10 Gift Ideas For Four Year Old Boys
Since my little guy is about to turn 4, I decided it was time for me to come up with some gift ideas for 4 year old boys!
I've compiled these ideas based on his current interests, so if you're wondering whether the 4 year old in your life would truly like these, I know my little guy would definitely say yes!
These would really be appropriate for kids anywhere between age 3 and 5.
You can find purchasing information for each item by clicking on its photo below.
1. Ride-on motorcycle
We are SO into motorcycles at our house, and a ride-on would absolutely MAKE HIS DAY!
2. The bounce house would definitely be one of those big splurge gifts. When you consider how many endless hours of fun it would provide it would pay for itself in the long run.
3. Castle blocks
This is something that we already own (it was a previous gift) and it gets a lot of use by my (almost) 4 year old.
4. Scooter
Every boy needs a set of wheels! A scooter is the perfect riding toy for a child who can't yet ride a bike.
5. Bouncy Ball
This is another toy we already own which gets HOURS AND HOURS of use!
6. Baseball pitcher and tee
This is about the age where my boys start showing an interest in sports. A tee is perfect for getting them started and then they will have the automatic pitcher for when theyare a little more advanced.
7. Hexbug
His older brother just got one and I know he would get a kick out of having his own. What is so fascinating about these I don't know, but they seem to love watching them scurry around. They like to make mazes for them out of blocks!
8./9. Soccer ball and goal
It is so cute to watch kids this age kick a soccer ball! They can get pretty good when they practice! My little guy wants to play on a team at the Y as soon as we will let him.
10. Kiwi Crate subscription
We got a sample box and we all loved it (including mom!) It was the perfect thing for doing a project without wearing out a small attention span. Mom loved it because we did a project without dragging out thousands of supplies. Having the exact amount of supplies meant that once the project was completed, the mess was already cleaned up.
Free Coconut Oil From Tropical Traditions
Every July 4, Tropical Traditions offers a free quart of virgin coconut oil with any $19 purchase. This is a fabulous deal since the coconut oil is normally much more expensive than that on its own! It’s the highest quality coconut oil I know of.
This offer goes through July 5 and you can combine it with current sales to get the best deal.
The best deal I see is to purchase the Buy 2 Get 2 Free pure coconut oil. You'll end up with 4 quarts of pure coconut oil plus the free quart of virgin coconut oil. That's 5 quarts for the price of 2!
To get in on this deal, just go here and you’ll see the offer for the free coconut oil on the right side. Add it and at least $19 worth of other stuff to your cart and it will show up as $0 in your cart.
If you've been wanting to try coconut oil for its many health benefits, now is a GREAT time to do so!
(Here's a list of 30 different uses for coconut oil! We use it daily in our house!)
If you're not sure of the difference between the pure coconut oil and the virgin coconut, the pure is odorless and flavorless and is great for cooking so that you don't have a coconut taste.
The virgin oil retains a slight coconut taste and smell and is great for any use, but just be aware that you will smell and taste it slightly.
Hope you're having a fabulous 4th of July!
P.S. Don't forget this offer only goes through tomorrow, July 5, so order quickly as there will not be another deal like this for a long time!
Grab it here.
How I’m Building a Modest Wardobe for Cheap
Shopping for modest clothing is a never-ending hunt. I usually have the best luck at thrift stores, especially price-wise! But browsing through thrift stores has become more and more difficult since little kids and shopping don't really go very well together. For a while I simply quit buying anything new, but I honestly felt very frumpy once my clothes became well out of style! I am not saying that our primary goal should be to keep up with all the latest fashions, but at the same time I think we should do our best not to look frumpy and to keep ourselves looking nice. A couple years ago I found out about a website called Thredup, and it quickly became my favorite place to shop! They have a huge selection of gently used clothing and I don't have to leave my house and drag my poor children through the thrift store. (Read to the bottom to see how you can get $10 free to spend!) It's easy to shop for exactly what I need since you can sort by brand, size, item type, and even color. |
|
The picture above is just a sampling of some of what I have purchased there. I love finding feminine and modest clothing for a fraction of what I would pay at regular price! Here's the best part — if something doesn't fit or didn't look exactly like I expected it to, I can return it free of charge! As long as I select to get my money back as a store credit, they will give me a pre-paid shipping label so I can return the item without paying shipping, plus get my money back for the item. I love shopping at ThredUp so much, and I'm sure you will too. That's why I'm sharing a free $10 credit with you! (For new ThredUp customers only.) To get your credit, follow these steps: 1. Sign up for a ThredUp account here. A couple tips for shopping: ▪ Instead of browsing for hours on end (which you very easily could do), just pick the first couple items that you like, and check out quickly. Otherwise you will end up spending forever shopping, then you won't be able to decide, and you'll end up closing down the tab without checking out – wasting time and missing out on free clothes! (I have made this mistake myself, and I've talked to NUMEROUS people who have done the same thing.) Spare yourself from the same mistake by checking out quickly without over thinking. Say for instance you like this outfit: |
|
Then you could narrow your search on ThredUp to skirts – your size – navy. Search for tops the same way – try searching under both navy and white. You can even search for a red belt since they have a selection of accessories too. In this way, even those of us who are fashion challenged can come up with a cute outfit! I've been slowly building my wardrobe this way and have come up with a lot of new outfits that I don't think I would have been able to figure out on my own! A couple other tips:
Any other modest clothing tips to share? |
8 Ways to Prepare Your Little Boy to Be a Man
Little boys are wonderful, but they will not stay little forever. When they are grown they will be men – men with life responsibilities, wives, and families. What tools do our little boys need to be properly equipped to face manhood?
As the parents of these little boys, we must be actively working to provide them with the tools they need to face life as a man. As the husbands and fathers in our society become less and less able to handle the pressures of life in a Godly and responsible way, our families, our churches, and our country begins to crumble from the inside out. Let's raise up a generation of real men who will stand for God, take responsibility for their families, and and do right at all costs!
So what are some of the ways we can prepare our little boys to be men? What are the things we must be teaching them?
- Strong work ethic
My husband has been a manager at several different work places through the years, and it has been surprising to see how lazy some of the young men who have worked under him have been. Some of these guys have come from good Christian homes, but somewhere along the line their parents failed to teach them that W-O-R-K is not a dirty word.
A man's responsibility is to work hard to provide for his family's needs. He's not going to get very far with that if he's lazy. Let's teach our boys not to be lazy! When they clean their room, let's constantly be reminding them what the Bible says about doing things with all our might. Let's not accept a slip-shod job on their chores, but make them go back and do it again until it's done right. (This requires discipline on the part of the parents too, by the way!)
- Money management
A real man provides for his family, not only by working hard to pay the bills, but also by being a wise steward of his resources. We must teach our boys how to handle money wisely and how to exercise self-control over spending frivolously. (See also: The Secret to Living Debt Free)
This will look different for different families, but boys need to be taught in some way how to budget their money and then to be disciplined enough to stick to the budget.
- Courage
It seems to be a common parenting philosophy these days to “protect” our children to such an extent that they are not allowed to do anything that could even remotely be construed as “dangerous”. Play with sticks? Nope. You could poke your eye out. Ride your bike down that hill? No. It's entirely too steep. For that matter, let's just put your bike away altogether. You could break an arm. Jump off the top step of the porch? Not a chance.
We have stifled our boys' natural sense of adventure and embedded fear in its place. Is it any wonder that so many young men these days are effeminate?
I want my boys to be bold enough to look fear in the face and do what needs to be done even if it means putting his life on the line to protect his family.
- Gentleness with ladies and children
Just as I want my boy not to be effeminate, on the flip side that does not mean he needs to plow through life with unbridled crudeness. He can be a real man and still hold doors for ladies, refrain from rude noises in the presence of ladies, and treat children with gentleness and compassion. In fact, he's not a real man if he can't discipline himself to treat ladies and children properly.
(See also: 13 Things I Want My Son to Learn Before He Turns 13)
- Decision making
Someday as the head of his family, my boy will be responsible for making some hard decisions. Providing him opportunities to be independent will help him learn that skill. Micromanaging a boy's life is not doing him any favors for the future. This may require a little bit of sacrifice on our part, mamas. Perhaps we'd like him to organize his things in a different way or choose a different shirt to wear, but if it's not hurting anything we need to give our sons the freedom to make some of those choices on their own.
There's a fine line between teaching a boy to obey his mama and forcing him to relinquish all control over any decision making. Let's make sure our boys know how to grow up thinking for themselves instead of cowing to our every whim.
- Taking responsibility
A boy's mama is not his maid or personal servant. If he lives in the house he needs to help do the work. A boy can help do his laundry, clean his room, take out the trash, and even cook his own breakfast on occasion. That's not cruelty; that's life preparation. If we coddle and pamper our boys, they'll be in for a rude awakening when they find out there's nobody there to bail them out of fixing the stopped up toilet, fixing the car, or repairing the leak in the ceiling. And his wife! Oh the poor dear! He'll be expecting the same coddling and pampering out of her when he really needs to be picking out his own clothes and making sure his own dirty socks make it to the hamper.
Many husbands have an entitled, “serve me” attitude toward their wives because their mama trained them to expect to be served. Let's train our boys to be the servant rather than the served. (No, I absolutely don't think there's anything wrong with a mama serving her family and doing kind things for them. But let's be very careful to make sure our kids don't develop an attitude of entitlement. They aren't going to learn responsibility just by watching your example; they need to practice it by having responsibilities of their own.)
- Be leader; not a follower
We need men today who are leaders rather than followers — men who do right even if nobody else is doing it. Let's teach our boys that they don't have to follow the crowd. Let's encourage them when everyone is making fun of them for being so “uncool”. Let's not give in when they want to do this, that, or the other just because everyone else is doing it. Let's raise up strong men who will lead their families, their churches, and their country in righteousness.
- Personal relationship with God
A man will never possess any of the other qualities mentioned without his own personal relationship with God. He may do these things out of habit just because mama helped him develop those habits, but when the pressure rises, so will the temptation to abandon what he knows is right and take the easy way out. But if he has a strong relationship with God, first through salvation and then through spending time daily in God's Word and prayer , he will be fully equipped to handle the decisions and responsibilities that come his way and to lead his family spiritually.
(See also: How to Teach Young Children to Develop a Personal Relationship With God)
God bless you as you strive to train up a generation of young men who will grow up to serve God with all their hearts!
6 Ways Homeschooling Benefits Christian Families
I wanted to spend the month of June offering some practical advice and encouragement from homeschooling moms. I asked some ladies I knew if they would be willing to share some thoughts from their perspective. This is the first of several that I will be sharing here.
As I read Michelle's words, there were several distinct benefits of homeschooling that stood out to me. I will let you read Michelle's thoughts in her own words, then I will list the benefits of homeschooling for Christian families at the bottom of this post.
I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com. You can go here to read this post at the new site.
Why I’m Teaching Creative Writing to My First Grader
Teaching creative writing as part of a first grade curriculum is not something I would have considered. It's not really talked about much, and if it's taught at all it just a small integrated part of a language arts curriculum.
I have moved all of my homeschooling posts to christianhomeschoolfamily.com.
You can go here to read this post at the new site.