Important Advisory:

We are now requiring companies to provide us with documentation that their products have been tested by an independent lab for phthalates and lead.
Please click here for submission requirements for new products. However, as we are not a lab, we will not be independently verifying those results. Also, with the exception of the 2008 Platinum Toy Awards, toys submitted for review prior to January 2008 were not tested for lead.

Instructions for submitting product to the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio for review.

Contact the Toyportfolio @ (212) 598-0502 or by email at Webmaster@Toyportfolio.com.

Copyright 1995-2008. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio - All Rights Reserved. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award, and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Blue Chip Award are Registered Trademarks of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio.

Science and math are best learned through hands-on experiences. (You'll note that all but one are very low tech!) These games and activity kits got high marks from our testers for being fun to do (and educational). There's nothing worse than handing your child a toy that promises to be "good for them" but just ends up sitting on the shelf. Even if you don't consider yourself a great math or science wiz, these easy to use materials will promote positive attitudes about both subjects.

( Balitono $$17$ ) This diner attracts smaller birds such as finches, chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches. We'd pair it with a set of binoculars, a bird book, and a log. Also for the outdoors, Spiral Windchime Kit ($17). 7 & up. Age: Early School Years, Late School Years. Phone: 609-936-8807. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2004

( DaMert $$10$ ) Designed as a bath toy, the small plastic pitcher has three separate chambers and comes with special tablets that color the water. Put a blue tablet in one chamber and a yellow tablet in the other and, voilà, you will have green water in the third chamber. The tablets aren’t as clear in color as they should be, but this is a fun way to introduce color mixing and get clean at the same time! 3 & up. (800) 356-0474. Age: Preschool. Phone: 800 356-0474. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2004

( Mattel $$19.95$and up ) Designed to attract girls to construction toys, this is an innovative building system with panels and Matisse-inspired cutout disks that can be joined with square and circular connectors, string and slender sticks for adding extra flair. Research has indicated that playing with blocks and building sets help to develop important spatial relations and math skills needed for later achievement in math, engineering and science. Unfortunately too many sets on the market are geared only for boys. We particularly liked the look of the Ello-opolis set, which has a modern art feel, or the underwater Ello Aquaria set. (Imagine Matisse or Calder designing a construction set!) They have an engaging color palette (refreshingly not all pink!) and have interesting building pieces that lend themselves for open-ended play. Age: Early School Years, Late School Years. Phone: 800-524-TOYS. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 2003

( Scientific Explorer $$20$ ) We wish all chemistry experiments were this tasty! Kids fill out their own lab sheets as they formulate their own "secret" formula. Comes with different flavorings and can be used with different types of milk. The fun part comes when you put your mixture in a series of plastic bags and then put it in a t-shirt and start shaking! After vigorous shaking for five minutes, you'll have ice cream. The kit is full of interesting information about why this works. We found that you really had to shake hard for five minutes. If the ice cream is too runny, you can put your mixture in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Kit designed in conjunction with the UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science. 9 & up. Age: Late School Years, Tweens. Phone: (800) 900-1182. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2003

( Insect Lore $$19.95$ ) Small half-globe structure is the home for the ladybugs that you hatch. Kit comes with a certificate for mailing in. The larvae will be mailed to you, and then you can watch the process unfold. Eventually, you can release the ladybugs into your garden. 4 & up. The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab. Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Phone: (800) 548-3284. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2004

( Learning Resources $$44.95$ ) Keep in mind that beginners need concrete materials to count before they learn the facts in rapid-fire fashion. Now in our house we did this with chocolate (which was also fun, but fattening!) Here, you get 252 total play pieces (108 bugs: grasshoppers, beetles dragonflies, bumble bees, spiders and caterpillars) plus 72 frogs and worms to sort by color, shape and size. The kit also comes with an activity book with 48 activities and a sorting tray. Kids love playing with these pieces as their working on their math skills. They'll also use them for dramatic play. Much more fun than flash cards! The company has signed a verification form complying with our safety requirements. We did not independently test this toy in a lab. Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Phone: 800 222 3909. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2003

( Patrix Communications $$23.99$ ) If math facts are a source of tension in your house here are two games for working on those skills. Mad Math is a board game that has addition facts on one side and multiplication on the other. The goal is to get three pawns in a row on the board. You collect spaces by rolling the dice and finding the corresponding math fact on the playing board. The board is self-correcting which is a plus. It's not like some dreaded "game" that's good for you—it's actually "edutaining." (This game has been modified this year by the addition of the "addition" side of the playboard). 9 & up. Age: Early School Years. Phone: (450) 242-2380. Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award 1999

( Learning Resources $$29.95$ ) This is one way to help kids learn math facts while thinking on their feet! Kids step on the vinyl mat to answer the math quiz that's programmed with two levels of difficulty. Level one asks kids to find a numeral named, simple addition, and subtraction. Level two asks for the "next" number in a sequence of three as in 5,4,? Or 5,6,?; Addition and subtraction jumps to missing factors as in 11 + ? is 15. Keep in mind that beginners need concrete materials to count before they learn the facts in rapid fire fashion. So this is more fun than flash cards, but not very different in content. It's for children who are ready for drill. Labeled 4-7, most fours will do only the numeral game. This is far more appropriate for mid-first and second graders. Forget the newer Factor Frenzy () and Light ‘N Strike Math (). Both require too many steps to enter an answer—totally frustrating. We passed on the Alpha-Bug Step ’n Spell, which became too difficult too quickly and was not especially responsive. Also, testers gave the new-for-2007 ABC Chalk Talk! ($39.95 ) thumbs down because it is “buggy.” Players correctly identified “c” as the first letter of cup, but were told repeatedly that they were wrong. The tone of the machine isn’t mean but isn’t very pleasant, either. (800) 222-3909.SNAP AWARD ChIldren who avoid pencil and paper tasks, for any number of reasons, will find this active math drill game entertaining as well as getting practice with beginning math skills. However this is not a tool for kids who still need concrete materials to count. It's several steps beyond that. Age: Early School Years. Phone: 800 222 3909.