I realize this isn't exactly a homeschooling questions, but I'm looking for recommendations for online stores/catalogs with kids stuff. I hate shopping and am hoping for a fairly painless holiday season by buying gifts early -- while sitting comfortably at my computer instead of clenching my teeth at the mall.

What online stores do you love for children's books, games, toys, etc.?

One of my favorites is http://www.bigidea.com the Veggietales site. You know I am not a Christian myself, but both my son and myself love everything Veggietales. The sense of humor behind it is pure genious and you don't have to be a Christian to appreciate and understand the message behind the stories, about living by the Golden Rule, about respect and compassion. They have some really cool stuff and games and movies.

On the practical side, their service is impeccable and they always have nice special offers and sales articles.

I don't know if your oldest one is into games? My son plays Disneys Toontown online and he likes it a lot. It is $60 for 6 months, which I find kind of steep, but as he is not one to ask a lot, this is my only big expense. So you could shop online to give something online :0) You can check it out at: http://play.toontown.com/webHome.php to see if it appeals to you and they used to have a 14 day free offer, so the child can try it out to see if he likes it. It does need for the child to be able to read a bit or for you to be around every now and then to read things out to him.
My son also loves that he gets mail for him once a month with a newsletter and a handful of trading cards. Makes him feel important.

I am mom of a boy, so I have more boy stuff in mind. Have you tried the Lego site and the Bionicle site? Or the Hotwheels site? It all depends on what he likes.

For books and such, I usually just go to Amazon. If they are into a special cartoon figure like Dora or Blue, you could try the respective site for jammies or slippers or a t shirt, so for example nick.com or cartoonnetwork.com

That is the best I can do, as he celebrates Xmas in Spain and Holland, as well as his birthday, Reyes and Dutch Sinterklaas and the goodies come from there.

Ginou

Hi Elizabeth!

http://www.sillygoosetoys.com and hearthsong.com are some I've purchased from.  Oh, and sciplus.com (American Science & Surplus) - that one is fun to read and just full of interesting stuff!  I ordered some things from them recently and put them away for Hannukah gifts.  They have some good toys and other fun stuff.

Hope this helps.  Hope we'll get to the park one of these weeks to see you!

Teresa

Hi Elizabeth,
I try to stay away from the Malls, especially during Flu season.
I (or other family members) have ordered online from Toys R Us, Target, KMart, Walmart and  Sears. They all have Sales and Clearance options and sometimes free shipping along with everything else they sell.
My little one likes things from Hobby Lobby & Micheals, like the set of coin collection books (that she wants this year!!), arts and crafts etc., however, I haven't checked to see if I could order from these stores online! I'll let you know about these last 2 stores.
Also, there is Disney online.


Debbi

Thanks for all the responses, keep 'em coming! I just remembered two favorites of my own:

http://www.liveandlearn.com has a great and unusual selection of toys and
http://www.chinaberry.com kind of pricey, but more unique stuff. Just bought a felted soap kit there for making gifts this year with the kids.

Teresa, I have been meaning to get in touch for so long... I'll email or call soon!

Elizabeth,

We just recently ordered some legos from Legos.com.  You can get little packs of just the legos you want (we needed wheels & axels -like 137 of them!!).  And you can design your own toy & they'll put all the pieces together & send it out just like their special kits (which they also have of course).  At least this is what Justin said they can do.  So if by chance you were interested in the creating part, if you can't find that page on their site let me know & I'm sure Justin would be happy to trudge through their site again (poor, poor guy).

I've also ordered from hearthsong.com.  We were basically happy with what we got & the prices.

Thanks everyone for the site info.  We will be odering as much as possible & avoiding the malls too.

Just wanted to add... One cool thing about ordering from Lego.com is that they ship in a plain brown paper wrapper, with no "LEGO" markings on the outside, so you can keep your gifts a secret!  At least, they did the last time we ordered, and I found it very helpful.