Raising Kids Who Care: Toys That Titilate as Well as They Teach

Teaching your kids to do what’s right—from recycling and collecting canned goods, to sitting up straight and saying please and thank you—used to mean encouraging your children to be, well, a tad too earnest. But this year’s crop of do-gooder toys can actually help you turn out more well-mannered, more eco-sensitive, and yes, even more culturally-conscious little Americans—without turning your children into total snores.

Take Curious George—that mischievous monkey (and by the way—how come that little punk never ages?) teaches tots how to become good neighbors in a new game called Super Helper (retail $12.99, I Can Do That! Games, icandothatgames.com). Players flip over three cards to discover who could use an extra hand at, say, the local firehouse or—hallelujah for moms—in the living room to tidy up. Designed for 3-to-8-year-olds, Super Helper’s ball bouncing, dice tumbling, coin flipping, and prize stickers make the game virtually boredom-proof—all while sneaky parents teach their children the value and fun of pitching in to assist others. PS: The player who does the most to help out also wins the most points and—you guessed it—the whole game.

Rather globe gallop than monkey around? Give your kids a passport to another world by nabbing one of the international, multi-ethnic Karito Kids dolls and its accompanying storybook (MSRP $99.99, karitokids.com). I know, I know: In these economically precarious times, the price tag seems a bit steep—but it’ll ease the pocketbook pain to know that girls are encouraged to donate a portion of the doll’s retail price to a global children’s charity. And the dolls get bonus points for cultural accuracy: The dolls’ facial features are ethnically correct. Even for kids who are missing the humanitarian-aid gene, having a new pal from abroad is cool enough all by itself—whether that friend is China’s Wan Ling (at last, a doll that proudly touts its made-in-China heritage . . . ), Gia from Italy, or Piper Whelan (the newest hottie from Down Under).

Speaking of Australia, meet Bonza the Kola—a furry friend who is on our world’s most endangered species list. Enter Conservation International, the company that teamed up with Tales 4 Tomorrow to combine animal conservation with fun activities for kids. When a child buys any one of 16 plush toys made of soy and cotton (retail $19.99), the child also receives a donation code that, woila, magically grants the kid access to the website (tales4tomorrow.com). Once on the site, kids can play games, watch videos, and send Tale Mail to friends, and—drumroll please–select one of the four Endangered Species Programs to which 5 percent of the proceeds of their sale will be donated. So kids get the privilege of choosing where their dollars might serve best—be it in saving Tanzania’s big-eyed tree frog from extinction, or curbing the trade of wild tiger parts.

Got kids who totally don’t give a rip? Direct them to a peer who just happens to be our planet’s youngest eco-czar—a 4-year-old whose dad asked her to draw her version of an environmentally-friendly family. Dad Shai Adiram turned his daughter Dylan’s design into a line of vibrantly-colored stuffed animals called The GreeNees ($20 each for any one of the five family members, thegreenees.com. The product ties in with a book that came first: Every Father Thinks He Can Write a Children’s Book. In the story, The GreeNees do plenty of kvetching as they take on the challenge of teaching others to be green. Mr. GreeNee—lead fighter in the war on global warning, if you even believe global warming exists, that is—guides the family in doing everything from growing organic to using solar power. Says founding father Shai Adiram: "Our goal is to empower our daughter to actually care about the planet we all share,”

With 2009’s spate of do-gooder toys, any parent—from animal lovers to even those, like me, who just adore a cute-ola doll or two—can pass along the habit of civic participation. And as it turns out, doing something good can mean having gobs of fun.