Another xmas pressie question

[sarahponari1]

Seeing someone else posting asking about xmas pressies has gave me the idea to ask you all about an idea for my dd. She is almost 3 and a half (she will be by the time its xmas), she loves Thomas the tank engine, last year we brought her the tracks and trains and loads of other thomas things, this year though i am wanting to get her something abit more educational, she knows all her colours(they were the 1st words she ever learned and everything even now is the colour and then whatever it is ie red car, blue buggy etcetc) and she can count up to 10 as she has learnt that from her sister, so anything to build up after the basics would be great for her (although she can count up to 10 she doesnt recognise any of the numbers and cant count things up to 10 just say the words). So i wondered if anyone knew of anything that either their child has had or they have heard off others that it was good and also helps on the educational side of things too, as i want to help her to learn too and dont want to leave all of that for the nursery and school to do. Although she loves thomas i would get her something that is not thomas i just thought she would be more likely to want to play with it if it is thomas. Hope someone can give me some ideas

[JsMum]

Hi, I think at three J was interested in having a kitchen, even though its for girls, he loved it, he had the country cottage, and it came with fridge, and microwave, the good thing about the kitchen is that it helped him to think about breakfast, dinner, Tea, Supper, it introduced foods to him, like fruit, vegetables, and then it gave him the utensils he uses, knife, folk, spoon, plate, bowl, that kind of stuff, we use to transform the kitchen often into a shop too, so counting and pretending to be a shop assistant. he loved it, often copying me, and especially his little friend, or older children, never under estimate ages, a lot of the nine-eleven year old loved the kitchen.

 

Puppet shows are good, you can get stories like goldilocks and the three bears, three little pigs, or make up your own.

 

Dressing up, handbags, necklaces, play jewlery, ELC Money, hats, gloves, shoes, boots.

 

Dolls houses, Farms, Castles, they do some princess Castles now.

 

Art and craft, so easal, paints, paper, sisors, glue, glitter, tissue paper.

 

Music instruments, guitar, piano, tamberine, rain maker, Maracons, triangle, kareoke machine.

 

When J was three he had CD ROMS that were fun but educational, Jump ahead 2000 are good.

 

Science is fun, just doing simple experiments, there may be some science kits out there made for 3 plus obvously under supervision.

 

Active sport, both join a class to do together, judo, swimming, dance even but do it together.

 

Nature, bug boxes, ant houses, bug observation kits.

 

Planting flowers and plants, growing from a seed, again there is some good plant growing kits that come with all the utensils and pots, even cute little gloves and seeds.

 

I have learnt that if J is having fun then he is learning, it doesnt have to be educationally orintated.

 

JsMum

[tjw]

hi, i got my ds the vtect console when he was 3yrs old it is a bit like a game console but the cartrigdes you get for them are fun and educational, you can get tomas the tank on it as well as dora and loads more, i would defo recommend this, my ds is now 6 so has upgradered to xbox, but he did have hrs of fun on it.

cheers

theresa

[bikemad]

My ds had a kitchen when he was 3 for xmas he still loves it now n he is 9 bless. Also he had a toy bbq wich he still has.

[sarahponari1]

thanks for all your ideas, we already have a kitchen that is also a shop as that is what we got my older daughter when she was 3 (which she still loves) but younger 1 is not interested in it she just opens and closes the doors on it and pops the toaster up and down and that. I was thinking of some sort of console sort of thing but then i thought although she is almost 3 and a half she is at least 1 year behind developmentally so would probably find it too hard to work out how to play it(unless i can find one aimed at younger children). But there are plenty of ideas for me to think about now, my older daughter is so easy to buy for as she always knows what she wants (even though she is only 6 and a half) she goes through catalogues and all sorts saying i want this and this and this lol. But my younger daughter doesnt do that and i dont really no what to get for her which is why i thought i would ask on here as last year, and also for her birthday we brought her loads of thomas things and loads of cars which she loves but she doesnt need any more as they are all over the house as it is lol

[Nic m]

Sarah, hi

 

my daughter at this age loved dressing up and her dolls (rosie and jim) her tea set, her building blocks and painting and colouring. We have just got the old photos out recently and it was nice to look back. books were a big favourite too. tell the time ones, bath ones nice rhyming ones. If she plays with her toaster and things perhaps ones of the posting box things with the shape sorter? When i worked in nurseries there was a great education toy that was wooden and had lots of doors to open, with different textures and spinny things on it. the kids loved it.

 

Hope you find something

 

N x

[Sooze2]

One of the best things I bought mine were music toys from ELC etc. They had toy trombones, drums, rainmakers, bells that wrap around their ankles, marakas etc etc lots of different things, and they all had a great time playing music man and generally making a huge ammount of noise with them. Very very noisy and great fun........... if you can cope with the mayhem they cause. Our local market now sells lots of different traditional instraments quite cheeply now too some of which make the most mesmirising noises. All kids love to make a noise eh!

 

I bought toy food and tea set for DS when he was 2 and he will still play with those now he is 9, he loved with a passion the wooden dolls house (still does) but the girls aren't interested!

 

Oh have you got any little people toys? Some of those sets have teaching sections. There are really good as are the ELC Happy Land sets, great for teaching pretend play which me and his consultant have realised was just that - I taught him to pretend play because he still plays with these toys in exactly the same way as he did when he was 2 when I was sitting with him and showing him how to play with them! Bless.

 

Rather than buying a console for her you could go on the CBBies website and places like that and help her do some of the games, there are lots of then out there. Or you could buy some cheep PC games for her to use. I say that because she may not take to a console yet and you may as well use the pc since you already have it.

 

Have fun, I love choosing toys for my kids.

Edited October 2, 2008 by Sooze2