Matchstick

Category: for 8-year-olds

  • Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! board game

    [amazon_link asins=’B003G9QEGG’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’ba76799a-3fe0-11e7-a4e5-7b688ea79bac’] This is based on a book by Mo Willems. None of us were familiar with his stuff until after we got the game, but that didn’t matter. The box says it’s for ages 3 and up, but the rules are too complicated for our 3-year-old. However, the board and […]

  • LEGO Life magazine

    LEGO has a free magazine that comes out 5 times per year. In some ways the thing is one huge ad, but the puzzles and activities (mazes, code-breaking, etc.) are pretty fun and our 6-year-old looks forward to it coming in the mail. The cost is free, but you do have to sign up for […]

  • Ask magazine

    [amazon_link asins=’B0160CLMWQ’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’69160609-3fde-11e7-b716-27b6d77d64cf’] I had never heard of Ask until we got it as a gift. It’s somewhat in the same vein as Ranger Rick, but with a much snarkier tone. There is Marvin, a raccoon character in Ask, but unlike Rick, Marvin is a bit of a jerk. There are no […]

  • Wallace and Gromit

    [amazon_link asins=’B003V8II2A,6303521517,B002RZ0V6E,B003V8IH26′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8d406508-3fd9-11e7-98d4-7d9ab68c2887′] I remember seeing “A Grand Day Out” at an animation festival around 1990, and then seeing “The Wrong Trousers” and “A Close Shave” a few years later. I was so thrilled by them (not least by the incredible chase scenes toward the end of ‘Trousers’ and ‘Shave’) that I […]

  • Smithsonian Folkways Children’s Collection

    [amazon_link asins=’B000001DOB’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’bd3df570-3fc9-11e7-98b0-394ac395dc6c’] This was a Christmas gift and a surprise huge hit with the kids. We had it in the car for a long road trip to their grandpa and nana’s house and we ended up playing it over and over and for weeks later. It is one of very few […]

  • LeapPad Ultra

    [amazon_link asins=’B00CS1WDBI’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’cda524b4-3f5d-11e7-9c2a-4d2b722af7c0′] We got this second-hand. It’s pretty expensive and we wouldn’t have bought it new. The kids love it, to the point where we have to confiscate it when screen time gets out of hand, and we can use it as a bargaining tool. It’s basically a computer tablet, like […]

  • A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles Schultz

    [amazon_link asins=’B001K2JE9K’ template=’ProductAd’ store=’matchstickkidboo’ marketplace=’US’ link_id=”]   Our family enjoys watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special every year. The adults get the nostalgia and pleasure of sharing something from our childhoods with the kids, and the kids seem to really like the Peanuts characters. When I was a kid, I read Peanuts every day in […]

  • Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

      Calvin and Hobbes ran as a daily newspaper comic strip from November 1985 and November 1995. It was an essential part of my childhood and manages to resonate with children and adults today. Watterson did not have children during the time he was writing the strip, yet showed real insight into the dynamic between […]