Editorial Review

Well-designed with lots of terrific detail, Learning Resources' Calculator Cash Register completely satisfies a young child's hunger to play with bills, coins, cash drawers, and big numbers. The chiming cash register features a built-in solar calculator as its keypad, thus allowing kids to act as bankers, shopkeepers, and accountants all at once. A large cash drawer holds life-sized bills in four denominations (1, 5, 10, and 20), and four coin holders make room for embossed plastic pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. There is even a credit card slot that dings when you correctly slide the faux VISA card through it.A suggested-activities booklet is included. Requires a 1.5V button cell battery (included) to make the chiming noise. No assembly required. Winner of awards from Dr. Toy, FamilyFun Magazine, and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

It's the most popular toy at my house!
This cash register is a favorite at my house! We often have children from ages two to six visiting, and this is the first toy that many of them go to. The calculator makes beeping noises that the kids enjoy, and the cash drawer opens and closes with a satisfying click. I've enjoyed teaching my son the value of money and how to use a calculator with this toy.

Can't Live Without It
We were at a friends house last night and she had this toy for her 3 year old son. My 2 year old daughter could not stop playing with it. She simply loved opening the drawer and handing out the money to each person in the room. She would then collect the money and put it back. This activity kept her busy for an hour and it would have been longer except for the fact we needed to leave. I have bought her other cash register toys but none have been as realistic or kept her interest as long as this one did. I am buying one for her now and can only hope that she loves it as much as she did last night.

This is the funniest toy ever
When I got this toy i played with it for such along time and still do. You only spend $29.99 on it and it is money well spent. You make the right choice if you get this toy. The age group i would say is probably 5-whenever. Let me tell you parents what when my mom and dad got this for me i lovedit and it made me happy for so long.Three words for this toy.
MONEY WELL SPENT!!!!!!!!! FUN
so you should get this toy. KNOW dont think twice get it...NOW
dont forget get the scanner and bar codes* that go with it.
*SOLD SEPARTLEY

A preschool favorite
I'm buying this toy for my son's 3rd birthday because he makes a beeline to it everytime we go to our parent-child preschool class. He usually sets up a toy phone nearby, too. I get to be the customer and bring a basket of toy food to him which he "scans" on the notepad area. It's nice when toys leave something to the imagination. He loves the play bills and coins and pretending to make change. I believe that this toy will grow with my child and still be fun for him in a few years.

I figure that if this toy has survived daily use by multiple 2-4 year olds, it will survive around our house. If it doesn't, then I will update this posting!!!

hits money learning right on the head
I bought this for my daughter five years ago when she turned 4... it is still a household favorite. The design is good and it has held up well despite its being knocked around a fair amount.

The display is large and easy to read. The play money, which was one of my primary concerns, is realistically sized and marked. There is plenty of it to play with and make change too. The credit card is a nice touch which slides into a slot with a beep.

The sticky note space isn't as useful or cool as I thought it could have been, but I think sticky notes tend to just get ripped off of the pad and spread across the room by most children.

Now that my daughter is older, she still plays with it as well as putting it to use while running her punch & shaved ice stand in the summer. I feel like this was a good purchase and I would recommend it as a sturdy playset with high educational potential. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Classroom Teacher
This product has provided hours of entertainment to my Kindergarteners and my first graders in the last two years. I can't believe how rough they can be with the toy and nothing breaks.

Really neat...even fun for mom
I bought this set for my son when he turned 4. He didn't attempt to play with it by himself until one day I got it out, sat on the floor with him and started building really neat stuff. When he saw what I had done and watched all the colors of gears turning round and round that was it, he loved it. This set has so many options; you can build 1,000 different things. We will have this set for a long time.

Start with the Under Sea Adventure set, this as add on!
We received several gears, gears, gears sets at the same time, and found that the plain set ie Super set although initially fun looses excitement without some add ons. If I were to buy just one set I would start with the Under the Sea adventure set first, then add with the fantasy play park. The Undersea set has parts that move the gears in interesting ways from the standard set. It also comes with regular gears for building, although in limited number so the super set still helps extend the play.The motorized monstors sounded more intteresting than it was, but the parts when added to the Undersea adventure set was great fun! The gears are an interesting way of learning how things work. If your child is mechanically minded any of these sets will provide a wonderful new constructin opportunity. If your child hasn't been inclined towards let's say lego's etc.. This toy may provide some interest initially in being able to create a design that moves. However, construction with this set is more complicated than legos and for the less mechanically inclined child will still need paren'ts help beyond the age minimum's recommended.

Love! Love! Love! Gears! Gears! Gears!
My kids love their Gears! Gears! Gears! My sister bought them this set for Christmas and they are still enjoying it. The gears seem very durable and the colors are vibrant and look great in their playroom. There are so many things they can make, and the gears are a nice change from all the legos.

Kids feel like they've made a real "machine"
This set of "gears" is really neat. There are lots of pieces, very nice bright colors, and countless configurations. I really like that the set didn't include patterns to follow or directions--it just told you how to make flat gears, upright, etc. My oldest child is 3--his main fascination right now is how everything moves together. He yells at me to come see the "machine" he has made. I think it will stay interesting to him for several years. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Let your child be King (or Queen) of the kitchen!!!
After watching our son play with the little tools that came with the Play-Doh set he received for his birthday, we decided to get him toys for a pretend kitchen. There are lots of "kitchen"-based toys on the market, but most of them are pink or focus on tea cups. We wanted one that wasn't boy or girl specific, and that would give our son tons of individual kitchen items to play with.

Imaginarium's 70-piece kitchen set is what we decided to get, and we couldn't be happier with our choice. For one thing, the sheer variety of kitchen utensils included is incredible. Besides the basic plates, forks, knives, spoons, etc, this set also includes a measuring cup, some tongs, and even a spatula! Almost every item my son used to take out of our kitchen cabinet is here.

To make room for all this, we cleared out a cabinet in our kitchen and put everything in it. Now our son can behave just like we do. This was important to us, because he's really starting to enjoy imitating us and we wanted to make this as close a replication as possible. He loves the idea of having his own kitchen utensils to fix his own meals for us.

Another nice thing about this set is that, for the most part, it's safe. There are some pointed items included (like the forks), but they aren't that sharp. And as long as your child doesn't run around with them, I don't think you'll have any trouble.

I should also mention this: We've REALLY enjoyed the amount of time these kitchen items occupy his time. In the morning, my wife and I are able to sit and eat our breakfast in relative peace while our son organizes his cabinet, feeds his stuffed animals, etc.

All in all, we feel we've definitely gotten our money's worth. If your child loves playing in the kitchen, you should definitely consider this set! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Kids love to emulate adults around them--give them the pleasureof learning to use their very own phone with the Pretend & PlayTeaching Telephone. The bright red and yellow plastic unit measures 7inches across and has large buttons for easy use. Program in a number(your home, for example) and record a message for the kids to hear whenthey get it right. There's also an emergency message associated with911 to teach them what to do when trouble strikes. Other fun featuresinclude speed dial and an 11-digit display. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Special Toy For A Special Boy!
My son has autism, so I am constantly on the lookout for toys that will help him in everyday task. The phone is FANTASTIC! In only two day, he got the hang of the phone and learned his home phone number! The kicker was for praise, he heard mommy's voice saying, he got it right! No mechanical, strange voices! Good Job! Great Product!

Gets loads of play! Kids of all ages love this.
This toy can be used by babies and toddlers and up. Younger kids can use it simply as a pretend phone. When certain buttons are pressed there is a dial tone sound, a ringing sound, and a "busy signal" sound. My youngest was one year old when he began playing with this, randomly pressing buttons, listening, and really pretending to talk.

Older kids (5 or maybe 4) can use this as a teaching tool, with the parent. As described by the manufacturer (above) this has the capability to program in numbers, record your voice, and practice calling 911 or practice calling other important phone numbers.

So far we've only used the toy to play with during imaginative play. My kids have played with it so much that it is worth the cost. Kids who visit for playdates also gravitate to this toy and love to play with it. I highly recommend this as a great toy for pretend play.

Also great from this manufacturer is the pretend cash register. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Dino Math Tracks game (winner of several prestigious awards,including an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal) is a race around therainbow with a pack of pintsize, prehistoric pals. An unusual spin on atypical roll-the-dice-and-move game, it spotlights the mathematicalconcept of place value and gives kids reinforcement in what makesour base-10 number system tick. Each player is allotted one dinosaur foreach of the four tracks (the tracks are labeled 1s, 10s, 100s, and 1000s).To play, a player rolls four dice to create a 4-digit number andthen moves his or her prehistoric posse to the appropriate 1s, 10s,100s, and 1000s places. Problem-solving strategies are honed as playersscurry to get all four miniature mammoths or tiny triceratops into thedino haven, ahead of the other players' thundering herds. But look out!In the race to dino utopia, it's easy to get bumped by a babybrachiosaurus!

The Dino Math Tracks game provides multiple levels of play for a varietyof ages. At the simplest level (perfect for a first-grader who knowsArabic numerals and one-to-one correspondence), kids use only the placetrack for the 1s. Later, cards with simple problems are introduced("Stuck in a tar pit! Move your 10s dino back two spaces!"). At the mostadvanced level, players might encounter a question like this: "Your 10sdinosaur forgot its pants, so it went back 15 to get them. Then ithurried forward 25. How far did it get? Move that many." Young playerswill find the 2-inch, spunky vinyl dinosaur playing pieces irresistible.The game offers plenty of opportunities for friendly competition andbrain bending--not to mention lots of nonthreatening practice ataddition and subtraction. --Julie Ubben ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A real winner!
This game is great! The tiny dinos spark my 5 year-old son's imagination and enables him to have so much fun that he does not realize he is learning. Furthermore, he does not want to stop!!! He learned place value up to the thousands during our first game. After each roll of the dice the player uses all four dice to make a number and then s/he reads the number aloud (i.e. if you roll 6666 you say six thousand six hundred and sixty six). As we move our dinos around the board T.R. looks forward to our pieces landing on the same track so that we can have a "Showdown". In a "Showdown" you simply have to roll a dice and the person who gets the larger number wins. However, we move our dinos to the middle of the board and have a miniature battle. The player who rolled the larger number wins the battle. The loser is sent back home and the winner gets to move ahead. After playing the game a couple of times without using the cards - which is the simplest level of play with this game - my son asked to use the cards. So on Day 2 we began using the cards. Again he uses his imagination and does a great deal of role play as he carries out the instructions. It fills my heart with delight to see his excitement and to see that he has truly learned how to read numbers up to the thousands. (T.R. learned to read when he was 4 so he independently reads the dice and reads the cards.)

As a parent I highly recommend Dino Math Tracks because kids quickly learn a lot while having loads of fun. This game can be played at three levels, so it grows with your child.

Great fun! Colorful! Math skills to boot!
My child loves this game! Each person has a single type of dinosaur in four different colors. Each color represents one of the placement values; Ones, Tens, Hundreds, Thousands. The dinosaurs, as determined by roll of four dice, have to walk their color-coordinated path from start to finish. But look out! If an opponent lands on the same space, a die-rolling duel ensues, with the high-roller prevailing. This basic game is a lot of fun for young children. Then there are two decks of cards, one more advanced than the other, which enable the parameters of the game to expand with the child's developing math skills. My child and I can play on even ground - a rare trait in today's games. This comes highly recommended!

My kids love this game
I was not too excited when my kids got an educational board game as a gift, but my kids took right to it and still ask to play it on a regular basis a year later. They have learned a lot, and I am buying this game as a gift for our school friends this year. My only gripe is that the numbers wore off the dice, since the kids played the game so much! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Not worth the money
My son received this you when he turned 5 and he is almost 7 and has only used it to hear the woman's voice announce the time. It is difficult to figure out how it works even after reading and re-reading the directions. The buttons are not clearly labeled and the volume button does little to change the sound level. It not even mildly entertaining. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Mix one 82-piece box of Gears! Gears! Gears! Gizmos with a handful of children and what do you get? A tableful of swirling, whirling, twisting, turning, cross-your-eyeballs thingamajigs! The Gizmos advanced set includes some unusual connectors, including a couple of comical 8-inch springs, some angled joints, and a working propeller--along with a generous helping of the basic stuff. With three sizes of meshing, stackable gears, and simple snap-together bases that can be arranged scores of ways, kids have the freedom to create all kinds of gyrating gadgets. Even with the outlandish decals and Day-Glo shades, Gears manages to teach budding builders an astonishing amount about how machines work. --Julie Ubben ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Fun
Gears was bought for my 4 year old nephew and he just loves it.
I would recommend this toy for education, imagination, and just plain fun!!!

Gear, Gears, Gears Motorized Monsters
I bought the Motorized Monsters set here (I don't see it listed now) based on fabulous reviews. I was very disappointed in the set and so was my 6 year old son. It is noisy, clunky and not at all the fun toy that we were expecting.

Fun and educational; should get more for money
My 5 year old son has advanced rapidly in just two days of playing with this. He is describing and building complicated gear layouts that incorporate gears of different sizes and gears at different angles to one another. Very nice!

My main complaint is that the set should include more pieces. I cannot see more than two kids playing with the contents of this set, and even then I think there would be some fighting for scarce pieces.

PROS
* Durable pieces
* Well-designed pieces connect well and allow for excellent spinning action of the gears
* The type of toy that kids will play with for hours on end and go back to again and again

CONS
* Not enough pieces for the price; you can get hundreds of lego bricks for the same price
* What do the gears *move*? There is only one propeller included and no wheels or other items that gears might control. Instead, we just tend to move more gears, which is fine for a 5 year old but not for an 8 year old

PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION
This is fun and very educational. I will buy the additional sets and give this one as a gift to other kids. I do wish they put more pieces in it, but it still is worth buying.

Fun for the whole family
I bought this gift for my nephew. It seems to be a great toy. All ages from 6 to 44 sat down and played with this toy. The only thing was the hand cranks came off way to easy. And one of the springs that rotates broke off within 15 minutes. We will look into getting that replaced though. Lots of fun for all ages.

A great add on
We have the original Gears! Set and love it. This is an add on that you can use to make bigger, better, more exciting things.

This inspires creativity, fun and imagination. It is more than a push the button type of toy to make some annoying noise. This encourages exploration of the world around you and more.

My husband and father (both engineers) love this toy and have a ball getting down on the floor playing with my son while he tries to put new contraptions together. This addition only makes it more fun.

If you are like and look for toys that inspire imagination, exploration, creativity. If you want toys that are not very loud and are easy to play with. If you want something that the whole family can enjoy. If you want a toy that is more than a push the button type of toy, this is the toy you might want.

My only complaint of sorts? I wish that there were books available for each add on set that is available similar to the book you can buy for the original Gears! set. And maybe there are books out there, but I haven't found them.

Enjoy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Motor and Sharing Skills
For help with fine motor skills, this toy can't be beat. It's attractive and easy to use. It is also light, which can't be underestimated, because it is 1) portable in its handy lidded plastic jar and 2) unlikely to do damage to household items and pets (think about the heavy wooden alternative). However, after mastering it and making a few loops, my child found it boring and I also found that the foam had an odd smell. Share this with a friend or, better yet, donate it to a school. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Kids can mind the store with the Pretend & Play Talking Scanner.The 5-inch red and blue plastic tool rests comfortably in its blueplastic base until it's time for checkout. Then young checkers can scanany of the included 32 price stickers to hear a price and see itdisplayed on the LCD screen. The front button is pressed to receive arandom price quote, or hit the side button to mute the voice. Additionalprice stickers are available from the manufacturer if kids want to gowholesale. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Be sure to read instructions!
My 5 year old has had the cash register that coordinates with this scanner for 3 years and it's WONDERFUL, but when she was old enough to notice the other registers with scanners on the shelf, she was disappointed, so I was elated to find this scanner. I almost didn't buy it after reading the reviews for durability, but I think I now know what went wrong...there is a RESET "button" on the underside of the scanner. It's actually a teeny-tiny hole- I had to unfold a paper clip to slip inside and trigger it. This is explained in the directions for the toy, but we thought it was broken- reading incorrect numbers, displaying jibberish, etc. It works great as long as we reset when needed, and my daughter absolutely loves it. She doesn't use the barcode stickers- it will "scan" anytime you push the button, giving a new price. The only reason I gave it a lower score for educational value is that obviously it can't know the real value of an item, so when she scanned the family dog, the price was something like $ and when she scanned a lollipop, it was $. A little misleading, but that's what us parents are for. This toy is fun and I highly recommend the matching cash register- it's the best I've seen anywhere and will grow with them for years. We even use it during yard sales since it holds real-size money.

Piece of [trash]
I bought this toy for my 8-year old for Christmas. A piece of the scanner was missing (the piece that holds the batteries in). Luckily I opened it up and checked it before wrapping it or he would have been very disappointed. So it is being sent back. Also, I'm not asking to have it replaced because when I put batteries and "scanned" the bar codes I noticed that it does not read the price that is actually on the bar codes. This may do for a 3 or 4 year old child. But my 8-year old would have noticed this right away and that would have been a big dissapointment.

The best toy in the world!!!!!
I bought this toy back in September, and it was the best toy I ever got. I play with it with my register all the time. I really enjoy it so you should get it for your kids because they will love it!!!

It's A terrific toy
This toy is the best. I play with it all the time with my cash register. I recommend this for kids 3-16. It is fun and educational.

Don't waste your money!!
This thing stopped working the day we got it! We put in fresh batteries and it worked for another whole day. Hasn't worked since. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Stimulating
We received this toy for a gift for my 3-1/2 year old, and he loves it! He loves puzzles, and immediately figured out how to manipulate the pieces to fit the diagrams He never tires of it, although he'll occasionally get frustrated if the pieces slide out of place on the diagram. The pieces are very well made with no sharp edges. My only complaint is that it only comes with 4 patterns, and the cardboard "form" isn't very durable. Excellent choice overall, though! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Someone's in the kitchen with Auntie Pasta, cooking uppizza-specific ways to teach younger children the basics of beginningfractions. This game for two to four players includes a spinner and aplaying board with circles divided into halves, thirds, or quarters.Players receive cardboard pieces of pizza in different sizes (withcorresponding numerical fractions on the back). The sections are placedon the circles during the game to create complete pizzas, with tinycardboard pizza boxes to cover each completed pie. The game requiresvery little reading (just a few basic words on the spinner), and it's agood way to introduce the concepts of pie-chart fractional divisions aswell as simpler fractional concepts. Adaptable for preschoolers as wellas for older siblings, it's a good choice for home schoolers or family gamenight--with pizza for dinner, of course! --Marcie Bovetz ... Read more

Reviews (2)

It's a great tool for learning to tell time
This item is a bit pricey for what you get, but it is really a helpful tool in teaching children to read time. I ordered it two months ago, and by the time Christmas rolled around, my daughter wasn't having trouble with time so much. Still, it is very interactive with her daily life, including magnets for kids to practice time in conjunction with their daily activities. I highly recommend this item, especially if your children are just starting to learn to tell time.

Educational and great time teacher!
We received this item as a gift for our 4 yr old son's birthday. The concept is great in that the child can relate activities in their day to certain times on the toy. Our son can now understand half hours, 45 minutes, etc!
The only complaint is that the magnetic hold on the magnets is pretty weak...so they don't stick real well and fall off easily if you brush up against the board. The pen also doesn't stick well to the surface and the magnet has already fallen off of it. ... Read more