It's December and I am still working on my holiday shopping list, or you, too? Each year, when my 2e daughter was young, we always filled our list up with hands-on fun holiday gifts for her, that were educational.
My daughter learned so much from doing hands-on projects in our homeschool, especially during the cold winter months, when it was too chilly to play outside. It was nice and cozy inside when my daughter had a fun project to do. So we always included two or three hands-on kits or projects in our holiday gift buying for our daughter, when she was in the elementary years.
And she loved getting these gifts! At the same time, doing hands-on projects taught her so much, and with her ADHD tendencies, we saw improved attention span, concentration, attention to task, and more. And doing these activities or kits together made wonderful memories, too.
Here are 50 hands-on gift ideas for you, including creative arts and crafts, fabric arts, my favorite science kits, and even some construction kits for making things with wood.
Let's start with arts and crafts, which are so great for developing small muscle skills, and more.
ARTS AND CRAFTS KITS
Arts and Crafts were always big in our homeschool. My daughter learned to hand sew early on, and loved making small sewing projects. We also enjoyed spinning art, origami, and crafting with clay. And anything project oriented from American Girl. Here's some creative kits for each of these activities that I just mentioned.
Have you ever thought about teaching your kids how to knit or weave, using very simple projects? Oak Meadow Homeschool curriculum got us started with some knitting and weaving. These projects were so fun to do together and also helped my daughter with her attention issues and concentration skills.
HAND ARTS - KNITTING & WEAVING
Each year, in the elementary years, we spent Thursday mornings working on a hand arts projects, using VERY small, VERY easy projects.
SCIENCE KITS
Then, when my daughter was a middle schooler, we found some great educational science kits from Science Wiz Kits. We especially loved these. Here is my review of one of them, if you would like more information.
And finally, I'd like to share some wonderful wooden construction kits that I found. At our house, my daughter started out making things out of cardboard and tape, and here's one that she made of the rides that she took at our state fair. Then she got into making things with wood.....
WOODEN CONSTRUCTION KITS
Building with wood, what a great way to play and learn on a winter's day! Making things with kits like these below, improved my child's direction following skills, attention to task, organizational skills and more. And then, there was the pride of creating something by hand, and a job well done!
I hope that this gives you some helpful ideas for your own holiday gift shopping list. Here are reviews for 5 more of my favorite hands-on gift ideas for your kids.
What would you add to this list? If you share your ideas below, I am sure that other families would be interested in them. I wish you a cozy and warm winter, with lots of hands-on learning fun with your kiddos!
Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,
Betsy
Betsy is a former O.T, preschool teacher and published author of children's stories. She is mom to her 2e college grad whom she homeschooled through high school. She blogs at BJ's Homeschool about the early years, high school, college. She offers homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting.
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