MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, December 6, 2009 7:48 am

MIchelle Dunkley, mother of four sons, tries out a musical toy at The Peanut Gallery. TMP/M. Willard

While the kids maybe asking for a Zhu Zhu hamster or the latest Barbie inspired by the Twilight movies, there are many other options out there for the Christmas season.

“Games are really big right now,” said Stacy Coleman, owner of The Peanut Gallery Toys at The Oaks.

She said Ezy Rollers, a riding toy; the similar Plasma Car, another riding toy; and animal rubber bands, which are like LiveStrong bracelets in the shape of animals, are selling like crazy at her Thompson Lane store.

“Anything with initials on it are big for girls this year,” she said, adding purses, backpacks and even name plates with initials are hot items this holiday season.

The PlaSmart Perplexus 3-D maze game is also moving off her shelves, she said.

It’s a clear ball, where the player navigates a ball bearing through a maze.

For parents who are looking for toys and games that are fun as well as help little brains grow, Deana Wildish, director of the Murfreesboro LearningRx brain-training franchise, has a few suggestions.

She said toys and games should be age appropriate and address any weaknesses the child may have.

“A parent whose child has attention deficit disorder, for example, would want to shop for toys that improve one or more of the three types of attention: sustained, divided and selective,” Wildish explained.

“Likewise, a child who struggles with reading would benefit from games that practice sound blending and segmenting,” she continued. “In addition, parents can use a stopwatch with some of these games – like Shape by Shape – to work on strengthening processing speed.”

Shape by Shape is a clever, multi-challenge puzzle game based on the ancient Chinese game of Tangrams, where players match the pieces to 60 different images on challenge cards.

Wildish also suggested other mind-building games like Jax Doodle Dice (age 6 and up), where players roll dice and then rearrange the designs on the dice to try to match a doodle on one of six colored cards. The first player to collect one card of each color wins.

For younger kids, she suggested Set Game, which has players review images on cards for logical sets like shapes, colors and number of images.

Or The Storybook Game for kids ages 2-4 years, where encourages children use their imaginations and draw one card at a time to create a unique story. Lunchbox tin includes 54 illustrated cards.

Games like these improve reasoning, attention span, visual processing, planning and problem solving.

Other top toys for 2009 also improve thinking in young ones, without seeming too educational.

According to hottoys2009.com, LeapFrog’s Text and Learn lets children send each other messages from the child-size smart phone-like device. But don’t worry, they can’t call China on it, only learn basic spelling and computer skills with it.

Lego is also making a come back this year, according to the Web site, with its remote-controlled and Bionicles sets.

The building sets spark creativity and imagination in youngsters of all ages.

Whatever the child’s interests, there is a toy out for a Christmas present.

But don’t wait too long, some of these are going fast.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.