Kids love toys that they can twist, turn, and interact with; Twisterz capitalizes on this love of manipulation with their new line of educational toys. They’re ideal for keeping kids occupied in the car — no noisy electronics, no batteries to replace — and they develop kids’problem-solving, reading, and spelling skills as well as their hand-eye coordination. The colorful, durable plastic cylinders have removable rings that kids can twist and turn and line up to create stories, match pictures to letters, or make up words. My nearly 6-year-old loves the Story Starter (she lines up the cylinders and then reads them all, one after the other, to create a complete story, instead of using the sentences as a springboard), and both she and my not-quite-4-year-old got a kick out of the Word Builder, which lets kids string letters together to create their own two- to six-letter-long words (it’s great for practicing phonics). The Alphabet Matcher was also a hit, and would be fun for even younger kids as well.

$12.99 (Story Starter, Word Builder) and $18.99 (Alphabet Matcher) at Oompa.

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