Top-Rated Educational Toys - Buyers Guide
Author: Better Homes & Gardens

The best and brightest of the people who create and evaluate educational toys know the truth: A common set of wooden building blocks teaches and charms, as always. But there are new kids around those blocks. The market is delivering toys that can simulate a lifesaving surgery, monitor the progress of a caterpillar's journey to flight, or teach about dinosaurs.

"At any age, a good educational toy arouses a child's curiosity, entices her to discover all the things she can do with it, and offers opportunities for more advanced exploration and learning as her abilities grow," says Ruth B. Roufberg, senior toy editor for Parents' Choice Foundation, a nonprofit agency that has been evaluating toys, books, and other children's items for more than two decades.

To help you discover (or rediscover) toys that bring laughter and learning to your child, Better Homes and Gardens[R] magazine worked with Parents' Choice Foundation and Amazon.com to compile a list of 28 top picks. Each toy selected has been in the marketplace for at least one year, received an award from the foundation, or received a 4-star rating or higher (on a "five-stars is best" basis) from parents and customers of Amazon.com.

We've grouped the toys according to four age groups: 0-2, 2-4, 5-7, and 8-10. Where applicable, evaluations from Parents' Choice are included. The Fall 2000 evaluations from the foundation, released the third week of October, can be found at www.parents-choice.org.