Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Each year at Christmas time I pull out a toy catalog and have my son go to town circling what he wants. I then email his list to his two grandma’s and start shopping myself. The child is so blessed to have two sets of grandparents and two sets of great grandparents that all dote on him and love him to pieces. He was the first grandbaby and he has always been a wee bit spoiled by everyone. This year it has begun to show.

I can not, for the life of me, figure out one “big” gift to get him. I usually come up with a major gift and then smaller gifts to go along with it. Not this year. The kid has it all. Even he can’t come up with anything that he really wants.

I’m using this opportunity to get in some educational games and toys. I’ve emailed the grandmas links to different board games that I think he would like that will also tie in nicely with our studies. I’ve found different science kits for him. I’ve asked for gift cards to book stores so that he can choose his own books. The grandparents are happy to be getting him things that are educational and I am thrilled to be saving money on the extra things that make homeschooling so much fun and helps Eeyore retain what he’s learned.

If you are going to be doing holiday shopping for kids this year, homeschooled or not, there a few great resources out there you should check out. One of my favorites for board games is Rainbow Resources. They have lots of great games that look fun as well as educational. Eeyore is going to love some of the ones I’ve picked out. Another good place to check out is Scholastic. They have three different Magic School Bus science kits that look like so much fun and almost all kids like The Magic School Bus!

I know a lot of people are worried about all the recalls lately and a great resource I’ve found for educational and SAFE toys is eBeanstalk. They personally test all their toys for lead. I love this store and I bet you will too if you use my special discount code to save 10 percent! Just type in the promo code “snot” (you know, like Wiping Up Snot?) and you’ll save money on excellent toys that teach things too!

Good luck with your shopping this season. Now I just have to make time for school work and stop surfing the net for all these fun games!

by Karly Campbell

[tags]kids, children, parents, parenting, homeschooling, holiday, presents, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, choices, catalogs, fulfillment, educational[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by naukhel, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved