Hyper Dash by Wild Planet defines what I look for in an ideal toy - fun, energetic and educational all in one.

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I pulled down a preschool educational board game from the game shelf (which is getting rather high) that we have not played in a while: Hi Ho Cherry-O. While playing the game with my preschooler, I realized it does more than teach counting.
The goal of Hi Ho Cherry-O is to pick all your cherries off your tree and put them in your basket. You do this by taking off the number of cherries indicated by the spinner on your turn. The challenge …

My preschool son’s name only has 4 letters - but he’s been very stubborn about learning it. So I thought up a fun game to practice.
If your preschooler needs help with spelling his/her name, maybe this game will help. All you need is paper, pen and a small reward such as a lollipop. I simply wrote each letter, in large writing, on it’s own piece of paper. I taped a lollipop to the last letter of his name.
The next step is to ‘hide’ each letter in different places around the …

My kids love the bath tub. They always have… well.. there was a time when hair washing brought on screaming fights. Fortunately, we are finally past that stage. With all the gadgets that I tried for keeping the water at bay, turns out the best solution for us is to tilt the head back and block the water with a hand while pouring water with the other.
But I’m getting slightly off topic. My boys love the bath because they love playing with bath toys. They will stay in the tub …

When my oldest son was younger I came up with a great early preschool educational game. This idea combined crafting, activity, and color/shape education.
I took a corrugated cardboard box and cut out 2 each of several of the basic shapes. We then pulled out the washable paints (and lots of newspapers) and painted those shapes with primary colors. There were 2 of each shape so that we could make each one a different color.
Once the shapes were thoroughly dried, we made an activity game out of the shapes. The shapes …