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Best Advent Calendars

Here is the list of our favorite 2020 Advent Calendars:

Classic Advent Calendars:

These are all candy and we love them!

Toy Filled Advent Calendars

What kid would say no to opening a new toy every day?  We break these down by theme to make it easier for you to find the best fit for your kids.

For the Artist:

For the Builder:

For Pretend Play:

For the Dino Lover:

For the Gamer:

For the Jewelry lover:

For the Reader:

For Bath time Fun:

For kids who love surprises:

For the Vehicle enthusiast:

Advent Calendars for Parents:

Why do the kids get to have all the fun?  Here are great ones for mom and dad!

DIY Advent Calendars:

Confession, this would not be the route I would take as it could be pretty time consuming to buy all the gifts, make sure they fit in the slots and get them in without the kids seeing but they are really pretty!

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Please note this post contains affiliate links.  If you click a link and make a purchase Keep It Delightful may earn a small commission. Thanks in advance for supporting my small business!

What could be better than encouraging a creative mind?  Especially these days it is so import and to encourage our young children in their pretend play.  There is a little too much reality going on…am I alone in that opinion?

Children are amazing at creating their own worlds and being able to discover and even sort through their emotions and feelings via pretend play.

Costumes

We love playing dress up in our house, whether it is my daughter pretending to be Minnie Mouse (Paid Link) or my son putting on a dinosaur mask (Paid Link)that really roars it brings their pretend world to life when they can look the part.  If we are playing dinosaurs, I sometimes create a cave with blankets on the couch or even let my little girl put on some of my old lip gloss and eye shadow to play princess.  These are precious moments to me and the stories that they make up are incredible.  It does not have to be Halloween to get all dressed up and have some fun!

Doctor Kit

I have found that children have a natural disinclination to go to the doctor.  With this virus being a huge topic of conversation for the last six plus months that disinclination has turned in to an actual fear for my kids.  For her birthday this year I got my daughter the fisher price doctor kit (Paid Link) picture above.  Her brother actually plays with it more than she does.  He loves taking his sister’s temperature and “listening” to my heart, but he loves even more to give pretend shots.  It seems this is where his fear of the doctor was really coming from.  Lots of people have been talking about a shot to prevent the virus and he knew he was going to have to get a flu shot and a finger stick the next time he had a physical.  Having the opportunity to pretend with this toy set gave him some ownership and control over the process helped him work through his fear.  I am not saying his annual physical was the best experience, but I am convinced that it could have been worse if we did not have this pretend play outlet.

Kitchen set

Cooking with the kids is fun and we bake a lot in my house, but the kids are very aware that the stove, and oven are off limits because they are hot.  Knowing this does not always mean they abide by those rules.  To give her an outlet to explore cooking on her own I bought my daughter a kitchen set.  She enjoys making pretend meals for her brother and I, I can not tell you how many “coffee’s” she has made me…I guess she knows the key to my heart. 😛  She feels like a big girl when she can push the buttons on the pretend microwave, open the pretend oven, and put away the leftovers in her fridge.  Don’t have enough room to add a large kitchen set to your home, consider a smaller kitchen accessories set. (Paid Link) that will not eat up as much space.  (Sorry for the bad pun!)

Figurines and Dolls

I grew up with older brothers and so have always been a bit of a tomboy.  As a child when my parents tried to give me Barbies (Paid Link)and baby dolls (Paid Link) I usually threw them in the closet and tried to steal my brothers GI Joes (Paid Link) and He-Man figurines. (Paid Link)  There are so many stories that you can create when you have a figurine in your hands, whether it is gender specific or not, kids use their imaginations to bring these characters to life!

However you choose to encourage your child in pretend play it will bring them a lot of joy to see you getting into their world with them.  If Mommy pretends she is a puppy or Dad is a baby, the kids will see it is okay to imagine and enjoy their pretend play.  Build delightful moment with your children by encouraging pretend play!

As an affiliate Keep It Delightful earns from qualified purchases.

Note: This post contains affiliate links.  If you click and make a purchase Keep It Delightful may earn a small commission.  Thanks in advance for helping my small business!

Growing up I loved everything about music, I used to beg my parents for a Karaoke machine so I could sing my favorite songs along to the music.  I am not even sure kids out there know what a karaoke machine is anymore…but I do know that there are still kids who love to sing, listen to, and play music.  No matter how they like to express themselves musically we have the gift that will be sure to bring a smile to their face!

Here is a list of our top Musical gifts for Kids.

Gifts for the Singer:

Lyrics book – find the lyrics to help them perfect their favorite Disney song.

Microphone – let them belt it out.

Subscription to Amazon Music, no matter what genre they are into, with 60 million to choose from, they will be able to find a song they love! (click on the banner below to sign up)

Gifts for the Percussionist:

We know Drums may not be high on the list for parents but learning to keep the beat and developing a sense of rhythm is important to growing minds, and you can support this development with more than just a set of snare drums and cymbals.

Tambourine – better than a drum, they can carry it so you can send them outside to play it!

Bongos – Okay these are drums but a little more sedate than the traditional set.

Gifts for learning chords:

Chords are the building blocks of music and learning them can be difficult but it can also open up a world of music where children will learn how to play the mainstays of their favorite songs.  Two instruments that are mostly chord based are the piano and the guitar.  These two instruments also help with fine motor skills as kids strengthen their hands as they practice.

Piano/Keyboard – we recommend starting with a keyboard, it takes up less space and there are some great features that will entertain kids as well as enhance their musical repertoire.

Guitar – Kids have small hands so we recommend a kid sized guitar, but be picky as you find the right one for your child.  I bought a very inexpensive guitar for my son one Christmas and we ended up not being able to keep it in tune  for even one song because it was so cheaply made…lesson learned!  Our recommendation below comes with a tuner which is also very good to have on hand!

Gifts for the beginner:

We all have to start somewhere, and I am sure a few of you out there are like me and started their musical journey at school on the Recorder learning hot-cross-buns!  Get them one to play at home..

Recorder – Careful this one can be a little shrill at first!

Harmonica – Throwback to the cowboy days.

Musical Set for Toddlers – get them started early with shakers, a triangle, xylophone and more!

Ukulele – before they learn the chords on the guitar get them comfortable holding a string instrument and picking out a tune.

Extra musical resources:

Support all of their musical endeavors with some education, here are our favorite books on how to read music, and getting started with their instruments.

As a whole I feel like the arts take a back seat to traditional curriculum these days, that is why I feel it is important for parents to take the lead role in supporting our kids and ensuring they have a well rounded and delightful education, which, in my opinion, includes music.

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