What do your 7-8 year old girls play with/what are they into?

[Plinketyplonks]

Trying to reduce screen time this summer. My 7 year old used to play loads in her room making tea parties/sleepovers with play food/kitchen stuff for her soft toys. She hasn’t played like that for a while. She has Sylvanian families but no interest and was given Barbie’s as birthday presents but no interest at all. We do marble run and snap circuits with her.

She likes arts and crafts and big hits the past six months were a potions kit and a lip balm kit but the latter needed supervision. We’ve also done a lot of tie dye but again needs supervision.

Just wondering if I’m missing any great toys for this age?

Can she ride a bike? If so is there somewhere safe she can ride at the front or back of the house where you can keep an eye on her? Do you have a trampoline? Bracelet making kits? Hama needs? You can also get aqua beads so she doesn't need you to iron the design after but I never found them as good.

DD likes the little models you can get in Hobbycraft to make animals - you can collect them. And maybe more grown-up crafting stuff (we've got water colours and watercolour paper that gets a lot of use; I got her a few books about things like simple origami or how-to-draw, and they get quite a bit of use).

Give her no option of screen time. It’s good for kids to be ‘bored’.
A lot of the time you don’t need specific toys to play. It’s down to imagination and they find their own things to play with/different uses. But you might find she goes back to what she already has.
It may be difficult at first with ‘I’m bored!’ Mentioned!
Saying that den making kits are always good, we’ve had multiple uses of dens and the kids have used paper to decorate the home, put pretend windows with window boxes on the outside. Pictures on the inside etc.

Good idea about Hobbycraft animal kits. We already restrict screen time a lot. It’s not that she’s addicyed to screens, more she seems to have aged out of toys she played with at 5-6. My older one is autistic and never played with anything in his life so I’m not good with stuff for this age! We have an amazing den kit and it does get used, also a lot of beads and elastic, trampoline scooter and bike. I guess I miss that deep imaginary play she did with her toy kitchen and play food. A lot of her friends have been deep into Barbies but no interest here.

DD just 8. She's an early riser and I'm trying to limit TV first thing so I've been doing a tray with a few bits of an activity ready for her on her desk.

Foil art has gone down a storm, and we've brought back the kinetic sand.

Nice markers and a how to draw book, water colour pens, play doh and silicone cup cake cases with just a few tools, might do air dry clay but think she might need help, hoping she won't need help for aqua beads.

Lego kits have always been a big hit in our house.

My 8 year old is really into drawing and loves poska pen style pens.

The tablet isn't necessarily a bad thing, it depends how she uses it, my daughter loves singing and dancing but she also likes watching Disney films, Moana, lilo and Stitch etc. she watches the film but she then comes downstairs and acts parts of it out. She's taught herself a dance from Milo and Stitch and is acting out the scene the dance is in at the moment. She also watches educational stuff. She's 11 but she has some slight learning difficulties

My dd loved slime kits. Lots of time spent making different colours and consistency…

Poska pens were a big hit with my dd too.

Loom bands. Roller skates.

Mine isn't into Barbie either, just got rid of a load of it.

Much prefers lego, drawing, writing. Also enjoys making "music" with a keyboard and a guitar (headphones recommended for the adult here!) In terms of story making play, mine still does that with teddies/lego figures/playmobil but then has a younger sibling.

Main thing by far is paper, notebooks off all shapes and sizes, post it notes and all kinds of pens and pencils being available in the living room. She has 2 drawers in the tv unit full of this stuff. 90% of the time all other toys ignored and she’s writing, drawing, making tickets for pretend things. She now writes song lyrics and then comes and sings them to us.

She is 7 and still doesn’t really play in her room or in the spare room where she has a massive dolls house and dolls house stuff that’s never used. Sylvanians ignored and already got rid of.

Actual things she will play with are hamma beads, air drying clay. Baby dolls a bit. Making schools for teddies and teaching teddies. Phonics flash cards good investment not for her but she’s enjoyed teaching the teddies. I am expecting them to pass their phonics screening at Teddy school.

Mine loved the Klutz kits at that age.

Magic mixies. Furby. Any little live pet. Basically cute magical animals

The little light up axolotol has gone down well. She’s made it a tank from tupperwear and filled it with stones and leaves from the garden

Oh yes she adores new notebooks, pens and writing stories. She’s v impulsive though and loses interest quite quickly so we have lots of half written stories lying around that we are not allowed to throw away! I adored Sylvanian families as a kid so a little disappointed she doesn’t like to play with them!

Thanks for the suggestions, I will make a list and do some research!

What about this?

How about ask her what her friends play with that she likes?

The "sensitive content" picture on my post is a picture of a water toy/model they can make. Please don't think it's something bad.

We have a climbing frame with monkey bars and my 7 year old spends a lot of time swinging back and forth. I’m considering extending the monkey bars because she uses them so much.

Mine has just been allowed Minecraft and it’s been terrible for her. She wants to spend all her time on it so we are in the same boat having to be strict about screen time. She wasn’t fussed about screens before Minecraft came on the scene.

Mine just got some poska pens recently and these have been a big hit. She also loves her little karaoke machine which is just a mini speaker and a couple of mics. It’s very noisy and leaves me thinking screen time isn’t all bad 😂

My 7 yr old loves her bike, scooter, colouring, craft, slime, activity books, puzzles x

Mine is focussed on brownies badges

' needs supervision' ...
That's the point - the things they most enjoy do (need supervision) ...and interaction ...