Kids bring a whole lot of joy to the holiday season. From baking holiday treats together to getting in the spirit with DIY holiday decorations, everything about the festive season is new and exciting as they wait for the big day to arrive. Kids are also the most discerning giftees on your list. Not to worry. From creative kits to mind-bending games to pretend play and gifts that are totally cute, these are the best holiday gifts for kids this season. Swingly Doorway StorefrontsThink beyond the lemonade stand with these cute doorway storefronts. Choose from a camper food truck to a Boba tea house to a farmer's market for your kidpreneur. Swingly helps parents create play spaces that inspire kids...
Holy shit you guys, I never really thought I’d see EGGSHELLS! It’s the weird psychedelic movie Tobe Hooper made in 1969 – five years before THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. According to Hooper it only really played about fifty times, and only in Texas. It had never been on video until 2013, when it was included as a bonus disc for Arrow’s Region B limited edition of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2. I didn’t know about it in time to get it. But recently a copy of that disc was donated to the collection of Scarecrow Video, so I checked it out. It’s a beautiful restoration and the disc includes a Hooper commentary track, which I’m glad I listened to,...
Between the two of us, my father and I have more than 50 diaries. Mine are a wealth of embarrassments: elementary-school poems that rhyme first base with corn flakes, a photo of an ex–best friend with the edges burned in some teenage rage, gushing during college about first love and infidelity, and more recently, a list of baby names that I’m relieved were never chosen. (Was I really considering Amapola?) My father’s diaries, which date back to the 1960s, are a mash-up of half-finished watercolors, to-do lists, and reflections on addiction. As humiliating and incoherent as most of these diaries are, I cannot part with them. And so they sit there, stacked in banker’s boxes in my childhood attic, collecting...
Design duo Eneris Collective has collaborated with Barcelona-based biomaterials company NaifactoryLAB to produce a playful stool for children made from waste olive pits. The Nontalo stool is constructed from six modules – three P-shaped pieces that can be combined and positioned in different ways and three straight rods that hold them together, forming a variety of shapes from a three-legged stool to a bench seat and many alternatives in between. The Nontalo kids' stool can be assembled in various ways All of the modules are made entirely of Reolivar, a smooth cork-like material that NaifactoryLAB created by mixing olive pits with bio-based binders and other natural ingredients. Spanish designers Irene Segarra and Irene Martínez, who came together under the name...
December is the perfect time to try some candy cane experiments with your students! These five science experiments are a big hit with kids and are also great for teaching science! 5 Candy Cane Experiments All of these activities require very few materials. At the bottom of this post, there is a printable for all five of these activities. Check out all the instructions below! Fizzing Candy Canes This is my favorite activity to do in December with my kids! Here’s what you need: baking soda vinegar candy canes tray dropper or spoon 1. Spread baking soda onto a baking sheet. Then place candy canes on top. Next, pour vinegar into a cup and mix with food coloring. I also...
