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Early years educational gift ideas
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My daughter is turning three and my mother in law is asking for ideas for an “educational or homeschool” idea for a gift. Do you have any suggestions? Anything your little ones (I also have a 4 1/2 year old) love to use to learn?
Tanagrams are always a hit around here. Melissa & Doug have a nice set for the little ones. http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Pattern-Blocks-Boards/dp/B00006JZCG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391544245&sr=8-2&keywords=tanagrams
We have loved our Learning Resources Cash Register. The kids love to play “store”. For more ideas, check out one of the best blog posts I’ve seen about twaddle-free toys is on the Wildflowers and Marbles blog here:
My kids loved using a Magnadoodle for handwriting practice at that age. They used a large one during learning time and a small one stayed in the car for travel time.
They also liked dot to dot books (helped with number,) clay (developed fine motor skills,) and lots of living books!
Oops. I wasn’t finished.
Safety scissors and a small trash can don’t seem very educational, but they can use these for practicing by cutting out pictures from magazines/junk mail.
And, a tea set was loads of fun. It encouraged manners, table setting, hand/eye coordination, and the habit of joy!
Gardening tools have always been seen as educational at our house. We also consider Audubon field guides to be important for our children to have at even three years old. You’ll need to teach the proper use/care of these books, but we’ve never had one torn at our house.
I agree with all of those ideas! Adding pattern blocks with or without a tray or cards. Other ideas, but a little less favorite with my crew: possibly geoboards but the rubber bands might be an issue, possibly a scale of some kind, and puzzles, books.
Melissa and Doug wooden puzzles and pattern block sets (they have two different ones for varying difficulty).
Wedgits
Do a Dot paint markers (there are tons of free printables to go along include alphabet and number ones)
Games like Boggle Jr (you roll dice and match letters on dice to the card), Spot It Jr Animals (or they have ABCs, etc), Roll and Play by Thinkfun.
Playdoh
We like toy food, toy pots and pans, dishes, etc.
I bought large size uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers that are great also. I keep these in my room and use them for school only so they don’t get lost. I have an old incomplete set that my two year old uses.
-puzzles
-my girls love the Draw Write Now books
-this Birds of North America memory game was a big hit at Christmas
-DVDs aren’t ever my first choice, but the Leap Frog Letter Factory is very popular among kids learning letter sounds
-Items for nature study are always appreciated here – a bird feeder, binoculars, a kit to grow a butterfly/ladybug/frog, educational posters (birds, insects), a field guide, etc.
We like the Lauri foam puzzles. They have different shaped ones as well as numbers and ABC’s. You can get them at Rainbow Resources. Here’s a link: http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?q=lauri+puzzles
Lacing beads (we have a wooden ABC set).
Inchimals are great! We got those at Timberdoodle. My 4 year old LOVES these.
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