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Let's talk toys

post #1 of 19
9/8/06 at 4:43pm
Thread Starter 
I know the holidays are coming and my dd's birthday is coming and I'm going to be asked by relatives and friends what they should get my dd. I'm feeling like I need to have some things together to suggest so she doesn't get stuff that costs a lot and are, well... boring to her. So... I did a little internet shopping and these would be right up her alley:

http://shopping.discovery.com/product-59286.html

http://www.kidsurplus.com/pof6400.html

Big gift: http://www.genesis-technologies.com/...oductID=473011

Also: play sand (like playdough only sand - but never dries out)

and her all time favorite: BOOKS!


She has a ton of relatives who will be asking for suggestions.


So... do you have a favorite toy or something your kid loves that you think others in this forum might enjoy?

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post #2 of 19
9/8/06 at 5:04pm
I haven't bought anything here, but somebody linked to this site here and I am salivating over it (DD would love many of those science and nature books):

http://www.childsake.com/

I also always see stuff DD would like at Lakeshore Learning.
post #3 of 19
9/8/06 at 5:24pm
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.
I will not look at the links. My kids do not need more toys.

*goes off to look at links...*
post #4 of 19
9/8/06 at 6:54pm
I'll go back and look at the links in a minute, but I already started making a list of gift ideas for my two. They currently have toys coming out their ears, so I am trying to come up with more experience oriented gifts, like zoo and museum memberships, and of course, books!
post #5 of 19
9/8/06 at 7:56pm
my dd just had her 4th bday party. hmmm. its been almost a week since her party and already her toys are languishing in a corner. right now i am waiting for salvation army to get her and take the rest of my dd's toys. the last toys i was holding onto hoping she would play with them.

the only toys we now have at home are her handful bday toys one of which was a wind chime. when i have a little extra dough i have to hit home depot and the kitchen section of other stores to see what interesting finds i happen upon.

her fav. bday present this year was grandma's old sewing tape measure which rolls up the moment u press a button, gummy snakes gummy brains AND a tiny deck of playing cards.

*sigh* you have no idea how difficult it is for me to answer a question like what shall i get ur child for their bday.

but i am going to check some books out for science experiments. actually when she is a little older (she needs fine motor skills to do it on her own) i know she will enjoy these. but right now they are out of my budget.

dd loves the thames and cosmos toys. have seen some i know she would love as she LOVES experimenting but they are expensive. she would LOVE The candy factory and perfume science. i have bought the icecream one and also soap making and bath fizzie making stuff and she loves it.

http://www.discoverthis.com/thames-kosmos.html
post #6 of 19
9/9/06 at 7:52pm
We've already bought the kids' their main Christmas present. They are getting a Playmobil castle. I'm considering the Playmobile Viking boat too, although I think pirates would be preferred at this point.

My 5 year old is really easy to buy for. My 2 year old is difficult to buy for, because he's not very toy-oriented. For my little one's 3rd birthday (soon!), we're buying him a keyboard. He loves music and he really took to the instruments at my IL's house. My ILs are buying him a little, simple guitar. Toys R Us has some kid's instruments that are simple and nice. There are some bongo drums and a few other items that he would love, if my family needs suggestions. I wanted to buy him a small Peruvian pan-pipe for his Christmas stocking but we saw one this weekend and he had a hard time blowing across the top of it; he wanted to blow it like a recorder. He would also love any kind of play food for his kitchen; both boys use the play kitchen a lot. He's not such a Lego maniac like his brother and we own a zillion types of construction toys, but we might put bristle blocks on his list. He used those once and really loved them.

I would really love to buy my 5 year old a microscope, but we've decided to wait until his birthday in the spring. He loves any kind of science item. He wants this gelatin mold that's in the shape of a human brain (blech). I don't know how often that would get used, however, so I'm not sure about that. He also wants a skeleton model. He wants the CSI human head that his cousin has; you can reconstruct the face with clay. He was oohing and ahhing over a model engine kit in a catalog. He has the easier engine kit (Smithsonian?). This one was a V8 and it involves modeling glue and lots of screws; that's too old for him right now, but it might be a great future gift. My husband put most of the little engine together, but my son helped and both kids love to use the engine. The 5 year old also wants a race-car track with upside-down loops. Anything in the realm of construction, vehicles or science is a guaranteed hit with him.
post #7 of 19
9/9/06 at 10:13pm
My DD is horse crazy right now, and she is also getting into doll houses. My parents bought her the big plastic pink doll house for Christmas last year, but it stays at their house. I think we are going to make a homemade gnome house for her this year and buy the wooden furiture for it. As a present from her new brothers she is getting a stuffed pony that is in a word, HUGE! I am not good a spacial relationships, and reading the height in the catalog didn't give me an accurate picture of how big this thing is. The box barely fit in the back of my volvo! She will be able to sit on it, and I don't think her feet will touch the floor.: I have no idea where we will put it, but that is why I am thinking small for the holidays.
post #8 of 19
9/10/06 at 12:49pm
BeanBean is completely obsessed with maps and globes. I was thinking about getting him a road atlas for his birthday, because I could afford it and I know it would be well-loved. If I can find a way to hang the nice maps we have on our hideous white, plaster walls, I'll do that anyway.

I was also thinking about getting him some large-grid graph paper so that he can work on his writing. He doesn't like tracing, but he needs to see physical relationships in order to write well; I think that showing him how to connect lines in various boxes on graph paper might help him, and I know he'd get a kick out of it.

He also loves his grandmother's measuring tape which rolls up at the touch of a button, and those are pretty cheap, so he might get one of those as well. I'll probably ask the ILs to get him one of those, and some more size six "gray tops" (Hanes boys' tighty whities); last week Mike couldn't find any and asked him to wear a pair of slightly snug pajama shorts w/pictures on them and he came to me in hysterical tears-- "Just look! They have pictures! And they're shorts, and they're not comfortable, and I want my gray tops!!" The poor kid was really upset, but he's too big for the 4's and we've only got 3 pairs of 6's at the moment.

BooBah wants only fleece pajamas, books, and anything to do with The Backyardigans. : I'm in the process of making her some fleece pajama pants from fabric which she chose (for less than $30, it looks like I'll be able to make six pairs of pants, three tops, a hat and maybe a pair of mittens; possibly more ), and I may make her a special fleecy outfit for Channukah. I'm really not sure what else she's interested in... she likes to write and draw and climb things. If I can find a way to get her into a tumbling class for teensy people, I'll definately consider that.

Bella just likes to put things in her mouth and get hugs and kisses. It seems to me that her one complaint about life is that she can't ride in a sling 24/7 (it has to be washed sometimes). I'll probably find her a teething toy at some point, because she seems to need one. She loves her hand-me-down kicky bounce, so I may get new batteries for that and call that a present; otherwise, she just getting nursies and snugglebugs.
post #9 of 19
9/12/06 at 11:13pm
I was asking my son what he wanted and he said he only wants games and puzzles and nothing else.
post #10 of 19
9/13/06 at 8:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by zenenlightened
I was asking my son what he wanted and he said he only wants games and puzzles and nothing else.
Mine said he wanted a green dress, and a pair of pink leather shoes we saw in Target yesterday.

I'm still gonna get him the atlas.
post #11 of 19
9/13/06 at 8:51am
Ds would LOVE all of those. He knows the planets and is now interested in stars.
post #12 of 19
9/13/06 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by eilonwy
Mine said he wanted a green dress, and a pair of pink leather shoes we saw in Target yesterday.

I'm still gonna get him the atlas.


That's great! When M was turning three, the only items on her wish list were a toolbox and firetruck!
post #13 of 19
9/13/06 at 2:14pm
My ds loves dresses and sparkly 'girly' things.
post #14 of 19
9/13/06 at 2:38pm
It's funny, Bean doesn't like dresses as a rule, but he's completely stuck on having a green one like Princess Fiona, for some reason.
post #15 of 19
9/13/06 at 2:47pm
Hey, getting gifts is hard. We have the planetarium and it doesn't work so well on our ceilings fwiw, but ours our spackled with dimples all over them. I don't think it would work to well if your ceilings are high either. It needs to be in a small room. Our DD is 5 and got this last year and loves it still:
http://shopping.discovery.com/stores...atalogId=10000

At this point she uses it more as a nightlight - night sounds as she listens to the cd it comes with that talks about the planets (ahem, outdated pluto) after we read to her.

If your child is into stars/space/solar system etc. I would highly recomend a decent pair of binoculars that they can hold (you can get them at places that sell telescopes). DD loves to use them to look at the sky when there isn't enough time to get out the telescope (and in conjunction with the telescope, which is also another good gift idea).

We're switching things up this year and are going to ask that for her birthday in March family pitch in together to send her to chess day camp for a week which is something she really wants to do.

Some great 1000 science and nature experiment books are great too. Our DD loves anything craft oriented (shrinky dinks and little wooden shapes from the craft stores she paints and we make into magnets for family) etc.. She seems to enjoy them more if we can make some functional use out them.

Oh, she also loved the window paint set family gave her and all our windows are now decorated.

Other then that, play food, doll houses and wooden trains pretty much consitute the toys she plays with.
post #16 of 19
9/13/06 at 2:54pm
That's good to know about the planetarium. My ceilings are very high.
post #17 of 19
10/9/06 at 11:17pm
Bumping this to share a website that I found:
http://www.tedcotoys.com/

We have the Ein-O molecule kit. I'm ordering some of their "Bio-Signs" human anatomy models: the eye, the torso and the heart. Ds1 wants some anatomy models but he wants to be able to play with them too. The models I found online (like those in a doctor's office) were too expensive and delicate to be played with. The Tedco stuff looks like the toy version of that. It would be what he wants, with lots of detail, but also be durable enough to be played with (i.e. found in bits all over the house).

I just wanted to share this with the parents of any little scientists.
post #18 of 19
11/29/06 at 9:16pm
Thread Starter 
Ok - my godfather is asking me for a list and I've got some suggestions from here. Any more toys you all could add to this list? :
post #19 of 19
12/2/06 at 10:02am
Between this thread and the other gift thread, I have so many new ideas! Too bad I am done shopping already

When DS was 4, I spent hours putting those glow in the dark stars on his ceiling in the right direction (used a compass) and order for the autumn sky. What a PITA that was! But it looks cool

Here's another link if anyone would like it. My kids LOVE this catalouge; mindware. While I am not ordering anything for Christmas for them from it, their birthdays are in the late winter so I will order some things then. They always get lots of small things for Christmas and one or two big things for birthdays.

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