I swear I'm not rushing Christmas...

But I've gotten a couple of calls asking what May would like for Christmas and so I thought I'd post some general ideas here.

May really loves her school at the Farm and doing things outside in nature. She would probably like some good binoculars (not "good" good, but working things for small children that are hard to break) and a magnifying glass. She announced to me today that she wants to be a "scientist who studies things from a long long time ago, like the dinosaurs, and the apes that turned into people, and the big bang."

She likes rocks, particularly crystals, and has quite a collection she's accumulated over the past few months and would love to get more.

She would love good guidebooks, written for kids, on animals, rocks, plants, and birds. In fact, books are always a good idea. She's not reading quite yet, but she likes complicated pictures and poetry (not necessarily together. Not necessarily not together, though).

She's always been fond of trucks and construction vehicles, especially the wooden ones made by Plan Toys.

I know I'm usually down on plastic toys, but of course I make an exception for LEGOs! She doesn't have many, yet, so basic sets would be good.

She loves to make art, so good quality art supplies would make her happy. She's been sewing lately, and wool felt would probably be a good thing for her to sew with. Maybe her own sewing basket.

In clothing, she wears a 5, for the most part, but it depends on the brand. At LLBean, she wears a "Little Kids Medium/5-6" and at Hanna Andersson, she wears the 110 cm, and at Smartwool she wears an XS. She is very fond of blue and green right now, but that could change in the next ten minutes, much less the next two months.

Some places that we like to shop at for her:

1. Nova Natural Toys
2. A Child's Dream Come True
3. Mercurius -- this is an excellent art supply store with really lovely stuff

As ever, we (the parents), prefer natural materials -- wool, wood, cotton, etc. -- over plastics, paints, or anything with batteries. (LEGOs, excepted, naturally.)

Let us know if you have questions about specific things or ideas. We love to talk about May, so we're happy to get calls!

Take care.