grOH-to Gifts for 2022
Play your way into the New Year!
Are you on the hunt for the perfect gift for a kiddo in your life? Look no further!
grOH’s Holiday Gift Guide points you towards gifts that are age and stage appropriate, plus each item has the grOH! seal of approval!
Scroll to the bottom of the page for an exciting announcement AND exclusive Holiday Gift Picks!
Infants
Infants are growing and changing and developing every day! How can we invest our time and resources in toys that they will not rapidly outgrow? While not all infant toys are open ended, lots of our recommendations here can evolve with your littles and become staples in a toy rotation!
Love Every Play Mat - This play mat is a tried-and-true grOH-to! Anne and her daughter, Audrey, played with this mat for several months when she was an infant! Many play mats are outgrown quickly but this truly lasts and continues to be engaging!
Baby-Toddler Swing - Swings provide amazing vestibular input (sense of balance). Inside or out, swing time with your kiddo is really dang fun!
Plan Toys Wooden Roller with Sound - Can you believe there is a noise-making toy that doesn’t drive grownups bananas?
Jellycat Loveys feature lots of different animals! Check out the lion, the turtle, and the unicorn!
Jellycat Lovey - These loveys are an a-time favorite at Anne’s house!
Sarah’s Silks Scarves - These scarves can be laid on a play mat for soft sensory input and later on they are great accessories for imagination play!
Mega bloks - These are the first step on your kiddos building play journey!
Egg Shakers - Easy to hold shakers for lots of sensory stimulation!
Nugget - Nuggets are something we whole-heartedly recommend for all kiddos, all the time. They are so versatile, washable, and comfortable!
Wooden Animals - Easy to grab wooden animals, particularly ones with high contrast, are really great for littles. Use them during story time to make stories come alive!
Climbing Triangle - These climbers are such an amazing open-ended toy! They help kiddos make great big strides in their spatial awareness, vestibular stimulation (balance), and proprioceptive learning (physical self-awareness).
Follies: The Baby Bauhaus Set - Definitely a top grOH! pick! Follies' description says it all: From Tummy-time to Building-towers; 4 beautiful, super soft blocks for your baby’s developing brain. Colorful, high-contrast graphics are designed to delight curious little minds and fingers as they puzzle over these super soft, sensory-rich blocks. Comes with FREE Montessori-inspired activities for parents.
Toddlers
Toddlers are the perfect age to start building an open-ended toy collection! Grownups are always amazed to see how each toy transforms through each age and stage!! The more open ended we are with our play materials, the more they require problem solving, creative thinking & language to explain the purpose of their creation.
Wishbone Mini Racers zoom kiddos from rockers to rollers! The bases can rotate to suit the needs of each little rider!
Train Set - This true classic should not be underestimated. From hand eye coordination to patience to perseverance, kiddos learn to adjust their tracks to keep trains staying on their wheels. There is also a lot of planning and spatial awareness that develops from connecting one side of the track to the other.
Plush Animal Figures - Compared to wooden animals, these are a great transition into small world play! For young children, making animal sounds actually develops the muscles to help them develop oral language.
Safari Animal Friend- We absolutely love our Maileg friends! And their newest addition is the sweetest rhino! You may recognize his cousin (and our number one supporter), Rex the Hippo, from all of our photoshoots! He’s rather photogenic, not that we’re biased!
Nugget - Try building a nugget fort before nap time, this brings a bit of nuance to nap time and makes it fun!
Rainbow Stacker - This is a toy that has wonderful longevity for open ended play. It’s a stacking toy, it’s a train tunnel, it’s a marble run, it’s limitless!
Play Kitchen and Accessories - The simple acts of imagination play help kiddos engage in the world they're experiencing and better understand it. In mid to late toddler years, those simple acts will turn into complex play stories involving sophisticated characters like sweet house cats, invincible superheroes, or powerful princesses.
Wiwiwurka Rocker - What an awesome open ended toy for gross motor development (like balance and climbing), but also a cozy spot for reading! Audrey loves to line the rocker with pillows and rock while she reads.
Stroller or Push Cart - Toys with wheels help early walkers, but by making the wheeled toy a stroller or a cart, your kiddos will get much longer use out of it!
Large Transportation Toys - Larger transportation toys like dump trucks or bulldozers are great for little hands!
Costume Accessories - Build a collection of costume PIECES, not whole looks. Accessories let imaginations run wild!
Micro Kickboard Scooter - These scooters are awesome and our friends over at Micro Kickboard are pretty great too! We love this scooter for our littles and even better, it’s made from recycled materials!
Preschool Kiddos
A reversible cape is the perfect costume accessory!
Follies The Casa Azul Set - Can you believe endless play comes in a box less than 2 square feet?? Follies' description says it best: It’s easy for kids to build right out of the box - no parent needed! Hours of open ended play: Create elaborate structures like Frida’s kitchen, a casita, a pyramid for her animalitos, her bed nook and an easel to draw on!
Dollhouse - Small world play helps kiddos tell stories with the people as the main characters. Did you know? Children practice storytelling concepts like beginning, middle, end, and conflicts and resolutions with the characters they use and stories they tell.
Tabletop Play Kitchen - A tabletop play kitchen is perfect for small spaces and is very renter-friendly! Your kiddos have access to a play kitchen but it doesn’t take up the same amount of floor space.
Craft Kit - Not only are kiddos using fine motor skills to manipulate the pieces of their projects, but creating also boosts language skills to communicate about what they have made! This establishes really successful left and right brain connections!
Velcro Catch - Calling all non-naturally born sports folk! This game sets everyone up for success and works on hand-eye coordination. Let’s face it, is pretty fun too!
Swing - Swings don’t have to be just on the playground! Incorporate a swing into your playroom that you can easily put up and down. This swing is awesome! We also recommend these mounts for swing attachment!
Nugget - By the time kiddos are in their 3’s, they typically have the strength and coordination to manipulate a nugget successfully on their own. Their world of imagination opens up at this time as well which means there is a lot of opportunity for integrated imagination and gross play, all with the nugget!
Woom Bike - Did you know? A balance bike is super great for balance, coordination, core strength, and more! Kiddos typically learn how to ride a pedal bike faster after using a balance bike because the required coordination has been built up over time!
Costume Accessories - Every time your kiddo puts on a costume or plays with a prop they’re telling a story! Creating characters, imagining a scene, testing dialogue, crafting a problem, fighting an antagonist, seeking resolution...all foundational aspects of many lifelong skills!
Candylab Cars - Candylab cars are a natural progression from trains and large vehicles. They’re also perfect for physics experiments with ramps and races! Try out the candylab tracks too, they can even be used in the bathtub!
Elementary Kiddos
Kiddos ages 6 to 10 will be elated by any of these gift recommendations! By this age, kiddos have started narrowing down interests, but there are countless ways to support interests while still supporting a balanced play experience!
Indoor Basketball Hoop - Kiddos can definitely play basketball in the house with this! They are hand crafted, so beautiful, and fun for kiddos with lots of energy. Try making an obstacle course with nuggets ending with a slam dunk!
loog Guitar - The perfect starter instrument for every budding musician! Did you know? Kiddos who practice and participate in music constantly score higher on standardized tests.
Paint Your Own… Kits - This is a fabulous cold weather activity! It takes time, focus, and creativity. There are kits for practically everything, too: robots, a tea set, dinosaurs, animals, cars, food, the options are endless!
Sum Blox are SO COOL! Help your kiddos visually learn addition and subtraction through building blocks!
Nugget - Imagine building an EPIC marble run from the top of your nugget fort, through your fort, and back around. That takes an impressive amount of engineering skills and that’s just the beginning! See what combinations your kiddos can create with a nugget and…anything!
Velcro Darts - Bumping up our coordination skills from velcro catch, velcro darts poses a lot of new coordination challenges, teamwork opportunities, AND is a great math exercise!
Kapla Magnet Blocks - OK…real talk…these are awesome. When we say toys are fun for adults, we mean it. We’ve tried them, we’ve loved them, we keep coming back to them. Highly, highly recommend these magnetic blocks. Try them on a wall mounted magnet board!!
Jewelry Making Kit - Jewelry making is a highly elevated skill-based toy. Kiddos are using fine motor skills left and right, PLUS creativity, logic, and geometry. Then they can wear their creations and work on their fashion sense! Win/win!
Connetix Marble Run - Learn about ramps, acceleration, friction...all about physics with this toy. It is also all about trial and error and prediction. What will adding this piece do to the overall structure? Try it out, test it, & hypothesize. Not to mention collaboration, cooperation, and communication.
Sensory Input Toys - Kiddos can spend hours playing with these pin sculpture toys. They are fulfill so many sensory needs and it’s different every time you play with it!
Blockitecture - Practically urban planning! These are a little more complex than standard blocks; they require more visual and motor coordination to create successful structures.
Family Card Games
If you haven’t played either Exploding Kittens or Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, you are missing out!! They are both perfect gifts for the whole family!
Tweens & Teens
Sometimes shopping for teens and tweens is like shopping for a parka in July…really difficult.
These kiddos are INVOLVED. They are in school, going to activities, being social, and they’re learning so much more about the world around them. It’s a lot; however, teens and tweens still need to play.
grOH’s 2022 Holiday gift recommendations all stem from kiddos engaging parts of their brain that isn’t being scored and don’t involve a screen. Some are socially focused and some are for quiet time. Some involve moving their bodies and some are meditative. Tell us what you’re choosing for your older kiddos!
3D Puzzle Marble Run - Just like jigsaw puzzles and legos, this AWESOME gift activates the skills your kiddos have been working on since they were very young. Building, following a set of rules, executing plans, negotiating outcomes, achieving goals, the list goes on and on, but with this…you have a building puzzle that is ALSO a marble run you can use and use and use.
Pickleball Paddles and Ball Set - Pickleball is sweeping the nation! It’s fun and anyone can play!
Giant Jenga - Watch your toes! Giant Jenga is an awesome yard game for friends and families. The stakes are so much higher (pun intended) than tabletop jenga and it gets competitive and hilarious!
Light Up Speaker - This speaker can be a great tool for kiddos to listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks. Use this as kiddos do homework, hang out, or have a dance party! The light changes brightness and color with the beat, it’s super cool.
Fidget Pen - we’re pretty excited about this…many of us at grOH! need to fidget as we exercise our creative muscles! This pen comes apart at each link and you can make tons of really cool shapes! It also has an additional tip to make it a stylus…woah!
Spike Ball - If four square and volleyball had a baby, it’s Spike Ball. Move over, Corn Hole, Spike Ball is coming! It’s a great yard game that can be played by anyone! You can even play inside…just be cautious!
Nugget - You may not have guessed that the nugget would be a recommendation for tweens and teens. This can be flexible seating for friends or a comfortable place to hang solo!
Conversation-based Card Games
Older kiddos transition from standard, categorical types of play to social time and group activities. Conversation-based card games are really great, we cannot recommend them enough!
The Mindfulness Game - this game teaches mindfulness tips, tricks, techniques, and more! It’s an engaging game that also helps everyone practice self-care in a fun, safe way!
The Storymatic - Big kids now have the skills and vocabulary to use their words to showcase their vast imaginations. This game gets fun and kooky super fast!
Art Supplies
Watercolor Kit - watercolor is a great next step for painters. There are so many ways to manipulate it and create masterpieces! Let your kiddos discover what they can do!
Wooden Drawing Model - Budding artists can practice figure drawing with this wooden form!
Wooden Hand Model - There are many different ways we can move our hands and fingers. With that, comes the challenge of being able to draw how you see each nuanced motion. Establishing successful connections from the eyes, to the brain, to the hand takes time. Practice and challenges are the only way to really cultivate those connections, and believe it or not, drawing hands provides exactly that!
and Introducing…
EVEN MORE grOH! FUN!
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We’ve included a whole bunch of additional, exclusive Holiday Gift Recommendations
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