part and him showing us these beautiful places and creatures makes us want to do ours.

I knew my kids really enjoyed the DVD because they asked for it to be paused for their bathroom breaks. In our family, that’s the highest compliment to a video.

Written by Perri, a homeschooling mom of 6 kids – 2 that are grown and out of the house and 4 younger ones who help wreck and clean the house. Perri also has two precious grandchildren. She spends a lot of time doing ministries with her church, volunteering in the community and baking a mean cheesecake. She blogs about her family’s life at My Life in Bits & Pieces.

Let me introduce to you wooden food from Melissa and Doug.

Sanded smooth as can be and finished, the different food groups are represented so that you can make balanced pretend meals or just be silly and mix whatever you want together. My five year old thinks it’s funny to put an onion on bread and offer it to you.

The colors are bright and attractive. You can make sandwiches with the bread offerings, which is something that my littles ones love to do. A living room picnic is even more fun when the food you are using is fun to look at and hold.

Melissa and Doug are committed to providing safe toys for children to play with. The safety statement on their website details the testing that is done to make sure that the paints used on their wooden toys exceed our government’s safety requirements. Given the number of recalls on painted toys lately, I found this very reassuring.

Written by Gidge, who is a mother of a 5 year old boy and 3 year old twin boys. A transplanted Hoosier, die-hard Colts fan and professional call center manager, she likes long walks on the beach, penguins and playing ping-pong. Her turn-ons include sleep and silence. Read all about her life here.