Chicago – VTech (www.vtechkids.com), a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children, today announced that its Record & Learn KidiStudio™, an industry standout this awards season, is a winner in Good Housekeeping‘s 2014 Best Toy Awards, featured in the magazine’s December issue. Geared for ages three to six, the Record & Learn KidiStudio goes beyond a simple musical keyboard, letting kids alter their voices with different melodies and indulge their inner DJ with sound effects and tempo-changing features.
“The Record & Learn KidiStudio helps children discover and develop a lifelong love of music through an instrumental toy with unsurpassed play value,” said William To, President, VTech Electronics North America. “This product epitomizes what we strive for – to create educational, age-appropriate toys that keep kids entertained and learning. We are thrilled that Good Housekeeping recognizes these qualities.”
The Record & Learn KidiStudio lets kids perform like a rock star! Kids can explore a variety of musical instruments, adjust the tempo and sing-along to the music while recording a musical masterpiece to share with family and friends. The light-up keyboard lets them follow the lights and learn to play their favorite melodies. Kids can choose an instrument and use the keyboard to play that instrument’s different sounds, or press the cymbal or tap along on the drum to add a beat to the song. They can even pretend to be a DJ with the turntable sound effect and speed up or slow down the tempo to match their style. Sing along to 20 melodies in Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz and Techno styles with a real voice-changing microphone. (MSRP: US$39.99, ages 3-6 years).
The engineers in the Good Housekeeping Institute screen all toys launched throughout the year, pick those that have the most play potential and evaluate contenders to make sure they meet industry standards for safety and don’t shatter into small pieces that can become choking hazards for young children, when dropped on a Drop Tester. Then, over a two-week period, nearly 100 children are brought into Good Housekeeping’s labs to test toys and give their feedback. Criteria for selecting winning toys focus on design, construction, skill- and imagination-building potential, and, ultimately, the fun factor.
“The Record & Learn KidiStudio captivated our kid testers and we’re thrilled to name it as one of our 2014 Best Toy Awards,” said Miriam Arond, director of the Good Housekeeping Institute at the Hearst Tower in New York City.
VTech works closely with a panel of children’s learning specialists on the development of its infant and preschool learning products. Each one of the Expert Panel members specializes in developmental or educational fields for children from birth through nine years of age. VTech and the Expert Panel collaborate to ensure their products and content deliver the best learning experience possible for every child at every stage of development.
Each child grows at a different pace mentally, emotionally and physically, and has different needs as they grow through various life stages. Insight from these developmental and education experts allows VTech to provide parents with guidelines and recommendations to help them make informed choices. VTech delivers an expansive selection of toys that are appropriate for their child’s particular age and stage and to accompany them as they continue to grow and reach new developmental milestones. These recommendations have been compiled into a Milestones resource, which can be found at www.vtechkids.com/milestones.
For more information about the complete VTech product range, please visit www.vtechkids.com.
About VTech
VTech is a world leader in age-appropriate and developmental stage-based electronic learning products for children. As a pioneer in the learning toy category, VTech develops high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children’s development and make learning fun. With a rich, almost 35 year history, VTech has not only established itself as a learning authority but also consistently remains at the forefront of innovation with multiple award-winning products such as the InnoTab® MAX, its first children’s learning tablet with Android™ learning content, Kidizoom® Smartwatch, the first smartwatch for kids, InnoTab® 3S, MobiGo®, V.Reader® and V.Smile®. The Learning Lodge®, VTech’s comprehensive app store, features a robust library of more than 800 educational and entertaining games, e-Books, music and videos with engaging age-appropriate content across the widest variety of curricula, with content expanding to offer even more titles. The company also has a broad range of award-winning infant and preschool products available in 24 different languages worldwide, with more than 100 new products introduced every year. In order to further strengthen VTech’s position as a learning authority, the company’s Expert Panel, with esteemed experts in reading, language arts, science, math and child development, consult on new product introductions and Learning Lodge content.
VTech Electronics North America, LLC is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. VTech Electronics Ltd. is headquartered in Hong Kong with distribution globally. VTech is the global leader in electronic learning products from infancy to preschool.
For more information on VTech’s additional product lines, visit www.VTechKids.com, www.facebook.com/VTechtoys on Facebook or follow @VTechToys on Twitter.
About Good Housekeeping
Founded in 1885, Good Housekeeping magazine (www.goodhousekeeping.com) reaches nearly 24 million readers each month. In addition to the print title, there is The Good Housekeeping Institute, the consumer product evaluation laboratory of Good Housekeeping magazine. Founded in 1900 and continuing today with the same mission, the Institute is dedicated to improving the lives of consumers and their families through education and product evaluation. Only products evaluated by the Good Housekeeping Institute can be accepted for advertising in the magazine, and thereby become eligible to display the Good Housekeeping Seal, the hallmark that provides assurance to readers that the products advertised in the magazine are backed by a two-year limited warranty against being defective, with specified exceptions. In 2009, the Green Good Housekeeping Seal was introduced as an environmental overlay to the primary Seal. It offers consumers guidance to help them choose products that are exercising environmental responsibility on a wide range of criteria. In addition to its U.S. flagship, Good Housekeeping publishes 10 editions around the world. Hearst Magazines is a unit of Hearst Corporation, one of the nation’s largest diversified media and information companies. With 21 titles in the U.S., Hearst is the leading publisher of monthly magazines in terms of total paid circulation (AAM 1H 2014) and reaches 83 million adults (Spring 2014 MRI; includes HGTV prototype). Follow Good Housekeeping on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and on the Inside the Institute blog.
