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Gifts for Young Kids: our favorites
Published 12.04.2008 | Permanent Link | Comments (2)
Luckily young kids are not as influenced by their friends and advertising messages, and parents have more control over gift-giving at this age. So, we think as parents you can have more fun in the gift-selection process. Throughout the year, we've been collecting gift ideas for young ones.
Hope you like them as much as we do.
Gifts for Toddlers
The Bilibo
When this innovative toy burst onto the scene a couple of years ago, it was the talk of the town. Let's not forget about it. It provides hours of open-ended play fun and belly laughs. Perfect for a two year and it will be still be loved when your child is in the first grade.
Cardboard Playhouse
The Cardboard Playhouse has become quite ubiquitous now. Encourage your kids to turn it into a kid-size Gingerbread House, a Castle or Home Sweet Home. It encourages creativity and imaginative play. Love it and it's an instant crowd-pleaser.
Gifts for Preschoolers
Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle made of "whimsy" pieces
Liberty Puzzles make beautiful wooden puzzles and each one features numerous character-shaped whimsy pieces for an extra fun experience. This Peter Pan puzzle is from Liberty Puzzles' special line for young children.
Hand Puppets
These Storytelling Hand Puppets rock. There's the Wizard of Oz collection, the Peter Pan collection and the Robin Hood Collection. Do you think they'll make a Twilight collection soon? Puppets are great fun for preschoolers as they develop more advanced story lines in their imaginative play. Here's a wooden puppet stand that makes it easy to display these gorgeous puppets.
Lite Brite
This is Lite-Brite multiplied! Because it's a cube, it has four times the fun and is perfect for a playdate.
Kindergarten & up
Shrinky Dinks
Gosh, who doesn't love shrinky dinks? This toy requires baking and is perfect for the winter season when you're trapped indoors too often.
Stitch your own Plush
Your kindergartner may be too old to get plush dolls, but s/he is just the right age to start stitching her/ his own (with supervision of course).
Dino Excavator
If you loved the game Operation, then you'll enjoy Dino Xcavator which makes a Roar! when you don't excavate the bones carefully enough.
Clothespin People Craft Kit
Raise your hand if you want this for yourself? Yeah, us too. Clothespin craft people are much easier to make when everything you need is in the kit for you. No excuses now.
Disney's Ultimate Band
Guitar Hero is challenging. And, requires lots of practice. Disney's Ultimate Band is perfect for us and younger kids. Plus, the songs are cool (i.e., Paramore) and squeaky clean enough for our liking. The packaging says ages 10+, but honestly, by age 10 your kid will be a pro at Guitar Hero already.
You may also be interested in:
- Digital Cameras for Kids Reviewed (part 2)
- Kids' Digital Camera Reviews (part 1)
- Gifts for School-Aged Kids
- Best Personalized Gifts
- Book Gifts for Tween & Teen Girls
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
Disclaimer
This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (2):
zakka life said:
Those clothespin people are adorable.
That Lite Brite takes me back to when I was a child. I played with it for hours on end creating designs. Great memories.
Posted on December 8, 2008 23:53
jodifur said:
I bought Dino Excavator for Hanukkah bought haven't given it yet. Glad you liked it.
Posted on December 13, 2009 15:51