Oh, hey! I have a blog! It’s been over a year since I posted. We’ve been busy adding a new member to our family (well, two if you count the cat and baby), following Dan Rodriguez around the country here and there, and just living life. I’m hoping to get back to this space a bit more regularly in the months to come and hope to share more about our sweet baby boy, Alder Chapman, as well as other aspects of our little life. However, with the holiday season upon us, I thought I pop on here and share a few of our favorite kid gifts that we received/given over the past few years.
We live in a little house with less than 1100 square feet of finished space and we love it. With a small space, two kids, and two cats, though, we have to get creative with how we organize and what we bring into our spaces. Because of that, we’ve learned how to be rather specific with the types of kid things we welcome into our home, and that includes gifts. For Oak’s first Christmas and birthday we asked for wooden toys or quality/long-lasting plastic toys, books, and no batteries and we’ve held to that standard ever since. Our families have mostly respected those requests and it as helped us to keep the simple home that we desire and value. Through all of that, we’ve found a handful of kid gifts that have been wonderful additions to our home, so I thought I’d share a few of those with you. Keep in mind, we have two boys, ages 3.5 years and 8 months.
Dan and I use the rhyme “something you want, something you need, something you wear, something you read” to guide our gift buying for our kids, so I’ll break down gift ideas into those four categories.
Something You Want
Let’s talk toys. What makes a good kid toy? How do you pick ones that will keep their attention, that will last, and that are sustainable? We’ve found that the more open-ended a toy is, the better. When you look at a toy, ask yourself - what different things can this toy be/become? For example, wooden blocks can be used as houses, towers, castles, fences, but they can also be used as pretend food, to make up games, to learn counting/math, so much more. Even better, take magnet blocks as an example - they can be all the afore mentioned things, but they can also be airplanes, cars, people, animals, etc. The more things a toy can be - the longer it will be played with and cherished. A batman toy will always and only be a batman toy. As for quality, we love wooden toys for babies/toddlers/preschoolers. They are durable and often very well made. We have added a few plastic toys into the mix as Oak has grown and when we do, we choose solid plastic toys that are not easily breakable and that don’t have/require little pieces that can easily be lost. Some of our favorite plastic toys are Schleich farm animals, dinosaurs, and Hotwheels cars (which Oak called Hottires last week. Ha.) For sustainability, choose wood or choose things that will live beyond your kids’ use of them - things that can be passed on/down.
Our favorites so far:
Tegu Blocks - we LOVE these!! They are magnetic wooden blocks, built sustainably and made to last for generations. Love, love, love them. They now carry a toddler line, so we’re going to give Alder one of their cars for Christmas this year.
Regular Wooden Blocks - any brand will do, but you can some great sustainable options at Bella Luna Toys.
Lincoln Logs - we’re excited to add these to the mix this year! Did you know they are made in the U.S.?
Waldorf Wooden Toys - Bella Luna Toys has great options for these. We have little Waldorf people that we’ve been using for our Fairytale Preschool (If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me post about that a bit. I’m planning to blog about that soon!) and they have been such a hit. The people can be ANY kind of person! Soooo different from an action figure or even a Playmobile person. They are so open-ended! We are planning to give Alder these houses for Christmas. They can so easily be played with with the people, the plastic animals we have, the blocks, and the Lincoln Logs. The options are endless.
Games!! We love games. A few favorites we’ve added are Count Your Chickens and Animal Upon Animal. We also play UNO and Go Fish a lot.
Puzzles! Melissa and Doug has great floor puzzles for this age, as does Crocodile Creek.
Schleich Animals - Oak has a wooden barn that Dan built for his second Christmas and we love the Schleich animals that we’ve filled it with. They are so sturdy, beautifully made/painted, and very realistic in both size and design.
Wooden Play Kitchen - both of our boys play with our wooden play kitchen on a regular basis. There are so many options out there. We found ours secondhand and have been so happy with it. I think all of their play food is Melissa and Doug and it holds up well and is pretty open-ended.
Cars/Trains - There are so many options out there. We have the IKEA wooden train and it works great. The Melissa and Doug wooden cars also work with the train - as do Hotwheels. Think wooden or secondhand. The wooden cars/trains we have are safe for babies, which is a plus.
Something You Need
We use this category for anything from stainless steel water bottles/lunch boxes, to winter gear, to wool long johns. This year Oak will be receiving a new knitted hat and mittens and Alder will likely get a water bottle or a pair of insulted mittens from Polarn O. Pyret.
Our favorites so far:
Klean Kanteen - we love their sippy lid water bottle. We also have a ThinkBaby stainless steel water bottle with a sippy lid and a straw lid. It is fine, not super durable and can leak, but it has handles, which made for a good first water bottle. The Klean Kanteen is much better. The only downside is that it doesn’t have handles, so it’s a little harder for a baby to use.
Winter Gear
REI - affordable/quality kids outerwear
Polarn O. Pyret - great wool options and outerwear!
Ella’s Wool - great wool options!
Something You Wear
We’ve mostly used this category for winter gear as well. As I use a capsule wardrobe method for our boys, we don’t tend to need much for clothes at this time of the year as we are already a ways into winter. This year I’m using an old men’s wool sweater I found at a thrift store for $5 to make them matching long johns. This could also be a good time invest in some quality organic clothing. I know quite a few friends who get organic pjs for their kiddos each year. Some good companies for organic clothing are:
Something You Read
Books…I don’t know where to begin. We love picture books in our home and love giving/receiving them. However, we also love our local library and because of that, we keep our book purchases to a minimum each year. Read Aloud Revival is a FANTASTIC resource for book lists. I visit her picture book lists each month and choose books from the library from those lists. Here are a few of our all time favorite picture books that you may not be familiar with:
The Whatamagump - our friend Tyronne Wells wrote this one and it comes with an EP of awesome kids’ songs!
Thousand Star Hotel - our friends the Okee Dokee Brothers wrote this and it also comes with an album of great songs!
It’s hard to keep kid stuff to a minimum, but it IS possible. Be specific in your lists for family members and purchase things mindfully for your kids and others that you buy for. The simplicity that comes with fewer toys and more meaningful toys is so very worth it.