Summer’s a little over a month away, and hey, electricity costs are getting high. Kids are going to need to rediscover the old ways of cooling off – namely, getting each other soaking wet.

If your kids want to make their own dazzling light shows on the cheap, check out the 2012 line of FyrFlyz, from Star Entertainment.

Nerf is stepping up their game when it comes to Super Soakers – now, kids can hose each other down with motorized hand cannons of water power.

Sesame Street: Elmo’s Musical Monsterpiece is a new game for the Nintendo Wii and DS that will hit stores in June of this year. Kids will be able to rock out with their favorite Sesame Street characters, engaging in activities that promote musical creativity and dancing. The game also manages to throw in a few activities designed to foster development of math skills through connections between math and music.

It took a while, but the classic fun of blowing bubbles has finally evolved. Crayola’s new gadget, the Outdoor Bubble Machine, automates the bubble blowing process allowing kids to maximize the fun they get over those short-lived spheres.

Crayola has released a set of giant sidewalk chalk with a little surprise in store for kids. The 3D Kaleidoscope Giant Chalk set includes some amped-up sidewalk chalk that, with the assistance of the included Kaleidoscope 3D glasses, can be used to create swirling and twirling designs that pop-out in 3D. The pieces of chalk are pretty big, and are double-sided, with each side sporting a different color.

AppGear, from WowWee, is trying to lead the way in a relatively new market of toys that actively interact with smartphones. AppGear currently has a slate of four games – Alien Jailbreak, Elite CommandAR, Foam Fighters, and Zombieburbz. Each game has toys that are selling now from AppGear’s website, and unlock different activities and stories in-game when used.

I envy the lucky little guys and girls who get one of these. The mamaRoo, from 4moms, is one comfortable looking infant seat with a little robotics behind it to make it maybe the best infant seat that has ever seen the light of day.

As hard as it seems to get kids outside these days, it’s always a joy to see someone making an effort to convince kids to give the great outdoors a shot. Uncle Milton, in partnership with National Geographic, is doing just that, releasing their Outdoor Explorer line of toys, designed to get kids to get out and interact with nature. A novel idea.

Random House Children’s Books and the Sesame Workshop have joined forces to create Elmo’s Birthday Bash, a new storybook app designed to help improve young learners’ reading skills, and the latest in the “Step into Reading” series of ebooks.