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Gift Ideas For My Son
- Thread starter dan-o-mac
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Playmobils were something that always fascinated me...I had a friend who was into them as well and we'd spend hours arranging our troops around castles or our cowboys around their barns etc....Somewhere there are still bins of all my Playmobils...cars, boats, policemen, cowboys, knights, swords, jewels, guns, shovels, books...everything you could dream of...granted I never had videogames as a kid so my activities were somewhat different.
If you have a yard, and if that yard has a tree, build a treehouse in it. That was the one thing I wanted my entire childhood and never had...you can get infinite fun out of a treehouse, and as they get older they can put additions onto it and help with maintenance.
I was always building stuff when I was little and I had and have a really good imagination so I had no problem finding stuff to do...though these things helped:
- Wooden blocks. Really big and small. Best. Things. Ever.
- Playmobils..hours of fun.
- Legos....hours and hours of building pirate ships and wrecking them on the rocks...then having aliens land on top of them and chase them in dune buggies...
- Matchbox Cars. I don't know if these are still cool, but I had a big canvas sack of them (100+) and my friends and I would conduct big police chases and offroad marathons.
- K'nex...never really got into them but I had a set and enjoyed building strange contraptions on occasion.
- Books. Obviously there are key elements to getting kids to like to read books, and reading to them is key. My parents read to me all the time, and I grew up loving to hear stories, and then, when I learned to read, I read all the time.
Two things I think are important to keep in mind:
- Just giving your kids sports equipment will not get them outside...especially if you try to force it on them. I think it's more effective to, say, get them to sign up for basketball at school (might be a couple years...I'm not sure when kids start school in your area), and then, when/if they like playing it, buy them a ball and hoop to put in the back yard and tell them their friends can come over and play.
- Just giving your kids books won't work either...you have to start them off early reading books with them, when they'll sit with you and read.
From the list above most of them are personal preference, as they're all fun to play with and have almost unlimited possbilities. Though, as long as they're not totally glued to their videogames, they'll probably be happy with pretty much anything you give 'em.
If you have a yard, and if that yard has a tree, build a treehouse in it. That was the one thing I wanted my entire childhood and never had...you can get infinite fun out of a treehouse, and as they get older they can put additions onto it and help with maintenance.
I was always building stuff when I was little and I had and have a really good imagination so I had no problem finding stuff to do...though these things helped:
- Wooden blocks. Really big and small. Best. Things. Ever.
- Playmobils..hours of fun.
- Legos....hours and hours of building pirate ships and wrecking them on the rocks...then having aliens land on top of them and chase them in dune buggies...
- Matchbox Cars. I don't know if these are still cool, but I had a big canvas sack of them (100+) and my friends and I would conduct big police chases and offroad marathons.
- K'nex...never really got into them but I had a set and enjoyed building strange contraptions on occasion.
- Books. Obviously there are key elements to getting kids to like to read books, and reading to them is key. My parents read to me all the time, and I grew up loving to hear stories, and then, when I learned to read, I read all the time.
Two things I think are important to keep in mind:
- Just giving your kids sports equipment will not get them outside...especially if you try to force it on them. I think it's more effective to, say, get them to sign up for basketball at school (might be a couple years...I'm not sure when kids start school in your area), and then, when/if they like playing it, buy them a ball and hoop to put in the back yard and tell them their friends can come over and play.
- Just giving your kids books won't work either...you have to start them off early reading books with them, when they'll sit with you and read.
From the list above most of them are personal preference, as they're all fun to play with and have almost unlimited possbilities. Though, as long as they're not totally glued to their videogames, they'll probably be happy with pretty much anything you give 'em.
Games do not have to be video. I got in my youth a 3D maze game that I had to use knobs on either side of the box in order to keep the ball from falling through a hole.
That and some penny stocks might show him the real value of a dollar.
That and some penny stocks might show him the real value of a dollar.
I like the RC car idea. I had one at that age and loved it! Its wheels were bigger than the body so it could flip over and do all kinds of cool tricks. I'd imagine that the batteries are better now, too.