christmas presents!

[snowboarder]

So what's everyone getting for their children this year? And what to get for the boys who have seem to have so much?!?

I'm SO struggling with my two (aged 2.5 and 4.5). The eldest isn't great at playing on his own and if he isn't out and about on his bike/scooter just loves tv and playing on my phone - despite a playroom full of amazing toys - I told him in an angry moment last week that father christmas wasn't interested in buying toys for boys who don't play with the ones they already have!! Wondering about some lego - maybe the castle? We do quite like dragons and knights...And the youngest would be happy with anything - loves playing made up games on his own - possibly a duplo railway?

Also thinking about a car garage? We have an ancient fisher price one but it's one of the few 'staple' toys they don't have - could get them one to share? Any views on specific ones?

I find it hard having 2 boys quite close in age - they pretty much share all their toys....

[Elfy]

I'll be watching this with interest as my boy (who's 6 in January) never plays with his toys on his own. He's massively into screens too, but I don't want to go down the route of getting a Wii or Nintendo yet. I'm sure there's no going back once that's done.

Last year we got him lego, and ended up making most of it ourselves. I put the rest away for when he's older. He's showing a tiny bit of interest now...but would definitely prefer to play on the Ipad if he could! I've definitely got a bit frustrated with him in the past - he's got loads of toys but never plays with them. He'll play with other kids happily though.

He's requested a remote controlled aeroplane. Do such things even exist?

Anyway - good luck! Sorry I couldn't offer any good ideas.

[buggie]

I've seen a few good ideas via The Slow Toy Awards - http://slowtoymovement.com

Really like the ethos behind the awards, annoyingly my PIL are getting bugglet the doll from last years top 10 & am still bit stuck xmyself what to get her this year!

[snowboarder]

have to say much as they are totally lovely, my boys must be complete thugs as loads of the wooden toys we've bought them (in particular a cleaning trolley that my youngest LOVED from GLTC) have broken...so these days I'm mostly for stong basic plastic lego/playmobile....

[snowboarder]

* apart from brio railway, actually, which we have loads of and it's great (but big jigs version certainly NOT great)..

[mima08]

hmmmm - I have only one, but thought about getting a game we can play together, like the fishing game...

[buggie]

...hat's wrong with the bigjigs stuff snowboarder??

Have got a small bigjigs railway which we've not had problems with & was considering getting more (but wondering now!)

[Polly D]

How about walkie talkies? One goes up the other end of the garden, other at the top of the house, have silly conversations with each other? A family we met camping this year had some and they were an absolute hit. Thinking of getting some for my eldest this Xmas but as you know his little bro too little still but could be good for yours?

[snowboarder]

Well we've not got much big jigs stuff as started off with some inherited brio (some of it from my childhood so 30+ years old!), but the BJ crane we had has completely fallen apart and a magnetic car transporter train lost its magnets. It doesn't match brio for quality IMO (but that's indicated in price I think!)...but then we do have two rough little boys :-)

[snowboarder]

Walkie Talkies sound fun! I can just imagine the conversations though....

[intexasatthe moment]

My son was very much like those described and I sympathise .

yes remote control areoplanes /helicopters exist but they are really challenging to use . Dont be fooled by instore demos .

Way too complicated for little ones .

Maybe a remote control car for the park - but again these can be complicated and frustrating for little ones .

Sorry not to offer more help .

[bumpy]

What about family style games?

Board games a la hoses and ladders

Hungry Hippos

Pirate pop up game

[intexasatthe moment]

aah but I imagine thet we're hoping that by 4.5 there might be a little playing with toys with limited adult interaction ..

any science type stuff here http://www.sciencemuseumshop.co.uk/ /

science/horrible histories cartoon stuff ?

[snowboarder]

bumpy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> What about family style games?

>

> Board games a la hoses and ladders

> Hungry Hippos

> Pirate pop up game

Got 'em! Yep good for a bit...:-)

[canela]

I am also watching this thread with interest....ideas for boys around 7 please! again - to support playing alone would be great. He does love board games but those can't be played alone....

[Gooders79]

Mine are much younger and so really a bit out of my depth but have bought these for friends/family before...

http://www.calafant.de/

Brio and hot wheels appear to be consistent features in the houses we visit. Really like the slowtoymovement bits too..

[catgirl]

I wasn't sure from your post if you already have Lego but if not I would definitely get some. We have quite a lot and my 5 year old son spends a lot of time on his own and with friends playing with it. The little kits are good and he likes following the picture instructions to put it together but mostly he uses the general bricks and bits to make crazy buildings and random stuff.

My 2 year old really likes sticklebricks at the moment and the 5 year old wouldn't get them out on his own but enjoys playing with it when she's got them out.

They also both like the wooden food/ cooking stuff and pretending to be in a cafe etc.

[VeronicaSawyer]

I'd definitely recommend Brio, or (as we did) a basic set from ikea or tesco which the grandparents added to with more expensive Brio bits and pieces. My daughter is nine now, but still occasionally plays with the set we gave her for her second birthday.

[Knomester]

If you're considering a toy garage, my 3.2yo has this one which is robust and gets lots of use - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Viga-3-Tier-Parking-Helipad-59690/dp/B005FO7RA2 - also reasonably priced compared to some.

We've also over time added some of the Melissa & Doug wooden cars / trucks which are also very robust, like these - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Melissa-Doug-14096-Car-Transporter/dp/B004KPKWKY and http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-4550-Low-Loader/dp/B004YEFPVW

What about playmobil - do your boys have much of that? My son just has a few figures at the moment - he plays with his 2 skateboarders mostly, although the other figures also come into play with his farm animals when he builds a farm out of blocks and sometimes with the train track. We saw a fire engine which we thought looked quite good and might suggest to Grandma who has asked for ideas.

Other favourites currently include:

- a huge box of Duplo and a mat to stick the duplo to (no specific things to build just random blocks in lots of colours)

- wooden building blocks (plain and multicoloured)

- toy cooker (which my grandad made for me but still going strong!) with lots of pots and pans and things he has 'acquired' from my kitchen

- jigsaws (especially the large format ones)

- enough books to start a library

- Brio (like someone else, a combination of my original track and trains, plus lots of different bits and pices bought second hand or new, including Tesco track and BigJigs)

- big box of random cars, trucks and diggers

- doctor's kit

His favourite things by far though have always been 'real' things - items from around the house that he has created into a game. A roll of sellotape was one of his recent acquisitions and (although he has his own small versions) he loves getting his hands on our sweeping brush, etc. So I sometimes wonder whether they really need many toys at all...

We've just bought a secondhand Melissa & Doug castle (off the forum) for Christmas. We'll proably buy some figures and a dragon to go with it and a book or two about knights, castles, etc to go with it.

[alieh]

Same ages here Snowboarder, as you know! My strategy is that I let them ask Santa Claus for 1-2 thing/s (pre-discussions required to ensure said thing actually exists - last year was a "walking talking dinosaur", which I did manage to find in the end!). This thing can be as plastic and tacky and horrible as they like.

Then I do stockings with a mix of useful (drawing stuff, new pants, etc) and plastic tat stuff (little Lego/Playmobil figures, glowsticks, torch lights, etc.).

Then I might buy another thing that they won't care about on opening, but that I know will get used. This year I've bought superhero bedding and wall stickers for their rooms when we move to our new house. Other years this might have been a scooter or bike type toy that will get loads of use.

I think the reality is that kids who play independently with toys will play with loads of different things. My #2 is like this and plays with all the "normal" toys - lego, trains, puzzles, etc. - for ages. My #1 pretty much only does drawing on his own....otherwise lurks around trying to get someone to entertain him, asks to play on the iPad or watch something, or plays with random household products like a broom. Now that he's in school it matters less as there's much less time to fill!

We ration the iPad/screen time to just weekends mostly, but you could give in to this a bit and buy some fun educational apps and maybe one of those iPad drawing pen things if you have an iPad?

The toy garage has not been a big success for us. Neither of them really bother. Same with wooden train sets, very sadly, as I love building train tracks!

A few ideas for toys that do get played with by both:

-Fancy dress stuff

-Playmobil knights castle and pirate ship with lots of figures and animals

-Puzzles

-Loads of dinosaurs, all sizes

-Play-doh

-Arts and crafts/drawing stuff (loads of coloured paper, scissors, glue, marker pens, etc.)

[Knomester]

alieh - lots of love for playdo and cutting / sticking in our house too. I missed all the craft stuff off my post earlier! Do you ahve the playmobil knights figures? We're wondering what figures to buy to go with the seconhand castle we've bought...

[alieh]

My parents in law got the second hand Playmobil knights castle and pirate ship at some crazy garage sale in Canada and both came with loads of figures, horses, other bits and bobs. I think you can get lots of knights and other bits on eBay. Mine really enjoy having the knights with horses, and the horses all came with lots of saddle, battle, decoration-type bits that they like taking on and off.

[alieh]

Oh, forgot to say that there was a big red dragon included with the castle, which is a favourite. It is probably 15-20 cm long and had a big amulet type necklace. So I would look out on eBay for a Playmobil dragon for your castle too!

[boyohboy]

I second playdoh. Also swords and shields go down well - mine had wonderful fabric/cardboard ones which weren't too damaging and lasted for ages; they came from a mailorder catalogue that I can't the remember the name of but everyone seems to receive. The absolute best remote control car for under 8's is the Disney 'Car' Film one which moves its mouth. Easy to move and control and took an absolute bashing. A road map rug and a large selection of matchbox type cars was always a winner. Finally, the fantastic Nerf guns are always a winner and the range is huge (please don't moan at me about 'violent' guns etc. blah, blah - kids have a blast with these).

[Belle]

The trouble I find with playmobil in particular, lego a bit less so, is storing it in a way it'll be easily accessible but not get lost. we keep some of our playmobil sets in the box they came in - but then they get forgotten - but when kept out all the tiny pirate money etc just gets lost and drives me mad! (and am really not very house proud!). We have quite a good toy sorter from jojo maman bebe but think we need to upgrade to something more suited to older kids' stuff.

in fact the above issue applies to arts and crafts stuff. Thinking of turning over a chest of drawers in the kids' room to arts type materials.

sorry for tangent but interested to knwo what people's solutions are.