Alphabet

Every evening when I come home, I am torn between rolling around on the ground with my toddler or getting her dinner on the stove. Now, I do both at once.

Melissa and Doug's magnetic letters ($10) allow her to learn her ABCs and colors while I start chopping. In between slicing and dicing, I look down to her and ask, "Where's your blue letter F?" She scrambles around, finds it and places it on the "board." I cheer her on and we both clap. Mission accomplished: fun and learning time spent together.

If you want your tot to be versed in several languages, introduce them to wooden blocks from Uncle Goose.
To learn about the bilingual baby blocks, read more

The Leapfrog Alphabet Pal is a cute toy caterpillar that's supposed to teach tykes the ABCs. Each of the caterpillar's 26 legs says a different letter of the alphabet. Kids press, play, and learn — but they're learning a little more than their ABCs! Listen in:

When celebs appear on Sesame Street, they've got to flex their ABCs. Comedian Richard Pryor had his own way of doing the alphabet thang without putting those kiddies to X, Y, Zzzzzz. . . Who knew the letters could have 'tude without a tune? This is fun.