Are you ready for the holidays, or looking for some ideas? And here are some of the some of the pieces that were new to our family, or that the kids were particularly drawn to this year
7-8 Years: Gift Ideas
Blocks are for big kids too! At 7 and 8, kids still love building and are looking for ever-increasing complexity in their pieces and their potential. They’re also starting to look for finer details and bigger challenges. Because Grimms and Grapat are Geofenced, these items are not directly linked on this page, but instead have buttons below.
The Grimms hearts are a beautiful gift at ant age, but as a stacking and balancing challenge, they’re fantastic at ages 7/8. They can be stacked in towers, or used to ornament other buildings
The Grimms Leonardo stick s are a lot of fun independently to build the classic Leonardo bridge or a tower that collapses most satisfyingly at the touch of a finger, or to make a marble run more complex
Kapla Blocks are Amazing fun and at 7-8 years old, kids are starting to get enough of a sense of physics to be able to build exciting and remarkable creations. We have this 200 piece set–it comes in a sturdy cardboard box, but I’d love to add the 280 piece that comes in wood box, and I’m drooling over the 1000 piece set
Bauspiel X-blocks are so much fun. They come in a set of 48 (packed in a box of beautiful workmanship). They can be stacked in a myriad of ways, laid out flat in beautiful mandalas or combined with other blocks in ornate builds.
Bauspiel Gemblocks combine beautifully with the xblocks, but they also are lovely to decorate builds, to stack on their own and use as loose parts in small world play. I love stacking them in the window to let the light shine through.
Bauspiel Stepped counting blocks are superb. They could be introduced earlier (4? 5?) but if you need a block set for a 7/8 year old who doesn’t have other blocks, this is the way to go. The proportions lend themselves to involved builds.
This Marbelocity set is a great build-it-play-it puzzle, and the result is fun to play with. If you want to make it bigger, you can add on the companion set.
This 2x2x2 cube is a fun introduction to the rubrix cube idea, and a little more approachable to start.
This Gonge roller is a fun indoor activity and focusing effort. You stand on it (adults can too) and roll it along the floor. The green one has sand inside so it doesn’t go too quickly. For a bigger challenge, the orange one does not.
Simple fun with huge gratification–these Doodle Pads are a lot of fun to scratch off the surface and uncover either colors or sparkles! Make Art for your room or cards to send
All kids love a watch–we weren’t ready for a smart watch, but this one has plenty of buttons to push, and as an adults watch looks mature (and as a small women’s watch still fits)
A book to collect coins along with a few coins of varied age is a really fun gift. 7/8 year olds love money, the power that comes with it and the fun of collecting coins from each of a variety of years, countries, or other categories. I like this book because it has flaps to keep the coins in and slots for bills.
Duns Sweden is some of our favorite kid clothes. Responsibly made, beautiful colorful patterns, and soft fabrics. It’s hard to go wrong with Scandi style!
The Tea Collection clothing company is known for drawing inspiration from different regions of the world. Each season they visit a new local. A fun way to incorporate art and culture into your kid’s wardrobe
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At first glance, the Bauspiel Giant Rainbow looks familiar and perhaps similar to other sets, but on closer inspection, the size and proportions reveal that really it plays more like a remarkable set of blocks than the typical rainbow stacker.
Each year as earth day rolls around the kids and I talk about changes we can make to live more responsibly. Sometimes it means using less of things, sometimes using different things, sometimes it means looking for ways to use things longer, and other times it means making new choices next time you shop. Here are a few of our favorites.