Christmas Gift Guide – Top Kids Books

This 2018 Christmas gift guide is just for books and just for kids! These Book ideas are perfect for Christmas gifts or any time of the year gifts. They are designed to tap into your childs creativity. You can see the links to each book below. I have to say the sewing book looks like a great idea for my Miss 10!

Wood Shop:

A complete carpentry-camp-in-a-book, Wood Shop is the perfect gift for young makers and aspiring woodworkers. 17 cool projects teach kids the basics of woodworking as they build cool, useful creations.

Sewing School Box Set:

A fun beginner’s guide to sewing, this box set comes complete with two bestselling sewing books—Sewing School and Sewing School 2—for a total of 41 kid-approved projects, plus bonus iron-on labels for crafty personalization.

Both of these titles encourage kids to craft in fun, interactive ways. The Sewing School Box Set is a perfect gift package, and it teaches kids everything they need to know to create their own toys and wearables. Wood Shop encourages kids to create something that might have otherwise been outside their comfort zone. Woodcraft safety, and 17 amazing projects they can build on their own make this a gift that keeps giving even after the holiday season is over!

Mason Jar Science:

The budding Einstein on your list will love turning ordinary household items into fascinating science experiments: Squishy Slime and Mini Tornadoes are just two of the 40 dynamic experiments to conduct in a simple mason jar.

Cooking & Baking Class Box Set:

Get little ones into the kitchen with Baking Class and Cooking Class. A crash course on all things kitchen, the set includes more than 100 fun, easy-to-follow recipes, plus a bonus cutting board!

Howl like a Wolf: Give the gift of imagination with this interactive nature book. Kids climb inside the minds of animals through this beautifully illustrated interactive guide to nature education and creative play.

Backpack Explorer: On the Nature Trail:

For the little explorer on your list, this take-along field guide comes with interactive games, activities, stickers and maps—helping kids get hands-on in the great outdoors!

Girls Home Spa Lab

The perfect gift for any tween girl passionate about self-care, this collection brims with 50 recipes for natural body care products, 25 craft projects for relaxation, yoga routines, and so much more!

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After talking about the pirate themed chalk obstacle course the other day, I got to thinking about other easy, low prep games and activities you can do with kids outside. A lot of these are ideas I found on Pinterest that don’t link to blogs anymore if they ever did, but often that’s all the detail you need to figure out what’s going on.

First, a couple from blogs that are still alive. If you have a lot of trees in your yard or in your park, you probably also have a lot of sticks, so you can pretty easily do this stick maze activity from Mother Natured. Build the maze yourself or have one child build if for another. Either way it’s lots of fun and you can keep it built to use as a labyrinth or for pretend play.

If it’s hot where you live you might want outdoor activities that involve water like this fill the bucket relay game. The only thing you might not have at home is giant sponges, but this is still pretty low prep, inexpensive and lots of fun if you have two or more kids to play. Check out how to do it from The Resourceful Mama. And check out my post all about ice and water sensory activities for more ideas to beat the heat.

Make some x’s and o’s or use something you already have to be your game pieces (you can also just draw them on paper plates for a super fast version) and make a large tic tac toe board on the sidewalk. The bonus of reusable game pieces is kids can play with the same grid over and over, which is great if you don’t have a ton of space.

I also love the idea of drawing a big bullseye on the sidewalk or driveway and using beanbags or sponges to try to hit the target. If you have hula hoops you can also set them in a grassy area and have kids try to hit them.

Check out more fun outdoor games for kids from The Printable Princess. These are more for big groups of kids, but if you’ve got a classroom full these are good ones to have on hand for getting some energy out.

Do you have favorite outdoor games for kids to play when it’s hot? I’d love to hear about them!

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