Hi guys! Whether you’re ready for it or not, 2020 is starting to come to a close, and Christmas is officially 11 days away (yea….only 11). If you’re anything like me, you’re looking around and thinking, ‘hmm, does my child really need another hot wheels car?’ For me, the answer is resounding no, lol. My son has SO many toys that have been given to him from family and friends, I could almost open my own toy store. So, instead of more of the same thing, I wanted to get a little creative and find some other things that he may like. Bonus that they’re educational as well.
With there only being 11 days left until Christmas, Amazon Prime is usually your best bet to get things shipped quickly, so everything I’ve listed below can be purchased from there. Be sure to sign up for Prime if you don’t have it already. Amazon usually gives about a week’s worth of a free trial, then if you decide not to keep it, just make sure to cancel before you start being charged.
Here are my top 7 gift ideas for kids. These would probably be best for the 6 to 10 year old age group.
- Books Do not underestimate how exciting it can be to wrap yourself in a good book. The same goes for kids. A few years ago, I got my son the Magic Tree House box set. He started reading very early, so I wanted to get him something that would be a little bit of a challenge for him to read on his own, but also interesting enough to have a fun storyline. These were a big hit. He still loves them.
- Board Games One of the things I remember most about my childhood is all the fun we had playing board games. We’d play for hours, and we always had a good time. So, one day I looked around the house for a game to play with my son, then realized….. we didn’t have any board games! Video games, sure, but no board games. Well, I couldn’t let that madness continue. So, I thought through all the games I’d played with as a kid, browsed through some of the newer ones out now and bought a few as gifts. Every year, I try to add a few more to build up our collection.
- Puzzles I have to say that my son was not exactly thrilled to be getting puzzles as a gift at first, but I tried to make it more fun by getting him puzzles related to his favorite TV shows or favorite animals. He may not have wanted to play with them right away, but it’s definitely become one of those things that he’s gravitated to over time and really enjoys now. He also loves for us to do them together which has become a fun time for us to bond.
- Science Projects Science is one of my son’s favorite subjects in school, so this caught my eye. This science kit comes with over 65 experiments with test tubes, Petri dishes, and pipettes and teaches kids how to make tornadoes in a bottle, slime, and super snow powder. He’ll have a lot of fun with this one!
- Terrarium Kit My Mom is an avid gardener, and my son has started to take to it too. He loves being in the garden. I don’t have one at home, so I thought it would be great to get him a little terrarium to give him a chance to grow his own mini ecosystem. Bonus that it also comes with glow in the dark stickers. I think he’s really going to enjoy it.
- Snap Circuit Kit Now, this category is my all time favorite!! I got my son a snap circuit kit from Target last year after bringing him with me to do some volunteer work with one of the local schools. I was one of the snap circuit kit facilitators for an after-school program, and brought my son along to get him out of the house and playing with other kids and to see how he liked the kits. I was blown away by how much he loved it. I knew I had to get him his own to tinker with at home. This year, I’m upgrading his kit to one with more projects and a solar panel.
- Other STEM Activities I couldn’t leave without mentioning the variety of other STEM activities available – from tin can robots and other robotics kits to building/architecture kits (even Legos or K’nex count) to spirographs to herb kits for your little gardeners. A quick Google search or Amazon browse will show you so much more than I’ve listed here, and they all make great gifts.
As you can see, I’m a proponent for educational toys, especially STEM activities. I’ve already bought the race cars, dump trucks, basketballs, footballs, and video games. I want my son to be able to kick back and just have a good time, but he really doesn’t need to add race car #101 to his collection (and momma doesn’t need another car to trip over!). There really are many other gifts that we can get our kids aside from traditional toys. I bet they’ll be pretty unique gifts too since not everyone will be running around talking about their new snap circuit kit.
Happy Gifting! 🙂
Jan's Life 