Toy Test Lab

Toy Review - GeoSafari Phonics Lab

Its easy and fun for young children to learn the alphabet letter sounds and over 500 three-letter words! The GeoSafari Phonics Lab features standard 1/4 inch headphone jack; raised tactile letter keys that light up during game play; 7 interactive beginning reading games; 20 colorful double-sided word cards; 28-page reproducible book with assessments sight word cards, and simple storybooks students can make and read themselves; and a Teachers Guide.

Seven fun learning games:

1. Alphabet Song - Sing along and learn the ABCs!
2. Lets Learn the Alphabet - Learn as you light up the letters!
3. Lights Out Alphabet Search - Test your Alphabet I.Q. as you switch off the lights!
4. Lets Learn the Sound Alphabet - Discover letter sounds as you light up each letter!
5. Lights Out Sound Search - Check your Sound Alphabet I.Q.
6. Secret Word Maker - Learn to spell 120 three-letter words!
7. Word Explorer - Spell almost any three-letter word (word bank has over 500 words!).

Overall review- a great educational toy for the youngster just learning to read.

Posted in Early Learning | No Comments »

Toy Review - Skyrail Suspension Roller Coaster

If you’re looking for toys not made in China this year, here’s one of your options. All the Quercetti line of Skyrail and Marble Run Roller Coasters are made in Italy. This is one of their most economical sets but don’t be fooled as it’s also very fun. It’s for ages 8 and up which is about right as kids much younger than that might have trouble putting some of the smaller pieces together. I did it with my six-year-old and he was able to do most of it, but he did need a bit of help.

I love almost all of the Quercetti line of construction toys and this one was no exception. This comes with 140 pieces and 15 feet of track, and as an extra cool little feature, the tracks on this coaster glow in the dark! You can use the included marbles or use your own standard glass marbles.

Overall review: like the standard marble run roller coaster, this suspension one was equally fun to build. A neat experiment we tried was timing marbles of different sizes and weights and timing the same marbles with different configurations of track. Overall, a lot of fun!

Posted in Constrution Toys | 1 Comment »

Toy Review - Georello Kaleidogears

Learning Resources has a pretty cool line of construction toys called Gears! Gears! Gears! but I really enjoyed trying out this similar set by Georello, distributed by International Playthings. This one is one of their starter sets for about $26 US, but it does come with 52 pieces and you can make a few interesting setups with it. This made the list of the 12 best selling toys of 2008 at Atomic Elephant Toy, a specialty retailer that deals mostly with science and educational toys.

This is a little different from the Learning Resources version of Gears! Gears! Gears! as the Georello Kaleidogears main selling point is the bright colored gears (hence the name, Kaleidogears). Overall, it’s just as fun and as it’s a little less expensive I think it’s a better value for the money.

Posted in Constrution Toys | 5 Comments »

Toy Review - Grow Snow Powder

Ok I’ve said it, I’ve gotten it out of my system. Ever wonder what gives diaper companies such great bragging rights? or how those people in Hollywood get such perfect looking snow? Believe it or not, the answer to both those questions lies in a weird little polymer packaged as grow-snow. Often found where educational toys are sold, you can pick up some for yourself fairly easily.

This particular polymer is part of a family called hydrogels, which all absorb water and grow in size. Depending on the formula, you could get many different uses and properties, absorbing between 50 to 500 times its weight in water.

Many common uses for this family of polymers include:

• Wire and Cable Water-blocking
• Filters
• Heat/Cold Gel-packs
• Bandages
• Water retention for plants and insects
• Toys

But what can you do while playing with it?

• Add a few spoonfuls to a bottle of water to watch it ‘freeze’ solid
• Try it with a capped bottle to see if there’s a difference in pressure
• Spread it out thin and spray with a mister to get realistic looking snow
• Lay it out in a sunny window to see how long it can hold water
• Add food coloring to a glass of dry powder to see how the pigments are absorbed
• See if there’s a difference between water, saltwater, and soda

The versatility of this simple polymer makes this insta-snow one of the coolest science toys around.

Posted in Chemistry | 18 Comments »