Welcome back to the second installment of my educational gift guide series!

Today I wanted to share some of my favorite gift ideas for kids in elementary.

Once again the things on this list are things we either own and love or are really high on my to-buy-very-soon list. I could have shared way more things on this list but I wanted to keep it small to make sure I was sharing the best of the best.

Here’s the list of the different categories in this educational gift guide series:

+ The Best Educational Gift Ideas for Toddlers
+ The Best Educational Gift Ideas for Preschoolers
+ The Best Educational Gift Ideas for Elementary (this list!)
+ The Best Educational Gift Ideas for Middle School

 

 

EDUCATIONAL GIFTS FOR ELEMENTARY

 

Little Bits Kit

All the Little Bits kits I’ve seen have been so cool, my kids are both pretty into Star Wars so we have the Little Bits R2D2 which is pretty fantastic, my coding boy loves it. There are a variety of other Little Bits kits available as well.

 

Usborne Step-by-Step Drawing Book

As a person who cannot draw very well I am ill-equipped to teach my children to draw but I love these Usborne step-by-step drawing books, I feel like they help make up for my lack of drawing abilities.

 

Snap Circuits

I couldn’t even tell you how many hours my kids have played with Snap Circuits, they love making different circuits to make the fan go and making it play the “Happy Birthday” song. My kids have learned so much about circuits just from this alone!

 

Rubix Cube

Did you know that there is so much more than the original Rubix Cube? My kids love playing around with theirs and are so proud when they get a side (or two!). At this point they haven’t used YouTube to look up the algorithm to figure out the cubes completely but I’m sure that day will come soon.

 

Microscope

I still remember the year I got a microscope for Christmas as a child, I loved it (and I wasn’t even into science at that age)! There are so many fun things you can learn about through a microscope, my personal favorite as a child was looking at the intricacies of dragonfly wings.

 

4 in 1 Robot Remote Control

This is totally up my six year old’s alley, it’s a robot to built plus a remote control! I’m not sure it gets any better than that. Oh wait, yes it does because there are four different options to build!

 

GAMES

 

Spot It

This is such a simple game in theory but so fun to play! It works on vision skills, reactionary skills and fine motor skills all at the same time! I like that it comes in a small tin so it is easy to take along when we go places where I know there won’t be much for the kids to do.

 

Rush Hour

This is a fun logic game. We own a slightly different version (Rush Hour Shift) and I prefer this one. Plus, kids can play it on their own and I find it can be hard to find games like that.

 

Quiddler Junior

Quiddler is a fun game to play once kids can spell, the junior cards are fun because they give word ideas on each card. Plus it comes with little point cards which have 1, 5 and 10 points and it works well for teaching kids how to make 10. So while it’s generally though of as a language arts game it works well for math too!

 

Forbidden Island

If you are looking for a fun game to play with your kids, Forbidden Island is a good one. The box actually says ages 10+ but we’ve played it with our (then) five year old and he totally got the game. It is a cooperative game and involves problem solving and strategic thinking.

 

BOOKS

Looking for some good book ideas for elementary aged kids? Check out these lists:

+ The All-Time Best Picture Books
+ The 40 Best Classic Read Aloud Novels
+ Fantasy Books for Elementary
+ Ten Funny Chapter Books

 

What are some of your favorite educational gifts for elementary aged kids?