12/19

Educational Gift Guide for Kiddos

I’ve been running around for the last few weeks trying to find the best gifts for my kids, nieces, nephews and friend’s kids. Anyone else? I was getting overwhelmed and finally had to take some advice from my friend, Jamie Bakal. Her suggestions were so good that she put together a gift guide for your kiddos!

The holidays are my most favorite time of the year. I love personally picking out gifts for everyone in my life, especially my children! The educator in me is always on the hunt for toys that will create fun and engaging learning opportunities for my girls, particularly in areas that are of interest to them. But it can be overwhelming for parents who aren’t sure what their finicky kids will like.

That’s why I’m excited to share my curated gift list. It features toys and activities that offer creative and fun ways for children to learn and develop a variety of skills.

Preschool

Learning Resources Alphabet Island Game

This fun board game helps with letter recognition, beginning phonics, as well as matching upper and lower case letters.

Think Fun Robot Turtles Board Game

An engaging board game provides essential brain development and computer programming skills for young children.

Kid K’next Oodles of Pals Building Set

A building set that helps kids exercise their creativity while helping to strengthen their hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem solving skills and special awareness.

Fisher-Price Code n’ Learn Kinderbot

This interactive, learning robot teaches early math concepts, colors, shapes and letters through exciting coding challenges. Kinderbot also helps develop problem-solving skills.

Elementary School

Periodic Table Building Blocks

These wood blocks (with non-toxic painted symbols) are not only fun for your child to kids but they also help bring out the budding scientist in your child.

Thames & Kosmos Experimental First Botany Kit

This one-of-a-kind botany kit helps kids learn about plants and seeds through hands on experiments with plant cells and capillary action. It also teaches responsibility, as kids learn what it takes to care for their plants.

Gnomes at Night

Gnomes at Night is a cooperative search-and-find maze game where players work as a team to get through the maze. Through teamwork, this game helps kids develop their communication skills.

Osmo Genius Kit for iPad

Osmo is fun-filled learning games that teach shapes, problem solving, early physics, drawing, numbers, letters, spelling and vocabulary words.

ThinkFun Gravity Maze Game

Gravity Maze helps to develop critical thinking skills. Kids play their way through a series of challenges that build spatial reasoning skills.

K’NEX Thrill Rides – 3-in-1 Classic Amusement Park Building Set

K’nex Thrill rides provides hours of endless fun as children can build three different amusement park models, one at a time. K’nex improves a child’s STEAM capabilities while invoking their natural curiosity and creativity. It also strengthens their hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills and spatial awareness.

Chess Armory Board Game

Chess is a great way to keep kids engaged in critical thinking. The game also helps improve a child’s memory, concentration, creativity and problem-solving skills.

Lego Boost Creative Toolbox

This Lego set includes a whopping 847 pieces! Kids can build and rebuild 5 different robot models. Lego Boost helps foster their creativity while making building, learning and programming super fun!

Artie 3000

This creative and artistic robot teaches kids to not only code but also provides challenges for advanced coders. It uses Drag & Drop, Remote Control, Point & Click, Blockly, Snap!, Python and JavaScript. If your child likes programming AND art, this is the ultimate gift!

Solar System Planetarium

This planetarium teaches kids the wonders of the solar system. Kids just need to assemble, paint and then learn! The set includes planets, stencils, squeeze glow paint pen, rods, string, a fact filled wall chart and 10 sets of Kidz Quiz questions.

Battleship

This fun, classic game helps children develop their logic and strategy skills while having fun in a head to head battle. Plus it’s a great one to play with your little ones too!

Stocking Stuffers

Brain Quest Decks

Brain Quest is beloved by kids, trusted by parents, used and recommended by teachers. It’s the curriculum-based, fast-paced, question-and-answer game that challenges kids on the stuff they need to know, when they need to know it. It’s the brand that says “It’s fun to be smart!” And it delivers.

MadLibs

This fun classic word game helps teach children parts of speech while making everyone laugh!

Rubik’s Cube

This tricky little puzzle teaches kids to think strategically, logically, and geometrically.

Silly Putty

The original thinking putty…this classic toy is great for developing young children’s fine motor skills by working the muscles in their fingers and hands.

Travel Backgammon

The benefits of backgammon are enormous. Children who play this game boost their critical thinking, problem solving, spatial awareness and socialization skills.