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Guide to Gifts for Granddaughters

Birthdays, holidays—there are times when it’s nice to be able to give your granddaughter a little something
to make her smile and build her up. That’s why we’ve compiled this list with some of our favorite gifts.

Art Supplies

We’re big fans of giving art supplies to kids. Art provides an opportunity for girls to flex their creative muscles, and explore themselves and the world around them. As Melody Milbrandt, 2015 National Art Educator of the Year told CNN, “Part of what we encourage children to do through art is to construct meaning and synthesize their understandings of the world. To engage at a deeper level.”

There are a lot of different directions you can take an art-focused gift too. If you’re budget conscious, consider raiding your desk/closets or hitting yard sales for things that might be fun for a young girl. A half used roll of painters tape may not be useful for you anymore, but can be thrilling for a child. You can shop for messy or more advanced art kits that you can do with your granddaughter, or less messy, simpler things that she can do on her own.

Here are a couple of our favorites:

Studio In A Box

This kit offers an array of art supplies, with a mix of messier supplies (like paints and watercolors), and neater supplies (like pencils). It also comes with a cool carrying case.

Ultimate Crayon Collection

If you’re looking for art supplies your granddaughter can use on her own, we love Crayola’s Ultimate Crayon Collection. There’s something exciting and liberating about having soooo many colors to choose from!

We like that this set includes a variety of flesh tones and a case to keep the crayons contained when they’re not being used.

Books

Books are a wonderful gift for any child, and there are many amazing books to choose from these days. Here are a couple of our favorites. Both of these books introduce girls to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). This is important because women are underrepresented in these high-paying fields. Plus, the books are a lot of fun.

Rosie Revere, Engineer

As described on Amazon, “Rosie may seem quiet during the day, but at night she’s a brilliant inventor of gizmos and gadgets who dreams of becoming a great engineer. When her great-greataunt Rose (Rosie the Riveter) comes for a visit and mentions her one unfinished goal—to fly—Rosie sets to work building a contraption to make her aunt’s dream come true. But when her contraption doesn’t fly but rather hovers for a moment and then crashes, Rosie deems the invention a failure. On the contrary, Aunt Rose insists that
Rosie’s contraption was a raging success: you can only truly fail, she explains, if you quit.”

We love the creative spirit of this book.

How to Code a Sandcastle

As described on Amazon, “All summer, Pearl has been trying to build the perfect sandcastle,
but out-of-control Frisbees and mischievous puppies keep getting in the way! Pearl and her robot friend Pascal have one last chance, and this time, they’re going to use code to get the job done.

Using fundamental computer coding concepts like sequences and loops, Pearl and Pascal are able to break down their sandcastle problem into small, manageable steps. If they
can create working code, this could turn out to be the best beach day ever!”

We love the way this book makes coding fun and easy to understand. It’s a great foundation for basic problem-solving too.

Dolls

According to the North Shore Pediatric Therapy group, playing with dolls helps children “develop fine and gross motor skills, practice language and develop new vocabulary, and begin to understand new learning concepts.” They also allow kids to practice role playing and navigating social interactions.

Dolls can be great. The problem is that some dolls feature unrealistic, sexualized bodies and can have a negative impact on how girls see themselves and their career/role in society. One study found that “Playing with Barbie has an effect on girls’ ideas about their place in the world.” According to Aurora M. Sherman, an associate professor in the School of Psychological Science at Oregon State University, “It creates a limit on the sense of what’s possible for their future.” Luckily, there are a lot of great dolls available today that are less sexualized. A couple of our favorites are the Lottie and American Girl dolls.

Lottie Dolls

According to lottie.com, Lottie doll bodies are “based on the average proportions of a nineyear- old child rather than those of an adult woman.” They “celebrate childhood and
promote the empowerment of children by encouraging kids to be themselves.” They’re cute too!

American Girl Dolls

Since 1986, over 32 million American Girl dolls have been sold, and it’s easy to see why. The dolls look like actual girls and are very

customizable. In fact, you can even design a doll to look like your granddaughter! The only issue is the steep price tag (dolls start at around $60).

Clothes

When it comes to clothes, we love Princess Awesome! Princess Awesome understands that “Lots of little girls love dresses and rainbows and flowers and pink. And lots of those same little girls love cars and robots and pirates and dinosaurs.” Here are a couple of looks we love.

Leggings

We love the rockets on these “Fleur-de-Lift-Off”
leggings with pockets! Plus they’re stretchy and

comfortable so girls can be as active as they want to be.

Dresses

If your granddaughter loves dresses and dinosaurs, she’ll go crazy for this “Mesozoic Mischief” short sleeve super twirler dress.

Princess Awesome dresses come in a number of other fun designs too, with graphics like helicopters, trucks, and sharks.

For more gift ideas, check out A Mighty Girl, “the world’s largest collection of books, toys and movies for smart, confident, and courageous girls” and of course coloring and sticker books from Hopscotch Girls.

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