Kids test toys, pick favorites at Indianapolis Children’s Museum

The kids have been polled and results are in for the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis’s 11th-annual Kid-Tested, Kid-Approved Toy Test.

Children were invited to test out all sorts of toys for different age groups, then asked to vote on their favorites, rating them on a scale of one to five.

“Those toys that score the highest are on the Top 10 list,” director of museum retail Robert Tate said.

Tate said each of the more than 40 competing toys was chosen at random from the museum shop. A trend he’s noticed in recent years is that children are drawn to the magnetic toys.

“Kids just love to play with magnets,” Tate said.

While children might be naturally attracted to the high-tech toys that light up and spin, Executive Director Cindy Hodges of the Bloomington Developmental Learning Center said simpler, more basic toys, like blocks, are often more educational.

“It’s basic; it’s the blocks and the balls and that sort of thing. There’s more teaching that can be done with the simpler toys,” she said. “We look for the basic toys, and then we build from there.”

The Center takes children who are six weeks to six years of age, and Hodges said each teacher chooses the toys for his or her own classroom. She said the children like to play with “real-life” toys, like play cell phones or keyboards, likely because they can imitate things they see “grown-ups” doing.

“They like to have the ‘real’ things,” Hodges said. “The kids just love to play with the keyboard.”

She also said price is a factor to consider. Rather than buy an Original Flying Turtle for about $80 (which came in first place), the center could purchase several different toys for the same price. There is also quality, especially destructibility, to consider, and the high-tech gadgets are likely to bite the dust long before a soccer ball.

Educational playthings can be found at WonderLab, where marketing director Louise Schlesinger said the museum shop stocks everything from toys and games to puzzles and brainteasers, usually related to current exhibits.

“We’re very careful to stock all kinds of things,” she said.

Schlesinger said the museum will present a special “Science of Toys” exhibit in 2011. However, because WonderLab is specifically focused on science, she said it is unlikely there will be a toy test at the museum any time soon.

“Children are our primary audience,” she said. “We’re kind of a different slant here because we are a science museum.”

Kid-Tested, Kid-Approved 2009 Toy Test Results

The Original Flying Turtle
Recommended for kids ages 3 to 12.
$79.95

The Ball of Whacks
Recommended for ages 8 and up.
$34.95

X-Ball
Recommended for ages 14 and up.
 $29.95

Magformers
Recommended for ages 6 and up.
Kits starting at $36.95.

Light Saber from the Star Wars The Clone Wars collection by Hasbro
Recommended for ages 4 and up.
$11.95

Scoot-n-Shoot Soccer
Recommended for ages 4 and up.
$17.95

Wahoo
Recommended for ages 3 and up.
$41.95

Q-Ba-Maze
Recommended for ages 5 and up.
Sets starting at $19.95.

LEGO King’s Castle Siege
Recommended for ages 7 and up.
$99.95

The Original Yo Baby Kick Flipper
Recommended for ages 3 and up.
$13.95