The holidays are a great opportunity to come together as a family. In many families, they also are a time to express our appreciation with thoughtful gifts that align with our values and bring joy to our children.

Finding the right gifts aligned with the core of Montessori can be difficult- especially when we are overwhelmed by the many advertised toys available! If you are interested in finding gifts that help you support your child’s education at home, we have several gift ideas that your child will both love and learn from, and that you will enjoy, not regret buying.

Get into the kitchen and out into the garden.  Most children love to hang out in the kitchen and “help”. They love to garden along with us, or take a turn at handling tools. Why not give them the real thing, and let them apply their Montessori-acquired skills toward doing the real job? For Small Hands is a great online store that offers real, high-quality tools sized for young children to handle comfortably. You’ll find everything from child-sized brooms and aprons to hand-drills, from gardening gloves to child-safe vegetable choppers.

Game time! The holidays are perfect for starting a tradition of turning off screens and instead playing games together as a family. Children as young as age three can play board games, such as Hi Ho Cherry O, the Ladybug Game or Sequence for Kids. Memory games—with wide ranges of pictures,such as life on earth, and more challenging I Spy versions—can be turned into “matching games” for 2-year-olds; with practice, some 4- or 5-year-olds will love to beat Mom and Dad at memory! Simple card games, such as Uno or Go Fish, can also be fun, especially if you start by playing them with the cards laid out openly, so you can help younger players.

Pretend play. Every child should have plenty of time for unstructured free play. Children are creative, and can make a lot from a little, so you don’t have to buy much. Consider largely unstructured items, which inspire creativity- things like a play cape, a doctor kit or even a working stethoscope, some huge cardboard blocks, a child’s tent structure. Open-ended items will have your little ones off for hours of play, especially if you also make sofa cushions, chairs, blankets and tables available to them!

Draw and complete crafts together. With your child’s growing attention span and improving fine motor skills, he’ll soon delight in having quality and fun materials to be creative with. If you have the space, a two-sided easel can be great for the youngest ones to draw on a big, toddler-suitable surface, especially if you can offer nice chalk or poster paint. (Don’t forget the artist smock!) For older children, invest in drawing pads and high-quality colored pencils. If you want to help your budding artist to both learn to draw more things, and practice reproducing shapes (a key skill in writing), you may find one of the “How to Draw” series a great way to spend some quality time together. Klutz books and activity kits also are a great source for creative inspiration, and so easy that even those of us who don’t think we are very good at crafty things can have fun with our children!

Head outside and play! Every child should have a collection of balls: even infants can enjoy easy-to-clutch open balls to throw around outside. Or try having fun with bubbles: this bubble wand is just amazing, and sure to be a hit, whether in your yard, or at the park. There are a variety of simple items to help take your family outside!

Design and build. Unstructured building materials, from Lego Duplos to Magna Tiles to Zoob building sets, from Wedgits to wooden pattern blocks and the classic Tinker Toys, all foster creativity and offer lots of play value.

It’s story time. No surprise here: we think books are a must-have gift for your child whenever there’s a joyous occasion. If you’re looking for a book list to inspire you, just click here to download these recommendations for preschoolers to lower elementary children now.

We hope you find some interesting new ideas in this list for your family, and that whatever gifts you choose add joy to your holidays and for the year to come.

Happy Holidays!