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You are here: Home / Korean learning for kids / Korean Gift Guide for Kids: Cultural, Educational, and Fun Toys!

Korean Gift Guide for Kids: Cultural, Educational, and Fun Toys!

By Betty
December 5, 2020

5 Dec
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Korean gift guide of for kids and families - cultural and educational toys

I’m so excited to share our favorite Korean culture and educational gifts for families! As many of you know, my husband is Korean, and my kids were previously learning Korean through wonderful nannies.

While we had hoped to raise our kids trilingual, my kids have recently forgotten a lot of Korean language. But we still want to keep them connected to their heritage. I hope these Korean gift ideas can help your family learn more about Korean culture and language, too!

Related: Raising a Bilingual Baby: 5 Things Parents Should Do

Popular Korean Songs and Nursery Rhymes for Kids

This post may have some affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission which supports my blog and free printables at no additional cost to you. Please see the disclosure policy for details.

Table of Contents

  • Korean music gifts
  • Korean toys
  • Korean alphabet gifts
  • Korean book gifts
  • Korean food gifts
  • More Korean learning resources for kids

Korean music gifts

Music is one of the most fun and natural ways to learn about Korean language and culture! Here are my kids favorite Korean music books and CDs.

Korean nursery rhymes music book
Playing Korean folk song on the piano

Korean nursery rhyme books

  • Folk Songs Music CD Book
  • Nursery Rhymes Music CD Book

Related: CD Organization and Accessibility for Kids

Korean songs - music CDs and CD player
CD player and Korean music CDs

Korean gift: songs for all ages

Please see 100+ Popular Korean Children’s Songs and Nursery Rhymes for more details about the above nursery rhymes books and Korean songs!

For older kids and teenagers, you can consider getting an mp3 player or a gift card to iTunes! I’ve heard many parents say their teenagers want to learn Korean due to their love of BTS!

Korean Pinkfong music sound books
Pinkfong Korean sound books

Pinkfong Korean music sound books

For toddlers and preschoolers, music sound books are a great way for kids to enjoy Korean songs independently! Pinkfong has many options. Since the loud volume is not adjustable, we cover the speakers with painter’s tape to dampen the sound.

Buy Pinkfong Korean music sound books

Korean toys

Korean play food for kids

Korean play food

Since my son has several food allergies, we aren’t able to go to Korean restaurants. Therefore, we so happy to order Korean play food from Heartfelt Makan (read interview with owner Liane Ong here).

The details are incredible, including the tiny sesame seeds sewn into the tofu, and the heart-shaped sprout leaves. As shown in the above photo, we have:

  • Bibimbap 비빔밥
  • Various banchan 반찬
  • Gimbap 김밥
Buy Korean playfood from Heartfelt Makan

My kids also often play with Heartfelt Makan’s dim sum toys which I reviewed in this post.

Korean mandoo felt dumpling play food toys for kids

We were also gifted this lovely set of felt dumplings from Dumpling Mart, a Korean-American mom’s Etsy shop! The set comes with a pack of 10 만두 (mandu).

Buy 만두 from Dumpling Mart
Realistic Asian dolls for kids

Asian dolls

Although my kids are more into their wood peg dolls rather than realistic-looking ones, I want to recommend options that represent Asian features.

  • Hape Asian Family doll set: This set of mini Asian dolls includes a dad 아빠, mom 엄마, son 아들, daughter 딸, grandpa 할아버지, and grandma 할머니!
  • Miniland doll girl and Miniland doll boy: These are anatomically-correct, vanilla-scented dolls popular among Montessori parents.
  • American Girl: This popular, collectable brand has dolls of various ethnicity. Each doll has a background story about overcoming difficulties. The East-Asian appearing doll, Emerson, has black hair and brown eyes.
  • Barbie: This famous brand has Asian-appearing dolls that can move eg, gymnastics. Note that many parents and experts are concerned about negative body image associated with Barbie dolls.
  • JC Toys: When my kids were younger, we had this highly-rated baby doll.
multilingual toy microscope - English, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese
Educational Insights Geosafari Jr Talking Microscope

Geosafari Junior multilingual toy microscope

Educational Insights has a quadrilingual talking microscope with audio in English, Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. It includes 60 slides with color images. Although we usually avoid plastic talking toys, I appreciate seeing an Asian language toy being sold by a mainstream brand.

We’ve had the toy microscope for about 2 years, and we take it out when we are discussing science topics.

Please note that the narration is quite fast, so we mainly use the Mandarin function and rarely use the Korean feature due to our lack of fluency. However, the Korean voice is narrated by a professional, fluent speaker.

Recommended for kids age 5-8 years.

Buy multilingual toy microscope
Uncle Goose Korean wood blocks
Uncle Goose Korean wood blocks (new version here)

Uncle Goose Korean wood blocks

I love that Uncle Goose has toys in multiple languages; these were some of the first toys I got my kids when they were babies.

Picture above is the older version which you might be able to find on eBay. The current version has different colors; I’d recommend these for kids age 1-4 years. For triilngual families like us, you can see my review of the Chinese wood blocks here.

Buy Uncle Goose Korean Blocks

Korean alphabet gifts

Korean Hangul pillow

Normalizing the minority language; Korean hangul alphabet pillow with plush animals

We’ve had this cute rainbow Korean pillow for more than 6 years! The zipper cover is machine-washable, and the Hangul alphabet design is from Zazzle (similar here). If you don’t need a pillow, you can choose the Hangul design for a blanket, t-shirt, or other fabric products.

Child's modern bedroom library - floor to ceiling bookshelves
Korean Hangul pillow in my daughter’s trilingual library bedroom

The Korean pillow has been a pretty addition to our print-rich environment for my kids’ minority languages! I’m happy that we can use this comfortable pillow as decoration for many, many years.

Buy Korean Hangul Pillow
Korean Alphabet Hangul Letter Toys for Kids

These are fun toys for kids learning Hangul! We’ve used them in various ways, including letter matching and spelling short words!

See review and ways to use Korean Hangul letter toys

Korean alphabet stickers

Tigerboom Creative has adorable mini Hangul stickers! These stickers can be used to decorate journals or incorporated into learning activities! I think they would make for great stocking stuffers!

Buy Korean stickers

Related: Educational sticker activities for kids

Korean Hangul Alphabet Wood Tracing Board Montessori
Korean tracing board

Wood Korean Hangul tracing board

A few years ago, I helped Treasures from Jennifer design this high-quality wood Hangul tracing board! The wood is very smooth with rounded corners. It can be used for tracing with a wood stylus or filling up with small objects, like pompoms or dried beans.

Buy Korean Wood Tracing Board

Acrylic Korean tracing board

Black Yoonicorn sells acrylic tracing boards that can be used with dry erase makers!

Buy Korean Acrylic Tracing Board

Korean book gifts

Books are always at the top of my gift list for all ages! Since we no longer have a nanny to read to the kids in Korean, I’ve been collecting books about Korean culture in English, plus stories written by Korean-American authors.

Picture books about Korean culture

English picture books about Korean culture

Here are some of our favorite picture books with links for where to buy:

  • Bee-Bim Bop! Amazon | Bookshop
  • The Name Jar Amazon | Bookshop
  • The Firekeeper’s son Amazon | Bookshop
  • What will you be, Sara Mee Amazon | Bookshop
  • Turtle Ship Amazon | Bookshop
  • A Piece of Home Amazon | Bookshop
  • All About Korea: Stories, Songs, Crafts, Games Amazon | Bookshop

Related: 15 Ways to Encourage Your Child to Read

Looking Back, Life Was Beautiful - by Grandpa and Grandma Chan

English chapter books with Korean protagonists

  • Mindy Kim collection Amazon | Bookshop
  • Looking Back, Life Was Beautiful Amazon | Bookshop
  • When My Name was Keoko Amazon | Bookshop
  • A Single Shard Amazon | Bookshop
Korean books for kids

Children’s baby board books in Korean

These books are for beginners:

  • Aerylin Books – bilingual vocabulary books
  • Where’s the Baby?
  • Where’s the Kitten?
  • PORORO Talking Pen bookset – This was recommended by parents in our Facebook group, Raising Bilingual Children in English & Korean

Only a few Korean children’s books are available on Amazon:

  • The Giving Tree (see review of Chinese version here)
  • Jesus Storybook Bible

Otherwise, the best place to order Korean books in the United States is through online Korean bookstores:

  • Korean Kids Books
  • Hanbooks (use coupon code betty2020 for 15% discount for orders >$50 USD)
  • Bandibooks
  • iBookPark
  • Aladin

Korean food gifts

For teachers and relatives, we love giving gifts related to delicious Korean food! Some ideas include the following:

  • Korean chopsticks-spoon set with Hangul characters
  • Maangchi’s Korean cookbook
  • Gift cards to favorite Korean restaurants

Although we don’t have the chopsticks-spoon set linked above, my mother-in-law gifted us a different silver set as a housewarming gift. In contrast to ivory or bamboo Chinese chopsticks, Korean chopsticks are typically metal and flat like Western silverware.

Related: Free Printable Pretend Play Food in English, Chinese, and Korean

Which Korean gifts did you decide to give?

Do you have other recommendations to add to this list?

I’d love to hear which gifts were enjoyed by your family, friends, and teachers!

Please share in the comments below! And feel free to save the vertical image below on Pinterest to encourage more people to learn about Korean resources!

Korean gift guide of for kids and families - cultural and educational toys

More Korean learning resources for kids

Korean learning resources for kids
Click here for more free Korean learning resources!

Korean resources for kids on Amazon!

Click on the image below to see Korean toys, books, and other resources on Amazon!

Korean resources for kids on Amazon!
favorite open-ended toys for kids

Holiday shopping guide for kids

If you’re shopping for holiday gifts, check out our educational gift guides!

  • 5 Reasons Books are the Best Gift for Multilingual Kids
  • Ultimate Gift Guide for Kids Learning Chinese!
  • 10 Best Toys For Children That Promote Creativity and Learning
  • Favorite Jigsaw Puzzles for Kids of All Ages
  • Recommended Human Anatomy Toys | Science Gifts for Kids
  • Favorite Educational Montessori Inspired Toys from Etsy

Happy gifting, friends!

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About Betty

I'm a Chinese-American mom who is having fun teaching my children Mandarin Chinese while re-learning the language myself. I love coming up with creative, hands-on, and educational activities, and I hope these ideas help your children have fun learning Chinese!

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Dr. Betty Choi CHALK Academy - 2

Hi! I’m Betty, a Chinese-American mom, believer, pediatrician, and writer.  I’m having fun learning Chinese with my children, and I love sharing multilingual resources and teaching tips!  I hope these ideas can help your family or school! Read More…

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Unauthorized use and/or duplication of any content without express and written permission from CHALK Academy is strictly prohibited.  Excerpts, pdfs, images, and videos may be used only with permission, provided that full and clear credit is given to CHALK Academy / Betty Choi with appropriate and specific direction to original content.

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