While kids play with toys because it's fun, toys also help children develop important cognitive, social and motor skills. They help socialize children, teaching them to share, compromise and cooperate with their peers. Many toys also foster creativity and imagination, critical thinking and problem-solving.

No one knows toys better than kids. They'll don a lab coat and embark on an important mission: to inspect toys from around the world. They'll use their investigative and playtime skills to check out dolls and balls and secret codes, find out why tops are tops, and how string can be a fascinating thing. Top Secret: Mission Toy has hands-on displays, interactive devices, games and other activities aimed at children aged 5 to 12, their families and school groups.

Top Secret: Mission Toy is joined with Juguetes, a photo-documentary based on children of the Dominican Republic who make toys out of found objects. These objects include empty milk cartons, food containers, bottle caps, plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, cans, wires, and many others.

In other words, they are built with whatever they can find. With these objects, their imaginations come alive to form their version of toys that uniquely express their culture. Promotional support provided by Star Tribune. Created and produced by the Canadian Children’s Museum. -- www.mcm.org