@robertharris If you are willing to spend a little more “I see me” is a brand that does custom illustrated books for children/pets/families and they are really beautiful. Could be a special way to give some extra individual attention before a new baby. you pick from different stories they have then personalize with your child’s name and a character who looks like them.
What are you getting your kids for Christmas?
- Thread starter robertharris
- Start date
robertharris
New member
puddintain
New member
@robertharris Pikler climbing set for the almost 2 year old. I got a fantastic set for a STEAL off FB marketplace.
@robertharris Most of my big kid ideas are STEM-based but otherwise not very granola. If you don't have them - magna-tiles. Not the off-brand, even Piccasso tiles, they don't work as well. Go whole hog on the name brand full set of magna-tiles. My now 7 year old got them as a gift when he was just over 2 and both he and the now 3 year old use them all the time. Yes they are plastic, but the years of creative play is amazing and totally worth it. Tengu blocks are also excellent for both ages, but with more limited play in my experience. We just got the Picasso magnetic cubes and they are also excellent.
If they like math/puzzles/patterns, Inchimals and AnimaLogic are both hits.
5 year old might also be ready for basic card and board games and there are some good ones. Sleeping Queens, Rat-a-tat cat, Uno, Spot it, Sequence, etc. but those might be harder to play with the kiddo if you have two other smaller ones at home.
For outdoor ideas, a basic remote control car that is fairly indestructible or a swing or double hammock.
If they like math/puzzles/patterns, Inchimals and AnimaLogic are both hits.
5 year old might also be ready for basic card and board games and there are some good ones. Sleeping Queens, Rat-a-tat cat, Uno, Spot it, Sequence, etc. but those might be harder to play with the kiddo if you have two other smaller ones at home.
For outdoor ideas, a basic remote control car that is fairly indestructible or a swing or double hammock.
robertharris
New member
my 5 year old would love those math games!@ariel Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the Magna Tiles 100 Piece Clear Colors Set The Original Magnetic Building Tiles For Creative Open Ended Play Educational Toys For Children Ages 3 Years and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful.
Users liked:
* Magnatiles stimulate creativity in children (backed by 9 comments)
* Magnatiles are durable and long-lasting (backed by 6 comments)
* Magnatiles inspire imaginative and open-ended play (backed by 6 comments)
Users disliked:
* Tiles prone to cracking over time (backed by 1 comment)
* Magnets not very strong (backed by 1 comment)
* Tiles get scuffed and pieces lost over time (backed by 1 comment)
If you'd like to summon me to ask about a product, just make a post with its link and tag me, like in this example.
This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved.
Powered by vetted.ai
Users liked:
* Magnatiles stimulate creativity in children (backed by 9 comments)
* Magnatiles are durable and long-lasting (backed by 6 comments)
* Magnatiles inspire imaginative and open-ended play (backed by 6 comments)
Users disliked:
* Tiles prone to cracking over time (backed by 1 comment)
* Magnets not very strong (backed by 1 comment)
* Tiles get scuffed and pieces lost over time (backed by 1 comment)
If you'd like to summon me to ask about a product, just make a post with its link and tag me, like in this example.
This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved.
Powered by vetted.ai
harrymuniz
New member
@robertharris Our daughter is 2.5 and won't get ALL of this, but we make a list of ideas/suggestions for family members, to keep quality>quantity. On this year's lists, besides books:
Yoto Mini & story/song cards
Wooden weather chart
Animal & dinosaur figurines
Woodland animal lacing cards
Bug catcher/magnifying glass (picked some good insect books to go with this)
Costumes/accessories likes capes, wings, masks (to make a dress-up box)
For book suggestions at this age, my daughter has been into real photography- so "A Tree For All Seasons", and the Weather Walks series is nice ("Full of Fall", "Raindrops Roll", "Best in Snow", etc- by April Pulley Sayre).
Otherwise I usually wait for my local library book sales and just search for classics, like "The Mitten" by Jan Brett would be a great winter read.
For the new baby, I suggest the Global Baby Books! They love looking at other baby faces.
Yoto Mini & story/song cards
Wooden weather chart
Animal & dinosaur figurines
Woodland animal lacing cards
Bug catcher/magnifying glass (picked some good insect books to go with this)
Costumes/accessories likes capes, wings, masks (to make a dress-up box)
For book suggestions at this age, my daughter has been into real photography- so "A Tree For All Seasons", and the Weather Walks series is nice ("Full of Fall", "Raindrops Roll", "Best in Snow", etc- by April Pulley Sayre).
Otherwise I usually wait for my local library book sales and just search for classics, like "The Mitten" by Jan Brett would be a great winter read.
For the new baby, I suggest the Global Baby Books! They love looking at other baby faces.
@harrymuniz Love April Pulley Sayre’s books! I got Bloom Boom in the spring and we have Full of Fall checked out from the library now. Your daughter would probably enjoy Shelley Rotner’s Hello Seasons photo books too: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/EKN/hello-seasons
Those are some of our favorites.
Our Yoto is well loved & I’m starting up a dress up box this year too!
Those are some of our favorites.
Our Yoto is well loved & I’m starting up a dress up box this year too!
mmutsakama
New member
@robertharris This is what I’m thinking for my 1.5 year old. She’ll be two in March so looking for things that 2 year olds would like too, please chime in if you have older kids because I’m clueless.
Costco Little Tikes Barbie Playhouse (1.5-5)
Animal/ objects magnets for the fridge
Baby doll stroller. She’s using my 90s Bitty Baby so I don’t know if a new baby doll is necessary?
Wooden play fruit that cuts in half
Looking at drivable cars on FB marketplace
Costco Little Tikes Barbie Playhouse (1.5-5)
Animal/ objects magnets for the fridge
Baby doll stroller. She’s using my 90s Bitty Baby so I don’t know if a new baby doll is necessary?
Wooden play fruit that cuts in half
Looking at drivable cars on FB marketplace
srusso1219
New member
@robertharris We're getting my 3 year old a bunch of dress up costumes (fairy wings, princess, etc), legos, and crafty fun things like Kinetic sand/sticker books
momof2napril
New member
@robertharris For books for the 2.5 year old my daughter LOVES the ones by Britta Teckentrup. I think the illustrations are nice but not peak beauty like some books haha but that could be preference. Im very picky with the art in books though.
The reason we love them: there’s a peak through window in all of them, so my daughter enjoys watching what will change. The writting is melodic and like poetry so it’s enjoyable to read and more captivating I find. I also like the premise of them! We have BEE, MOON and TREE. Tree is #1, and I love that it teaches about seasons. Moon is great and the moon changes on each page so it can eventually teach about the phases, and then Bee is simply just about the importance of bees in a fun way. My daughter loves bees so that’s mainly why we have that one. TREE is definitely #1! We took out HOME from the library at one point and I remember it also Ben g great - it’s about different animal homes.
Another recommendation on books for 2.5 (my daughter is 26 months, but she enjoys long books) are ones by Jan Brett. Honestly I loved them as a kid, I remember the excitement in seeing the little “clue” that she puts on each page of what will come next. Personal fav of my daughter is Mossy which is about a turtle that grows a garden on her shell, is brought to a museum, but then let go because she missed her friends. Sweet story! The other is The Hat, which is about a hedgehog who gets stuck in a mitten. The farm animals poke fun at him and he feels sad. Eventually though the other animals are all found to be wearing hats because they admired his “idea”. I like the “moral” of Jan’s story’s and if you’ve never opened one of her books… I implore you!!!! Find them at the library if you can! They are BEAUTIFUL. And I mean BEAUTIFUL! We also have honey honey lion which is a South African fable and so cute, and she does have quite a collection of Christmasy books too if you want to go that direction!
As I said I’m picky with books and the art in them! I think it’s such a great early exposure to beautiful art! Now if only my MIL could stop with the janky Costco books
I have so many more recommendations!
The reason we love them: there’s a peak through window in all of them, so my daughter enjoys watching what will change. The writting is melodic and like poetry so it’s enjoyable to read and more captivating I find. I also like the premise of them! We have BEE, MOON and TREE. Tree is #1, and I love that it teaches about seasons. Moon is great and the moon changes on each page so it can eventually teach about the phases, and then Bee is simply just about the importance of bees in a fun way. My daughter loves bees so that’s mainly why we have that one. TREE is definitely #1! We took out HOME from the library at one point and I remember it also Ben g great - it’s about different animal homes.
Another recommendation on books for 2.5 (my daughter is 26 months, but she enjoys long books) are ones by Jan Brett. Honestly I loved them as a kid, I remember the excitement in seeing the little “clue” that she puts on each page of what will come next. Personal fav of my daughter is Mossy which is about a turtle that grows a garden on her shell, is brought to a museum, but then let go because she missed her friends. Sweet story! The other is The Hat, which is about a hedgehog who gets stuck in a mitten. The farm animals poke fun at him and he feels sad. Eventually though the other animals are all found to be wearing hats because they admired his “idea”. I like the “moral” of Jan’s story’s and if you’ve never opened one of her books… I implore you!!!! Find them at the library if you can! They are BEAUTIFUL. And I mean BEAUTIFUL! We also have honey honey lion which is a South African fable and so cute, and she does have quite a collection of Christmasy books too if you want to go that direction!
As I said I’m picky with books and the art in them! I think it’s such a great early exposure to beautiful art! Now if only my MIL could stop with the janky Costco books
I have so many more recommendations!@momof2napril Hello fellow book lover with a similar age daughter! We have Moon, but now I’m inspired to get Tree! JB’s The Mitten and Gingerbread Baby were big hits last winter and I’m excited to pull them out again.
momof2napril
New member
@carolny Ahhh another JB lover 
I love them quite a lot! And it’s cool to share something I remember loving as a kid. I’ve got to add gingerbread baby to my list! I hope you can pick up tree, it’s so cute. The peek a boo spot is an owl, who disappears for 1-2 pages in the winter part of the book, then reappears and my daughter LOVES that he vanished and then reappears! Does your daughter enjoy the little bugs and creatures as well??
I love them quite a lot! And it’s cool to share something I remember loving as a kid. I’ve got to add gingerbread baby to my list! I hope you can pick up tree, it’s so cute. The peek a boo spot is an owl, who disappears for 1-2 pages in the winter part of the book, then reappears and my daughter LOVES that he vanished and then reappears! Does your daughter enjoy the little bugs and creatures as well??@momof2napril Yes, she loves the little details. We are in a big owl phase lately, so there’s another reason for us to check out Tree!
mommaofmany
New member
@robertharris So glad you asked because I am stoked.
My son (3) likes listening to music on a little Bluetooth speaker we have kicking around the house. I have a playlist that he asks for, I have to turn it on for him and then do all the controls on my phone for him. Sometimes he pressed the power button and then I have to go back to my phone and turn it back on, sync the Bluetooth, whatever, it’s a great activity but it’s not independent.
I got him a little Bluetooth compatible boombox that plays cassette tapes. With it I’m giving him a Willie Nelson cassette, my husband is going to pick another one, and we are sending blank cassettes around to family to have them record a message or read a story. He’ll be able to play it independently. I considered the yoto player for a while but I didn’t love the book selection that they had, or how expensive every card is, which led me to the boombox.
My son (3) likes listening to music on a little Bluetooth speaker we have kicking around the house. I have a playlist that he asks for, I have to turn it on for him and then do all the controls on my phone for him. Sometimes he pressed the power button and then I have to go back to my phone and turn it back on, sync the Bluetooth, whatever, it’s a great activity but it’s not independent.
I got him a little Bluetooth compatible boombox that plays cassette tapes. With it I’m giving him a Willie Nelson cassette, my husband is going to pick another one, and we are sending blank cassettes around to family to have them record a message or read a story. He’ll be able to play it independently. I considered the yoto player for a while but I didn’t love the book selection that they had, or how expensive every card is, which led me to the boombox.
katrina2017
New member
@robertharris We are sticking to the minimalist Christmas of something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read. 3 under 5 here too.
The youngest doesn't really need clothes, but I feel like I can replace some of his worn hand-me-downs with something new.
I used to go for super high quality toys every Christmas. The problem is that they don't get used any more than any other toy, so I'm just thinking I want to limit toys in general. I can finally ask what my oldest wants.
I think I'm going to grab some Yoto cards closer to Black Friday. We might get another Yoto too (see here) .
We're big into toy rotation. I still have a lot of things that don't get touched.
We also strive for quality over quantity. So the kids might open less but use the same budget.
The youngest doesn't really need clothes, but I feel like I can replace some of his worn hand-me-downs with something new.
I used to go for super high quality toys every Christmas. The problem is that they don't get used any more than any other toy, so I'm just thinking I want to limit toys in general. I can finally ask what my oldest wants.
I think I'm going to grab some Yoto cards closer to Black Friday. We might get another Yoto too (see here) .
We're big into toy rotation. I still have a lot of things that don't get touched.
We also strive for quality over quantity. So the kids might open less but use the same budget.
@robertharris Last year I just got both kids together (had just turned 2 and 4) one big present - a train table with a whole set of tracks and helicopter pad and fire station etc etc. $50 on marketplace for me, but life-changing for them! A year later, it's still a centerpiece of their play.
I am not going to do as well this year, I can tell already!
I am not going to do as well this year, I can tell already!
@robertharris For my 2 year old I’m going to get him a used balance bike, possibly a Yoto player (depends on what sales they have) and some books
@robertharris I'm going with blocks and rattles for a 3 month old
@robertharris Time together. Things they need to grow older and set them apart.