Category: gift ideas

The Best Toys We’ve Ever Bought

‘Tis the season for gift guides, and I wanted to take a few minutes today to share some gifts we’ve bought our girls over the years that they absolutely love. My go-to website for gift guides for children is Modern Parents Messy Kids, but I also love to browse for ideas on Amazon and the Indigo website. My goal when we are giving gifts to our kids is to buy toys that will last. We are fortunate that our children haven’t (yet) bought into huge toy fads because they aren’t really exposed to marketing the same way we used to be – due to Netflix, I think 🙂 

Here are some of their favourite things that we’ve had for a long time 🙂 (no affiliate links) 
1) LeapReader with books and a couple of games like this one and this one. Molly got one of these from Santa a few years ago and Lucy got one last year. Lucy is 100% obsessed with this toy and she would listen to audiobooks with it all day long. We got headphones with it so it’s wonderful for the car or for waiting rooms. Aside from us reading to our children all the time, I really think this toy played a part in Molly learning how to read before she started school and Lucy well on her way to doing the same. 
2) Magnetic blocks – we bought these non-brand-name ones last year, and they were expensive but they are constantly played with.
3) Lego/duplo – the girls are both getting more of this for Christmas and they love the building aspect. They still need to get a bit more creative with what they’re building, but I’m sure that will come with time.
4) Kidizoom camera – this takes not-very-good-quality pictures, but it’s so fun! 
5) Magna doodle – this provides wonderful entertainment on road trips
6) Boogie Board – this thing is amazing if you happen to have a child that loves to write and needs you to help them spell things. I actually kind of want one of these myself for notes on the fridge.
7) White board and dry-erase markers – I got the girls big magnetic white boards at the dollar store last year and I’m not joking when I say that they kept them entertained for 3 hours in a row one day on our summer road trip. They love these. Dry-erase activity books are also a big hit in our family. 
8) Board games such as Snug as a Bug in a rug, Memory, I can Do that! and Roll and Play (great for toddlers). 
9) Melissa and Doug reusable sticker pads
10) Kinetic sand – this was all the rage a few years ago, for good reason. It’s soooo fun. It can make a bit of a mess, but it’s easy to clean up. Our girls also love play dough, of course, but this has a different feel to it. 
and a bonus: 11) this snap together bead set for children’s fashion 🙂
Plus, here are a few stocking stuffers that have gone over well:
1) this fun pen for a child who loves to write
2) these water wow books
3) these adorable magnetic bookmarks
4) small jigsaw puzzles – we like this set in particular (up to age 3-4) but there are thousands of options
5) Petit pop outs (many varieties)
6) Silly putty – only if your kids are old enough! haha

Great Gifts from Uncommon Goods

Christmas is my favourite time of year, hands down. I have always loved this season, but it is a MILLION times better with our own kids. Being a parent at Christmas time is so much fun. Being the avid researcher that I am, I love to pick out fun, useful, and unique gifts for our family and friends. I’d say that Brian leaves 98% of the gifting ideas to me (including my own), haha, and he is happy to do so. Gift giving (and gift planning!) just provides me with a lot of enjoyment.

I don’t typically start decorating for Christmas or getting TOO crazy about the season until the end of November, but I do like to finish most of our shopping before that. Over the next couple of weeks, I have a few posts planned about some unique gift ideas. Today in particular, I’m highlighting a few ideas for Christmas I really love from Uncommon Goods. For instance, a literary scarf like this one has been high on my wish-list all year:

I’m having a hard time deciding between Pride & Prejudice and the grey Sense & Sensibility scarf

If you haven’t heard of Uncommon Goods, there are a few things to love about them. Many of their products are made by artists that you can read about and feel good about supporting. Each product page has the option to read the story behind the product and the maker.

Further to this, to really prove their desire to offer sustainability to the world around them, Uncommon Goods became one of the first B Corporation companies 10 years ago. B Corporation rigorously provides third-party certification of sustainable practices. Guys, I did my Master’s thesis on corporate social responsibility and I work in evaluation so I can not understate how great this is to see.

Above all, for me personally, I always love when I find a company that ships to Canada and lists prices in Canadian dollars. It’s so frustrating to find a great gift online and then find out I can’t even get it in my country 🙂

If you’re anything like me, there are a people in your life that really stump your gift giving mojo at Christmas. For me, the hardest people to buy for are the ones who have everything they want and need…or so it seems. A great option for this group of people are some of the gifts with a personal touch available from Uncommon Goods.

I’ve always loved codes although I don’t know Morse code…this necklace is pretty dainty and fun! I think I like how Heather looks in Morse code 😉
I love to gift my children with unique toys and Uncommon Goods has no shortage of interesting things that children will love. I love to buy high quality toys that I know we will get a lot of use from, and a few things are quite appealing to me (us):
I’m almost certain we are going to buy this little patient toy for Lucy this year, and if not, we will buy it for my niece next year since both of her parents are doctors and she comes by her interest naturally :). Another one of my favourite things to buy for any kids in my life is bath toys because they just don’t last forever and always make that time of day more exciting. I think my kids need this toy in their lives:
Lastly, I’m pretty convinced that this is the perfect gift for my board-game-loving-baseball-playing husband. So fun, right?
Have you started Christmas shopping yet? Or maybe you’ve just started making lists? I have a few more gift guides to share in the coming weeks including my children’s most loved gifts, gifts for book lovers, and husband gift ideas. I’ll be back tomorrow talking about all of my favourite recent reads for Show us Your Books too. Can’t wait!

This post was sponsored by Uncommon Goods, but all of these opinions and ideas are my own! I love this store and what it stands for, and we have made several purchases of our own from here since they started shipping to Canada.