Banana Panda makes fun books, puzzles, and games for babies and kids — here are some of my toddler's favorites

I'm extremely impressed not only with the quality of each Banana Panda product but also with the learning opportunities they provide. From outer space to the human body to construction vehicles, Banana Panda games, puzzles, cards, and books cover a wide range of interests for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary-age children.

You won't be disappointed with a Banana Panda product — they're high quality, educational and, most importantly, fun.

The Forst Observation Puzzle is a large, 40-piece puzzle that depicts a detailed and colorful forest scene, which includes plants, animals, bugs, a pond, and more. Around the border of the puzzle, you'll find pictures of animals and small objects that kids can search for in the puzzle. This is a large puzzle with 4-by-3-inch pieces, making it an attainable challenge for older toddlers.

Once kids are ready to move on from peg puzzles and smaller jigsaw puzzles, this puzzle will be a fun challenge. With so many details in the picture, you can also work on vocabulary as you talk about the picture and help your child find the hidden objects depicted in the border. The hidden object border provides a fun additional challenge so your child doesn't get bored with the puzzle as soon as they finish putting it together.

This puzzle develops perception, concentration, visual memory, and vocabulary.

Suggested age: 3 years and older

Let's Play Animal Bingo consists of six boards and 24 animal tokens, and each token has a corresponding spot on one of the six boards. Each board has a different theme, including water, jungle, and underground. The animals are uniquely illustrated with fun props — for example, the owl is wearing a scarf and the butterfly a hat.

Because there is only one of each token, game play is slightly different from traditional bingo, but the concept is the same: Be the first to fill up your card. I'm a sucker for a family game, so this is probably my favorite Banana Panda product we tested. I also appreciate the unique opportunities for learning: I can teach my daughter about categorizing the animals into the type of home they live in, and since each token is slightly different from its matching animal on the board, I can also teach her about similarities and differences.

This game develops perception, concentration, and logical thinking. Because there can be a winner depending on how you play, kids also learn about winning and losing.

Suggested age: 2 years and older

The Suuuper Size Memory Game includes 12 pairs of animals for kids to match. The animals are vividly illustrated and easy to identify. To play the game with traditional rules, you'll place all 24 cards facedown and take turns flipping two cards over at a time, trying to find a match. Some of the animals in the game include a horse, pig, cow, and donkey.

In addition to playing with traditional rules, kids also enjoy using these cards to work on colors, animal names, animal sounds, and animal body parts. We also use these cards to help burn off some energy on days when we're stuck indoors. Because the cards are large and durable, one of our favorite ways to use them is as a jumping game. We spread them around the floor, I call out an animal name or sound, and then my daughter finds and jumps on the corresponding card. Another fun way to play with these cards is to hide one of each pair around the room for your child to search and find.

This game develops vocabulary, memory, concentration, and cognitive thinking.

Suggested age: 2 years and older

The Match the Baby Puzzles set is made of 12 large squares, each depicting a brightly colored animal. Within each parent animal, there is a circular cutout baby animal. The goal is for kids to match each correct baby and parent pair. Some of the animals include a sheep, a ladybug, a frog, and a bird.

Of all the products we tested, this one seemed to come easiest to my daughter. She loves babies, so she enjoys putting the small animal inside the larger animal parent. My favorite thing about this puzzle is that many of the babies are different colors than their respective parent, so kids have to really look at what the animal is and not simply rely on a matching color scheme. This also provides a great opportunity to learn about colors.

This puzzle develops manual dexterity, logical thinking, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.

Suggested age: 18 months and older

The Puzzle Pairs Animals set includes 10 colorful puzzles featuring illustrations of different animals, including a rabbit holding a four-leaf clover, a pig carrying a balloon, and a cat playing a guitar. Each puzzle consists of only two pieces, making it easy for little hands to grasp and put them together. The simplicity of these puzzles ensures young children have success pairing each animal's head with its body.

The first few times my daughter and I played, I only gave her four or five of the pairs to work with. Now I make it more difficult by mixing up all the pieces and adding in additional vocabulary when I talk about the puzzles, saying words like "snout," "mane," or "beak."

This set develops matching, concentration, hand-eye coordination, vocabulary, and logical thinking. It also promotes creativity and storytelling when kids make silly combinations using incorrect pairs.

Suggested age: 18 months and older

The My Day Take-a-Look Picture Book isn't traditionally bound but hangs on a ring, making it great for strollers, restaurant high chairs, or anywhere else you want to secure it. The pages can also be removed from the ring if you want to use them separately. Each page in the book depicts something your child might do in a typical day, like brush their teeth, put on their clothes, and eat food. Each page also has a few items for children to search for in the picture just like a miniature "I Spy" book.

One thing I really like about the illustrations is that they show the kids in the action of doing something because verbs (action words) are key for teaching kids to speak in sentences. Additionally, my daughter easily relates to the pictures in the book, and she enjoys searching for the hidden objects.

This book develops perception, memory, observation skills, and concentration.

Suggested age: 15 months and older