Presents for a bored 5 year old

[LetsPlayBamboozled]

Over the summer DD became very bored with all her toys and stopped playing with them. She started Reception in September and it seems she is quite bright. She spends most evenings sounding words out randomly and is drawing letters in the air at bedtime! I am pleased she is enjoying school. However, she's really not gone back to her toys so I am at a loss for Christmas ideas (and a bit sad that she's moved on so quickly! sob!)

She turned 5 in October and her favourite gift was a Unicorn version of Where's Wally kind of book. She didn't put it down and seemed to enjoy the challenge. She likes making slime and drawing. She will play with figures (playmobil, LOL) but not like she used too. She enjoys the hatchimal she got and will play with the hair styling head but it doesn't last long. She also really liked the Singing Rainbow Dash we got her and sings along into the microphone.

She has never liked Lego and has ignored the two jewellery making kits she received for her birthday. So she's not really of a builder/assembler mind set.

She has a bike and a scooter already.

She keeps asking for new toys and I know it's because she is bored. What's next when they get to this stage? Anyone with a similiar personality child to steer me in the right direction? All ideas appreciated.

It sounds like she enjoys things that are a bit challenging. Take a look at BrightMinds and LearningResourcesUK. I know some people baulk at the idea of anything "educational" as a gift but I've found these sites great for ideas that are a bit different from Smyths or Argos. Wicked Uncle is also good for inspiration.

Re the craft sets, I wonder if she might be more interested if she's doing them with you as sometimes they can be a bit intimidated if they don't quite know how to do it. Or she may not be that interested in that particular type of craft set. Does she have a craft box with lots of paper, colours, felt, googlie eyes etc that she can just make stuff according to her own imagination?

Does she like puzzles? Or games, Orchard Games have some really good ones

Puzzles, jigsaws, board games- school desk, blackboard/ whiteboard??

My 5 year old is just like this, she doesn’t like toys at all. She likes the idea of them, but actually when she’s got them just isn’t interested in playing.
She’s also bright, she started school able to read fluently and now, at nearly 6, is reading Roald Dalh/Enid Blyton etc. It’s her birthday next month and I have no idea what to get her (and she has no idea what she wants!).
Mine does love craft sets and Lego, but mainly enjoys them as she gets my undivided attention while we sit and do them (she has two younger siblings). Last Christmas I got her a large Lego set (the Lego friends swimming pool) and we spent an hour every Sunday morning assembling it.
I’m going to get her a bath bomb making set and a science experiment set, some more books (as she gets through them so quickly) and Smiggle stationery as she spends most of her time writing and drawing. Then that leaves us with the dilemma of Christmas a month later!

Oh mine does love her Kiddizoom camera that she got for her 4th birthday but still plays with, and also her v-tech smart watch.

Time for an instrument and music lessons!

Oh yes, mine also has piano lessons and practices for ages!

mine got into kapla around this age and mosaic puzzles - both toys for very open-ended play that engage problem solving.

Would she like a magna doodle? I’m thinking that if she’s drawing letters in the air it might appeal? Or a blackboard/whiteboard/easel?

There’s an Our Generation school room set Awesome Academy that she might like as the setting might be more relevant now. It’s a lot of money though if you’re not sure.

What about a karaoke machine if she likes singing?

Mine were a little older when they got into microscopes and telescopes but maybe have a look at some science toys?

Might she like a karaoke machine or roller skates?

There is a range of puzzle games by Smart Games that my dc enjoy.

Mine likes her aqua beads

Sounds like my 5 yr old DS, he got lots of science type things for his recent birthday. He loves drawing so we got him a large roll of paper, lots of pens, hand writing wipe clean books, books about the body and various other things about space he likes. For Christmas I am not sure yet maybe a build your own planets type set that hangs from the wall, with glow in the dark bed set and glow in the dark stars for his ceiling

I'd take her to a big toy shop so she can explore and see what sparks her interest

My DD just turned 6 sounds similar.
Tbh at school, with day long access to a library she started spending most of her time reading. When she's not doing that she's into playing with her barbies and a recent bday barbie house. She used to love sylvanians and playmobil and I think barbie is the latest incantation. I hate the dolls tbh, but DD loves them and gets a lot of of doing all sorts of complex role plays with them so I leave her to it.
We've got a fairly big house but I refuse to have it full of toys, and most of them only get a very cursory play, so for presents we do quite a bit of theatre tickets etc rather than lots of stuff, also wrap up eg toothbrush, bath bits, so it feels like she's got more to open than she really had iyswim. We don't go OTT at all. Kids have no idea at all how many presents they 'should' have so we're trying to keep expectations low for as long as we can get away with.
Nice sets of good quality pens and paints get used a lot, also detailed colouring books, and she really loved a plain drawing pad recently - no more second hand patent paper, her own clean white paper in a pad - what a treat!

Junior Scrabble?
My son loves Smart Games, and lots of the toys on the Fat Brain website.

Puzzles, other look and find books, or story books. Or it sounds like she'd enjoy a magnetic drawing board and/or chalk board. I loved both when I was about that age, I remember using both of them to write.
(Sorry my eldest is almost 4 and still loves pretty much everything so no experience and different toys today than when I was a child!)

Does she have a dolls house for her figures? What about some play dough kits? All sorts of different creative ones! Is she into cars?

Oh a marble run?!

I bought my 4 and 6 year old one of those giant craft jars and kid scissors from Amazon two weeks ago and they have played with it "making things" everyday since. My older DS would much rather create than play with toys.

It's bl*ody messy though!

I’ve just got my 5 yo daughter a Kiwi crate subscription, new STEAM project arrives each month. First one hasn’t arrived yet but fingers crossed, they get good reviews. May be worth a try if she tires of things quickly.
www.kiwico.com/?country=GB&dcurr=GBP

There's a cool game called 'find it' which is a tube full of beads with tiny objects in it and a list, you have to rotate the tube and find all the bits, my DS loves it on car journeys.

Yes we've got that unicorn finding book my dd (4) loves it!!! She also loves puzzles, orchard toy games and colouring/painting.

We made up an art box each for our children two years ago and they still say that it was the best Christmas present they ever received from Santa. I filled them with lots of twistables, markers, pens, pencils, sticky notes, sellotape, pritstick, highlighters, coloured cards, postcards etc and they just loved them. I placed them all into plastic tool boxes and they were just thrilled - the toys were left aside. They still carry their art boxes around with them and they receive new stationery for their boxes in their Christmas Stockings every year.

I would recommend Kapla (minimum 200 piece set) and a couple of books of basic kapla so she has some basic idea but of course the beauty of kapla is your own imagination

Lots of great ideas, thank you!

She has a very small Magna doodle which you can't fit a lot on. I think I will look at a bigger one. She has a whiteboard/easel. And games! She has got into those yes. Actually the last time we went to a toy shop it was games she was browsing. Clean forgot!

If I get the box I have for making things, she just gets out a paper plate and draws on it. It's me that likes making, I can't fathom that she doesn't get excited about pipecleaners!

The Kiwi subscription does look good. We have a marble run. She doesn't play with it but won't let us pass it on.

She got a dollshouse last year. She has lots of playdough sets. She's not mad on cars but on occassion will play with the magictracks set she got last year. Have thought about hotwheels as I think she'd like the loops.

Thank you for Aquabeads mention. I have Hama beads in the cupboard that didn't go down particularly well last year, will revisit and see if she's enthused this time round.

Karaoke machine could be a winner too. Will avoid piano lessons as they get music lessons at school eventually.

Will look into some science sets. Thanks to all!

Orchard toys do nice games for your dd age. There is a spelling one too which helped my ds learn to blend / read.

My 4.5 year old sounds so similar to your daughter- writing air letters and sounding out words at home. She loves her Polly Pocket sets, and I am planning to start her on Sylvanian Families for Christmas. She likes to 'set up' toys rather than play per se so I am hoping the Sylvanian's will go down well for this reason!