Never Shopped Out: A Shopaholics Resource

 

If your latest attempt to keep the kids entertained involve jumping on the bandwagon and heading to the ASX to watch the stock market fall, perhaps these suggestions might lighten the mood a little, without lightening your purse. You know how infants always have more fun with the wrapping paper/box/their feet and kids would rather use your best sheets and the leather couch to make an explorer’s tent? They’re trying to tell us something. More $$$ doesn’t always mean more fun…

 

 

 

 

Firstly, I have to show you this: the Peace Combi from KidsGiftList. At $9.95 it’s dearer then a matchbox car but dang, is it cool! Never underestimate the power of little boys and their dads to spend hours making broom-broom noises on the lounge room floor. KidsGiftList is a treasure trove of nifty trinkets, I love the babushka dolls (above) for just $12.95, and little hands will learn about shapes with this cute Fish puzzle for $6.95, and kids of all ages can improve fine motor skills (they’ll just thrive on competition) with this gorgeous little Quoits set $16.95.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UrbanBaby is another gorgeous eboutique brimming with fabulous toy ideas. This weird contraption might look like it’s straight from a Nintendo game but Bilibo is actually an award winning design renowned for it’s ability to get kids imaginations cranking. Is it a seat, a cup, a hat, a ride? For just $12.95 per set for a piece of ingenius design, it’s a bargain too!

 

Or, to get them to stay outside in the sunshine, give them a cute skipping rope $9.95 with funky animal friend handles and delight (or distract) their baby siblings with musical animal shakers $5.95. Browsing UrbanBaby, I just bookmarked 64 items to come back to closer to Christmas…..

These are THE coolest colouring books I’ve seen in a long time. I was the type of kid who liked to arrange my pencils in colour order, never go outside the lines and have everything neatly set out in front of me in order to attack the page with ruthless efficiency. If I’d had these books, I would have been indestructible. Rosieflo colouring books allow kids to colour in sumptuous dresses, and then add their own heads, lims etc to give each one their own personality, and even have see-through pages to allow kids to create their own scenes! Simple brilliance at about $14 from Amazon or Larkmade.

 

Indulge their inner chef with these kid-sized cookie cutter sets ($14.95) from me2me2. Whether they actually use cookie dough or just playdough, they’ll be so proud of their masterful creations! Girls will love to go Glam and boys can stay tough with the Tool set. And they’ll be sure to treat Mum to a taste (mmm, blue playdough…).

 

The latest craze in our house (well, at Nanna’s anyway)? A $2 plastic skittles set she found at Coles. It seriously keeps my 2 year old entertained for hours. Nanna has a well stocked toy trunk full of books, jigsaws, bubbles, stickers – in fact she could open her own eboutique – but it’s the $2 skittles that get pulled out when we arrive, and only get put away after a tantrum and chocolate bikky bribe. Go figure.