Rare earth magnets are usually killers for their size, and these thick nickel neodymium discs are no exception. The price, on the other hand, for (3) 7/16" dia x 1/4" 5-lb lift or (2) 15/32” dia x 3/16” 8-lb lift magnets each stored on a 2" dia steel disc, is a rare exception.

Start them out right with this (profusely) hand-illustrated, 96-page book: The Story of Inventions. Includes toasters, toilets, television, computers, cars, chocolate bars, dishwashers, pianos, flying machines, bicycles and blue jeans among many others. Includes a timeline, glossary and index. No age recommendations, but we like it for pretty much anyone.

They might as well learn something while they're trying to outlast you on eating those lima beans. Set the table with educational placemats and they'll be at least a touch smarter after dinner, even if their vegetable intake is low. These laminated, 12" x 17-3/8" mats have full-color fronts, black-and-white backs. Choose the United States Map, Stars & Constellations, the Periodic Table of Elements or The Metric System.

You can’t beat the original, genuine, authentic, standard, classic, fine-point Sharpie® permanent black marker with the pocket-clip cap. Just can’t. Accept no substitutes, unless we say it’s OK. Our each is a pack of two!

Make a whole bunch of fun and instructive Lego® machines/chain reaction models like marble runs and mousetraps involving ramps, buckets, funnels balances and much more. Comes with (33) Lego® elements, (6) Lego® balls, a dozen paper props, and a 78-page instruction booklet for (10) machines. You add a few common household items. Includes suggestions for more complicated devices if you have your own Lego® pieces, and if you don't, what are you waiting for? Ages 8+.

We just learned that. You’d think we’d have known. Now we do. They’re sort of like round dreidels, with a hollowed-out middle around the stem, which causes them to turn themselves upside down while they’re spinning. Great lesson in center-of-mass instruction for physics teachers. Includes an explanatory booklet with activities and discussion topics. You’ll get (3) wooden tops at 7/8”, 1-1/4” and 1-1/2” dia.

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.

This whimsical pack of (30) postcards measures, unsurprisingly, post-card size 5-3/4" x 3-15/16", with non-duplicating images of gravy and bacon, Nikola Tesla, narwhals, spontaneous human combustion, boxing kangaroos, infinity and taxidermy, among many others of that ilk. Those ilks. Whatever--just buy 'em and stop asking so many questions. Blurbs on the back.

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.

What we have here are 96-sheet, white genuine Post-It note pads, 4” wide x just shy of 3” tall with adhesive strips on the top edge. Plus, for mysterious reasons, the samples we received have letters or names (mostly girl names) strung across the top margin in pink, blue or green. Just ignore them and play a little Post-It note roulette. We'll stick our hand in the over-sized box and pull out 10. That’s why they call it surplus and that is why genuine Post-It notes are this cheap.

Like Martha Stewart if you poured honey all over her. Also like these little 4-1/4” x 3-1/4” hardbound books of art-themed sticky notes. You pick: The Bob (The Joy of Painting) Ross pack, with approx (240) notes in large and small sizes with Bob, his easel or landscape scenes like the ones he painted; or the Frames collection, with approx (240) notes with white space inside various frames in large and smaller sizes, to make your notes immortal.

Titled "The Field and Forest Handy Book," this volume has been justifiably in print since 1906. Written by Daniel C. "Uncle Dan" Beard, the founder of the Sons of Daniel Boone and one of the founders of the BSA, it's a compendium of eternally relevant woodland lore, from building cabins, sleds, boats, and bridges to camping in swamps. The only part we skipped was on how to cook a muskrat. (We know a place that delivers.) Loaded with illustrations. In soft cover from David Godine's Nonpareil Books, 428 pages.

Nice little teaching magnet set for the primary grade classroom has (6) magnets in star, two-bar, horseshoe and ring shapes, all plastic coated in silver and red to mark the poles. Range in size from 1” to 3”, and include a few paper clips and small nails for demo purposes.

50 Science Things to Make and Do is just that, a passel of experiments, all illustratively explained in two facing pages of this big 104-page flip book, and all easily done with common household items. Includes wind and water power, bugs, crystals, paper planes, rubber-band guitars, balances, gloop, optics and a ton of other fun, informative stuff. Officially classified as "cool" by several of our geekiest staffers.

Beats us, frankly, but this black plastic cover, 1-3/4” x 1-1/2” x 1/4” (not unlike a tiny toilet seat cover) is hiding a really nice 1” dia x 1/8” (think: quarter size) plated neodymium magnet, with at least a 5-lb pull, inside. The mystery is that the cover won’t open unless you break it. The magnet grabs fine in the case or out of it. Tap it on its side with a hammer to crack open the case and reveal nothing but magnet.

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.

Coated white, these ceramic magnets look kind of like little donuts, each 7/8" dia x 1/2" thick with an 11/32” ID and a pull of approx 1 lb. Extremely handy for the fridge, steel file cabinet or wherever you hang photos, notes to self, to-do lists and stuff you tear out of magazines and newspapers.

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.