CM style gift ideas for kids…..

We like things that we can create with…open ended.  Lego, snap circuits, playmobil, blocks, little cars, wooden trains and tons of books.  Other gifts include things like outdoor toys (beach buckets, shovels, balls, veggie seeds.  The best gift we give for birthdays is a day out with either mom or dad alone.  Lunch, movie, hike, museum have all created wonderful memories.

We try to give out kids lasting stuff. Examples of things we have given them: sleeping bags, camping equipment, fishing poles, this Christmas we are going to get them binoculars. My kids are 5, 3, 7m. We bought nice sleeping bags that should fit them until age 10 or so. We like art supplies, or out door things such as a scooter, or bike. Or magnifying glass.

All the above ideas are great! We also have really enjoyed many of the logic games that Timberdoodle sells. My daughter really has loved getting a lovely tea cup, or tea set (a real one to use for tea time with poetry). My boys are still young and you can’t beat getting them a ball to run around with outside. I think this Christmas we might get my daughter a special shadow box to display her rock collection in. A treasured thing of hers is this lovely little box with butterlies on it that she stores all of her flowers in that she’s pressed from nature walks. I’m sure these would actually be better served being pasted into a notebook, but to her, putting something in a pretty little box warms her heart.

And, of course, BOOKS!

Take care,

Rachel

Classical Kids CDs are great. We love Beethoven lives upstairs and Mr. Bach Comes to Call the most.

Sewing kit with fabric scraps as well as basic supplies like needles and thread. Maybe some printed instructions on how to make projects on the child’s ability level.

Yarn, crochet hook, and beginning crochet book or video

Recorder and beginner recorder book or video

Craft kits

2nd camping supplies recommendation. For my own kids things like tents, sleeping bags, and backpacks. For friends things like flashlights or headlamp, mess kit, poncho, canteen, etc….

My friend and I made bean bags in fun fabric one year. We painted numbers on tin cans to stack in a triangle and keep score by how many cans and what point values dropped down. The handwritten card came with a few bean bag game ideas I printed off the internet. We put the cans and bean bags in a basket (looks like a basket you get when you buy fresh produce or fruit in a bushel).

Card stock, ribbons, hole puncher, decorative edge scissors, stamps, ink pads and other fixings to make homemade cards or bookmarks.

Kitchen apron with some kitchen utensils like spatula, muffin tins, cookie cutters, etc…..

Art easel, paper on a roll, canvas, paints, good quality brushes, artist apron

Books like Favorite Poems old and New, James Herriot Treasury for Children, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Handbook of Nature Study, Meet the Orchestra, and others.

For young ones, we love the Tales of Beatrix Potter DVDs. The ones, maybe by BBC but not sure, that are calm and have illustrations that match up to the ones in the book.

A tree to plant in the yard with info about the tree,

Budget permitting, a telescope.

Compass

Field guides

Fancy pen and stationary.

Origami paper and instructions

Gift pass to a local planetarium if this is an option

Your Story Hour CD sets are a win in our family (along with many others mentioned here).