Good Gifts for Kids

If you’re looking for a fun and exciting toy for your child that encourages imaginative play, the Fisher-Price Imaginext Shark Bite Pirate Ship (about $60) is a great option to consider. With its cool shark design and interactive features, this toy is sure to spark your child’s imagination and keep them entertained for hours.

Design and Features

The Fisher-Price Imaginext Shark Bite Pirate Ship is a beautifully designed toy that has lots of hallmarks of feeling like you’re on pirate ship. The ship is shaped like a shark with a large mouth that opens and closes, revealing a hidden cannon inside. The ship also features a working anchor, a spinning propeller, and a trapdoor that leads to a jail cell. The ship even has a handle on the back, making it easy for your child to carry it around.

The toy comes with pirate figures, a cannon, and treasure, which can inspire imaginative play and storytelling. The pirate figures are well-made and include details such as eye patches, hats, and swords. The shark bite contraption is well-designed and adds an extra element of adventure.

Customer Reviews

The Fisher-Price Imaginext Shark Bite Pirate Ship has received many positive reviews (over 5,000) from customers on Amazon - averaging 5 stars. Customers comment on the quality, attention to detail in its design, durability, and number of features

Conclusion

Overall, the Fisher-Price Imaginext Shark Bite Pirate Ship is an good gift for a kid! Especially ones that love pirate adventures! It’s cool design, interactive features, and durable construction make it a great option for both playtime and display. Have fun on the high seas with the Fisher-Price Imaginext Shark Bite Pirate Ship.

A perfect gift for the first birthday, or for kids that will soon be on their feet, the Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker (somewhere around $40) is sure to be a hit for several months/years.

This interactive learning baby Walker has a removable play panel that plays music and encourage creativity. There are spinning rollers, shape sorters, and light-up buttons. The wheels work on carpeted and hard wood floors. It’s also possible to lock the wheels to slow the the kids down a bit if needed.

There is a detachable front that has a lot of musical keys, buttons that make different sounds, and a phone toy.

Batteries are included, but you may want to get re-chargeable AA batteries so that you can save money on that.

It’s something that kids just naturally gravitate towards, and so it’s sure to be a hit.

Just as a child is finding it’s footing, she is likely looking things to climb on. The ECR4Kids SoftZone Climb and Crawl foam playset offers a variety of blocks to sit, crawl, climb, push, and play around with.

These colorful blocks are just the right size for toddlers and to crawl on. They are lightweight enough that as they want to push them around and one day pick them up on their own, they can do so. These are nicely made, good in quality, and easy to clean. It’s a cinch to wipe off any spills from the colorful vinyl, and they hold up to the abuse.

Amongst the five pieces is a ramp, and though depicted in some marketing photos as if it’s a slide, it definitely isn’t a slide. It’s more for crawling up, or arranging other shapes, or another fun thing is to use it on its own for mom or dad to roll balls to their child. All the pieces are great for a pillow fort, too.

ECR4Kids makes additional ‘SoftZone’ sets of blocks made like these with the same foam, but with different shapes. Any set in this line-up would be a great gift for a 1-year old kid!

Around the time a kid is 16 is when he or she will get her own ride. Maybe it’s a clunker from the 80’s, or maybe it’s a brand new Lexus, but either way, it’s their own, and nothing says making something your own like adding your own accessories.

Enter Govee’s Interior LED Car Lights kid (about $17), that install easily, and works with any cigarette lighter. There’s a supplied controller, or there’s also a phone app, that can be used to light up the interior in any color (or all of them!). With an option to react to music, it’s a party-on-the-go that puts that extra delight to any kid’s first car.

Using the brightness modes, the lights are bright enough to see the interior without a harsh glare at night on the lower setting. There’s no complicated wiring - it’s driven from a standard cigarette lighter, and it’s simple for the kid to install themselves if they desire.

For those reasons, we think Govee’s Color LED Light Strips for a car interior make a good gift for a kid who just got is first set of wheels.

Kids don’t have much exposure to the variety of knots there are beyond how to tie their shoes. There is so much more to learn, and having a good picture guide of knots to reference helps make that happen. That’s where My First Book of Knots: A Beginner’s Picture Guide (under $10) comes in,

What this book covers

In this book, authors Berndt Sundsten and Jan Jager cover several useful knots, and indicating the appropriate situation and application for each one, which is just as important as learning the knots themselves. When looking for a picture guide of knots, large and color is better. In this book, the illustrations are large, colored, and clear – with appropriate shading so it’s easy to tell where the rope or string should go behind or in front of other parts of the rope.

Regarding the book’s title

As a parent, I cannot help but feel like the book title, ‘My First Book of Knots’, would make me a bit cautious to want to pick it up. The phrasing ‘My First Book of whatever‘ is reminiscent of toddler books that have similar names. Despite that, the book’s material is meant for older kids – as young as 7-year-olds up to 12-year-olds (honestly there is no cap – even adults like this book). If kids find this picture guide of knots interesting, then perhaps they will seek out additional books, but it certainly isn’t a mere introduction – there are a good number of knots covered in this book alone. That said, the book succeeds as a gift to kids in teh 7-12 year range despite the title.

Application of knots

The need for a knots come up in all sorts of situations, and in many times in unpredictable ones. Many people like to know knots for fishing, boating, and camping, but it isn’t limited to those heavily involved in outdoor activities, and knowing how to tie a knot can come in handy in emergency situations. Other applications includes: tying shoes, tying two short ropes together to make one long one, making a bead bracelet, making a sling, tie a bundle of sticks together, or lifting and carrying buckets.

Why a picture guide of knots makes a good gift for a kid

The draw in presenting a kid with a picture guide of knots is that there is an inherent challenge to want to make each knot. And once kids learn how to make various knots, they’ll look for opportunities to put their learning into practice. It’s also a handy skill (literally and figuratively), and could prove useful in a variety of ways. Consider combining this gift with some paracord or other rope to encourage practicing knots.

If you thought your three-wheeler was fun back in the day, then you will love its successor – the Razor Rip-Rider 360 ($144). Kids pedal to get speed with oversized front wheel (flat-free tire), and brake to drift on the back dual casters. The spinning thrill gets kids hooked, with others quick to yell “let me have a go!”. The sturdy frame will make this rider a favorite for outdoor play.

With a built-in easy-to-grasp slidable eraser that makes it easy for kids to get a blank slate to play with, the Fisher-Price Doodle Pro magnetic drawing board (~$28) is a re-writable writing and drawing board that comes with a magnetic stylus and shapes.

The Doodle Pro magnetic drawing board may sound a lot like another product called the Magna Doodle. They are similar, as once Magna Doodle was sold by Fisher Price. Now that it’s no longer sold by Fisher-Price, Fisher-Price started producing its own alternative called the Doodle Pro. They basically work the same way.

The Doodle Pro magnetic drawing board makes for a great toy, and kids love to draw and erase with it over and over again. However, a big part of the Doodle Pro’s usefulness is that a magnet drawing board makes a great teaching tool for young kids. It can be used for quick minute lessons that can fit any learning level.

Magnetic drawing board as a teaching tool

For a 3-year old (or even 2-year-old if you feel your child can do it) draw a picture of circle and square on the Doodle Pro. Hold it up and ask “Which one is the circle? Which one is the square?” Have the child point to the board. Erase and repeat with more variations of shapes as they get better at identifying them. Give them positive reinforcement for getting the answers right.

Once they are good at identifying the shape, also work on having them say the name of the shape on their own, like so: Draw one shape on the Doodle Pro magnetic drawing board and ask the child “What is this shape called?” Have them say “circle” or “triangle”. Again, give them positive reinforcement, like saying “Great job!”.

As the child gets older, instead shapes, use letters and numbers. Start out by drawing two letters on the Doodle Pro board and ask “Which one is the ‘o’? Which one is the ‘t’?”, and have the child point. Erase and repeat with new letters. Letters can be overwhelming, so go easy and start slow, and make sure to include easy ones like ‘O’ and ‘X’ pretty often at first.

What is harder is recalling the name of the letter, so also do lessons where you draw a letter on the Doodle Pro and ask “What letter is this?”.

Once children get close to age 5 they can start learning sight words, so doing the above with real words, like “and”, “the”, and “me”, will help them get better at identifying sight words, and strengthening reading skills.

Also, children will find themselves wanting to draw the shapes, letters, numbers, and words, too, and let them ‘turn the tables’ on you by having them play the teacher, by drawing out the lesson themselves on the Doodle Pro magnetic board, and you the student. Let that happen – teaching others has proven an effective way to solidify learning.

Have you ever wondered how magnetic drawing boards work?

You likely knew there were magnets, but what else is involved?

The display is a piece of plastic that seals honeycomb cells of a thick white liquid and magnetic particles. The magnetic particles are pulled through the white-dyed liquid when a magnet pulls them to the front of the display. The magnetic particles are very fine and light in weight, while the liquid is purposefully thick, therefore preventing the magnetic particles from falling to bottom of the cell. The sliding eraser is actually a magnet as well, pulling the particles to the back of the cell and therefore all the player sees is the while liquid again.

Bottom Line

The Doodle Pro magnetic drawing board is an fun drawing and learning tool, requires no batteries, and can be used in different ways through the different stages of childhood. While the magnetic shapes might get lost, the magnetic stylus is attached via string and so it will always be usable. The ability to erase is just as satisfying as drawing with this durable toy. The Doodle Pro magnetic drawing board is a good gift for a kid.

The approachability of an acoustic guitar makes it a great gift idea for teens no matter if they’ve ever had a music lesson, and no matter what kinds of music they are interested in. At $180, the Fender Squier Acoustic Guitar Bundle is a superb deal for a quality product. Everything needed to get started is included: the guitar, a case, a stand, strap, tuner, extra strings, picks, and instructional media. Right out of the box, it’s set to go.

The guitar is the type of instrument that can reward even the smallest of efforts (relatively to the violon, for instance). As many rock songs use a basic three chord progression, someone can literally be covering and creating songs within the first hour. As someone seeks to master the guitar, so too are they learning about new music styles and cultures. If someone takes lessons (or looks online for free ones), suddenly kids born in the 21st century are getting exposure to the Beatles, Santana, and Led Zeppelin.

Even though the learning curve isn’t steep, we wouldn’t recommend guitars for kids younger than teens. The ability to stretch hands around the neck of the guitar to pinch strings just right for chords can be tough and frustrating for smaller hands – it’s more suitable for older kids/teens whose arms and hands can handle an adult instrument.

A guitar encourages focus, can be a nice introduction to the vocabulary in music, and serves as a social bridge when getting to know new people. It can also boost self-esteem and help kids practice patience. These are all invaluable things particularly for kids in the teenage years. And over time, this gift can lead to supplemental presents like guitar chord songbooks for the favorite bands.

For older kids who might benefit from the challenge of a more grown-up brain teaser, you may try introducing the hobby of lock picking. Believe it or not, this is a legitimate hobby that many enthusiasts enjoy and find fun to do. For the curious tinker type, lock-picking can be an engaging hobby with a bit of a brow-raising factor when the topic is mentioned (although it may be best to not mention it, more on that later). One just needs a few things to get started:

• A good starter lock picking set with a modest variety of tools. From the lockpickshop.com, this 14-piece beginners lock pick set ($34) is a good choice as a lock pick set for kids.
  • Note: I’m seeing that the lockpickshop.com website is having issues. If you find that to be the case, try this set from lockpickworld.com instead.
• Additionally, the lock picker hobbyist needs some practice locks. If you have some old key-driven padlocks, or an old piece of door hardware no longer needed, those can make a nice start to dabble with. Many hobbyists end up collecting a variety of practice locks as they go. As obviously you won’t want to practice on your, or your neighbor’s, front door. Which leads us to the next item…
• A set of rules. Lock picking can be a fun hobby, but requires some responsibility and boundaries. In addition to not doing something illegal, be clear that the practice locks are the only things that should be used, as locks can become damaged by the novice hobbyist. Also, it’s likely best not to brag too much about having such abilities, as it can understandably signal some alarms if parents of friends find out that this is your kid’s new hobby.
• A lock pick set is only good if you know how to use it, so a nice starter book like Practical Lock Picking would be a good complimentary item to round out the gift.

Combine the lockpick set with a guide!

I can’t stress that last bullet strong enough. A proper and thorough guide is a great companion to a lockpick set. We’ve looked through several options for books for lockpicking, and we feel Practical Lock Picking is the best. A great companion for a lockpicking set.

Check out the book

A lock pick set is a pretty unique gift – you can likely count on someone not already have one. Also, this type of gift shows the child that he is trusted, and is perceived as a responsible person, which is important to reinforce with younger teens. Obviously, you’d only want to give such a gift if you really do feel like the child can partake of the hobby in a responsible manner.

And yes, the skill may actually come in handy one day.

This particular Southord 14-piece lock picking set comes is a quality set for the price, and is a top seller at lockpickshop.com. It consists of 10 picks and 4 torsion wrenches, and a leather pouch to keep them in. We’ve personally given all things listed above to a 13-year-old in the family, and it was extremely well-received.

Lift-the-flap books make reading time for engagement for little ones, and a great book to add to the collection is Zoom, Zoom, Baby! ($7) by Karen Katz.

Reading with little children is one of the best activities one can start at an early age. Kids at 6 months are into playing peek-a-boo style games, and a lift-the-flap book reinforces the idea of this type of discovery. Flap books are sturdy so that little hands of this age are getting used to grasping items, and flap books are very hands-on and built for kdis to play with.

When reading with younger kids, ask questions about what is on the page. Point and say thing appropriate for the book. For this one, “Do you think the baby is in here?” Then when lifting the flap… “No! It’s a funny bunny!”. Exaggerate your voice to make book reading more engaging. Point out other things on the page – “See the wheels? What color is the sky?”. The illustrations in Zoom, Zoom, Baby! are inviting, friendly, and funny. Point to them and talk about them, while also calling attention to the words that you’re reading.

With Zoom, Zoom, Baby!, vocabulary related to travel (‘car’, ‘boat’, ‘bus’, and ‘train’) can be reinforced to the kids. Obviously they won’t walk away knowing exactly what this item is, but the more they see it and hear the parent name it, the quicker kids pick up on what names these items have. Babies likely have some of these toys already, and associating objects with the same name—”This is a bus, and look – you have a toy bus, too!”—can stimulate intellectual growth.

In summary, reading with children is one of the best activities for kids and parents. An appropriate-age book, like the Zoom, Zoom, Baby! flap book for older babies and young toddlers, is a good gift for kids.