The Tio ghost concept comes from designer Tim Holley. The idea is to teach kids the value of conserving electricity in a fun way.

The switch will stay green whenever it has been left on for an hour or less, and the longer it is left switched on, the more the color will gradually change to yellow, until you end up with an angry red ghost. This might be a great way to teach them about time as well. Who knows, we may see this move beyond the conceptual stage and bore kids for real with learning stuff.

Kids need phones with large buttons because they don’t yet have the ability to use small buttons. The elderly need large buttons because they’ve lost the ability. The iNo CP09 is a new GSM cell phone that’s perfect for both kids and the elderly.

It features a basic calculator-like screen with a large font display, large buttons, FM radio, torch light, a headphone jack, and text messaging. There is also an SOS button for emergency situations. The phone will send a text alarm to a configured number and will call that number.

We adults have the Kindle and the Nook, along with other e-readers. But what about the kids? It’s the kids who we want to get reading. Nokia is at least thinking about the children.

The Storyplay e-reader is a new take on storytelling and reading. It will feature Elmo from Sesame Street on a removable paper book that’s attached with magnets. The reader has two screens. One will display Elmo and his antics, while the second screen will display a live video screen. (Displaying what?)

Ekahau’s T301W Wi-Fi Bracelet will tell you exactly where the person is who is wearing it. And it doesn’t use GPS. Instead it uses Wi-Fi. But the T301W only works on preconfigured Wi-Fi networks that are coupled with additional beacons. Basically you build your own Wi-Fi triangulation network in a small area.

That may not be the best option for you, but it’s a neat idea. For $60 you get a waterproof wristband that operates up to a month between recharges. Hospitals can track patients, family members can locate one another at an amusement park etc.

Kids love to doodle. And they love to do all kinds of things at the table rather than eating the meal in front of them. Well, the Foodle should have them covered at the dinner table. It’s a fork spoon and knife that they can eat with using one end and a colored pencil on the other.

It lets kids eat and doodle on placemats simultaneously. How much do you want to bet that kids confuse which end is which and continually stab themselves? Foodle is just a concept for now, thank god. Otherwise there would be a lot of kids with eye patches.

If you want to instill a love of reading in your child early on, this may be a good way to do so. Disney’s new range of eBooks will feature a “Disney-level experience” according to the company. These eBooks feature a “look and listen” section for beginners, where the book will be read aloud by voice actors to a soundtrack and each word will be highlighted as it is being spoken.

That should learn them kids. If your child wants to read alone and finds a word he or she doesn’t recognize, they just click on it and a voice will read it to them. It’s a great visual way for kids to learn.

Griffin knows that if a child’s ears go bad today, that child won’t be listening to their headphones as an adult. So they’ve decided to protect their potential future buyers by announcing MyPhones, a set of over-the-ear headphones for kids.

MyPhones are designed for children age 3 to 12 and are smaller than normal headphones. They also include a built-in volume limiter that prevents the headphones from producing audio higher than 85 decibels, which is the recommended maximum volume to avoid hearing damage.

We’ve seen sneakers that are designed to grow with your child, so why apply that concept to your kid’s bike? It’s a great idea, because kids outgrow everything, forcing you the parent to shell out more money for something else they can outgrow.

Why not have one bike that can grow with your kid? That’s the idea behind this conceptual bike that designers at Kilo Design are working on. The bike expands along the sizes needed for kids aged 6 to 12. That’s six years of never having to replace a bike.

These days you can’t be too cautious about the safety of your child. And so Amber Alert has introduced their Amber Alert GPS 2G child tracking device. It will keep tabs on the little ones and give you peace of mind. The Amber Alert GPS 2G allows parents to limit their child’s boundaries with a pre-designated safe zone regardless of where they are.

The device also creates a “bread crumbing” trail of the children’s route by using a series of alerts and alerts you when they get to their destination safely. You’ll also get voice monitoring and the ability to monitor the vehicle’s speed.

If there’s one thing we don’t have enough of, it’s TV. We obviously need more. Like this one from HANNSpree in the form of plush animals. HANNSpree’s new line of weird TVs include a zebra, giraffe, camel, and polar bear, with televisions embedded in their sides.

Now your kids can watch all of the cartoons that they want, while clutching a plush toy at the same time. Parents have always turned their kids over to the TV and let it raise them into adulthood. Now it’s easier than ever.

Once in a while something truly useful surfaces for the Nintendo DS. This is a blood glucose meter plugs into the DS / DS Lite’s Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult?) is rewarded with points in a game that can be used to buy items or unlock levels. Sadly the new DSi doesn’t have a Slot-2, so those kids will be left out.

Bayer’s DIDGET meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel, the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. Paul noticed that his son was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, but he always knew where to find his Nintendo Game Boy. That inspired Paul and Bayer to work together to develop the first and only blood glucose meter that connects to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite.

Researchers from the University of Southern California want to use cellphones to help the obese shed weight. The idea is to hook up obese kids to a “mobile body network,” consisting of a device to measure the skin’s electrical conductivity along with a heart-rate monitor, accelerometer, blood glucose reader and GPS for location, and connecting it with a battery sensor on the child’s body.

The system uses a Smartphone to send the collected behavioral data to the university’s computers, where it is then figures out what the information means. If your kid is laying around, text messages will be shot his way to get him to do get off his ass and do something.

Disney gadgets always tend to be more about branding than giving you a decent gadget, but we know that some of you will still want to check out the love child of ASUS and Disney. A Disney branded Netpal netbook for kids, available in “Princess Pink” or “Magic Blue” colors. (the latter even has tiny Mickey Mouse icons).

Each netbook features a kid-friendly Disney interface and built-in parental controls, as well as some customizable themes based on Mickey Mouse, Toy Story, Wall-E, and other Disney stuff they need to pimp out.

It’s been the same for as long as I can remember. Moms have been forced to push their little ones everywhere. Isn’t it enough that they pushed the kid out in the first place? Moms need a break. So it’s fitting that on Mother’s day we show you the Taga stroller/trike.

This baby folds up so you can fit it in the car trunk for trips. And it also has a wide range of attachments, like a setup for two kids, covered seats for rainy weather, and baskets. You can even adjust the length of the trike to work with whatever load you are carrying.

The Dareway is a four-wheeled Segway knockoff for kids. Now kids can pretend they have way too much disposable income and Glide down the street in packs, toting briefcases. Kids 5 and up will be the talk of the playground.

The Dareway even dares you to buy it for your kid with its very name. Do you have the guts to make your little one “that kid”? The Dareway is powered by a rechargeable 12V battery and can spin 360 degrees. It only costs about $220. Sure to be dangerous. Dare you?