When it comes to finding the perfect gift for your child this holiday season, we at Private Prep understand the struggle: between traveling, preparing for visits from family and friends, and the other 101 responsibilities you find yourself juggling this time of year, meaningful holiday shopping can become an afterthought.
But not to worry! Our team of student success coaches and academic tutors have put together their top gifts this year. Including ideas for kindergarten to college-bound kids, this list features experiential events, fun educational toys, and gifts that give back. We hope this list will spark ideas—and save you a little time—this holiday season.
Gift Success
The holidays are around the corner and so too is a new semester. Give the gift of student success with Private Prep’s suite of academic services. We offer everything from subject-specific tutoring and academic skills coaching to secondary school and college test prep. View our full offerings here. And, to aid your student’s future endeavors, consider gifting a thoughtful planner or journal like Big Life Journal, Clever Fox Monthly Planner, or Passion Planner.
Get Inspired
These days there are plenty of great subscription services to gift kids, but one of our favorites has to be the STEM-based crates from Kiwi Co. These enriching and inspiring boxes offer loads of fun, available by age or interest. Take the Tinker Crate: perfect for ages 9-16 and up, this crate features unique science and engineering challenges (like building a hydraulic claw or fiber optic stars). Other inspiring subscription-based gifts include Little Passports and Wonder Crate.
Give for Good
A perfect stocking-stuffer, LottoLove recipients scratch off the foil overlay on environmentally conscious cards to see which donations were made on their behalf to the company’s nonprofit partners. Donations can include: one week of clean water, four months of solar light, three sets of literacy tools, one nutritious meal, and more. And to give more good, check out UNICEF’s Inspired Gifts program, which allows you to select gifts from a number of categories, including education, shelter, nutrition, and more.
Get High Tech
Introduce curious youngsters to the concepts of coding with Itty Bitty Buggy’s unique builder kit. Each kit allows kids to build an alien, sloth, ladybug, and Dodo bird and includes the tools needed to program unique behaviors for each using three of the most common coding languages. Itty Bitty Buggy can match any skill level and provide surmountable challenges to help your child in their coding journey. Young coders might also enjoy a programming class with The Coding Space.
Go Local
Sometimes, the best gift for your child is in your backyard. Gifting experiences create memories for a lifetime, along with learning. Look for annual memberships or fun events at your local learning hot-spots, such as museums, aquariums, zoos, theaters, or botanic gardens. Wrap something small, like a stuffed animal or a seedling, from the location so they have something to unwrap.
Game On
Kids learn best when they’re having fun. Interactive games can help kids engage in their education, and our favorites have the added bonus of enticing adults to play, too. Rush Hour, an interactive log-jam game that helps kids develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, is a favorite of our founder, Steve Feldman, who loves to play it with his own kids! Other top picks include: Hoot Owl Hoot, Spot It!, and SET.
Give a Great Read
Good books never go out of style. Consider giving your child a set of the books you loved when you were a kid (anything from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter) and reading them together. Inspire aspiring novelists with a prompt-filled, hands-on guide like Write Your Own Book, or for older writers, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
Whatever you give as a gift for your child this year, we hope you remember the spirit of the season. Happy Holidays from everyone at Private Prep! If you ever need help or have questions feel free to contact us.
