What are your favorite manipulatives, educational toys/puzzles/games, etc.?

[gandpsmommy]

And what is your favorite website/catalog for purchasing these?

[Elisabeth in IL]

I just purchased Mighty Minds on the advice of my 10 yods's reading tutor. Mighty Minds helps with visual processing. She also recommended the card game Set. Mighty Minds has been a hit with my other 2 sons as well as the 10 yo but we haven't done much with Set yet. I purchased them at our local educational store so I don't know where you can get them on-line.

[neesek]

By far, my favorite educational toy has been the Leapster. My ds got his at the age of 4, my dd at 3.5, and they both still play with them a lot. Over the years, we have kept adding cartridges as they have gotten older, so now we have nearly all of them. This is SO good for car trips, doctor visits, any time they need to sit still for a while. I really can't say enough good things about it. Both my ds and dd learned their letter sounds by watching the Leapster cartridge version of "The Letter Factory."

[myfunnybunch]

My boys are 7,5,3. Toys that appeal to a broader age range, the toys that are pulled off the shelf most often:

Counting/weighted bears
Wooden USA puzzle
Ravensberger games
Flying paper activity box (http://myfunnybunch.blogspot.com/2008/01/activity-box-flying-paper.html) (I made it myself.)
Balance scale
Cuisenaire rods
A geoboard we made ourselves
Memory game

Our favorite catalogs are Magic Cabin (http://www.magiccabin.com/) and Hearthsong (http://http://www.hearthsong.com). Favorite place to browse, the teacher supply store.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We love puzzles - from the knobby toddler ones to the 1000 piece plus ones! You can wonderfully cheap puzzles at thrift stores. (I've been known to open them up and count the pieces!)

I like the "Traffic Jam" logic puzzle and related puzzles.

Chess.

Discovery toys has some nice games/activities for younger kids. I like these pattern blocks with cards called "Design Discoveries". I've seen very similar pattern blocks/card sets by other companies too.

[JudoMom]

No Stress Chess (http://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-1091-Stress-Chess/dp/B0007Q1IO4)
Blink (http://www.amazon.com/Out-of-the-Box-92222/dp/B000GYSZ98)
Silly Story Maker (http://www.fisher-price.com/us/products/product.asp?id=37186)
Scrambled States 2 (http://www.amazon.com/Gamewright-Scrambled-States-Card-Game/dp/B000BXHJDC)
Blokus (http://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-2995-Blokus-Strategy/dp/B00011F5DK)

We also have a card game called Spell-ominos that I picked up at the Teacher Supply Store last year. It's by Trend, I think, but I couldn't find it online.

My boys also enjoy anything to do with patterns. They like playing with the pattern blocks, and we have something called Pattern Play that I picked up at the Teacher Supply Store.