What toys can you recommend for a 4.5 year old?

[highfivebear]

Can anyone recommend good toys for a 4.5 year old reception aged child please?

specifically looking for:

• toys which encourage make believe play

Or

• encourage science / engineering type thing / building etc

Or

• anything which I can play with him but also he can get stuck into independently

Basically I've got my son at home after school a few days a week now which is a change from our old nursery routine and I'm trying to find things for him to do when we stay indoors other than my go-to craft / art activities. I think I could do with refreshing his toy collection at Christmas and getting him some toys suitable for "older" ages (eg 4/5/6 rather than toddler toys). He already has magnet tiles, Lego, toy model zoo animals and dinosaurs and a brio train set, but not much else!

Thanks!

My DS is a similar age and he loves kinetic sand - it’s quite messy so we got a plastic cat litter tray type thing for him to play with it in. Really good for encouraging pretend play e.g. pretending he’s a baker, and he can play with it independently.
DS also loves his big car mat. We got one with lots of different places on it I.e. farm, building site, police station etc and so he can use all his cars on it but also things like tractors, toy animals, it can also be combined with his train set to make a town.
He’s a really big fan of dressing up at the moment so would also recommend some dressing up box bits! Masks, capes and anything superhero related are played with a lot here and he will also dress his soft toys up and encourage us to dress up for pretend play.
Board games are just starting to be used more as DS is more able to follow rules and take turns patiently. Monopoly Junior in particular has been played with most nights and is quite a good pre-bedtime activity.

Marble run.