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2024 Gift Guides
Black Friday is here – although it does feel a little anti-climactic this year, I know I’ve been shopping “Black Friday” sales for at least two weeks… If you are shopping today, here are all of my gift guides in one place to make things easier! Have a great weekend.
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DIY Kids Turkey Keepsakes
There’s a reason that the handprint turkey is still a standard Thanksgiving craft – it’s timeless and universally loved. We made this cute handprint before my daughter’s first Thanksgiving, and we look forward to pulling it out every year and comparing her hand size. There are so many ways to create family keepsakes with a simple handprint turkey. Here are a few of them:
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Casual Thanksgiving Outfits
Out Thanksgiving celebrations are pretty chill. If I’m sitting around and eating a lot I want to be comfortable! Here’s my inspiration for the week’s events (all links are affiliates).
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Teacher Gift Ideas for 2024
I’m back with one more gift guide for 2024! This one is for the teachers in your life – whether they’re friends, co-workers, or your own children’s teachers. I take this particular gift guide VERY seriously. Some of my favorite people are teachers, and I promise that they have enough candles and ornaments. Every year I try to come up with gifts that teachers will really appreciate receiving at a variety of price points. My number one recommendation is a gift card – Target, Amazon, and Coffee shops are always welcome. I say that knowing full well that I hate to give gift cards, but that doesn’t mean others don’t…
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Gifts for Preschoolers 2024
Preschoolers really start to have opinions about what they want for Christmas, which can make the holidays feel a little more expensive. They’re also still at an age when they can surprise you with how much they love a completely random gift. My favorite tip when shopping for preschoolers is to gift them things that they can DO. They really like to be busy, but they still have pretty short attention spans, so a variety of quick and easy activities will be appreciated by kids and parents. Here are my picks for 2024 (all links are affiliates). STEM Board Game – This game requires some thought and attention (both very…
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2024 Toddler Gift Guide
There’s no such thing as a perfect gift for a toddler – in most cases they’ll prefer to play with the box it comes in – but that also makes it easy because they love pretty much anything. When it comes to choosing the perfect gift for a toddler my number one rule is to pick something that won’t drive their parents crazy. Tons of tiny pieces are an automatic no because toddlers would much rather dump them all over the floor than pick them up. Any obnoxious lights or noises are ruled out because a toddler will repeat them endlessly and then lose their mind when the batteries die.…
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2024 Gifts for Babies
It’s my favorite week of the year! I’ve got the Christmas music playing, I’m sipping my gingerbread latte, and I’m bringing you my holiday gift guides! this marks the 10th year (can you believe it?!) of these guides from Preschool Ponderings and I’ve got an excellent line up for you this year. My goal has always been to highlight products that are recommended by early childhood professionals to support development, while also being gifts that children will love and parents won’t hate you for giving. Let’s start with all of the babies on your shopping list. It can be so hard to shop for little ones who are truly only…
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Thanksgiving Dramatic Play
Thanksgiving can be a bit of a minefield to explore in the classroom. It’s really hard for preschoolers to understand the historical significance of the holiday – they can’t comprehend just how long ago the first Thanksgiving took place. It’s also a challenge to represent the holiday in a way that is culturally competent while also remaining developmentally appropriate. This is why I try to stick with two common themes related to Thanksgiving; Food and Family. Food is ideal for Thanksgiving-themed dramatic play. Here are three different ideas for this holiday: Family table – give children all of the materials that they might need to create beautiful Thanksgiving table scapes.…
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Classroom Materials for Thanksgiving
My favorite part of any holiday or season is making sure that it is reflected in my classroom materials. These are the kinds of things that children are seeing in their homes and in local stores and businesses, so it makes sense that they would also be able to to interact with them in the classroom. Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. First, it’s so easily forgotten in the rush to get to Christmas, and that makes me want to dig in my heels and make sure that it’s recognized. Second because I love to cook and bake, so it seems just made…
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Teaching Thankfulness in Preschool
Thanksgiving is a two-part holiday – first, you’ve got the historical references, and then there are the social emotional lessons. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to help children practice being thankful, and for very young preschoolers, this may be the first time they’ve ever considered the fact they they are lucky to have certain people and things in their lives. There are a number of ways to help children focus on what they are thankful for this holiday season, here are a few ideas; Host a food drive. This doesn’t have to be just for Thanksgiving, make it last until your winter break. Families need help all winter long! Some…
