7 Engaging Travel Toys for Elementary Schoolers (No Screens!)

This post contains links for which I may be compensated or earn a referral commission at no extra cost to you. My full disclosure policy is here if you really want to read more about it.

As some of you know, my 8-year-old switched to a new gymnastics gym a few months ago. The new place is amazing but it's also a lot farther away than I'd like, which means he's now spending an extra hour a day in the car at least three times a week for practice.

And he would play on my phone for ALL of that time if I let him.

Luckily, I gathered a collection of fun things we already owned and a few that his grandma happened to give us at just that right time that have occupied him for hours in the car before he even thought to ask me for my phone. With the holidays and possibly some road trips coming up for all of you, I wanted to share them!

Paint By Sticker for Kids

I'm still shocked by how long my kids will quietly focus on this book. The pages are thick and good quality; it goes a lot of places with us and isn't worn and tattered like most things around here (including me). There are 10 pictures in the book which doesn't sound like a lot, but my kids have been working on it for months and still aren't finished with it. My 8-year-old takes it with him on car rides and my fidgety 12-year-old brings it to church so she doesn't jump out of her skin while sitting still and listening. One caveat: this book isn't the best for kids under 6, who will probably have a hard time with the smaller stickers.

Shashibo Shape-Shifting Cube

When my mom sent me a link to one of these last Christmas and asked if I thought my kids would like it, I shrugged and said "Maybe." I thought it would be a novelty they'd get tired of quickly, but they literally loved their new Shashibo cube to death (it eventually frayed at the edges after being played with daily for over a year). It was well worth the investment, and I think everyone in the house picked it up and played with it sometimes, even my husband and I. When we're totally stumped on a birthday gift for one of the kids' friends, we've sometimes given Shashibo cubes, since they're something unique and different that works for both boys and girls from any age, 6 to teenager.

Word Search Books

Good old word searches. My kids do lots of them at school already, but I guess when you've got your own book it just feels special, so as long as I bring a pencil in the car they're happy to work on the next puzzle for 20-30 minutes. Here's one on Amazon for kids ages 8-10 and another for ages 10-12 with 100 themed puzzles each, but honestly you can walk into any dollar store and find a word search book your elementary schooler would probably be delighted with.

Sudoku Books

Any Sudoku book will keep my math-loving 3^rd and 5^th graders occupied for hours. (If I were to argue with them, I'd point out that Sudoku isn't arithmatic but pattern recognition, but I won't because they're so happy with it.) As far as puzzle books go, I prefer ones like this one that have multiple difficulty levels, because kids can skip around depending on how deeply they feel like thinking that day, multiple siblings can use it, and nobody gets bored or frustrated with a book that's all too easy or way too hard.

Travel Tangram Puzzles

When I was in elementary school, I remember bringing home a set of Tangrams and spending a lot of time playing with it. Part of the fun of parenting is introducing your kids to your old favorites, but I especially like these because of the magnetic backs of the pieces! They're great to play with in the car. The kids can do whatever they want, or they can open up the spiral flip-book and copy the designs. My only suggestion is to get a big Ziploc bag to store everything together; the manufacturer apparently didn't think of a good way to keep it all contained between uses and you don't want to lose pieces.

Rand McNally Kids' Road Atlas

This Rand McNally Kids' Road Atlas been one of my kids' favorites for a while. Every page features a different state with various maps, facts, activities, and puzzles on each one. It's really well-designed for kids, especially ones who love maps, geography, or state capitals. My 8-year-old loves to flip through it in the car on the way to gymnastics and back (bring a pencil!), but if you're taking a cross-country drive or flight soon you should probably bring a copy of this along because this book was definitely made for it.

Cubebot Micro

This little 4" tall robot was a stocking stuffer for one of my older kids years ago, and it has since passed down to the younger siblings and my 8-year-old currently likes to play with it as we drive. The infinitely positionable cubebots come in 16 different colors (ours is neon green) and are beautiful in their simplicity: they're just cubes and elastic cords, no batteries or breakable parts. And they're made of wood, not plastic, which means ours is still around and hasn't cracked yet from being thrown and tossed by our boys.

I'm not exactly anti-screen, but given the choice I'd rather that the kids go offline in search of things to do for fun in their free time. Especially now that they're in school, where they're using tablets and Chromebooks all the time for educational purposes anyway. These activities have kept my 8-year-old and his siblings busy in the car now that we're driving more than we used to, and I hope they will for yours on your next car trip, too!

Click to Share:

Read More »

Is a No-Gift Christmas with Kids Really Possible?

Have you ever come to dread something you once loved? Last Christmas, I realized that even though I looked forward to the cookies, the lights, the general goodwill in the air, and of course the special religious meaning for my family, I also felt an overwhelming desire to hide under the covers and not come out until January. 

The problem was my family's gift-giving, which had gotten out of hand. We were spending way too much time, effort, and money on stuff that didn't add value to our kids' lives, and on top of it all the house was always a disaster because it was too much for any of us to organize and manage. 

So we simply quit giving the kids gifts at Christmas. No more toys. No more stuff. 

How did our first no-gift Christmas go? Would we do it again? And would it ever in a million years work in your family? 

Here's everything you ever wanted to know about going gift-free this Christmas, but were afraid to ask.

Q: What did your Christmases look like before?

We used to get each kid four presents, plus one from Santa. That doesn't sound excessive, but with 6 kids it quickly added up, and when you added in extra toys and gadgets from extended family members it was way too much. 

I know it's a privilege being able to complain about having too much stuff, but it certainly doesn't feel like a privilege when you're drowning in it.

Q: What does a no-gift Christmas look like?

A: Each child gets one experience gift from us, and that's it. The only tangible items they receive are a stocking filled by Santa, one physical gift from Santa, and whatever their grandparents choose to get them.

Q: Were the kids actually on board with this?

A: We started by having a family meeting. We explained to the kids we wanted to avoid waste and focus on doing stuff together instead of giving stuff. At first they were skeptical (especially the younger ones,) but once they started making lists of fun places they've always wanted to go they got excited about it.

Q: Wait a minute. Wasn't Christmas Day super-lame without gifts to open?

Well, they still have a few gifts to unwrap from Santa and their grandparents. But aside from that, we tried to make the experience of opening the experience gifts fun by printing out a certificate for each experience and packaging it creatively. 

We rolled up the 5-year-old's certificate and stuck it in a balloon for him to pop, and the 13-year-old's went in this folded paper pyramid. In future years maybe we'll wrap certificates in a bunch of boxes inside each other, have them follow a strand of yarn all over the house to find it, make a scavenger hunt, or write it in a scrambled language to decode.

Q: What kind of experience gifts did you give?

We're big believers in family time over individual date nights with each child, so it felt natural for us to include everyone who was able to participate in each experience. Here's what we did last year:

5yo: Trampoline park for the whole family

7yo: Laser tag for the whole family

10yo: Escape room for one parent and the 3 kids who were old enough

13yo: Adult go-kart racetrack for one parent and all kids who met the height requirement

15yo: Virtual reality room for the teenagers and a parent

17yo: Semester of piano lessons at a local music school (not exactly a family experience, but it was something she really, really wanted)

We found a lot of ideas by searching our city on Groupon and Trip Advisor. You could try indoor skydiving, pop-up museums, an overnight hotel stay with a pool and pizza for dinner, or one of those pay-by-the-pound ice cream places where you do all the toppings. The experiences could even be free: a cool sledding hill they've never been to before, or an "anything goes" night where they stay up late and create the itinerary.

Q: How did your first giftless Christmas go?

Every time we drove home from one of those experiences with the kids talking about it excitedly with each other in the backseat, I felt like we'd done the right thing. This year there was no wasted time and effort tracking down presents no one used, no landfill of wrapping paper and packaging waste in the living room, no meltdowns the week afterward trying to organize the avalanche of toys. I even heard my 10-year-old exclaim several times at the escape room "This is the best Christmas present EVER!!!"

Q: Were there any downsides to not exchanging gifts at Christmas?

A: It was challenging to juggle so many people's schedules to find a time to actually do all the experience gifts. We tried to complete as many as possible in the week between Christmas and New Years, but we didn't finish all of them until March. Also, our no-gift Christmas was not cheap. Most people assume we saved a ton of money, but obviously eight admissions to the trampoline park costs more than a few plastic toys. In all, it probably ended up costing about the same as before.

Q: Any tips for me if I want to try a no-gift Christmas with my family?

A: In the past, we'd tried encouraging extended family members to get us experience gifts, which was met with mixed reactions and didn't work well for a variety of reasons. We found it was much easier to fix our own gift-giving and let everyone else do what they felt comfortable with.

Start out by clearly deciding what you're trying to accomplish with a no-gift Christmas: to be more environmentally conscious? more responsible with your money? less overwhelmed by the number of toys in the house? Involve the kids, come up with a plan, and commit to trying it for just one year. Explain you can always go back if they don't like it.

Q: What if I want to downsize Christmas but I'm not ready to give up gifts altogether?

Dip your toes in by giving experience gifts with a small related trinket, like a zoo pass with a dollar store bag of plastic animals or tickets for a monster truck rally with a Hot Wheels vehicle. It will get you and your kids used to the idea without going completely cold-turkey.

You can also explore other ways to ease your holiday burnout. If there's Christmas decor you don't really like putting up, get rid of it. Ask your family their favorite Christmas traditions and eliminate the ones on the bottom of the list. Deep down you probably know what should be cut out to make things simpler, you just need to give yourself permission to do it.

We're heading into our second no-gift Christmas, and I couldn't be more excited. It's freeing not to orchestrate who's getting what with a literal spreadsheet starting in September, and I know that the day after Christmas I'll wake up to a calendar of fun things to do with my kids instead of a house full of clutter and chaos. At least, not any more full of it than usual.

Click to Share:

Read More »

Review of Stella Nova: A Christian Family Board Game

Raise your hand if you love Jesus and like free stuff!

I'm glad I have your attention because I'm super-excited for this giveaway of Stella Nova, a family board game that is fun and celebrates the true meaning of Christmas.

As a Christian I look forward to celebrating the birth of my Savior every year, but by mid-November I'm drowning in a glossy full-color avalanche of hot holiday toy catalogs and... it's easy to lose sight of why we're buying all those gifts in the first place.

That's why I was thrilled when Christian Haven offered to send me a copy of Stella Nova.

Stella Nova is a Christian family board game — the name means "New Star" in Latin.

With a combination of strategy, luck, and knowledge about Bible trivia, players race their game pieces across a historically accurate map of the Holy Land to be the first Wise Man to reach the Christ child in Bethlehem.

Along the way, players face obstacles like thieves and sandstorms, and everyone has to use their supplies wisely to make it from one city to the next without running out.

Our family has played and enjoyed many board games that follow a similar strategy/luck formula, but the most unique and meaningful part of Stella Nova, in my opinion, was the trivia cards that get you through the game.

There are two kinds of trivia questions: geography or Bible. The ancient history and geography ones were really hard, but my teenagers enjoyed the challenge (and apparently know more about what's where in the Middle East than I do.)

I stuck to the Bible trivia questions, which were all about the Nativity story. I loved that the Bible verse with the answer was on each card, and when I saw that we pulled out our scriptures and made them part of the game.

We made the rule that the younger kids were allowed to look up the answer if they didn't know it, and as a result, my 8-year-old was legit reading from the Bible while we played and having fun doing it, which makes this game well worth it, in my eyes.

The game was rated for ages 8 and up, which seemed pretty appropriate to me since reading and a little bit of strategy is required.

The 5-year-old couldn't play by himself, but he wanted to be on my team and enjoyed rolling the die. The 8-year-old caught on quickly and actually ended up winning the game.

Game play lasted about an hour and 45 minutes with 5 players — of course, we would have finished sooner were it not for the genetic condition all my children seem to have inherited where they need to be reminded every single time it's their turn. (We've been struggling with this problem for years and I'm convinced there is no cure.)

My advice when playing Stella Nova for the first time is to read the directions ahead of time and be prepared to summarize. Even though the rules aren't complicated, the directions take a long time to read and people will get antsy if you try to do it when everyone is already sitting at the table.

Unless you bring snacks, which in retrospect is also a good idea.

Picture a bowl of M&Ms here and you've got a decent game night.

Stella Nova was easy enough for my 8-year-old to understand, challenging enough for my teenagers to enjoy, and focused on Jesus Christ and the story of His birth.

What's more, we had a good time together and I only threatened to duct tape the kids' mouths shut once! (Just kidding. It was twice.)

I consider that a rollicking success, and I'm looking forward to playing Stella Nova again this holiday season with my kids.

Phillip and I are always looking for ways for our family to remember and celebrate the real reason for the Christmas season, and we're happy to add Stella Nova to our toolbox!

If you're looking for family fun and a new way to keep Christ at the center of your Christmas this year, I highly recommend checking out Stella Nova's website.

The giveaway may be over, but you can still get a copy of Stella Nova in time for Christmas and you can get a 20% discount (regular price is $39.95) by purchasing with the "buy now" button below:

STELLA NOVA BOARD GAME GIVEAWAY (Ended)

The prize: one Stella Nova game

How to enter: follow the Rafflecopter instructions below. (U.S. residents only, for this one.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by Stella Nova and I was compensated for this review. But all opinions are 100% my own, as always!

Click to Share:

Read More »

10 Children's Bedtime Stories That Won't Push You Over the Edge

Some links in this post are affiliate links, so if you use them to buy anything I will receive a small portion of the purchase price for referring you.

Picture this: you're exhausted at the end of a long day, the kids are running around screaming instead of brushing their teeth, and then just when you think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel somebody hands you a bedtime story as long as the Oxford English Dictionary.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like reading with my kids and will happily do it during the day.

But by the kids' bedtime, I'm DONE. It's late and this is taking forever and I know that there are still, in the words of the poet Robert Frost, miles to go before I sleep.

For the sake of my sanity, I need a children's bedtime story that is short, funny, and every bit as enjoyable for me as it is for the kids. Here are my top 10 favorite children's books, the ones so good I don't even skip words when I think I can get away with it:

What! Cried Granny, Kate Lum

I dare say this is my favorite children's book of all-time. In a ridiculously exaggerated twist on the classic stalling-before-bed routine of all kids everywhere, Patrick's spunky granny turns out to be able to do literally anything. The kids love it when I yell "whaaaaat?!?" in a funny voice as I read granny, and the pictures are great, too. I never get tired of reading this book, and I've read this one a lot. 

Some Dogs Do, Jez Alborough

Normally, I'm not a fan of rhyming kids' books. Most of them feel too contrived to me. But I love this book. The plot is sweet, and at the end when Sid finds out the secret I genuinely feel happy almost every time. Believing in yourself is the theme of this book, and I love that Sid's family are the ones who really have his back at the end of the day.

The Monster At the End of This Book

Shout out to your childhood! This book is every bit as good as you remember it from when you were little. The idea is simple: tell the kids that whatever they do, they should not turn the next page of this book, and maniacal giggling (and page-turning) will ensue. Listening to them in hysterics is honestly my favorite part of reading this book.

The New Potty, Gina and Mercer Mayer

I will gladly read anything in the Little Critter series, but I have a particular soft spot for The New Potty. Maybe it's just because that's the Mercer Mayer book we've owned longest, but I think it's the funniest one. Or maybe I can relate to the humor after potty training so many kids. Either way, this book is great.

The Composer Is Dead, Lemony Snicket

Until I stumbled across it in the library, I had no idea Lemony Snicket also wrote picture books. They are even more hilarious than A Series of Unfortunate Events. This farcical interrogation of all the instruments in the orchestra to solve the composer's murder will have you earnestly laughing, especially if you consider yourself a music buff. Bonus: it's even funnier on CD, which comes included in the book.

The Book with No Pictures, B.J. Novak

It's hard to tell whether I get more of a kick out of: this book's text or the kids' reactions. True to its title, this book has absolutely no pictures, but my 2-year-old and 4-year-old will sit through the entire thing and ask for it again (I'll say yes if it's not at bedtime.) You might remember B.J. Novak's name because he both wrote for and starred in The Office, so he's obviously hilarious.

Dragons Love Tacos, Adam Rubin

If you're looking for a cautionary tale with a moral you should probably look elsewhere, because this book is just plain fun. There's a lot for little eyes to look at in the cartoon illustrations, and the story is serious about a very silly subject: never feed dragons spicy salsa on their tacos. The author had me at "taco party."

Good for Nothing Button, by Charise Mericle Harper and Mo Willems

Your first-grader could read this out loud to you if you wanted, but unlike most easy readers that are so repetitive they make me want to remove my eyes with a melon-baller, I truly enjoy this one. You will see every one of your small child's infuriating, illogical, and lovable behaviors in these Mo Willems characters as they all clamor to push a button that does absolutely nothing.

Dog on a Frog, Kes and Claire Gray

Okay, I know what I said about rhyming books, but here is another exception to the rule. Dog on a Frog is almost Dr. Suess-like in how it plays with language (but it isn't as long as a Dr. Seuss book, making it a perfect bedtime read.) Not only will your kids love the goofy humor about nonsensical rules that have to rhyme, but so will you.

Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein

Sometimes instead of a full-length bedtime story, I'll ask the kids to choose 3 poems from this collection. (Even though it's quicker to read, the kids still feel like they got away with something.) The poems are for children and about children, each one more brilliant and funny than the last. Even the younger kids who don't "get" each poem still enjoy looking at the sketches on every page. We love Where the Sidewalk Ends and also the second book of poems A Light in the Attic.

For you and me and every other parent I know, bedtime is the hardest part of the day. You can't completely eliminate all the headache-inducing things that make you want to jump out your kid's bedroom window ("Stop running around with that light saber and put your pajama pants on!") but you can at least make sure the bedtime stories you read aren't one of them.

Click to Share:

Read More »

Best Gifts for Kids Who Are Obsessed with Vehicles

If you've got a kid who loves things that go, then you're going to want to print out this list and frame it.

Over the years our family has used all of these toys, which have not only been instant hits with our boys but have also stood up to lots of heavy use in our family of 8.

Fisher-Price Little People Stand 'n Play Rampway

Several years ago, my son discovered this at a friend's house and all of a sudden she was his best friend in the world. While he probably liked her alright, I'm pretty sure he was just using her for her Little People car ramp. This thing would entertain him for hours, at over 2 feet tall with two spiral hid-and-seek ramps that are sized for Little People cars but will work with any matchbox car. Batteries are optional in my opinion: even without the lights and sounds, this toy car ramp is still amazing.

Vehicle Tap Tap

This toy combines the first true loves of my second son: vehicles and hitting things with a hammer. And from a parent's perspective, it's pretty awesome, too. Kids develop fine motor skills while placing the little tacks and aiming the mallet. They work on matching to make the pictures on the cards or creativity to make their own vehicles. You'll need to supervise clean up a little to make sure all the tacks go back in the sturdy box (a box that won't fall apart is a big deal to me!) but the tacks themselves don't pose a safety risk because they aren't very sharp and slide easily into the corkboard surface.

Green Toys Ferry with Mini-Cars Bathtub Toy

My mother-in-law first saw this toy being played with at a children's museum and knew that it was durable enough for a children's museum, it was durable enough for our household. She was right. Green Toys are excellent quality (we also have the helicopter) and our kids have hours of fun driving the cars up and down the ramp of the ferry. We use ours as a playroom toy, but you can also take it in the bathtub, so it really doesn't get much better than this.

Under Construction Floor Puzzle

Your preschooler who loves trucks will spend hours assembling and reassembling this giant 24-piece floor puzzle. The puzzle measures in at 3 feet by 2 feet, and the puzzle pieces are sturdy enough that even though it's played with practically daily in our house, it's still looking good a year later. At the same time, we also bought the T. Shure railroad puzzle, which is just as amazing if your child also happens to love trains.

Open-Top 18" School Bus

When our toddler went through a phase where was obsessed with buses, we searched the Internet high and low to find him this plastic school bus. It's not just any bus! Most we saw were too small for toddler hands and too easy for things to get stuck inside, but at 18 inches this is big enough for some special play and the open top makes it easy to put things in and take them out without frustration. We knew he'd love it, and were proven right when he got up early on Christmas morning and started playing with it before we were even awake.

Melissa & Doug Nesting and Sorting Garages

Durable wooden cars, colorful garages you can stack and arrange in multiple configurations, opportunities for teaching numbers when they're playing... what's not to love about these Melissa & Doug garages? When we first received these, I was a little disappointed that the garages were heavy cardboard instead of wood, but after seeing how my toddler likes to stack them high and send them flying sometimes, I think that's actually a good thing.

Push & Go Friction-Powered Car Toy Set

While my boys own plenty of matchbox cars, these are unique in their collection. Not only are they vehicles you don't see everywhere (I don't think we've ever owned a street sweeper before,) but these chunky, durable cars do cool things with no batteries required. Pushing the car is all you need to make the combine reel spin, the sweepers activate, or the cement barrel roll. My boys and I love these vehicles.

City Life Car Play Mat

You know you already have too many matchbox cars, so put them to use with this rug! I promise you'll be shocked at how much time a kid can spend driving toy cars up and down these winding roads making vehicle noises. There are a lot of car mats out there of all sizes, but I especially like this one because at 60" by 32", it's a good size and shape for multiple kids to play on without taking up too much space in the room.

Buying toys for a kid who loves trucks, trains, cars, and things that go can be hard — after all, they have a lot of them already! But it's also really fun, and these great vehicle toys are sure to delight and hold up to years of heavy play.

Click to Share:

Read More »