in need of toy ideas for 3yo DS!

[adon]

i'm trying hard to get christmas shopping done now, because i will be having a new babe soon. i have already bought a couple hand made wooden toys...train and plane. i think i may get the playmobil pirate ship. i think i want at least one more thing....NOT made in china of course! any suggestions??? i was considering big cardboard type building blocks...is it worht it, or would they get destroyed immediatly?? and where can i find them NOT made in china??? any suggestions for ANY toys would be very helpful! TIA!

[Still_Learning]

My 3yo DS loves the big cardboard blocks. He hasn't ruined any, but our dog has chewed a few.

[Hannahsmummy]

Do you have something like this there?
http://www.lulasapphire.com/toys/eco...s/default.aspx

They are really cool, environmentally friendly and double as an art project.

Aside from that when my daughter was 3, dress up was a big thing for her.

[Ell-Bell]

I'm trying to do all my kid-shopping locally or on Etsy. I love Etsy for handmade stuff and they have a ton of waldorf-ish dolls, toys, etc. Here is a thread about that on the Etsy forums.

I also make custom supercapes, pretty cool for a 3 year old. Discound for MDC mamas, You could easily make something like that yourself, too!

[LuckyMommaToo]

Three is a good age for games. We love Orchard from Haba:
http://www.oompa.com/baby-toys/item/...a-Orchard.html
It's made in Germany.

My favorite gift for three-year-olds is MagnaTiles:
http://learningforallages.com/MTiles.htm
Seriously, my son uses them every day. But they are pricey, and I don't know if they're MIC. I like the cardboard blocks, too, but they're too big for my house.

Does he have a scooter or push bike (like this: http://likeabikeusa.com/ )? Another good non-MIC company is TAG toys; we have the lockbox:
http://tagtoys.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=41
It's great.

Oh, what about stories on CD? Might be a good idea with the new baby on the way. DS likes Jim Weiss's Uncle Wiggly (and others by JW), The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Magic Treehouse.

Have fun shopping, and best of luck with the new babe!
-Erin

[jaam]

I'm doing a super low-budget Christmas this year, and I'm doing the story-on-cd thing too. But I'm asking for that from family members.... for them to buy the book and record themselves reading it for dd. I still have a couple books on tape that were given to me around that age by aunts, uncles and grandparents. They've become very special to me now, especially since a couple of the family members have since passed away. Another thing I'll probably do is dress-up stuff from thrift shops, and board games. There's a good thread about board games for that age with lots of ideas.

[LuckyMommaToo]

for them to buy the book and record themselves reading it for dd.

Jaam, that's a super-cool idea! I'm wondering how you do it, technologically speaking. Hmm...can you record with a mike into your computer somehow and then burn it to CD? I'll ask DH. If you have any info, please let me know!
-Erin

[jaam]

Well, I really have no idea. : My dad is going to manage the tech part of the whole thing, I'm not sure what he had in mind. I think they sell voice recorders (like the kind you'd buy for college courses) that record onto some sort of memory card, then you could probably transfer that to be playable on an mp3 player or cd player.