Downsizing Gifts

Last Christmas, we decided to make some changes in our gift giving and receiving strategies. As part of our effort to downsize and reduce clutter and "stuff" in general, we asked our family members NOT to give our kiddos the standard gifts. Up until this past year, the kids have gotten tons of cool things, mostly toys and clothes. Don't get me wrong, we were very grateful and thankful for the gifts we received, which mostly came from loving family members.

However, we were accumulating way too much stuff, including clothes. So, as Christmas approached last year, we asked our family to give our kids experiences instead of toys or clothes. I gave them a list of possibilities I thought we might enjoy as a family. We were given season passes for everyone to Silver Dollar City and a membership to the Dickerson Park Zoo.

We have thoroughly enjoyed both and are still using our passes to create wonderful family memories.

For their birthdays, Carter and Jackson were both given a Mad Science Camp. Jackson chose "Rockets and Robots". His camp was last week and he loved every minute. He was able to learn about robots the first part of the week and then about rockets the last part. He even got to build a model rocket and bring it home. He doesn't want to launch it yet, so we are keeping it safe for now. He's already talking about which science camp he would like to go to next.

Carter's ecology camp started this morning. He learned about what dirt is made of, and they started a seed sprouting experiment. He was happy to get to go to class where Jackson was last week.

Thank you so much, Aunt Kaye, for the great birthday gifts!

Here is Jackson with his rocket.

I love this and I think most of our family is happy to be contributing to the kids' list of experiences instead of putting money in toys that get lost and broken in a few days or weeks. It's a much better use of their resources and our time. Since we are officially homeschooling now, we'll be counting these experiences toward our schooling hours when it's applicable, also.

Things on our list of possibilities include: show tickets (special performances, plays, concerts, etc.), passes to fun places (zoo, pool, theme park, museums, etc.), summer camps and fun classes.