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Please tell me what toys your...

1K views 39 replies 22 participants last post by  mags 
#1 ·
seven year old boy play with or your almost four year old play with?

I would really like them to have wooden toys but they have shown NO interest in the past.

My seven year old wants transformers, star wars, playmobile (I don't mind that so much), and now video games. This all has been a product of seeing and hearing what the other kids play with in his class. He has felt a bit leftout, as he has owned mostly animals, playmobile, books, and art stuff up till now.

My three year old want what my seven year old wants. (Other then an interest in Robots)

So please share what are your kids playing with?
 
#2 ·
Our 7 year old has pretty much quit playing with trucks and other manipulative kinds of toys. He'll play outside with the other kids, he'll ride his bike, he'll play board games, but that's about it. He seems to need more goal oriented play than just pretend play. So, he likes "projects" more than toys.

As a kid who was left out quite a bit because my parents didn't ever buy the cool stuff, I'd be OK with a FEW star wars/transformers stuff, especially if he doesn't watch the TV show. It's a good time to talk about peer pressure, consumerism, and the like.

Our 4 yo's play interests revolve around a couple of themes (family, school). She can make a family out of anything, from real dolls to blocks! (It was kind of cute actually, the half circle blocks were the babies, and their cribs were the arches that they nested into!) She also is very active an into dance, bike riding and just plain old jumping off of things.
 
#3 ·
My son plays with his 8 yr. old cousin everyday. When they're not outside, they like to play with building type things: legos, megablocks, wooden blocks etc. They also love to role play with costumes like knights and superheroes, but there's usually alot of sword-play involved.


Lately we've doing more "projecty" type activites like making a working volcano (hours of fun) and painting sun catchers, etc. Yesterday they made paper flowers for their mothers.
 
#4 ·
My almost 7 yo ds likes legos, transformers, bionicles, anything that shoots, remote control toys, computer games. He liked the dino dig things for a while (excavate bones and put them together). He likes bike riding (to someplace, not just up and down the street). Science kits. Gadgets like spy gear.

The wood train tracks still come out occasionally. It helps to get new pieces from time to time. Ds would like tracks with movable switches and a r/c engine.

Plastic marble run got a lot of use from 4-6. The wood ones are more frustrating, get knocked apart more easily and are more finicky to put together.

At age 4-6, I think my ds would have enjoyed the Woody Click toys, especially the vehicles. They are kinda a cross between legos and brio, vehicle sets in different themes (fire, construction, etc) but they are neat in that you can put the pieces together in a variety of ways.
 
#5 ·
Mine is 5.5, so right between your kids' ages, but he likes hot wheels cars with those plastic setup ramps you can get, anything trains (wooden Thomas, Geotraks, electric trains that he does with daddy, Duplo Thomas...he makes some really awesome train layouts!), LOVES building with Legos (another thing he loves to do with daddy), puzzles, books, art supplies, and playdoh. Outside he likes his big wheel, 2 wheel bike with training wheels, sandbox, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, backyard climber and balls.
 
#6 ·
Legos. Legos. Legos.



My 7 y/o loves his legos. He will build and imagine for hours. He also likes Playmobil especially when playing with his sister. He also likes to ride his scooter outside, has started wittling (sp?) and draws a lot. He likes to put things together, play creatively and reads for down time.
 
#7 ·
It is so good to hear from everyone. How could I forget legos, they both love those.

Okay, so I guess it's not just my kids who aren't into the wooden toys.

I have this beautiful image of a playroom filled with all these amazing wooded toys. This is what I want for them but it is not what they want so, I guess I'll have to get my own playroom one day.

jillmamma- Do you know where you can get one of those plastic ramp things?
 
#10 ·
DD will be 4 in August. I asked her to make out a birthday list as she comes up with ideas. So far she has:

A blue Brio engine with a face
Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars (she got these last year and remembers how much fun it was to release the butterflies when they hatched)
Big Brain Academy for Wii
 
#11 ·
Our 4.5yo ds has always loved real things. He plays with toys but likes kitchen tools, pots and pans, electrical cables and fans, fabric, pillows, wood working tools...you get the picture. He loves trucks and cars. He's recently taken up a slight interest in balls because his 22mo sister has interest in them. He likes Lincoln logs and children's tools.
 
#12 ·
My 4 yr old loves his magna doodle. He loves to catch bugs and put them in his little bug aquariam. He plays with sticks and cardboard boxes. I has a bunch of snakes, rubber and fabric that he plays pretend with. He loves to go outside. He usually brings me white rocks (he calls beautiful crystals). He loves anything nature.
 
#13 ·
Your boys sound pretty normal! Despite surrounding them with natural wood toys and cooperative games, our 2 older boys still get competitive and "race" to do things first, etc.
They like building Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego buildings, my 5.5yo spends HOURS building robots out of his Bionicles that his cousin handed down to him--he really builds some incredibly intricate stuff.
And he is obsessed with games: card games, board games, Pokemon games, games he makes himself even.
The 4yo still loves playing with Brio trains. And blocks.
And together they'll play for a long time with their Playmobil sets, especially the flower shop and bunkbed sets. And they'll play soccer or baseball outside together.
They still enjoy Playdough too.
But they also LOVE playing video games with Dada each evening...Wii or GameCube...they like Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, any of the Sonic games, and the Wii Sports games. Even the youngest tries to play the sports games
.
 
#15 ·
POKEMON. they both collect the figures more than the cards; i think my 5yo dd enjoys it even more than my 8yo ds at this point. they trade with each other, and with their friends.

video games, that's a given. they each have their own DS, tho my dd wants her brother to "help" beat all her games--like my little ponies and such
they also play xbox together.

other than that, my son has this collection of xevoz--they're like bionicles only cooler, with more parts
he hates to let his sister near them, cause there are so many little pieces.

they do still play dress up, knights and wizards type stuff, but i think they'd be embarrassed to admit it
they've been homeschooled up to this point, ftr
 
#16 ·
I am really not crazy about some of the stuff my 7 year old ds plays with but that is all part of my on-going struggle between what I want him to like and trying to respect his likes and dislikes. He did like Transformers for a while and I let him have stuff like the action figures but not the huge blaster-gun type toys or to see the movie or earlier movie. Right now the Transformers have faded a good deal, as he is now more into building things from stuff around the house such as cardboard boxes and wire etc.--which is great but I'm not happy when he uses a colander and so forth. He likes board games, his skateboard, and still does collect Yugi-oh cards though he doesn't know how to play the game (who does, I'd like to know, it's incredibly complicated). He still plays with Legos and likes to make the various Lego-type toys that you put together like the Bionicles and Exoenforcers. He also likes the Tech-Deck toys, which are small action magnetic figures that go with miniature skateboards. Though I am not crazy about all the skateboard stuff that fascinates my son (he likes to watch Youtube videos that have horrible music) the Tech-Deck toys I like because he spends hours making little ramps for them out of cardboard and so on. He is also very much into drawing and so fills books and staples together paper to make comics.

As for video games, he has a DS and a few games but we are keeping a tight rein on which games. I think there are several with questionable content being marketed to too young an audience right now. He goes through phases with the ds--sometimes plays it a lot, sometimes it sits for a couple of weeks without being played.
 
#17 ·
Do any of your kids have the star wars lego game? DS7 keeps asking for this.

Is it very violent? (Will I get kicked off of MDC, for asking such a thing?


He is really into swords and good guy bad guy, in play. Interesting since in real life he is one of the most sensitive children I know.

If he were an only child maybe I would be a bit more okay with all this, (maybe) but since he has a little brother it means he is being exposed to things I never would of wanted an almost 4 year old exposed too.

But I guess that is the way of the 2nd child...
 
#18 ·
My boys are 7 and 4. They like to play Legos, computer games, outside in the sandbox, swingset, or riding their bikes. They like to build things with blocks, pretend fight, go swimming, draw, and watch tv. My 4yr. old wants to do everything my 7yr. old does too.

We have the Lego Starwars game for the PC. I didn't think it was violent at all. But then again, we're not really strict about things like that.
 
#19 ·
I am dreading when my 4.5 yr old starts preschool and that he will totally shift in the toy dept. Right now he and my almost 3 yr old are into... anything with wheels, legos, k'nex, trains (we have hundreds of trains), planes, cars, etc.. My 4 yr old also likes his storyreader, leap pad and leapster. Both kids are also really into nature stuff, bugs (they love finding bugs and putting them in observation cups), tents, puzzles, board games and books. I get a feeling that after they start school that they will want to have toys like what the other kids have. I can't say that I blame them. I was one of those kids whose parents NEVER bought any of the, "in" toys, and like another poster said, it can feel isolating when you are the only child who doesn't have a certain toy. However, at the same time I try my best to get my kids toys that allow open ended play. I don't have issues with buying them action figures, b/c really it's like pretend play, but just not wooden toys. However, when they get older and want to do video games I do worry about that, b/c every teenage boy I know has always been OBSESSED with video games, including my DH (who still likes them) and my brothers (who also still like them).
 
#20 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mags View Post
I am dreading when my 4.5 yr old starts preschool and that he will totally shift in the toy dept. Right now he and my almost 3 yr old are into... anything with wheels, legos, k'nex, trains (we have hundreds of trains), planes, cars, etc.. My 4 yr old also likes his storyreader, leap pad and leapster. Both kids are also really into nature stuff, bugs (they love finding bugs and putting them in observation cups), tents, puzzles, board games and books. I get a feeling that after they start school that they will want to have toys like what the other kids have. I can't say that I blame them. I was one of those kids whose parents NEVER bought any of the, "in" toys, and like another poster said, it can feel isolating when you are the only child who doesn't have a certain toy. However, at the same time I try my best to get my kids toys that allow open ended play. I don't have issues with buying them action figures, b/c really it's like pretend play, but just not wooden toys. However, when they get older and want to do video games I do worry about that, b/c every teenage boy I know has always been OBSESSED with video games, including my DH (who still likes them) and my brothers (who also still like them).

See I am worried he will be obssessed too. On the other hand, he is having a hard time relating to the other kids who have no idea what playmobile and endagered species are. They bring their portable players to school and ds7 comes home drooling. I am not however getting him one of those. Maybe the game though.
 
#21 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahmae1 View Post
My boys are 7 and 4. They like to play Legos, computer games, outside in the sandbox, swingset, or riding their bikes. They like to build things with blocks, pretend fight, go swimming, draw, and watch tv. My 4yr. old wants to do everything my 7yr. old does too.

We have the Lego Starwars game for the PC. I didn't think it was violent at all. But then again, we're not really strict about things like that.
Thanks, that's good to know.
 
#22 ·
My 4yo has only a passing interest in toys.

He likes: carboard boxes, toilet- and paper-towel rolls, sticks, string, kids scissors, tape... you get the picture. He likes to take things apart.

In our case, ds' attendance at preschool has not made him want anything, toy-wise.
 
#23 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Blooming View Post
See I am worried he will be obssessed too. On the other hand, he is having a hard time relating to the other kids who have no idea what playmobile and endagered species are. They bring their portable players to school and ds7 comes home drooling. I am not however getting him one of those. Maybe the game though.
Do you want to hear something sad? When my nephew was about 8 yrs old, my sil and bil got him one of those handheld video game units. Sil didn't seem to happy about it. She said that they got it, b/c basically ALL of the other kids on the school bus had one and her son was the only one who didn't. So, I can totally see what type of situation your son is coming from. I remember my jaw just dropping when my sil told me that (this was even before I had my own kids). I guess that kids don't goof off as much on the school bus anymore, b/c they are all too busy playing with their videogames...
 
#24 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mags View Post
Do you want to hear something sad? When my nephew was about 8 yrs old, my sil and bil got him one of those handheld video game units. Sil didn't seem to happy about it. She said that they got it, b/c basically ALL of the other kids on the school bus had one and her son was the only one who didn't. So, I can totally see what type of situation your son is coming from. I remember my jaw just dropping when my sil told me that (this was even before I had my own kids). I guess that kids don't goof off as much on the school bus anymore, b/c they are all too busy playing with their videogames...
That is sad, it gives me a picture of all these zombied out kids riding the bus. And then there are those who just can't afford it. Those systems are $200! There is no way I'm sending my kiddo to school with one. I mean I lose things still, it would be very easy for him to lose the thing.
 
#25 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Blooming View Post
That is sad, it gives me a picture of all these zombied out kids riding the bus. And then there are those who just can't afford it. Those systems are $200! There is no way I'm sending my kiddo to school with one. I mean I lose things still, it would be very easy for him to lose the thing.
I know. Have you seen "Wall-E" yet? It reminds of the humans in that movie, all zombied out. I agree, I could easily see kids losing their game unit or getting it stolen. When I was a kid (man, I sound like my parents), I never had a toy that expensive and even if I would have, my parents would most certainly have not let me take it to school with me. I mean, the fanciest toy I had was a speak n spell! However, I guess times have changed. Plus, it makes it just so much harder for kids who don't have the $ for a unit to fit in. I know that it stinks to say that, but it's the truth when it comes to school. Everyone wants what all the other kids have and if you don't have one it can be isolating.
 
#26 ·
This is my first post but I just wanted to say that board games are a hit with my boys. They will play chess and checkers all day! They also have a game called crossbows and catapults which they love and never stop playing. By the way, they are 4! Oh and computer games.
 
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