Kids Gift Guide 2019

2019 Kids Gift Guide

With five kids, there aren’t many toys or games that we haven’t crowd sourced around here so every year I go back through our list of birthday presents and Christmas gifts and put together a post of our favorite kids toys/ kids gifts! Don’t hesitate to message me if you have any questions about our experience with any of these! Reminder that my children are ages 10 to 4.

To see the full list of Kids Gifts directly on Amazon (in addition to other items like craft supplies, ladies fashion, and weird stuff) click over to my Amazon Shop.

1. Perler Beads

Smith kids are DEEP into Perler beads. All five of them will get sucked into making shapes and patterns. We don’t do anything magical with the melted creations when we’re done, but the time spend creating each one is all that matters!! And yes… they do get all over, but it’s an easy job for one of the kids to vacuum them up!

2. Extra large coloring poster

When we have friends come over, I’ll sometimes tape one of these up onto the wall for everyone to sit and color! Kids love being able to color in their own part of the picture!

3. Light Up Tracing Pad

Eleanor has one of these light up tracing pads and uses it ALL the time. She loves to trace pictures or add details to her old drawing and this light up tracing pad makes all of that fun and easy!

4. Guesstures

We played this over Thanksgiving and it was THE BEST! You need to read in order to play, but we just gave the little kids an ‘assistant’ so they could participate. You have to act out words before they disappear, but you can choose from a selection of easy, medium or hard so everyone was totally able to have fun!

5. LED Tablet

Don’t let the “LED” in the title fool you… this does NOT feel like an electronic gadget at all. Kids can use the stylus to ‘write’ on the board but then, with the press of a button, the entire thing will erase so they can start scribbling again. My kids have always loved this when they were younger as it allows for early fine motor skills without the frustration that sometimes comes from messing up a piece of paper with a drawing.

6. Window Art

We always love arts and crafts and this one has the added bonus of being easily displayed in the kids rooms. The special paint and templates allow kids to essentially create window clings on their own. Requires a little fine motor in order to squeeze the paint and control the drawing, but younger kids can always make their own design without worrying about tracing the provided graphics!

7. Instax Camera

The price of these instant cameras have come down a lot and my girls love to use theirs. We had to talk about the cost of the film so they’re not taking pictures willy nilly, but if you’re looking for a gift that will excite the kids, this is definitely one of them!

8. Water Fuse Beads

These little beads might be a bit tricky for younger kids but Eleanor is 10 and loves this activity. You place all the beads on a template/ create your design and then give it a spray of water and the beads fuse together like magic!

9. Echo Buttons

We were given some of these for Christmas last year and the kids love them. They communicate with your Amazon Alexa and play games with the different lights on the buttons. We love one where the buttons all change colors and you have to smack your button when it changes a certain color… so like a quick draw. We have two sets so four people can play at once.

10. Hoverboard

Oliver bought this with his own money about a month ago and he LOVES it. It’s not nearly as precarious as you might think and feels very sturdy (the rig itself is super heavy). I think he’s fallen once the entire time he was using it, but I wasn’t watching so I suspect there may have been a bit of ‘showmanship’ going on…

11. Rubik’s Race

This is another game that my four big kids can play! You have to slide the colored squares to match the dice in the grid. There’s a bit of a learning curve to get the rhythm down, but this is a great option for mixed ages.

12. Hands Free Drone

Oliver got this for his birthday, and loves it. It hovers in the air like a drone, but doesn’t require a remote control or other steering device… you just use your hands to ‘guide’ it as it floats.

13. Temporary Tattoos

Here’s my disclaimer with this one: if my kids are independently entertained and happy, I will put up with things like temporary tattoos. I’ve found these Melissa and Doug ones are easy enough to remove

14. Metal Detector

This is a little more fun in the summer for sure, but my kids love the thrill of the hunt with this one! And… if you think ahead, no reason you can’t scatter some coins to reinforce their searching!

15. Retro Toy Record Player

OK… raise your hand if you remember this from when you were a kid? Well… it’s back and my kids LOVE it. It comes with 10 songs (5 records) and the kids love putting the record on the turntable and winding it up. What’s old is new, right?!

Just so I can publish this, I’m going to leave it at that, but reminder… whenever I see a fun toy or buy something for my own kids, I add it to my Kids GIft Guide 2019 in my Amazon shop… so head over there for other ideas that may not be in this post!! And I ALWAYS love to know about toys and games that you guys are loving so leave me a comment with any favorites that I may not have mentioned!!