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1. A Craft-tastic "Make a Fox Friend" kit if your child wants to learn the basics of sewing while putting together a full wardrobe of clothes and accessories for this fantastic (and fabulous) little fox stuffie. No special tools or additional supplies are needed so this makes a great all-in-one gift!
2. A Buddha Board for painting rich, inky, water-based images onto a "canvas" that will slowly fade as the water evaporates. The best part? It's not messy.
3. A handmade rainbow unicorn craft kit that gets right to the point when it comes to colorful and creative fun for the whole family. This is one of those crafts that they'll want to keep forever!
4. A glow-in-the-dark Crayola light-up tracing pad with 100+ traceable images so aspiring artists (and inkers) can hone their artistic skills via the medium of colored pencil.
5. A kids' origami kit that includes 54 different projects (and luckily 55 pieces of paper) for nimble little fingers to learn the fine art of paper folding. Just be prepared for the migration of cranes that will soon be landing all over your home.
6. A 5,500-piece bucket of Perler beads that you'll be finding around the house well into the kid's teen years — but hey, nothing combines arts, crafts, and ironing quite like this.
7. A five-pack 3D coloring puzzle set that's equal parts calming (the coloring) and problem-solving (the puzzling). And instead of putting the puzzle back into the box, kids can display their colorful works of art in their rooms.
8. A 50-sheet Little Biscuits Dress-Me Notepad with nine different and diverse illustrations so young fashion designers can hone their sartorial concept skills.
9. A Paint By Sticker book of zoo animals that sounds exactly like what it is: fun craft time that's a little sticky but not nearly as messy as breaking out the paints. That's a win for parents right there!
10. A Moving Creations with K'nex building kit for young STEM enthusiasts who'd love nothing more than to build working rockets, catapults, and multiple science-based experiments (that won't result in any damage to the home).
For ages 8+.
Promising review: "We have been a big fan of Hand2Mind kits. I was so excited when I saw they released a new one. I have a 5-year-old boy. This is rated for 8 and older but was still a ton of fun. He just needed help. It created a great bonding experience as we built the different models and tested them. I also like they include different facts throughout the book. It was a great way to introduce engineering as well as pneumatic and hydraulics." —Julie Wodzien
Get it from Amazon for $44.99
11. A build-and-paint birdhouse and wind chime kit to create some colorful new real estate opportunities for the aviary community in your backyard. Precut and slotted wooden boards make assembly easy for your crafty kiddos.
12. A Crayola Inspiration Art Case packed with 64 crayons, 20 colored pencils, 40 washable markers, and 15 large pieces of paper for creative kiddies to bring their art and imagination to the world.
13. An easy-to-use Melissa & Doug wooden weaving loom to encourage the kids to make art that's "wearable, usable, and displayable." It's a gift that says, "Get lost, screen time, I'm making something!"
14. A nature scavenger hunt game ideal for the great outdoors (but can work indoors, too) where kids can roll one, two, or all three dice and try to find an item that best fits the description.
15. A super cool dinosaur pillowcase so your playful paleontologist can scribble some Jurassic buddies to life and tucker themselves out with countless roars, all while having a convenient place to rest their head right at their fingertips!
The pillowcase comes with 10 washable fabric pens.
Promising review: "I bought this for my nephew who loves dinosaurs. It was a huge hit. He opened it at night and spent the next day filling out the whole pillowcase. The markers are vibrant and good quality." –Carolyn
Get it from Uncommon Goods for $20.
16. A two-sided, A-frame art easel with chalkboard, magnetic dry erase board, storage, and paper feeder for aspiring artists who are still experimenting with their preferred mediums. Plus, it's a great way to teach kids about writing "thank you" notes!
Promising review: "Very nicely made product! Took 45 minutes to build but well worth the minutes and looks awesome too. Excited using it with my kid and being able to multitask all in one area with the chalkboard, whiteboard and painting being optimal without the layout mess. Love that it has the built-in clips to dry the painting also the storage area and the shelf to place extra paints. Really recommend for a long durable product to use and/or gift." —beauty4life
Get it from Amazon for $159.99 (available in six colors).
17. An Animal Crafts kit featuring 20 pre-prepped projects (paper bag puppets, plate puppets, tube animals, and tissue paper animals) so kids (and adults) can get down to crafting ASAP. Also includes one mystery project!
18. A 12-pack of durable and sustainable all-natural pure beeswax crayons that are nearly unbreakable and even come with a money-back guarantee. You better ~bee-lieve~ it!
For ages 1+.
Promising review: "So I bought these worried about my 2-year-old potentially eating a crayon and having that toxic kind of stuff in her system. But I really should have been more worried about my dogs eating crayons which so far they've snagged one and a half of these babies with no health problems for them after, so I'd say that's a major win. What's also fantastic about these crayons is that they are the perfect size for little hands. My daughter just loves to color with them and they color as smooth as Crayola and they're not all plastic and waxy like the crayons you get at the dollar store. So I'd definitely recommend these to anyone with a toddler, just watch for sneaky dogs. They'll gobble them up." —Cassandra S.
Get it from Amazon for $22.95.
19. A throwback classic Spirograph Jr. arts and crafts design kit for kids to go into full gear with their artistic design endeavors. Bonus: it comes with a carry-along desk for storing all the parts!
20. A rock painting kit that's, well, rock simple for kids to get creative with. Includes standard and metallic paints, art transfers, googly eyes (always a big hit), gems, and, of course, ten smooth river rocks (so there's no digging in the backyard required).
21. A soap and bath bomb-making kit to save a trip to Bath & Body Works while teaching some chemistry to the kids. Mix citric acid, baking soda, Epsom salts, baby oil, coloring, and fragrances into molds to create some DIY bathtime fun.
22. An easy-to-learn Ravine: A Crafty and Cooperative Card Game that just might get your tweens' eyes to look up from a glowing screen long enough to have some good old-fashioned creative game time.
23. A Build And Paint wooden cars craft kit to capture all the fun of the Pinewood Derby without actually having the kids join the Cub Scouts. Includes three functioning cars, paints, stickers, and no extra tools needed.
24. A super-affordable LCD writing tablet doodle board that cuts down on paper waste and gives the kiddos their own tech to play with (re: destroy). Just make sure they write a nice thank-you note on it!
And if that's not enough to keep the kiddos occupied, you can always try a big ol' bag of...
