About

The Family Gift Guide is written by Miss Sarah.

Miss Sarah

I taught kindergarten in Ohio public schools for six years, then trained as a Montessori guide. That is fifteen years in toddler and primary classrooms so far. Today I run weekend parent workshops from a studio above my garage outside Columbus. My granddaughter turned four in March, which means I now buy presents as a grandparent and grade them as a teacher, and I write these guides for the grandparents and parents who ask me the same question every November: what should I actually buy.

The portrait next to my name is an illustration.

Contact

Questions about a guide, or about an order you placed after reading one, go to support@thegroovd.com.

Gift guides

A grandmother and her grandson at the kitchen table, the boy tracing in a Groovd copybook with the grip trainer on his penGrandparentsThe 5 best gifts for grandchildren in 2026Fifteen years in a kindergarten classroom, one list. A $30 box of workbooks beat every toy on it, and it was not close.A grandmother and her grandson at the kitchen table, the boy tracing in a Groovd copybook with the grip trainer on his penChristmasThe 5 best Christmas gifts for grandchildren in 2026Most of what goes under the tree is in a bin by New Year's. These five were not, and the one that won costs under $30.A mother and her son on the sofa, writing in a copybook togetherBy ageThe 5 best gifts for 3 to 5 year oldsBuy for the wrong year and the present waits in a closet until it is too babyish to open. Each pick below names the birthday it is really for.A girl in the garden looking at a leaf through a pocket microscopeScreen-freeThe 5 best screen-free gifts for kids in 2026Screen-free only counts if the child actually wants it. These five compete with the tablet on the tablet's own terms.