When she was three, my oldest daughter was obsessed with puzzles. I was amazed at how quickly she could master even hundred piece puzzles. My middle daughter didn’t show the same early interest, but at not quite four, she is slowly developing a taste for puzzles. Ravensburger puzzles are our favorite. They are extremely well-made and come in a number of fun designs. I like this bright Tropical Frogs puzzle, which encourages an interest in nature as it helps children hone their fine motor and spatial reasoning skills. At 35 pieces, it is a great starter puzzle. You can purchase one for $8.99 at puzzleworld.com.

Enter to win a free year’s supply of diapers here! Sponsored by ViaCord and announced by WhattoExpect.com, the contest is every parent’s dream, considering the cost of diapering. Along with your entry, you’ll receive a Cord Blood Banking Information Kit, something many parent-to-be are probably curious about. Do I do it? Don’t I? The info is all there and you get to enter the contest. Smiles all around!

I bought one of these for my oldest daughter when they first came out. She was never very interested in it, and I ended up freecycling it about a year ago. Of course, not long after I found it a new home, my middle daughter began expressing interest in having a video game system that she could play. She isn’t quite ready for our Wii, but she has a pretty good sense of how games work. So, I decided to give this system another try and bought her one for Christmas. The system has advanced a bit since we last owned one. It now includes a microphone and a writing pad. I guess we’ll see how it works out soon. While I’m not sure how much stock I put in this as an “education” system, it definitely offers fun that is a little more education-minded than many other game systems. There also quite a few games available for the system, which retail for approximately $20 each. You can purchase the set for $39.97 at WalMart.com.

I always like to see wholesome toys that children can both enjoy and learn from. The Little People: A Little People Christmas is a full Nativity scene. It comes with animals, Joseph, Mary, Jesus in the manger, wise men, and the stable with an angel on top. Re-enacting the Christmas story with this play set, and teaching your children about the birth of Jesus, couldn’t be any easier. It makes a great decoration, because with so many decorations being off limits, children can really take joy in touching it. $24.99 at ToysRUs.com.

This fun puzzle is a great way to help your child learn about his body. Made in five layers, the puzzle shows different systems in the human body. Twenty-nine pieces encourage fine-motor development, too. We have a books similar to this one that my older daughter loved when she was younger. You can purchase one of these great learning toys for $28 at blackwagon.com. I think this would make a great holiday, birthday, or big brother gift.

They say it’s easiest for a child to start learning a second language when he or she is young. That’s the idea behind the Boca Beth line of products. Their multimedia products are designed to teach Spanish to children ages birth to eight. I know that the system works, as my son was introduced to it in preschool when he was three. In no time, he was dropping a few Spanish words at home, naming numbers and colors in Spanish, among other things. This Boca Beth Beginner Set contains a bilingual music CD, bilingual DVD, BOCA the puppet, a Boca Beth coloring book, and an instructional guide. For a price of just $31.99, this is a great way to start your child (or a child you love) on the road to learning another language. It makes a great holiday gift as well. Check out all the Boca Beth products at BocaBeth.com.

My (nearly 4 years old) son really likes reading the book “Trashy Town” by Andrea Zimmerman. He loves that he can interact (I read the line “Is the trash truck full yet?” and he reads, as I taught him, “N-O. No!”) with the book rather than just listening the whole time. He seems to have taken to the main character, Mr. Gilly, and likes the easily interpreted pictures. He even likes the ending, in which Mr. Gilly is the last thing to be cleaned up, in the tub. We borrowed it from the library but it’s available at Amazon.com for $12.23.

Many moms I know rely on kellymom.com for their baby questions. Not only is the site attachment parenting and breastfeeding friendly, the advice works for the modern mom who doesn’t want to just go with what everyone is telling her. It’s for the mom who wants a different point of view than the archaic versions she gets outside her home. Any site that lets me know that maybe it’s normal that my one-year-old isn’t sleeping through the night (rather than the pressure I’m getting from everyone else to let him cry it out) is a site that gets a thumbs up from me. It answered a lot of my nursing questions when I was a newbie to the whole process as well.

What do you do when you’re out and about and need first aid information quickly, RediMedic First Aid Videos for iPhone and Blackberry are designed just for such a situation. It’s a way to keep simple, easy-to-follow first aid information as close as your pocket. The RediMedic Videos include such first aid procedures important to everyone, especially moms and dads, as: choking, CPR, seizures, poisons, cuts and scrapes, and much more. Best of all, the app is just $5 to download for iPhone or Blackberry at RediVideos.com. That’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.

If you want to encourage your child to write, why not make it fun by allowing him or her to compose and send letters to friends and family members? I know I have a lot of fond memories of letter writing as a child. Even when I was too young to really write well, I enjoyed drawing pictures on postcards to friends, and dictating words to my mom. Fun stationery, like these Animals on Parade cards from Sukie, makes the process even more exciting. This set includes 16 cards and envelopes that can be used for just about any purpose. I think most children will be drawn to the colorful animal images. You can purchase a set for $12.95 at ittikid.com, and let the (educational) fun begin! The set would also make a great gift for a slightly older child.

One of the most important things to expose your child to, even at a very young age, is the alphabet. I remember handing alphabet blocks to my son at 6 months of age, and he began recognizing letters at age one, which is probably also part of the reason why he was an early reader. That’s why I really like this book Alphabet Soup by Michelle Ciarlo-Hayes. It’s a scavenger hunt that helps little ones learn letters in a whimsical way. You can purchase the softcover version of this book for $19.95 or $29.95 for the hardcover version at blurb.com.

If you’d like to help your child develop his or her computer and literacy skills in a safe, no-cost environment, check out the offerings at pbskids.org. Whether or not your child has watched the many educational programs that PBS offers, there are tons of activities here that are sure to capture the imagination. When my oldest daughter was in preschool, this was a favorite resource for printable coloring pages and online games. I am thinking that my little daughter will enjoy it now, and the site has really come a long way since my older daughter used it. Children can now watch short videos, listen to music,  read blog posts from favorite characters, and more. I highly recommend this site for all children. You might catch yourself enjoying it too.

For parents who are also iPhone or iPod Touch owners, People Operating Technology is currently offering its newest app for just $1.99. Designed for toddlers, it’s called Animal Fun Time. The game provides interactive musical flash cards of animals and promotes visual, tactile, and recognition skills. Go to http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=321592228&mt=8 to purchase.

We’ve been back to school for almost two weeks now. Apart from an unfortunate incident in which the new school principal mistook my poor fifth-grader for a first grader, it has been smooth sailing. I am enjoying settling back into the routine, but I am suffering withdrawals from school supply shopping. It all went by too quickly for me to enjoy it this year. Perhaps that’s why I still find myself browsing these things online! A recent discovery is this great “Desk Raft” from Haba. I’m partial to anything Haba, but this is extraordinary. Even my 10-year old girl would love this fun desk accessory. I think it would be a great way to make homework time fun. Everything is perfectly coordinated to the pirate theme, and there’s plenty of room to add your own accessories. You can purchase one of these for $32.99 at oompa.com. While it is a bit pricey, if you think about it as a great way to lure in a reluctant writer or homeworker-completer, it may be well worth its weight in gold.

VTech is releasing a new reading system called Bugsby, designed for ages 3-7 years. As we were one of the lucky households to be able to sample the system before it’s available in stores we received our Bugsby Reading System package in the mail today. My 5 year old son flew right into it and absolutely loved it. Although he can read pretty well on his own, he likes the design of the Bugsby pen that reads the story to the child, and he loved the books that came in the package, especially The Wonder Pets. The games that the child can play using the Bugsby pen and book are fun and more challenging, too, involving rhyming, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and more. I can’t pry this reading system out of his hands for a second, which I guess is a pretty good advertisement for the product! You can read more about the Bugsby Reading System at VTechKids.com, where the starter pack (including Bugsby pen and starter book) sells for $29.99. It’s a great learning tool and a way to make children eager to read.