I’m Back — With Educational Gift Guides for the Kids in Your Life

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!  Sorry for the paucity of posts last week.  It started out with puzzling technical difficulties that got straightened out right as the family time began.

For some reason, I seem to hope that somewhere in the first week after Thanksgiving, I can get all my Christmas shopping done and spend the rest of the season lounging around with cocoa, making ornaments and decorating cookies with my kids.  It’s a nice goal anyway.

So, I thought I’d jump back into the week by sharing a few gift guides put together by a blogging friend of mine, Melissa, over at Imagination Soup.  She’s collected a list of some of the most fun and exciting educational gifts for children.  (And who knows, with today being Cyber Monday, you may find a great deal!)

So if you’re like me, and you get even more satisfaction out of giving gifts that have more purpose than just being “more stuff”, you’ll definitely want to check out some of these educational toys!

The first guide includes games, puzzles, maps, and buiding sets.  You can find it here.  (Check out that doorway market —  it’s brilliant!)

The second features math and science toys and games.  You can find that here. (I may have to pick up the Steve Spangler book she suggests for some little scientists I know…..and their nerdy mom.) 

Reading and writing gifts can be found in her guide here.  (I love that message decoder!)

Her favorite book suggestions are here.  (Who doesn’t need something to read for Christmas?)

And her Creative Gift Guide, full of play, art, music, and nature  gift ideas, can be found here.  (Sign me up for some Brick Stix for my Lego fiends!)

Thanks to Melissa’s lists, I feel a little bit closer to my crazy one week goal!  Hopefully they’re helpful to you as well! 

What are some of your favorite educational gift ideas?