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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Original poster

Buildery presents for nearly 3 year old

15 replies

BuilderMammy · 04/07/2014 13:07

DS is obsessed with Bob the Builder and Handy Manny. He calls himself 'DS the Builder', DH and I are BuilderDaddy and BuilderMammy, he carries tools around constantly and generally loves anything builder related.

He has loads of toy tools, a toolbelt, a hardhat, toys of all Bob's machines, and we've a couple of Manny's tools for his stocking. He has Bob books.

What else is out there for tiny builders? The only thing I can think of is a toolbench but we don't really have room for something that big at this stage, the house is full. Maybe I should buy him the wherewithall to build us an extension

OP posts:
FreeButtonBee · 04/07/2014 13:16

there was an old thread once about buying proper plumbing supplies for kids to build with. Might be good fun?

What about a marble run? Meccano? You can get super big duplo which look quite like real bricks (maybe try Ebay)

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 04/07/2014 13:19

Not a BtB type of toy but what about those dinosaurs in plaster that you chip away at?

I'm not sure what the age guide is but I'd advice you to cover everything the table in a plastic cover+newspaper so you'd probably supervise him.

My DS used to love these (he was obsessed with dinosaurs though) you use a wooden 'chisel' to pick away, the plaster is quite soft.
Then you see the dinosaur emerge Grin

IIRC Hawkins Bazaar had them, but I'm sure they're on-line

gingysmummy · 04/07/2014 15:11

My son is the same when he was that age I got him a playmobile set it had diggers etc and he had hours of fun with it. I'm sure I bought it of eBay . Also things like free tool catalogues will prob give him hours of fun looking through it all

AugustRose · 04/07/2014 15:20

Hi
My son was 3 in Feb and we bought this - younger kids meccano type

www.elc.co.uk/Build-It-Construction-Starter-Set/115621,default,pd.html#q=build%20it

for christmas - although we did get it half price as I think 35 is expensive. The plus side is that the pieces are big and chunky and he worked out how to put bits together by himself quite quickly. It makes about 5/6 different things but they can make their own things and you can get different kids that all fit together.

It was a good buy.

BertieBotts · 04/07/2014 15:23

Does he have a train set, Brio etc? There's a challenge in building a track which meets up with itself and then you've got the train part too for different kind of play.

TinkerbellTrains · 05/07/2014 00:17

You can get miniatures of proper tools for kids. Can you set him up a workbench outside in the garden, collect off cuts of wood, nails etc.

A lot of the kindys here have them and the kids can hammer, screw, saw to their hearts content (under supervision of course) it's my dc's favourite thing.

Maybe a sandpit if he hasn't already got one? He can use his diggers and build things in it.

Here I've seen wooden kids toolbenches that when completed can be used as a chair for the child, maybe you have room for that? I'm sure you'd be able to get it in the uk.

Or some Real Bricks to build with. You'd probably have to help but we love them.

FishWithABicycle · 05/07/2014 00:39

Builder-themed Playdoh?

Groovester · 05/07/2014 00:41

My fil set my son up with a cardboard box and golf tees to "hammer" in.

Hours of fun!!!

He also has a couple of BtB character playsets. Home Bargains were selling them last Christmas as well as some of the vehicles separately.

Big Lego?

I'm sure the ELC have a Bosch toy tool bench in their current sale too.

DVDs of the cartoons?

EvieAndRosesMum · 06/07/2014 21:51

You can get a moon sand builders set he might like?

GermyElephant · 06/07/2014 21:55

DS has one of these that he loves : www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00871EHBC?pc_redir=1404439775&robot_redir=1

enderwoman · 07/08/2014 22:18

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0017XHRJG?pc_redir=1407149207&robot_redir=1

Have you considered real tools like a spirit level, torch, Allen keys.

Original poster
BuilderMammy · 15/08/2014 08:44

Thanks for the suggestions. We got him this in the end - the toy kitchen may have to go to make room for it but they never play with it anyway (even though they love toy kitchens in other people's houses!).

OP posts:
daisydalrymple · 19/08/2014 11:27

Ds was also obsessed with bob at that age. We got him a bob tent (the fold away sort that fitted behind wardrobe when flat) and his own gorilla tub just like dh has, which we filled with lego duplo.

attheendoftheday · 19/08/2014 20:11

Ikea have a set of sa

attheendoftheday · 19/08/2014 20:16

Ikea have a set of sand toys that are a brick building set, there's a mould for bricks and a couple of plastic tools to cement them together. Hours of play this summer for my 3 yo (although she prefers wood blocks as bricks and to use wet sand as cement with the tools).

Picture here on US amazon, but definitely available in my local ikea branch.

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