For centuries, children managed to entertain themselves with simple toys like wooden blocks—but times have changed. “Kids now spend between four and six hours per day in front of screens, which has only been exacerbated during COVID,” says Nick Porfilio, CEO of Kiri Toys, which manufactures a new kind of toy block aimed at screen-exhausted families. Designed to teach a range of skills to kids ages 1 and up, each kit contains a set of tiles printed with images that interact with the Kiri block through a RFID chip. Place the block atop a tile’s colorful, kid-friendly illustration, and it will pronounce the associated word, while giving off a pleasant glow. Kits are available for preorder starting at $99. —Matthew Gault
Buy now: Kiri Toys