Gifts For Kids

How about this for a unique gift idea for kids: A subscription to a high-quality entertaining children’s magazine. And what better than Highlights Magazine? It’s been around for ages, and it’s still the same high quality as always. Here, let me give you three reasons why Highlights makes a great gift for school kids who can read on their own -

1. Make them feel important - getting their own stuff in the mail is so cool.

2. Make them use their brains - reading itself is good for that, but this magazine is always packed with puzzles, riddles, science projects and so much more.

3. Keep them entertained - it’s fun, it’s colorful, it’s full of ideas of actual things to do - it will keep them busy in a positive way.

Oh, and I actually have a fourth - no advertisements in this magazine. A huge plus in this day and age when our kids are bombarded by ads literally everywhere.

This isn’t the kind of gift that you walk into a birthday party with. It’s not necessarily tangible at the moment of giving, so to speak. I do think it’s a perfect gift from loving grandparents to their grandchild who lives far away, a gift that keeps arriving once a month for a whole year, bonding generations together. All that at under $3 a month - less than a cup of coffee. Can’t really beat that, IMO.

Click here to get your subscription from Amazon

Still on the topic of pet related gifts, I thought I’d share some of the findings from Amazon in the clothes for kids and babies department. These items are so cute, that I think just showing the pictures is incentive enough to get them! If you’re looking for a gift for a little girl who loves cats, these would be perfect (warning: some of these are winter items, but I couldn’t resist including them!):

Birki’s Toddler/Little Kid Cat Woodby Clog

Kid’s Pink Kitty Cat Raincoat / Slicker

Western Chief Toddler/Little Kid Kitty Pink Rain Boot

White Cat Slippers for Toddler Girls

Infant Girls’ iTalk Disney Cat Talking Tee - White

Need a good summer days book for kids? Here’s a great choice for you - A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee!

Out on a nature camp, these boys (the ones in the book) prefer to spend their time indoors, watching tv and playing computer games. With my own two boys having wonderful weeks of playing video games and generally getting lazy and happy, this is one book I can relate to! It’s also a best-seller, so I am definitely am not the only one who likes it. Well, fortunately, there’s more to the book then video games, with wonderful humor, contrasting the world of the grown-ups with that of the kids.

The wonderful drawings and cartoonish style, along with the simple, yet sophisticated, messages and above all the humor, are bound to appeal to younger school children out there on their summer vacation. Agreat summer gift for kids that will allow parents and their children some quality time together, away from the TV and video game consoles!

A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever - Click to Buy on Amazon

Finally, time to talk about those real cool gadgets for the older kids - the motorized ride-ons!

Yes, you do have motorized ride-ons for toddlers as well. Lil’ Buddys is the brand name you’d be looking for at that department, with small and obviously not too fast, motorized ride-ons for shorter drivers. They actually have a huge selection of models with some pretty neat designs. If you’re looking for motorized ride-ons for children aged 2-3 years old, definitely check out the Lil’ Buddys Off Road Cruiser, Lil’ Buddys My First Mow It Tractor Ride On and the Lil’ Buddys Police Ride On. Priced at under $50 at the time of writing this posts, these are sure to be instant hits with car-loving toddlers.

Now, when we talk about slightly older kids, pre-schoolers aged over 3 years old, then I’m afraid a bigger budget is required. That said, if you can afford these, here are the two most popular models out on the market (as rated on Amazon).

Take Fisher-Price, combine them with Kawasaki and add a super-cool name to the model - The Ninja - and that alone guarantees a happy kid at the receiving end of your gift. This model lives up to its name(s) too! Fisher-Price® Power Wheels Kawasaki KFX Ninja Ultimate Terrain Traction (quite a mouthful!) is this uber cool ATV for kids aged 3-5 and comes supported by raving reviews by buyers.

The price tag is actually relatively low for such a unique model, that really does drive through rain, mud and wet grass. At well under $200, this is a great value-for-money choice!

The second most popular model costs well over $300, but boy, if you can afford this, you’re going to make a little boy or girl real happy! The Kid Trax Red Fire Engine Electric Ride-On is the second most popular choice when it comes to motorized ride-ons, and I suspect it only comes second because of the higher price tag.

Easy enough to see what makes this such a popular model. First, the very concept of a fire truck is enough to get your average 4 yo real excited. Add to this the flashing emergency lights, a working fire hose, and lighted dashboard, and whoa! This nifty vehicle runs at two speeds, 2.5 mph and 5.0 mph (depending on the emergency!) and can reverse as well. What I really liked about this model is the fact that it has a passenger seat, as well as room for the driver, so you can easily take a sibling or a friend on for a ride! In short, a dream motorized vehicle!

The Green Angle

Fortunately, these motorized vehicles are all electric, so pollution by gas byproducts isn’t an issue. However, they do usually use internal rechargeable batteries. Make sure that the parents know how to get rid of the batteries in an environmentally friendly way.

By that I mean, gifts that come with their own storage space.

Welcome to one of my personal pet peeves as a mom: gifts that include a zillion pieces, yet come without a proper storage box. All of these see-through nylon bags, or nets, that hold colorful pieces of, usually, plastic. The wrap is ripped apart and thrown away, and within days, if not hours, the pieces are scattered all over. And when we pick them up, where do they go to?

At first, they go to the general toy box, but it doesn’t take long for them to get mixed up with other sets. In other words, they get lost. The pieces are all there, hopefully, but they’re not accessible anymore for a proper play session with the entire set.

That’s why I try and make a point of buying toys and games that come in a proper box. That way, when playtime is over, everything is neatly stored into one small box, to be pulled out at a later date and enjoyed as a full set.

The Green Angle

Yes, this post actually has a green angle too! See, when you take care of these sets, by way of proper storage, you can make the most of them for longer. With the “scattered sets”, every once in a while, we just go through the toys box and throw away all of the orphaned pieces - not a green end to quite a lot of plastic and wood.