Educational Christmas gifts: what to give by age (3 to 9 years)

1Five questions before you buy

A successful learning gift is one the child actually uses. These questions avoid most disappointments.

• ✓Will they play alone, or will an adult always have to explain it? Both are fine, but it helps to know beforehand.
• ✓Is the level right? A game that is too hard discourages, one that is too easy is dropped within a week. Aim one step above what the child does effortlessly.
• ✓Can several people play? Games shared with a sibling, a cousin or a grandparent last much longer.
• ✓Does it store away? Something that takes up half the bedroom ends up in the attic. Compact boxes come out more often.
• ✓Does it duplicate what they already have? A child rarely needs a third puzzle at the same level.

2Ages 3 to 4: hands first

At this age children learn mostly with their hands and by imitation. The most useful gifts call for precise movements and can be used without complicated instructions.

Always check the minimum age on the box: under 3, small parts are a choking hazard.

• ✓Lacing beads and lacing boards: threading, pinching and lacing need precision, the same precision that will later be used to hold a pencil.
• ✓Puzzles with a few large pieces, then more and more: the child learns to look at shapes and to keep going.
• ✓Modeling dough and small tools (rolling pin, cutters): roll, flatten, cut, everything fingers like to do.
• ✓Simple memory games with few cards: finding pairs is a first rule of play, short and reassuring.
• ✓Cooperative games: everyone plays against the game rather than each other, which saves the tears of a first defeat.
• ✓Picture books to look at together, and a small whiteboard with a fat marker to try tracing without wasting paper.

3Ages 5 to 6: letters, numbers and observation

In kindergarten and first grade, children discover letters, sounds and numbers. Gifts that let them review this without feeling like a lesson are ideal.

• ✓Letter and phonics games: build a word, find a sound. Play fixes what school has covered.
• ✓Dice and card games for counting: add two dice, play a number war, put cards in order.
• ✓Observation and speed games: find the picture two cards share, spot the odd one out.
• ✓First readers with simple sounds: short stories a child can sound out alone, which builds confidence.
• ✓A tangram or shapes to fit together: copying a model and turning a piece is geometry without saying so.
• ✓A craft kit (paint, collage, beads): imagination counts as much as the rest.

4Ages 7 to 9: think, calculate, build

Between second and fourth grade children love a challenge. This is the age of games that call for thinking, trying, getting it wrong and starting again.

• ✓Solo logic games: progressive challenges, with the solution on the back, that can be repeated ten times.
• ✓Simple strategy games for two: you learn to anticipate the other player and to lose without sulking.
• ✓Games to learn the times tables or mental math: cards, boards, dice. More pleasant than reciting when the child has tuned out.
• ✓Puzzle books, mazes and kids sudoku: a quiet, independent activity.
• ✓Building and science kits (simple circuits, models): making things is a way of learning.
• ✓A good nonfiction book on the current obsession (dinosaurs, space, animals): it gets reread for months.

5Gifts you prepare at home

Some gifts cost almost nothing and go over just as well. The site offers the tools to create and print them: bingo, memory, certificates, coupons from the reward pack.

• ✓A bingo or memory game with the child’s name and favorite themes, printed and laminated.
• ✓A small booklet of coupons to give: a game night, choosing dessert, fifteen minutes of reading just for them. What children often like best is time with us.
• ✓A certificate in their name for something from the year: learned to tie shoelaces, read a first sentence.
• ✓An advent calendar of activities: a challenge, a coloring page or a sudoku each day.

6Mistakes worth avoiding

The same mistakes come back every year. Knowing them helps you avoid them.

• ✓Trusting a label: “educational” or “Montessori” on a box says nothing about the quality of the game. Look at what the child does with the object.
• ✓Piling on: three well-chosen gifts beat ten. A child who gets too much plays less with each one.
• ✓Giving something “to help them improve”: if the child senses work in disguise, they will be wary. Present it as a game.
• ✓Forgetting batteries, assembly or storage: a gift that does not work on the day is a needless letdown.