Educational and Learning Toys Make Back-to-School Learning Fun

While parents' back-to-school shopping lists almost always include the latest fashions, new sneakers and various school supplies, toys are usually the last thing on their minds as they prepare their children for another school year. However, the right toys can help to improve children's cognitive, perceptual, sensory and motor skills, all while providing hours of fun.

Through play, children develop their knowledge of the world around them. Parents can help steer that learning in the right direction by choosing toys that teach kids everything from counting to other languages.

"Play is an extension of learning and these items complement each child's unique learning style that determines the way he or she can best master new ideas, information or activities," says Tom Alfonsi, KB Toys senior vice president of merchandising. "LeapFrog is breaking new ground in the development of learning items and our own private label learning toys offer significant educational value and content such as science and history, that is not currently being offered."

Alfonsi recommends some of KB Toys' most popular items to enhance your child's success this school year:

Children as young as 6 months old can begin learning letters of the alphabet, as well as phonics, with LeapFrog's Fun & Learn Phonics Bus. With lots of bright colors, funny characters to interact with and talking letters to press, this electronic school bus captivates children ages 6 months to 4 years old. Interactive animal characters challenge children to find letters. Each conversation is unique, and the animal characters provide fun clues including letter names, sounds, colors and location. Kids learn not only letters and phonics, but also positive social interaction with talking and singing animals, honking horns, flashing lights and a happy "Wheels on the Bus" song.

Children ages 2 to 8 years old learn to say words and phrases like "hello," and "I love you," in six different languages with the Little Language Pal. The toy teaches English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. Kids also learn how to count from one to five and hear fun songs. Little Language Pal also features geographic pictures that correspond to the different languages.

Get to know facts about the United States and have fun learning with Geo Genius II Interactive USA. For children ages 6 to10, this second interactive talking map brought to you by Geo Genius has more than 500 new facts and questions. It challenges all ages and provides an interactive learning experience for the whole family. Great for travel, it includes a power indicator, a high quality speaker and a fact-filled information sheet.

Kids ages 5 to 11 can travel back in time and learn many fun facts about dinosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods with KB Toys' Interactive Electronic Dinosaur. Kids learn where the dinosaurs lived, what they ate, how big they grew and more -- all at the push of a button. There are dinosaur buttons, fact buttons and a quiz button so children can test their dino-knowledge with more than 1,000 different quiz questions.

Learn about all 43 U.S. Presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush with the Interactive U.S. Presidents Electronic Learning Toy. With more than 10,000 quiz questions, kids ages 5 to 16 will learn facts like names of the First Ladies, the Vice Presidents and more.

The Interactive Electronic Solar System provides lots of facts on our solar system and its nine planets and challenges kids ages 7 to 11 with more than 1,000 different quiz questions.

All items are available at KB Toys and KB Toy Works stores nationwide, as well as at KBtoys.com (www.kbtoys.com).

EDITOR'S NOTE: KB Toys is the nation's largest combined mall-based and online specialty toy retailer, operating more than 1,300 stores in all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, doing business as KB Toys, KB Toy Works, KB Toy Outlet, KB Toy Liquidators, KB Toy Express and online as KBtoys.com (www.kbtoys.com) & eToys (www.etoys.com). KB Toys, a privately held company, is headquartered in Pittsfield, Massachusetts