When you homeschool, it is easy to put educational gifts under the tree. There are no comparisons around the lunch table, "Hey, I got a new Wii and 800 music downloads for my Ipod. What'd you get?"
"Uhhh, I got some books and a science kit."
"Boy, you are such a loser!"
No, in homeschooling circles a see-through model of a car engine and a handful of Mad-Libs is enough to earn rave reviews in the 10 year old boy crowd. An American Girl doll is something to ooooh and aaah over, rather than a condescending, "I got makeup and new clothes. When are you going to grow up and stop playing with baby toys?"
Our top play with right-away gifts this year:
Will: architect kit, halogen bulb nightlight for reading (doubles as a pretend cell phone), wooden kit of a dinosaur skeleton (I found this several years ago at the thrift shop for .45)
Mary: American Girl Nikki doll, horse plaster mold and painting kit
Maggie: American Girl Samantha doll, horse painting kit
Charlie: 4 John Deere tractors, Usborne Puzzle books
Timmy: new wagon in John Deere colors with huge rubber wheels
The children were given lovely things by their aunties and granpa, it was truly the year of the horse and tractor. I think all of us wish we were celebrating Christmas on the farm in Maine with real horses in the fields and a tractor in the machinery shed, but the toys are a good substitute for the time being.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Merry Christmas, Kat.
For the Epiphany I bought on set of used binoculars for my birdwatching crew, and I'm hoping to win another set on eBay. I'm positive these will be the biggest hit when they get them. The fact that they are mainly educational won't mean a thing to them.
It's interesting that even when N. talks to kids about what he gets from us as compared to their holiday gifts, he doesn't seem to envy them at all. A friend got a Wii, and N.'s comment was along the lines of: "Why do I need virtual reality when I can go outside and shoot a real bow." That he made the bow himself makes it even more fun.
The friend has been over the last few days, and the TV set was on only one hour of that time--they watched one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation from Season II. But the outdoors was calling, and they are now working on archery. The friend's mom can't believe that in 48 hours the TV has mostly been off.
I had to tell her that I didn't do anything to keep them from TV. There's just far more interesting things to do.
It's a mindset more than anything else.
That's so true. At our house, the most played with gifts on Christmas morning was a potholder weaving kit (6 yo). The girl got a gift card and spent it on art supplies too.
We got the discovery toys "playful patterns" set and my kids have been having a ton of fun with it. (4 yr-old actually works at the patterns, 2 yr old happily sorts shapes, sizes and colors, and infant is happy just to have a quiet break from all the sisterly affection....)
Of course, the kids also got a Fisher Price Imaginext Pirate ship-- but it's been hours of imaginative fun play......
I think my favorite part about homeschooling gifts is that EVERYONE tries to keep the focus off presents and on Christ--- so my kids didn't even think it was odd that Santa only brought a few gifts, all designed to be shared.
Post a Comment