BEST SELLERS

Or at least stop mold from growing on them with Brain Quest, a curriculum-based Q&A game for kids ages 6-8 (grades 1-3). Based on national and state standards for the stuff the little buggers need to know. Includes (150) English, social studies, math and science questions on (30) cards. Better go through them yourself first, just to make sure you're smarter than an 8-year-old.

No, these scales won’t tell you how much weight you’ve lost (you’re so disciplined!), but they will help you design something super-technical. Know why? ’Cause they’re architect’s and engineer’s scale rulers, from Helix, both (3)-sided in silver aluminum with color-coded sides. You pick: the architect’s with separate scales for 3", 1-1/2", 1", 3/4", 3/8", 3/16", 3/32" 1/2", 1/4" and 1/8" per foot, as well as a 12" ruler in 1/16" increments, all in U.S. standard; or the engineer’s, with 12", 1/10", 1/20", 1/30", 1/40", 1/50", 1/60" scales.

Add a door/drawer pull to any ferrous surface with this 1" dia x 1/4" thick neodymium disc in a polished sleeve with a 3/16" dia hole in a stand-off. Comes with a 1" slip-ring attached, and hangs on for 22 lbs worth. Plenty handy for hanging stuff from other stuff, too.

Nice rare-earth neodymium disk magnet, 1" dia, about the same as a quarter but over twice as thick at 4mm. Rare-earth magnets are permanent and powerful, and this one has approx 7 lbs pull, and always will. Comes with a galvanized metal keeper approx 2" dia so you don't lose it.

Very popular with elementary school teachers, these hardcover blank books let students create their own storybooks. (Middle-schoolers interviewing and making books for primary grade kids is a popular and civilizing project.) Also great for sketching, journaling or scrapbooking. Pure white blank covers with (14) sheets (28 pages) of 80-lb blank paper inside with a sewn-in binding. You pick the 6” x 8” books or the 8-1/2” x 11” versions.

We love multipurpose stuff and so do you, which is why you'll love this combination pen, stylus and phone stand. Rotate it to expose the pen point, and then slip your phone edge into the squiggle below the stylus tip. The pen shaft will become a leg for your phone to stand on, prompting some to ask, “Is that a pen in your pocket or do you just want your smart phone to sit up?”

InkJoy is the Paper Mate® name for a particularly smooth ink, but it’s the medium 1mm points that make these so pleasant to write with. Measure 6” long with black ink and pocket-clip caps. Our each is a pack of (8) pens.

Keep track of things with this (80)-page, 5” x 7” spiral notebook with white pages lined on both sides and stiff orange plastic covers. Front also has a clear plastic zip-lock envelope for whatever you need to carry with your notebook—we don't like to pry.

OK, chicken plucking and how to build an igloo, but you could combine them if you needed to. How To is a book of wilderness skills with instructions on over (75) things you might need to know someday, including the two above, plus opening coconuts with a rock, sheep-shearing, crossing deserts (with the associated treating a snakebite), surviving bear attacks, starting fires in the rain, cleaning fish, tanning hides, and shoeing horses. Takes a nice, fun look at desperation in the woods. We've already used a bunch in the office.

If you're devoted to explosions, and who isn't, you'll love the new expanded 2nd edition of William Gurstelle's Backyard Ballistics, now 25% longer, with 25% more ka-boomery. Still the go-to reference work for building rockets, cannons (carbide and potato), flingers, fire kites, electromagnetic pipe guns, tennis ball mortars, cleaner-bag balloons, ballistic pendula and petards. You simply can't have more fun with common household materials. The soft-cover, 210pp compendium includes detailed and illustrated instructions, parts lists and sensible ways not to be hoist on your own petard. Be careful out there.

"WE DARE YOU!" by Vicki Cobb is a 322-page book for children, filled with over (300) scientific challenges and experiments that can be done with ordinary household stuff. A savvy adult could introduce kids to science by betting them their allowance money on the afore-mentioned challenges, including making square eggs without using a square chicken, writing with potatoes, blowing frozen soap bubbles, and a whole bunch more.

Or singing suppositories. The pair is very magnetic, whatever they are. The 1-3/4" long prolate spheroids look like highly polished black hematites. Hold them an inch apart in your palm, toss 'em into the air and listen to them make a sound like the cyber-crickets. Or an electrocuted chicken. The manufacturer suggests keeping these mega-magnets away from computers, pacemakers, TV sets and credit cards.

Ohaus made giant bow calipers. Use them to measure outside diameters (like balls, boxes, your head, your waist), inside diameters (like cylinders and boxes). They are 15" long when folded and even have a graduated side in MM to measure depth. A very cool teaching tool. Includes a teaching aid instruction sheet. Max outside diameter is 25" (635Cm) 

Or maybe more losses than profits? Either way, you'll need red pens. Our each is a dozen Paper Mate® medium-point (0.1mm) ballpoint pens. Each measures 6” long with a cap and pocket clip. Red ink never goes out of style.

This is like a dry erase sticky note for your wall. Except for the sticky part. This 30” x 25” white board clings to your wall without leaving marks or sticky residue, and the front of it is easy to wipe clean. Clings to almost any surface (paint, wallpaper, stainless steel, glass, metal, plastic, wood, concrete) for ad-hoc meetings and spontaneous drawing competitions. You’ll get a pack of (10), and they’ll roll up easily when it’s time to store them.

The 5/32” bore in the center of this small plated neodymium magnet just makes it easier to mount. Measures 3/4" dia x 1/4" thick with a pull of approx 7 lbs. Works great with #6 or #8 flat head screws.

Learn atomic weights while winning money from your classmates. Here’s a double deck of (104) cards plus (4) jokers all stored in a stylish box because no one wants to lose their gold, krypton or rubidium. In addition to the standard playing card values, the decks cover the periodic table of elements. Each card includes one element’s atomic number, symbol, series, melting and boiling points, period/group, uses, est. atomic weight, standard state, and the element’s name in English. Includes instructions for (2) educational games if you aren’t in the mood for canasta or two games of hearts. Up to date 6th Edition for all your fraction of a second elements.

We're liking this little plated N45 neodymium magnet because it will stand on end and stick out very prettily on the ice box. Measures 1" tall x 1/4" square with a hefty, for its size, 3-1/2 lb pull, 13,800 gauss. (Will also lie down on its side, of course, because everybody does.)