Kids Gift Guide

Black Friday is nearly open us, which means that the Christmas shopping season is about to kick off! We try to focus on more "experience" or learning based gifts, so I thought I would create a gift guide along those lines. 

The nice thing about the majority of these gifts is that they are truly gender neutral, so any child in your life will delight in receiving them! 

Kits & Crates

These first few gifts are involved projects that provoke thought and creativity. 

Yellow Scope Foundation Chemistry Kit

Little Bits offers a variety of inventor kits, including this Droid Inventor Kit. 

Next up is Kiwi Crate. We actually blogged about this a few years ago, as Katie got the Mini Fashionista a subscription for Christmas. These STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subscription boxes come once a month, can be selected by age and chosen in a variety of durations. 

For the little chef in your life, Raddish Kids is a great way to engage the entire family in cooking. Raddish is a cooking club, culinary lesson, and mealtime solution all-in-one.

Magazines
For the young reader in your life, there are all sorts of great options. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Ranger Rick has been around since I was a kid, so it's pretty amazing that this kid's wildlife magazine is still around. It's now offered in three age ranges, so there's an option for all the little animal lovers in your life. 

My mom got the Mini a subscription to Highlights Magazine about a year ago, and she eagerly awaits its arrival each month. We enjoy reading it together and doing the interactive activities. I also remember enjoying this as a child!  

For the older children in your life, here are two great magazines. 

Kazoo is a new kind of quarterly print magazine for girls, ages 5 to 10—one that celebrates them for being strong, smart, fierce and, above all, true to themselves. We had a subscription to it last year, and it was a little too old for the Mini. I think this definitely leans towards the 8+ age range. 

Almost Fearless magazine is actually for Parents, but I thought I would include it anyway. I just recently subscribed and can't wait for our first issue to arrive.

Books

We are big fans of the author Andrea Beaty and her books. The characters are fun, they encourage interest in STEM and the illustrations are fantastic.

If you already have the books, the new Project Books are a great option to add to a child's library. The project books inspire young readers will all sorts of fun activities. 

Wonderbly creates gorgeous customized books with beautiful illustrations, fun characters and thoughtful story lines. I've already order a few for my favorite little people. 

Kiwi Crate Update

Sometimes I wonder if anyone is reading anymore. Katie and I recognize that we have become infrequent and inconsistent in our blogging, and we're sorry.

We hope you haven't completely given up on us.

Our goal is not necessarily to give you as much content, but hopefully great content that keeps you engaged enough to read, even if we don't post as frequently.

So thank you for being loyal. We really, really appreciate it.

On to today's post...an update on the Kiwi Crate. Katie first posted a few weeks ago on the Kiwi Crate (here). She and Dr. B gave The Mini Fashionista a three month subscription for Christmas. It has hands down been one of the best gifts she has ever received.

She LOVES it!

This past weekend we spent over an hour doing the activities in her January crate. This month was focused on "ice experiments", and I think it was my favorite of the three. Not only was it fun and creative, but she also learned things like why an object will float in salt water but not fresh water!

So cool!

If you have kids, nieces, nephews...really any child in your life that you are buying a gift for, I highly recommend Kiwi Crate. The parents and the child will both be happy with the gift!

For the Kids: Kiwi Crate

This year for Christmas I waned to get the Mini Fashionista something with some shelf life that was more activity-based. I can't remember where I found Kiwi Crate, but it was just what I was looking for.

Kiwi Crate is like a kid's Birch Box. Each month she'll get a new crate in the mail, addressed right to her. Every month has a new theme with all the materials she'll need for several activities. And while Christmas morning was a little crazy, I'd say it's Mini Fashionista approved.