Episode 42: Here are a few non-tech options for gifts to give your kids!

Tech is all the rage, but sometimes a non-digital or non-tech related gift is nice to give. Here are a few ideas to help you find that perfect gift! 

For more info on the scavenger hunts I mention, check it out at THIS LINK! (I didn't mention it in the episode but was able to get them to provide an affiliate link to better connect you with their options, at no extra cost to you!)

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 FULL TRANSCRIPTION:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

So continuing on the theme of Christmas and getting ready for that today, we are going to talk about things. We can get our kids other than tech, Holy cow, what a concept stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (00:16):

Welcome to your source for tips, tools, and support to help you be that mom that is tuned in and proactive for yourself, your family, and for the wild ride of raising kids in this digital age, inspired by a mother's love with a relatable, real life. Proud to be that mom flair. This is the bead that mom movement with your host Dolly Denson. Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:40):

I know about you, but my kids have kind of gone through phases of wanting like all the digital things. And that's like all that we get for Christmas. And this year, I don't know if it's the effects of this whole virus and being at home more or what it is, but their interests are not tech related this year, which is kind of exciting to me, not that tech and the digital things are all bad, but I think if we're not careful, our kids kind of miss out on real life things going on. If all they're doing is sitting, staring at a screen or engaged in a game, I'm not saying that I'm totally against those things, but I think that, you know, if we don't allow our kids to be bored, if we don't allow our kids to have like self discovery and you know, hands-on things interactions in the real world with real people, I think that there is something that's lost there.

Speaker 1 (01:30):

And so I personally have been trying to encourage more real life experiences and things such as that rather than always talking about, you know, something digitally related. Of course, my kids now are older teens and one is in her early twenties. And so your kids may be younger and you're still in that phase of wanting all the games and digital things. But I wanted to give you a few ideas of a few really cool things that I came across when I was looking at some other things that other ideas of things that we could give our kid other than the traditional things. Okay. So let's talk about those. I have three specific things that I wanted to just share with you, for you to think about that you might consider as an alternative. So the first one is a really cool thing. If you go to scavenger hunt.com, it takes you to a website called lets rome.com.

Speaker 1 (02:23):

And it was really cool. They have these scavenger hunts set up that you can purchase tickets for them and you are doing it either at home. They have ones where you're at home and you're doing a scavenger hunt in your home, or they have ones where you actually go out in, you know, if you're in a major city or a city, they have cities all over the U S and I believe it's, their website says the UK Australia, a couple of other countries where you say where you're at, and then you get like logged in and they have a scavenger hunt specific for your city. How cool is that? So you could be outdoors in the city, socially distancing if you're doing that. And, you know, having this scavenger hunt where it's just you and your immediate family, the ones that are indoors, they have some options where you can set up and connect with other parts of your family.

Speaker 1 (03:12):

And it's kind of like a zoom, like thing that you're on to where you do these scavenger hunts together and parts of it. It's like where you call certain people in different things. So it's not real specific on their website. I haven't actually done them myself, but the reviews on them are good. And it sounds like it's really fun. So they have scavenger hunts where you, besides the in-home ones and outdoor ones, they have another one called a ghost hunt and a bar hunt and a zoo hunt. So I imagine those are, you know, maybe at your local zoo, I don't know what the bar is. Surely they're not going to have used a hunt for bars, drinking bars, and then the ghost hunt. I think like some of those might be something related to where, you know, in your city they're said to be ghosts or something like that.

Speaker 1 (03:54):

So I think I say that phrase, something like that a lot. I've noticed that. So if that's annoying to you, I'm sorry. I'm trying not to say it as much. It's funny when you're on a podcast and your voice is out there, you notice a lot of things that you, little nuances of things that you say that you wouldn't otherwise notice. Cause you don't listen to yourself as much. Like when I play it back, I'm like, why do I always see that? And I've even gotten to where, when I say, um, which most of the time, most of those are edited out. So you don't even hear them, but I can recognize them on the wave form on this podcast, on the recording app that I use and the recording program, I can recognize when I say by the wave form. Is that not sad?

Speaker 1 (04:35):

Aren't you glad I save you from listening to all those ums. So anyways, the next example of things that you might want to consider as a non-tech thing would be subscriptions. They have subscriptions for different things that could be like self discovery, things like kits, like real life, manipulative kits of different things, depending on the age of your kid would determine what kind you're interested in. I don't have any specific websites to refer you to. I do have one that I may drop in the show notes if I can find it, but basically just search for them. For my husband. Recently, he had his birthday, he likes to drink beer. He likes to brew beer. And so I bought him a brew makers subscription. So it's this, what are they called? Beer places, not winery, but I can't think of it. What is it? A distillery?

Speaker 1 (05:22):

I'm not sure. Maybe that's for alcohol in general brewery brewery. Can you tell, I have problems with some of my words, forming words with my mouth, a brewery. So I ordered that and he gets a kit every month and it's seasonally appropriate. So it'll be like something that's more for winter during the winter months. And I can cancel it at any time, but it's really cool because it comes with everything that he needs. He already has like the equipment he just needs, like the recipe and the different ingredients. So that's been really cool during the summer time, or I think it was around mother's. I ordered a subscription for my mom and my mom. That was, I wasn't seeing my mother-in-law, but I ended up not ordering her one. I ordered my mom one that was like a dessert a month. So she got like a new dessert shipped to her every month and they were really good.

Speaker 1 (06:11):

She really enjoyed it. She thought that was such a great gift. And it wasn't like just a one-time I selected three months. And then I was able to give that to her for mother's day, but she got it for three months in a row. So that was kind of cool, but they make these four kids depending on what their interests are. So I would do a search look for some subscription, you know, I would try to make sure that it's not one that you like have to buy, like these multiple ones in case you get it. And you don't like it that, you know, it has an option where you could cancel at any time or cancel after a certain number of subscription boxes or whatever, but that would be another option for you to do so it's something they can look forward to and something that they're actually doing in real life with their hands, with, you know, boredom discovery, all of those things manipulatives in their hands.

Speaker 1 (06:55):

So that's the second option. And then the last one that I wanted to say was just experiences something where you're actually like out in the world doing something. And I guess scavenger hunts kind of fall into that too. But I'm thinking more along the lines of, you know, just creating something that y'all do together. Last Christmas, we bought all the kids tickets to I fly. I don't know if you have that, where you're at, but it's basically like indoor skydiving. And so our plan was to do that in March or April. And that's when all of this pandemic stuff came down. And so we ended up not doing it and we still have not done it because we bought tickets for all of us, including my daughter's boyfriend, including my other. Daughter's a couple of her friends. So it's a huge coordination for us to all get together, but I've spoken with I fly and they said, our tickets are still good.

Speaker 1 (07:47):

We've just been kind of trying to ride out and see what happens with this virus. But that was something we were excited about last Christmas. It was going to be something that we did in person that we made memories doing. So that's another thing to think about is to just think about some type of experience in general, and it doesn't even have to cost money. You know, like if you have a place that you like to go hiking, you can say we're all going to go hiking at this certain day and time or something to that effect. So I would just think along those terms of something kind of think outside the box. I think that for me personally, I feel like Christmas has gotten very commercialized and sometimes we kind of lose focus of the point of the season. And so I've tried to pull back this year from spending as much money and also trying to purchase from the smaller businesses and people that may be hurting during this time.

Speaker 1 (08:34):

So I've been buying stuff off Etsy and, you know, just kind of thinking outside the box of things and not just buying from the big, huge stores that are already getting all of our business, but looking at the smaller places that, you know, trained to stay alive with what they're doing. And I sometimes think that those types of gifts that are more handmade that are more thought out that they're going to be more meaningful longterm. At least they are for when someone gives me something like that, versus just like a gift card. Not that a gift card, can't be thoughtful because if you think about something that, you know, someone likes a gift card can be thoughtful. Not saying that at all, but basically I think tech is okay in giving them digital things. But if you're looking for something outside of the box, something different to give them, I think these are some great options to think about. I hope that you'll check them out and I will put in the show notes, the links for the ones that I have. So you can check those out. So hope this was helpful. Hope you have a happy holiday season and I will chat with you next.

Speaker 2 (09:29):

Thanks for tuning in being that mom isn't easy, but together we can be that mom's strong. Don't forget to leave a review, connect on social and join Dolly's free community till next time.