The gifts you give to your child can easily have both an educational component and a high fun quotient. The following games, toys and books teach a wide range of skills and content, from abstract reasoning to scientific investigation, from artistic exploration to the history of the American Constitution.

For Children in Kindergarten through Third Grade

Tub Tunes Water Flutes
The Exploratorium $11.90
Children combine music and science with this colorful toy, all within the cozy confines of the bathtub. Kids adjust the pitch of the flutes by filling them with bathwater, then use the waterproof music sheets to play a song. Mark Giberson, director of Museum Stores at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, is a personal fan of the Water Flutes. “They’re great for this age group. It’s very educational and lots of fun. Plus the inventor of the toy grew up in San Francisco and said he got the inspiration for the toy from the Exploratorium.”

SET: The family game of visual perception
SET Enterprises $12.00
Kids love to play SET! A card game that uses strategy and abstract reasoning, SET is also touted as a great way to prepare for the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) tests. The game involves applying rules of logic to identify a set of three cards from a spread. “I’ve played SET with the kids and I like the kind of thinking they had to go through,” says Marcie Wollesen, a third-grade teacher in San Francisco, California. “It makes kids look at attributes, and what goes together and what doesn’t.” Mensa, the high IQ society, lists SET as one of its most popular games.

Magnetic Mosaics
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art $24.00
The art of making mosaics, or pictures made by arranging colored stones or tiles, is an ancient art form that dates back to ancient Greece, nearly 2,400 years ago, and reached its height during the Roman Empire. Now your child can spend hours creating beautiful masterpieces of her own. The kit comes with non-toxic foam magnets, a square playing surface, bags for organizing the pieces, and a large color sheet that illustrates the history of mosaics.

Rainbow Makers
The Exploratorium $26.90
This decorative toy teaches scientific concepts and does it with an aesthetic flair. Place the Rainbow Maker in any window that gets good sunlight and the crystal, while being slowly turned by the Rainbow Makers’ solar powered motor, will throw moving rainbows around the room. This toy demonstrates the physics of light refraction and solar power, and at the same time creates a sense of joy and wonder at seeing rainbows dance across the walls.

For Kids in Fourth through Seventh Grade

Pixel Blocks
The Exploratorium Five sets to choose from, $21.90 to $59.90
The Exploratorium’s Mark Giberson recommends Pixel Blocks for kids 9 to 12 years old. “Pixel Blocks are like a construction toy, but they’re tiny square pieces of color that can fit together either flat or three dimensionally. You can make all kinds of things out of them. But one of the neat things this company does is that you can email them a photograph and they’ll send you back what it would take to make a version of that photograph with Pixel Blocks.”

Coda
Winning Moves Games $12.95
Parents can help their kids develop deductive reasoning with this game of code breaking. Coda may seem simple at first glance, but everyone’s brain will get a good workout. “I’ve had a lot of fun playing it with the younger members of our board game club,” says Danielle Brown, manager of Game*Alot Hobby Games in Santa Cruz, California. “It’s great for teaching logic and the process of elimination.” Coda was winner of the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval for 2004.

"Longman Dictionary of American English"
Amazon.com $29.95 (hardcover)
This dictionary was originally designed for the English learner, but is now being embraced for all young students because of its easy to understand definitions. With a defining vocabulary of only 2,000 words, your child will never have to look up the words in a definition again. Peggy Mannion, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in San Francisco, California, endorses the Longman Dictionary. “This is the best dictionary I’ve ever seen. It’s so simple, it gives examples, and it uses the words in a sentence. I heartily recommend it. It would make a great gift!”