Best of New York 2007 • Kids

• Kid O

  123 W. 10th St.; 212-366-5436

  The playthings here are certain to turn your children into creative, forward-thinking creatures with a sense of history and precision-tuned motor skills. Okay, so there are no guarantees. But when it comes to originality, selection, and quality�not to mention parental approval�this West Village toy shop gets raves on all counts. Toy stores today tend to diverge into two strains: so good for you they’re boring or so Disneyfied they’re depressing. Owner Lisa Mahar has assembled a collection that includes the cheap (a three-ball yo-yo with flashing lights, $12 to $15), the handmade (individually knitted dolls, $95), the classic (eighteenth-century blocks invented by Friedrich Froebel, the founder of kindergarten, $275), and, this being New York, the ridiculously expensive (Italian oak puzzles, $600). The store is as neat as a nunnery, owing to its adherence to the Montessori philosophy: A clean and inviting play space equals a buzzing brain lab.

From the