We've been battling sickness in our home for the past two and a half weeks, but didn't want to miss our chance for one last set of holiday gift recommendations based on our home testing of products. We have used and handled every one of these products except the last one in the post, and several of the items here are among our favorite children's products of the year. If you see something you like, order quick - you have until Thursday, December 17 for orders from Amazon with free Super Saver Shipping and pre-holiday delivery.

This gift guide's theme is products that can inspire joyful interactions between parents and children. Unlike the other types of toys and children's products we have focused on in our other gift guides this year, these toys celebrate active and creative play ideas that are as surprising and joyful for parents as for the children they love.

Coursing Around: An activity book full of "exercise" courses for kids. Different symbols are used to represent different actions, and we found this book inspired us to develop our own crazy obstacle courses that combined exercise with mini games of skill, all outlined in a sidewalk chalk course. You can take off with this idea without a book, but there are enough ideas and inspiration here to occupy an extended family on a holiday afternoon. | $20, CoursingAround.com


Swinxs:An electronic game leader for a dozen fun and active games, with more available for free download. Players use RFID bracelets to identify themselves to the game console. Brilliant. We are chomping at the bit to do a full review of this thing - for now, suffice to say that we don't think it will disappoint. | $150, Amazon.com


Thumballs: A simple, engaging way to teach concepts or explore topics with children, from shapes, numbers and animals to feelings, and there are others that make great icebreakers for older kids to get to know one another or share with family members. | $10-$15, Amazon.com


Dancing Eggs: A quirky, fun, fast-paced game for kids that combines physical activity and charade-like elements and consists of 11 rubber eggs and one wooden one in an egg carton. Full review to come! | $25, Amazon.com


Playing with Stuff: We always cherish good guides to making something from nothing, and when that something is not an object to stare at and scratch your chin while contemplating but an engaging and riotous game to play, all the better. Entertainingly illustrated, curiously translated from the Dutch, and endlessly imaginative, Playing with Stuff should not be out of print, but it is. Get it while you can - this is a book that doesn't leave a home easily. | Used from $0.01, Amazon.com


The Black Pirate: ZRecs review | $40, Amazon.com

Castle Knights: Players work together using elastic-banded strings to transport blocks onto towers to match patterns on randomly selected cards. Coordinated movement and collaboration make this game one of both concentration and infectious energy. | $35, Amazon.com


Conversations to Go: An affordable, approachable format for the ubiquitous "conversation games," Conversations to Go features some of the best conversation starters for kids and adults alike in a field that's crowded with products more concerned about styling than content. | $14, Amazon.com

Complete Idiot's Guide to Backyard Adventures: You don't have to be a complete idiot to realize that some of the most enjoyable adventures you can have with your child occur within a few miles of your house. This book is filled with good ideas for making the most of adventure time and avoiding the expense and hassle of less-inspired activities. | $13, Amazon.com


Suitcase Detectives: ZRecs review | $15, Amazon.com


Said and Done: Another great game that demands a full review, Said and Done is a drawing game in which players must use their language skills to help each other first line up points in a "connect the dots" type of drawing, and then draw the correct lines to create a familiar shape. Another great twist on the traditional game in a box from Haba. | $35, Amazon.com

Invasion of the Bristlebots:Supplies and instructions for creating "bristlebot" robots - robots with small vibrating motors that use the bristly head of a toothbrush as their bodies and many legs. A great project for a parent and child from elementary-school age and up. | $15, Amazon.com

Looking for more ideas? Check out our four other gift guides - soft toys, learning products, kitchen play and cooking, and classic toys - or download the ZRecs Toolbar and find links to our favorite holiday gift guides from around the web.

Welcome to the fourth in five planned ZRecs Gift Guides for 2009. In this installment, we wanted to share our top recommendations for gifts in a few perennial favorite toy categories for young children: Figures and play environments for them (including "action figures," vehicles, and dollhouse fare), building and construction toys, outdoor toys, and toddler toys. We've included a bunch of honorable mentions to cover a lot of other toys we've loved this past year that didn't make our top 12. This gift guide includes some of the biggest investments in gifts that we ever recommend, but also some of the best values for your holiday dollars, as they'll reward you and your child with years of enjoyment while other toys may fall by the wayside.

Best Figures, Accessories, and Play Environments

Educo Welcome Home Balcony Dollhouse: This bright, cheerful, and well-made dollhouse has open access from all sides, comes with cute furniture for the whole house and a poseable family of four. This is our favorite dollhouse currently on the market in or near this price range. Full review to come. | $105-$130, Amazon.com


Mighty World: Mighty World figures come with an obsessive variety of tools for their trades, offering kids insight into what makes up real occupations as they engage in pretend play. Add to that the fact that Mighty World vehicles can swap suspensions and engines and you have a toy with some serious depth. Mighty World's HazMat unit is a great example of this unique line's potential; the company also makes vehicles and figures for a variety of public service sectors, including construction, police, and EMS, as well as adventure playsets with explorers, archaeologist mummy-hunters, and the like. | $15-$70, Amazon.com


Down on the Farm Barn and Stable: A dollhouse alternative for the horsey set, Safari Ltd's barn and stable is well-made, attractive, and inviting, opening on a hinge like a traditional folding dollhouse. One side of the barn has an open coop for chickens, pigs, and cattle, with a big double sliding door for them to get in and out. The other has stables for horses. Above it all is a full loft. | $130-$150, Amazon.com


Wow Toys: Wow's chunky, PVC-free vehicles are powered by battery-free friction motors and feature an unusual level of detail and charm for toys for three-year-olds. Flip 'n Tip Fred is a great example of how thoughtfully-designed these early pre-K play sets can be. | $12-$55, Amazon.com

Honorable Mentions: Anamalz, GeoTrax, Plan Toys Eco Town, Sprig Dolphin Adventure Play Set

Best Building Toys

Plan Toys Construction Set: Our favorite "construction set and tool kit," after surveying and using nearly all major brands' offerings in this area. All of the pieces are well-machined and fit together smoothly, which is saying something when you're making nuts, bolts, and matching counter-threads in rubber wood. The screwdriver is a nice bit of functional design in itself; the shaft's diameter is the proper width for a small hand, so it's just a straight stick with a flat head for screwing. | $30-$60, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Tree Branch Blocks: We cannot overstate how much play value Z has received from these deceptively simple blocks. Beautiful, well-sanded, and including a variety of sizes, Tree Branch Blocks are the kind of toy a child picks up and can instantly make use of. | $30-$80 CAD, NaturalPod | ZRecs review

Honorable mentions: Wedgits, ZoobMover, Bonz

Best Toddler Toys

Plan Toys Woodpecker Walker: A simple but whimsical wooden walker that rewards steps with the pecking of wooden birds against a platform. Made with sustainably harvested rubber wood and non-toxic vegetable dyes, it offers a gentle, joyful alternative to noisy electronics as you celebrate your toddler’s early upright expeditions around your home. | $65-$85, Amazon.com


Click Clack Ball Track: Haba’s classically modern Click Clack Ball Track is perfect for standing or seated play. Wooden balls with bright, water-based paints and details roll at fluctuating speeds down a curved track past obstacles and through holes to the levels below. The track features a cute cityscape and a switch to send balls along one of two short sections of the path. | $120, Amazon.com


Plan Toys Percussion Set: Made of organic rubber wood with non-toxic, zero-emission glues and nontoxic dyes, Plan Toys' Percussion Set offers a variety of sound-generating devices in a bright, cheerful play set. Durable, colorful, and fun. | $26-$40, Amazon.com

Best Outdoor Toys

Sprig Hollow: Outdoor play figures get an overhaul with Sprig's durable, attractive, and imagination-fueling Sprig Hollow play sets made of recycled plastic and reclaimed wood. DuneBug's Sand Truck is one of the best sandboxa vehicles we've seen, and other play sets create a full pretend play environment for use inside and out. | $9-$20, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Green Toys Jump Rope: The perfect first jump rope. | $10, Amazon.com


Kettler Balance Bike: Balance bikes offer a way of teaching kids how to balance on a bike that is the direct opposite of the American preference for training wheels, and it works better. Kids learn to balance before they learn to go fast, and their abilities increase as their balance does. Kettler's lightweight aluminum and plastic balance bikes, now available in cute themes, helped teach our daughter Z to ride her "big girl bike," which she used without training wheels for the first time this weekend. | $93-$120, Amazon.com | ZRecs review

Honorable Mentions: Green Toys Dump Truck, Hyper Dash

Don't miss our other 2009 Holiday Gift Guides for our favorite soft toys, kitchen play, and educational toys.

All items in this gift guide were either purchased by us, donated by companies for review, or used and evaluated by us at industry trade shows. Any items received prior to our Keep No Stuff policy's implementation and which we chose to keep were declared as income on our taxes; any from this year we choose to keep will be paid for through donations to charitable organizations. Most links above are Amazon.com affiliate links, which support our work at ZRecs through reader purchases.

For today's installment in our series of five 2009 holiday gift guides, we'd like to focus on an area that is near and dear to our heart, and one some folks might think of as two entirely different things: Kitchen gear, cookbooks, and other products to help you and your young child enjoy cooking together, and pretend play items that help kids pretend they are already master chefs. In our experience, the two run together seamlessly if you let them, and an enthusiasm for one will feed an engagement with the other. So we've collected twelve of our favorite items here that cover that spectrum - from products that will fascinate and engage your child's attention while playing in the kitchen while you cook, to products to engage kids from ages 3 to 8 or so with actual cooking, to toys that can help ensure that they regularly engage with the idea of preparing and serving fresh, healthy food. Bon appetit, or as we so enjoyed saying during a brief residence in Holland, eet smaakelijk ("ate smack-a-luck")!


Round cookie-cutter set: No animal shapes can beat an exhaustive set of sized round cookie and dough cutters, and your drawer space will thank you, too. These are also great for making pretend cookies out of play dough - an invaluable "pretend" cooking activity. | $15, Amazon.com

DIY spice smelling and tasting set: Buy a dozen or so acrylic magnifying boxes ($1.50 each, $5 shipping) and an unfinished cigar box ($4). Use non-irritating spices from your own spice rack, supplemented, if desired, with additional spices from your local grocery store. Select spices with dramatically different smells, spices with familiar smells, spices with varying textures, and spices in their whole form (cinnamon bark, cardamom, star anise, vanilla bean), cutting any larger items into segments small enough to fit in one of the 1"x1" boxes. Place in the cigar box, glue in a folded cardboard spacer if desired to fill up any unused space lengthwise, widthwise, or both, and either label it yourself or save that for a fun activity with the kid. Suitable for children ages 3 and up. | About $30, various sources


LillyBean play food: The best felt play food we've found. | $5 and up, LillyBeanMarket.com


Mollie Katzen's kids' cookbooks: The best cookbook series for prescoolers we've ever seen. Pretend Soup, Salad People - anything by Mollie Katzen written for kids is great. Not only are the recipes simple, flavorful, and fun for kids - many, many kids' cookbooks achieve that goal - but the recipes' directions are largely image-based, almost like comics, so kids can follow them much more independently. | $12-$15, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Imagiplay Veggie Cutting Set: We love Imagiplay's version of "cuttable" fruit and vegetables. They're similar to those made by Melissa & Doug, but we trust their paint sourcing better than Melissa & Doug's, which we have some questions about. Imagiplay also use sustainable rubber wood for their toys. | $25, Imagiplay

Handstand Kids cookbooks: Handstand Kids makes great regional cuisine cookbooks suitable for kids from ages 5 or 6 to 9 or 10. We've used and enjoyed their Mexican Cookbook and Italian Cookbook, and each cookbook in the series comes in a "pizza box" package with a kids' chef hat, which Z wears at every opportunity. | $25, Amazon.com


Green Toys Cooking & Dining Set: Green Toys' excellent Cooking and Dining set includes a stock pot and lid, a skillet, four plates, four bowls, four cups, and four sets of knives, forks, and spoons, all made of 100% recycled plastic milk jugs. Green Toys has also split the set into two smaller sets this year, a Dish Set and Chef Set, | $30, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Hand beater: Forget little whisks. Hand egg beaters are where it's at - easier for kids to use, fun to turn, and downright fascinating to watch. Let your child mix any liquids that needs mixing, and don't be surprised when they ask to play with it when there's nothing to cook. Best under supervision until age 4 or so, then all systems go. | $11, Amazon.com


The Manga Cookbook: Japanese cooking in a kid-friendly format. A magical way to get jaded preteens and teenagers back into the kitchen with challenging, interesting food presented in a format they can latch onto. Our teenage cousin gave it two thumbs up. | $11, Amazon.com


Yummyfun Kooking: The world's best cooking show for kids. Think Pee Wee's Playhouse in the kitchen, with a host that will not annoy anyone. Must be seen to be believed.| $15, Amazon.com | ZRecs review


Tovolo ice cream sandwich molds: As if ice cream sandwiches needed to be made any more fun. We've used these, they work great. They also offer a Christmas set. | $12, Amazon.com


Aeromax Chef Suit: We have handled Aeromax dress-up outfits extensively at trade shows in multiple years, and have always been impressed with their quality. Aeromax's chef outfit is a great way to encourage kids' pretend play in a play kitchen and to put on for real cooking as well. | $40, Amazon.com

Looking for more gift ideas? Check out our other holiday gift guides, including our 2008 gift guides, which feature about 90% unique and 100% relevant recommendations, in the links at the foot of this post (on our website, RSS and email folks).

All of the items in this gift guide are either things we have owned for a long time, or things we have handled at trade shows and did not receive samples of. We hope you have discovered something your child will love!

Welcome to the second installment of ZRecs' five-part 2009 holiday gift guide, which will feature 12 of our favorite items of the year in each of five sections of our fantasy kids' superstore. Although we believe that all play is educational, today we'll be highlighting twelve exceptional toys, games and other play items focused on helping kids learn and grow in specific areas. As with our Cuddly Creatures section, all items here have been used in our home or handled extensively at trade shows.


Treasure Chests: Activity kits containing reading material, craft projects, toys and games for young children that explore history and culture, Treasure Chests are suitable for kids ages five and up. We own several Jeremiah bought back in the 1990s to save for when he had children - which is a good thing, because at least some of them have been discontinued. Don't miss out. | $15, Amazon.com


Plan Toys Animal Memo: The best designed memory game for toddlers we've seen, Plan Toys' Animal Memo has gently curved bottom edges to allow young children to pick them up. Beautiful, sustainable, and made to last. | $25, Amazon.com


Little Labs: Science kits for an underserved age group in science play - kids ages 5 to 7 - Little Labs cover an engaging range of topics and offer several well-planned activities and experiments in a small package. | $25, Amazon.com


Number Dwarves: One of our favorite games since Z first began learning her numbers, Number Dwarves has creative potential you wouldn't think was possible in an "educational" game. Also, those little gnomes are cute enough to eat. | $35, Amazon.com


Eco Tots Easel: The most compact and attractive art easel you could buy is also one of the most sustainable - all Eco Tots furniture is made from 100% formaldehyde-free, FSC certified plywood. | $140-$160, Amazon.com


Spy Gear Evidence Kit: The first piece of Spy Gear equipment we can heartily recommend, the Evidence Kit contains a ten-piece fingerprint kit, 30x magnifier, and related tools in a spy toolbox and make gathering "evidence" a fascinating activity for around the house and beyond. Think of it as a simple science kit with a storyline; young kids can enjoy it too with parental assistance. | $25, Fat Brain Toys / Amazon.com


Ancient Creature Cards and Giant Evolution Timeline: Startup Charlie's Playhouse has the mission of educating kids about evolution. Their detailed timeline (available in poster and playmat form) and accompanying creature cards are a great way to help kids appreciate the distant past, and helps them appreciate the diversity of life that exists around us today.


P'kolino Puzzle Stacker: The first major improvement to a pole stacker in decades, and a toy that will see years of use. Gorgeous, all-wood construction with tons of play potential. | $35, Amazon.com


Mr. Mighty Mind: Tangrams for young children that help them develop visual and spatial abilities. Fun and goal-oriented play. | $10, Fat Brain Toys


Trapecolo Color Design Tiles: Made of sustainable bamboo with non-toxic, water-based paints, these design tiles will offer hours of pattern-building fun. | $25, Amazon.com


LeapFrog Tag Activity Cards: We are constantly debating whether these card decks might be an even better format for LeapFrog's Tag Reader than our favorite Tag books. Each card in their Land Animals and Birds and Sea Creatures sets includes snippets of text and pen-driven audio narration about an animal, including habitat, appearance, and behaviors, and includes a marker indicating whether the animal is endangered or not, a feature that made a big impression on a four-year-old Z. | $9, Amazon.com


Wildcraft!: A highly educational and entertaining game for kids 5 and up (we have played it with Z since she was four), Wildcraft! teaches kids (and adults) about the basics of herbal remedies for everything from cuts and scrapes to stomach upset and fatigue. A unique and engaging introduction to a topic families may then be inspired to explore in greater depth elsewhere, it also has a sense of drama (imaginary scraped knees) that will resonate with young children. | $30, Amazon.com

Stay tuned for our kitchen, family play, and classic toys "top 12s" in the days to come!

All items for this review, with the exception of Number Dwarves and Wildcrfaft, which were received and reviewed prior to the institution of our Keep No Stuff Policy, and the Treasure Chests sets and LeapFrog products, which were purchased with our own money, were either received from companies and will be donated to charity or otherwise given away, or were viewed and handled at industry trade shows. How's that for disclosure, FTC?

Welcome to the first in a series of 2009 ZRecs Gift Guides. Over the course of five themed sections, we'll share 60 of our favorite gift ideas from the hundreds of toys and other children's products we've evaluated and used over the past calendar year. Today, we'd like to focus on our twelve favorite lines of soft friends, the most-loved and at times most engaging toy category in our own household.


Woodours Daddy and Baby Plush Playset: Woodours dolls pack multiple textures, sounds, and patterns into eclectic designs that are fresh, colorful, and full of surprises to engage your child’s interest from early toddlerhood on. Our favorite, the Daddy and Baby Bear set, has soft toys that fit in fabric slots on each of “Daddy’s” hands, a squeaky nose, a colorful satchel with a crinkly fish and vibrating motor, and a small bear who fits inside Dad’s belly and has a rattle in his own. Kooky, cuddly, and just plain brilliant. | $30-$50, Amazon.com


Teddes: Funky, friendly, or downright freakish, the folks behind Teddes have mastered the field of sculptural, textural, artist-designed, short-run dolls - and no, we didn't know that was a field either, until they showed up. | $30-$100, Tedde.com


Folkmanis puppets: Folkmanis makes animal puppets with a level of craft, detail, and specificity that is unusual in children's plush toys. This 18" Great Horned Owl, for example, has moveable wings, leather claws, and eyes that blink; smaller animals, or one of their gorgeous dragon puppets, would be equally welcome. | $10-$50, Amazon.com


Haba Fabric Ball Miniland: You may have heard rumors that the Earth was resting on a tortoise, but it's actually suspended in the cosmic ether by your inquisitive, drooling baby. Think of Haba's recent addition to their extensive line of soft fabric infant and toddler toys as your child's first town play mat, rolled up into a portable, machine-washable object with one less side. | $20, Amazon.com


Super Zeros: Ze Super Zeroes each have a super power, but a super defect to go with it - in his case, it's a fear of heights to go along with his high-climbing abilities. The series also features a super-swimming hippo who hates to get wet, a zebra who is great at hiding but always gets lost, and a few others. Each design combines multiple textures and patterns of fabric and has a removable cape, and their oversized head makes these 9" wonders instantly lovable. Z has fallen utterly in love with this silly little monkey, and we haven't even told her his story yet. | $25, Amazon.com


Organic Sleepy Bear: This off-white, organic bear is wearing a removable organic khaki Sleepy Wrap baby carrier and can carry her infant in front or in back. The materials are soft, even luxuriant, and the baby bear nestles easily into its carrier. It's easy to forget how much young girls love playing with mother-and-child pairs; the 12" Organic Sleepy Bear is like a kangeroo and joey, updated for the babywearing generation. | $20, Heavenly Hold


Food Chain Friends: They came, they saw, they started eating each other. Food Chain Friends are the carnivorous nesting dolls of the softie world, and they'll gorge their way into your child's heart - figuratively speaking, of course. Seriously, these dolls couldn't be cuter. Your kid will go nuts. | $20-$50, Amazon.com


Tuckins: Thin stuffed animals that fit into pillow-like beds make, among other things, fantastic dolls to sleep next to. With a pig, dog, monkey, bear, cat, and bunny to choose from, their innocence and simple charm will win you and your child over faster than you can say goodnight. | $15, OddDoll.com


Kathe Kruse Mini It's Me Doll: Kathe Kruse Waldorf dolls are handmade in Germany from all-natural materials. Their 15" dolls, also handcrafted from wool, mohair, sand, and other natural materials, run a staggering $175; these 10" dolls, many of them fairy-themed, are a relative bargain, and the brand's unequalled commitment to handmade quality shines through. | $70, Amazon.com


Veggies in a Crate: Under the Nile's anthropomorphic, organic cotton vegetables (and fruit!) are a soft toy classic. | $25, Amazon.com


MiYim Organic Plush Fairytale Collection: MiYim's series of 9.5" dolls are made of organic and natural cotton, dyed with natural mineral dyes in soft colors, and lovingly dressed in cute little shirts, dresses, and overalls that happen to be made of hemp. Between the blue elephant, pink hippo, coral bunny, green frog, and white monkey, it's hard to pick one - and at $20 apiece, you won't have to. | $20, Amazon.com


Let them design their own: A credit at the Xoddo.com store for a full-sized (9") doll will run you around $33, shipping included, and it is pretty much the only stuffed creature a child over the age of eight is guaranteed to love, because they'll design it themselves. You can print the gift card on your own printer, or have them mail it to you, and a 5.5" doll option and combo of the two are offered for $23 and $50, respectively. | $23-$50, Xoddo.com

Coming up

We'll publish the next four sections of our gift guide over the next several days here on ZRecs:

• Family Play


• Classic Toys (And Some That Should Be!)


• In the Kitchen


• Educated Kid

We'll follow them up with even narrower lists of recommendations over the remaining weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday. If you like what you see, please share our links with others using the social bookmarking links or email option below!

We received many of the soft toys above from their manufacturers for review. Others we handled in person at trade shows but did not receive review samples of them. All that we did receive will be donated to charity, except one of our daughter's choice, which we will pay for in accordance with our Keep No Stuff policy. Which toy would your child pick?

Want one last chance to win something from our gift guides? How about your pick from the following:

1. A Lotuspad yoga mat in the winner's choice of size and color (kid, anything but the lovely purple; or adult, any style), along with a HuggerMugger paper yoga mat bag (pink).


2. An OXO Candela Tooli night light set


3. A set of inspired kids' entertainment, including the the Faerie Tale Theatre box set, the book and CD set One Night In Frogtown, the Putumayo Kids' CD Dream Songs and Night Songs from Belgium to Brazil and Bill Harley's music/spoken word Yes to Running DVD

Tomorrow is the last day for free Super Saver shipping from Amazon.com if you'd like to get items before Christmas. Thursday is the last day for standard shipping. Sunday is the last full day for two-day shipping orders to arrive by Christmas eve.

As for the Lotuspad, they make a wonderful gift, and they're on sale now at great prices. Lotuspad's Katy Downey says she can safely take orders through the end of the week for UPS Ground. She can also ship orders via Priority Mail.

We got a lot of great gift suggestions for baby and new mom gifts in our Polliwogged Gift Guide promotion, but will hang onto them for a new gift guide in the coming months. The last month has just flown by!

To enter to win one of the great prizes described above, comment on this post with the name of the gift guide that featured the item you'd like to be entered to win. Do not name the item itself - just the gift guide it appeared in. This should be easy to figure out if you've already checked out our gift guides, but you might want to check to make sure - if you get it wrong, your entry isn't valid. Same goes for if you name the item itself and spoil the fun - doing so will invalidate your entry and probably get it deleted to boot. You can find links to our holiday gift guides in the righthand column of Z Recommends.

Do keep in mind that higher-value items are likely to attract more entries. Picking something you'd like that has a slightly lower value might help your chances of winning a great prize.

We'll accept entries for this giveaway until 11:59 p.m. CT on Friday. We'll announce winners for this and a whole host of recent giveaways - including two Singer Curvy sewing machines, a pair of Isabooties baby shoes, and two custom-etched Modofly Moleskine journals - on Monday.