Chinese Jump Rope

Behold Ye Perfect Stocking Stuffer: the Chinese jump rope! It's small, it's inexpensive, it's widely available, and it's just plain fun. An added bonus is that it will get kids outside and active -- but a Chinese jump rope can even be used indoors or in a garage on a rainy day as long as there's a sufficiently cleared space. Put it this way, I'd sooner have a child use a Chinese jump rope indoors than a regular jump rope!

Since I'm not a parent myself, I don't know: does your average kid these days know what a Chinese jump rope is for? If not, you and/or Santa will get extra points for a new and different stocking stuffer. This particular Chinese jump rope from the InterStore website says it comes with "directions," and I imagine most of them in toy stores do as well, but if you have to, you can always google "Chinese jump rope intructions" or "directions" and you'll find plenty of guidance online.

Wow, this is starting to bring back memories!

[NOTE: Based on the first comment on this post, I realize that I should have been more explicit, since a lot of folks aren't familiar with these. The Chinese jump rope is either a rope or an elasticized band that's in a complete circle. Typically, two players anchor it with their legs, and the third player jumps through various repeating patterns like "inside, outside, left side, right side". Because there's nothing actually going overhead like a regular jump rope, that's why I think it's fairly do-able inside, as long as there's enough space around that a child wouldn't get hurt falling into any furniture -- although I don't remember falling while doing this as a child. I hope that all makes sense, but if not, maybe Wikipedia's page will shed some more light!]

What: Chinese Jump Rope
Where: InterStore website, toy stores, drugstores
How much (as of today's post): $3.49 (will vary)