Puzzling Gift Ideas Off The Shelf

One of my favorite stores is Barnes and Noble.  Not only do they carry books (the most awesome creation in the world), but they also have a really decent selection of games and puzzles.  Of course, if you're in the market for some serious board games, you should venture over to your local game store and give them your support.  But for some light holiday shopping, B&N is the place!

For the very young on your list, how about some jigsaw puzzles?  These Beginner Puzzles from Petit Collage are so adorable!  I love how the baby is snuggled in with the parent!  Too cute, and I wish I had some babies on my shopping list this year, so I could buy one of these.  Amazon shows some very good reviews for these puzzles.  Age range suggested is 2 and up.

For 4 and ups, I found some fun games from Blue Orange.  Chickyboom is a balancing game, and Pengoloo is a memory game.  I have a couple other games from Blue Orange (Niya and Kingdomino) and am impressed by the quality and ingenuity of them.  I'm sure these will please your young gamers!

Next up is Tegu!  This is a new product to me, and I am dying to get my hands on a set!  Magnets and blocks combined...what could be better?  Now your creations won't get scattered when the cat decides to explore them!  These are recommended for ages 3 to 99!  I'm awfully glad I fall into that age range as I'm sure one of these will find its way into my household soon!

A little peek inside the box!  You can find out where the magnets are inside each block by visiting Tegu's website and scrolling way down for a diagram.  Something else interesting about this toy company...on their FAQ they ask that if you are ready to dispose of your Tegu sets, you should contact them.  They will pay for shipping so that you can return the toys to them, and they will recycle them.  What a nifty idea! 

The holiday season wouldn't be complete without a ThinkFun puzzle toy!  Lunar Landing is new this year and looks promising.  (Although I just read on the website that this is a reprint from a year 2000 edition with a different name.)  Also new this year is Roller Coaster Challenge, a cool series of //Code games, and Color Cube Sudoku. 

Ginny has decided to tackle a semester of architecture for homeschool this spring.  In our search for cool books and materials, we stumbled upon Arckit.  The kit we ordered arrived just last week, and we dove in and built some creations already.  We think these kits are for older kids, because some of the connections are a little tricky.  But at our advanced ages (14 and 47), we think this is perfect!  We found a kit with a crushed box in B&N's discount bin and got it for half off.  One can never have enough pieces!

For more building opportunites, we have OffBits!  These kits are recommended for 6 years and older.  With spring, bolts, nuts and wheels, the critters that you can build with these parts look amazing!

Getting a lot of hype this year on many podcast commercials is littleBits.  These kits also include electronic building blocks so you can power your creations!  I didn't see them at B&N, but they sound very cool so are worth a mention.

This puzzle from BeginAgain had Ginny and I wracking our brains for our space science knowledge!  It's a Space A to Z puzzle and it lists for children 3 and up.  But we had a blast trying to figure out the A to Z's of this puzzle.  It really is quite adorable!  This is another toy company using recycled and sustainable ingredients for their toys. 

I think I had a little too much fun in the games section for the younger set, but here's one offering from the older kids game section.  Perplext created these wee card games that are the size of a gum package.  So you can take them on the go and always have a game handy!  The artwork for these is adorable.  (You can see them on their kickstarter page here.)  And they have 2 different sets of games available, which you can find (and buy as sets or individually) on their website.  I think these make fantastic stocking stuffers!  (Hoping to find a couple in my stocking this year...)

So I hope that gives you some ideas for gift giving, if you still have some folks to buy for.  Enjoy your December!

(Note: I know that some bloggers have affiliations with companies and promote their items, but I do nothing of the sort.  I just happen to like B&N quite a lot (used to work there even) and adore some of the above mentioned game and toy companies.  So enjoy and click on the links and no need to worry.  I won't make a dime!)