If you’re looking for a smart game that gets kids (and adults) comfortable with and excited about numbers and math, the award-winning Prime Climb by Math For Love is a great option.
Roll the dice and then use addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division to get your pawns to 101 first. Prime numbers, common multiples, factors, patterns, and strategy are all a part of this game, and the color coded board helps players of all ages learn. Excellent for school or family game night. Want!
After my 5 year old had spent just two minutes with The Great Journey, she thanked me for buying it – unprompted! – and proceeded to spend the next hour with it. My 8 year old loves it, too.
The very, very cool thing about this wonderfully illustrated book: It’s printed in two colors, red and light blue, but you can’t see the light blue unless you’re looking through the red film ‘magic view-finder’ that reveals what’s going on behind the scenes. A standout gift that’s full of surprises and delights.
Related wonder: Illuminature.
These American Sign Language blocks are not only modern, beautifully designed, and made with sustainable materials, but they can also introduce or support familiarity with the American Fingerspelled Alphabet.
We’re huge fans of Uncle Goose blocks, including their sets for Hebrew, Russian, Hindi, Arabic, Braille, guitar chords, bugs, and many more… we’ve had a lot of impromptu kid conversations thanks to their Periodic Table and Japanese blocks. Highly recommended.
Using their love of Minecraft to build their first DIY microcomputer? ✅ We got to try out Piper at our local Maker Faire and the kids. Definitely. Want. It.
It’s a build-your-own-computer-kit with a laser cut wooden case and a HD LCD screen with 50 pieces that they can assemble on their own with guidance from huge blueprint instructions… no prior tech experience needed.
Once they’ve got the basics assembled, Piper uses the four ready-to-go missions in this custom Minecraft (Raspberry) Pi adventure to guide them through wiring up additional physical pieces of the computer, and it comes with a Wifi dongle to download more missions. Programming, engineering, electronics, and critical thinking in a box… a great option for ‘the big gift’.
Colorku is a color sudoku game on a handsome wooden board. With 104 puzzles to solve, you get a great range of 5 challenge levels, and there’s an expansion pack with 104 additional puzzles that are even more challenging. Wishlisted!
A biologist-worthy book that’s accessible to curious minds of all ages, Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises: A Natural History and Species Guide is a fact-filled book about the 89 known cetaceans in our planet’s oceans, seas, and rivers. Beautiful illustrations, photographs, maps, and lots of information.
We love AtlasObscura.com, so we can’t wait to get our hands on this brand new ‘explorer’s guide to the world’s hidden wonders’… over 600 of them located all over the planet!
Under Water, Under Earth is a newly released science, nature, and technology book from the authors of Maps, a huge favorite of ours.
Chock full of fascinating facts and delightfully illustrated details, one side of this oversized book explores coral reefs, submarines, the colossal squid, diving suits, the deep sea, etc, while the other side focuses on ant tunnels, roots, fossils, plumbing and heating, tectonic plates, the planet’s core, and more. My kids will definitely be poring over these hidden scenes for hours. Such an amazing gift.
On long plane rides with a movie or quiet afternoons at home on the iPad, we’ve always relied on volume-limiting headphones made for kids so that we know their hearing is protected. For younger kids (2-6): These award-winning Onanoff Kids Explore Foldable Headphones with Volume Limiting Lock, Built in Headphone Splitter (what!) and In-Line Mic look amazing. They come in multiple colors and have a flat, tangle-free cord.
Tested and recommended by The Wirecutter. (They also have this older kid recommendation and this wireless option.)
We play Hive more than any other game we have. Like a mini-modern version of chess, each bug moves in its own way to surround the opposing team’s bee. Similar in quality to mahjong tiles, the hexagonal pieces create a new ‘board’ shape as you choose which bugs—from 2 beetles, 2 spiders 🕷, 3 ants 🐜, and 3 grasshoppers—to introduce or move.
Strategic and unpredictable, it can be as challenging to an adult as it is to an eight year old… it’s a Mensa Select-honored game! And it has expansion pieces that move in new ways: Pill bugs. Mosquitos. Ladybugs. 🐞
Including kids in food preparation from a young age is a gift in itself. It connects them to their food and their family, it instills responsibility and confidence, and passes along a lifelong skill. We started with a lot of baking (cookies, pies, and breads), but wanted to involve them in everyday dinners and meals that included our back yard veggies and strawberries. Knives quickly became a part of the equation.
If you’re looking for a knife for little kids vs letting them learn with what you’ve got, Opinel’s le petit Chef set is a great starter. The stainless steel knife end is rounded for kid-use and there are learning rings and a finger guard to help cut and peel. Made in France. Looks great, too.
At TKSST, many of the videos celebrate looking at something familiar in a brand new way. This 2017 Jumping Point Calendar, available at MoMA, is a beautifully designed calendar that does just that. As each day, week, and month passes, more of the rainbow colors are revealed… and it promotes patience because you have to wait all year long to truly see the full piece.
Related twists on time: 2017 Phases Of The Moon Calendar and The Present Clock.
Our daughter’s preschool class grew mushrooms from a log like this one, and we’ve been wanting to grow them at home ever since. Not only do the oyster mushrooms grow quickly (in just seven days) but they’re also edible, organic, and they go nicely with these videos to start the conversation… an excellent indoor science and farming experience for the entire family or for in the classroom.
“There’s a lot more to a wrinkle than meets the eye. Each little line carries its own story…” The Lines On Nana’s Face is a wonderful celebration of the memories and experiences that we gain as we live and love. When a little girl asks her grandmother about her wrinkles, we get to peek into Nana’s memories via wordless scenes… from small magical moments to big overwhelming shifts, all illustrated with authentic energy and emotion by Simona Ciraolo.
A conversation starter about growing up, growing old, emotions, life experiences, sharing family memories, and more, this brand new book is a tender, essential read for all ages. We have this and Ciraolo’s Whatever Happened To My Sister? at the top of our wish list.
“Across 12 chapters, we take in both the intricate details and immense structures of our species and our planet, from our ever-expanding universe to our minuscule but mighty cells. We see stellar explosions and the layers of life beneath our feet, delve into the neuroscience of decision-making, get to grips with our climate, and contemplate our increasing intimacy with technology.”
Beautifully illustrated and full of smart information, The Earth and I was written by James Lovelock, who proposed the Gaia hypothesis, and includes contributions from astronomers, quantum physicists, Nobel Laureates, and Pulitzer Prize winners. On our wish list.