If you have a DIY kid and you don’t have the time, energy, or interest to get crafty, here are five fun gift solutions:
1. Kiwi Crate Subscription
Each month, a collection of hands-on activities based on a theme (like color, gardening, or dinosaurs) – including arts, crafts, science – arrive with all materials in an attractive package. $19.95/month for ages 3 to 6. Visit kiwicrate.com for more info.
2. Kits from Paper Source
This monkey puppet kit comes with everything you need to make 5 adorable hand puppets from a bag (no sewing required). Other DIY kits include shrinky dinks charm bracelets and ninja warrior action figures. Prices vary.
3. Melissa + Doug faces and bodies
The Create-a-face pad provides a gender-neutral tableau for creating different heads (and, thus, requires markers, crayons, or construction paper with scissors to decorate). My son loves his with the blank bodies. The paper dollface version comes with stickers and other embellishments. Around $6.
4. DIY fashion
Choose some fabric markers and a blank canvas such as a pillowcase or tee-shirt. I had my high school friends autograph a pillowcase at graduation time and I have been unable to part with it in twenty years.
5. Build-your-own robot
Toysmith makes a few different DIY robot kits like these balloon-powered “Cosmic Jet” cardstock guys. Build two ‘bots with materials included and then spend your time racing them. We also liked the TechnoRobot (also DIY, cardstock but this guy is taller and moves around differently). Either one is less than $10.
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Disclosure: We were given samples of Kiwi Crate kits to share with the kids in our lives. Awesome!
