This is the fourth in my series of holiday gift guides. The first was on electronics,  the second on books, the third on board games. This one is on arts and crafts.

Mini enjoys coloring, painting and making things with clay. Here’s my top list of recommendations and ideas for your artsy tween.

Crayola has long been the go-to supplier for arts and crafts supplies for children. With products that range from colored pencils and markers to crayons and air-drying clay, it’s easy to see why. I’m a big fan of their washable markers (fabric safe!)m paints and their air-dry clay has recently become a craft favorite here.

If your tween is a little more artistically advanced than Crayola’s line of supplies, your local big box arts and crafts stores (It’s Michael’s, here in Jacksonville), will have plenty of art kits. They usually have a basic set of brushes, paints and wax pastels. Some of the more expensive kits have built-in easels and come with pencils, charcoal and larger varieties of paints and pastels.

There’s always classes at your local craft store or arts council. Arts books are good gifts and your local arts supply store probably has inexpensive and small craft kits that make excellent stocking stuffers.

But don’t feel locked into a particular kit, either. A quality set of brushes, paints and palette make for a great gift. Don’t forget the canvas, though!

There’s plenty more of arts and crafts gift ideas out there, if you look around, you’re bound to find something!

Does your tween have an artistic streak? What are your artsy gift ideas? Share them, ask questions and make suggestions in the comments.

Photograph by Thomas Brock and his trusty iPhone

This is the third in my series of holiday gift guides. The first was on electronics and the second on books. This one covers board games.

I’ll admit that board games really aren’t my favorite things. But Mini and AM enjoy them, so, I suffer through. I prefer to get games with some educational value these days.

Apples to Apples is a game based on comparisons. Each player gets a set of cards and has to choose and justify the best comparisons. I want to get this game, or it’s “junior” variant, to help Mini develop good reasoning and analytical skills.

In a Pickle is another game of comparison. In this game, each player gets cards and has to make judgments on the relationships of each item. I’m hoping this game will help Mini understand how different objects relate with each other.

Scrabble Apple is Scrabble in an apple bag. Mini enjoys Scrabble and I like that the game helps her develop a strong vocabulary. The small bag makes storing the game pieces easy and there’s no giant board with which to deal.

Lastly, there’s Monopoly. There’s a half-million different versions of Monopoly these days, everything from sports teams versions to movie versions to some sort of electronic version that doesn’t have paper money (Seems evil, but that’s just me…). The Monopoly Championship edition is the version for us. It’s the same as all the other Monopoly versions, but comes with a family championship trophy. Monopoly teaches strategy and basic money management. The trophy adds a little competition and gives Mini something she can take home…If she wins, that is…

Games are a great way to spend time with your family. There’s a minimum investment and the return is hours of fun and a little education.

Do your Tweens enjoy board games? Do you plan on getting any for Christmas? What are your favorites? Ask questions, share your ideas and ask questions in the comments.

This is the second of my Holiday Gift Guides. See my previous post on Electronics, if you don’t believe me.

It’s a chore, but we try to get Mini to read more than watch television shows or play online video games (It’s some site called “ZwinkyCuties” this week…). Getting her to read really isn’t that hard. She likes reading. But when we’re at the library she often goes for the “easy reads” over mentally challenging books. It’s a safe bet that there will be some books under the Christmas tree for her.

Here are some tips on looking for good books for your tween.

Mini has already read the Harry Potter series and you really can’t go wrong with the collected editions. These books have it all for young readers: twists, turns, love, hate, joy and sadness. The books entertain and they’re a sure winner, especially the all-in-one sets.

The Diary of a Wimpy Kidseries is pretty entertaining, too, even if it’s not all that educational. The stories of young Greg Heffley are hilarious and may remind some of us of what children go through on a daily basis. The books are easy reading, so you may want to get two or three or all four of them.

There’s a number of other multi-volume stories out there for tweens: The Olympian series, The 39 Clues series, and Artemis Fowl quickly come to mind. Don’t forget about the classics from our youths, though…

I was thoroughly entertained by the Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown and Judy Bloom’s The Fudge series’. There’s no reason we can’t try to give our growing kids a little bit of our own childhoods.

Do you have favorite books you want to share with your Tweenager? Do you need some advice on what books to get? Ask questions, make suggestions or share your ideas in the comments.