Unisex Gifts for over 6’s

As soon as Christmas is finished in this house, Tara makes sure to turn our attentions to her birthday. Our eldest 2 have summer birthdays so I never considered the difficulty in choosing presents for the months immediately after Christmas. There’s no getting away from the fact that January & February birthdays are more difficult to buy for than summer ones. We already have a house full of toys, summer toys won’t get much use until the warmer months & finances are definitely more stretched. I’m quite organised this year though – Tara shares her birthday with Dermot who will be celebrating his 40th on the same day. For one year only, I’m determined that he will get a share of the attention! I thought I’d share my ideas for cost-effective presents suitable for over 6’s. Tara is definitely not a girly-girl so these gifts are also unisex. Hope you find them useful. (Contains some affiliate links – If you buy from some of these links, you won’t be charged any more but I may receive the odd penny)

Minion Aquabead kit

I’ve talked before about how much Tara loves Minions. The combination of Minions and craft is just perfect for T. She’s great at sitting and loves nothing better than getting her stool out in front of the tv with a craft set. This great starter Aquabeads Minions Playset contains a brilliant tray for sorting & storing beads. When we need more beads we will get a Aquabeads 79638 Mega Bead Pack refill kit containing different colours. Minion Playset RRP £18.99

Personalised Water Bottle

As you can imagine, we go love a sports bottle in this house. Tara takes one to school (and quite often leaves it there until we bring 4 home at once!) Every swimming sessions requires a drink as does each dance lesson. After the constant quest to find a bottle that is easily identifiable as hers, we have discovered personalised bottles. Why did we not think of this before? I love the simplicity of this one that was kindly sent to us by GiftPup RRP £12.99

Personalised Notebook

And for stationery addicts like my children, Giftpup were also kind enough to think about Violet. My children very rarely find ready named items with their names on in shops so it is a real treat whatever age to receive personalised gifts. These personalised notebooks come in a variety of colours and styles for different tastes.
RRP £7.99

Wooden Chess Board & Draughts Set

Both Tara & my 7yo nephew are mad on playing chess. I didn’t want to spend a fortune on getting a really posh chess set at this age. I would much rather she got the enjoyment from playing the game than looking at a beautiful set. I’m really delighted with this though as when it has arrived, it is lovely quality.

Mega Wordsearch Book

Our experience with the eldest 2 has been that word searches have been brilliant at bringing on reading around this age. Year 2 has the dreaded SATS (which I will barely be mentioning to Tara) but I do want to build her confidence. To be honest, her reading has always been the strongest I’ve known at this age but a little more help in identifying how words are spelt. Luckily, Tara finds word searches fun too so these Super Book of Word Search Puzzles books are always handy to have when we are waiting around for her sisters. Start from only 35p so super cheap!

IQ Puzzler

These handy little travel cases are brilliant. We’ve bought a variety of these Smart Games – IQ Puzzle Pro, Game of Ingenuity (lúdilosg455) IQ puzzle sets over the past couple of years for all ages. They range from really easy to really difficult and can keep you (or your little one) enthralled for ages. RRP £9.99

Exploding Kittens Card Game

This Exploding Kittens: A Card Game About Kittens and Explosions and Sometimes Goats game comes highly recommended from a friend. We always loved our time spent in the caravan playing card games so want to carry that on, even though we no longer have the van. Really looking forward to us playing this together. Please note: No real kittens were harmed in the making of this game!

Colour Quest Geometric Colouring Book

This Colour Quest (Colouring Books) is completely addictive whatever your age. I never really got into the whole adult colouring phase but this is a great book for adults and children to complete together. You don’t know what the picture is going to be (unless you check the back of the book for the finished article) and it is so clever how the colour chart creates wonderful images. Some are easier than others – 6+’s will have no trouble with some of the larger shapes. RRP £8.90

So there we are! I’m always grateful for any of your suggestions for gifts – I hope you have found this gift guide useful & wish anyone celebrating a birthday during the next couple of months a very happy birthday! My blog’s first ever post was Mr C’s 30th cake so no pressure to produce a better one for his 40th!