Preschool / Kindergarten Gift List

"Pick up your toys!" I yell. Again.

But when I look at how many toys there are, I realize that the task of cleaning up toys is overwhelming even to me. How much more so for a preschooler?

My Little Ponies. Tea sets with all the plates, cups, and tea pots. Stuffed animals. Legos. MegaBloks. Dolls. Doll Clothes. Little People. Barbies. Tool sets. Cars big. And cars little. Come on, how many toys do three little girls need?

Take away all their toys, and they will have fun just dancing in a circle, jumping, running, and playing with rocks and boxes. Do they really need all that they get for Christmas or birthdays?

So knowing that grandparents and aunts and uncles flood the kids with plenty of toys, we have tried to find a way to make gifts special without toys. So this gift list focuses on a preschooler's educational needs and helps to prevent an overload of toys.

Arts & Crafts:
Art keeps the kids busy and helps supplement our schooling. However, they already have paper, scissors, glue, and markers available to them. We are a home school family after all. These things have become the staple of our lives.

Therefore, focus on something special, like colored pencils or Crayola Mix 'Em markers instead of crayons. Or you could get a child's delight and a parent's worst nightmare: washable finger paints--hours of very messy fun!

Watch Me Draw and other art books give simple step by step instructions on how to draw animals, dinosaurs, and bugs. Add a quality sketch pad to allow them to collect their drawings together. Here's a list of different art books for ages 4 and up:

• Watch Me Draw: Things Girls Love
• Watch Me Draw: The Zoo
• Watch Me Draw: Favorite Pets
• Watch Me Draw: Dinosaurs
• Chicken Socks Super Scissors Book

Browse an art store. There are many felt sewing crafts produced by Lauri Toys that have large plastic needles and pre-punched holes so that a preschooler can easily sew with some help. Check out some wooden models that you can build and paint together.


Reading & Math:
Try something new. Software like Reader Rabbit is a fun way to promote an early understanding of phonics and math. Reader Rabbit teaches the following skills in their interactive storybook games:

• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Spelling
• Comprehension
• Numbers
• Problem Solving
  

For some great stories and fun characters, check out some of these picture books:

Skippyjon Jones by Judy Shachner
Follow the stories of Skippyjon Jones, a young Siamese cat, who travels to far away places with his vivid imagination. Down in Ol' Mexico, he battles a bumble bee and saves the frijoles for the Chihuahuas. His mother scolds him lovingly when that bumble bee turns out to be his birthday piñata and he has spilled jelly beans all over the floor.

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
Some animals congregate in the great Bear's den while he slumbers through the winter. They pop corn. They brew tea. They dance by the firelight. And Bear misses the whole thing, snoring on through the winter storm. A pepper fleck wakes the Bear with a loud kerchoo, and the party stops with a fright. Everybody knows that you don't wake a bear!

Also check out other Bear stories like Bear Wants More.

Super Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold
Imagine taking your pet fly to school. He learns to read with you. He paints with you. And he goes to the lunchroom with you. And there he gets in trouble with the lunch lady Roz.

Check out other Fly Guy books like Hi! Fly Guy, which won the Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Book Award.

Swim, Little Wombat, Swim! by Charles Fuge
Little Wombat laughs at Platypus and his funny waddle, but when he accidentally falls into the water and Platypus rescues him, he feels sorry for making fun. Instead the two become friends, and Platypus teaches Wombat how to swim.


Science and Math:
Try getting a magnifying glass as a stocking stuffer. It's fun for kids to carry about and explore the world around them. In the winter, they can inspect snowflakes, and in the summer, they can study insects and flowers.

Promote the fun of science with a science kit. You will find many different kinds available at teacher, hobby, and toy stores. Our favorite one for young kids is the magnet set. It's easy to use and has many fun, reusable projects. Our kids enjoy getting out the magnets and doing the same projects again.

Toddler Gift List

I admit that I am not looking forward to the toy dump we will get this coming Christmas. The last thing we need in our house is more toys. We have so many toys that I doubt that they can enjoy what they already have.



Knowing that grandparents and aunts and uncles flood the girls with plenty of toys, we have tried to find a way to make Christmas special without toys. When they were little, we focused on learning toys and art supplies. So here is a great list of educational things to get for young children.




Reading:

For her second birthday, little K got a LeapFrog Little Touch LeapPad for ages 6 to 36 months. Prior to getting this present, she had no patience to sit for a book. Suddenly, it seemed like a whole new world had opened up for her. She would love to sit on my lap and flip the pages. I didn't have to read or say anything. I would just watch as her love for reading blossomed.





From there, I started getting baby board books for her from the library. She was hooked. Sandra Boynton board books are colorful and cute as well as entertaining for child and adult alike. TJ and I exchange smiles at our favorite lines, and where we once quoted our favorite movies while cooking, you can now hear us saying, "But not the armadillo."



Like many children's books, Moo, Baa, La La La discusses the sounds animals make. Well, except that the three singing pigs don't say oink. They say, "La, La, La." I could easily read this book over and over again without getting bored or annoyed.



In But Not the Hippopotamus, the animals are all doing things together, except the hippo which just hides to watch everyone else have fun. Then finally the animals stop what they are doing and get the hippo to join in. Now all the animals are together. Well, except for the armadillo.



Dinos to Go is about 7 dinosaurs with different personality traits. One dinosaur named Hey-Ho Howdy sings loud, real loud, and I can't help but think of near and dear friends of ours that fit this description. Some of the pages get long for young ones. I would often read the first few lines for each dino, and then as the girls grew older, I'd read more of the descriptions.




Art:

M and R already have their own art supplies. Their own scissors. Their own glue. K has watched and wished. Christmas is a good time to get her some supplies of her own, but also art is a good way of keeping little hands busy. Toddlers are often left out of the school planning. We are often so focused on teaching the oldest their spelling words and teaching the middle one how to read that the youngest gets forgotten.



Putting the toddler at the table with a piece of paper and a pair of safety scissors is a way to keep them occupied while you teach. I like this particular pair of scissors. They are not sharp enough to hurt a child, but they still work well on paper. It took us a long time to find a pair of scissors that didn't leave both us and the child frustrated.



A bottle of Elmer's glue gives the child an opportunity to glue their cut pieces of colorful constructrion paper onto another paper. Scissors, glue, paper? Sound like a cheesy gift? Not to a toddler. Add some washable markers or better yet some Mix-Ems, and you will have hours of entertainment that keeps your toddler's hands busy and you free to work.



Keep these stored as part of your school supplies to control the mess and to help teach responsibility. Although these are gifts, it is okay to keep them in a cabinet to be used when you can oversee the projects.




Fine Motor Skills & Mathematics:

These toys are meant to build fine motor skills and are great tools for teaching mathematics as well.



Building with MegaBloks promotes hand coordination, spatial awareness, geometry, and imagination. Believe it or not, I have even used it for pre-reading skills by creating stories around the things we built. As my children grew, I used MegaBloks to teach other mathematical skills, such as sorting & classification, patterns, addition, and subtraction.



Stringing beads and lacing & tracing shapes are more great tools for keeping young kids busy. Keep some wooden puzzles, a toddler tote, a bag full of interesting rocks, another bag full of plastic lids, and some playdough, and you will have a wide array of interesting things for toddlers to explore at the kitchen table.