Birthday panic - need ideas

[katyamum]

My ds will be 4 in November. He loves duplo (we have it all) and Thomas the Tank ENgine stuff (we have a huge amount of Brio/ELC stuff) and he is great at construction. I need to think outside the box. My dh thinks he's still too small to move onto real Lego (maybe he is right) so what else is there that will really challenge him and at the same time not be too difficult? He's good at building, and I've heard about K'Nex. Any thoughts? Also wondering about things like Scalextrix/Hot Wheels. Any thoughts? Thanks

my 2.5 yr old loves proper lego, although he does find it a little bit hard to get apart sometimes- but I am sure your ds would get on fine with it.
other than that what about something completely different? does he have a bike? a scooter?

K'nex or Kids K'nex very popular still with my ds. Geomag is also very popular and ds got his first lot at 4. Both of these ds build his own models without help very quickly, with lego it was more me helping him (or him helping me) to build it.

I think it would be OK to start lego at 4.

I'm with Debbie - I think I'd go for Geomag as I find it more appealing to play with myself. [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geomag-Construction-Toys/b?ie=UTF8&node=3851791 for example]

thanks all. any particular geomag recommendations? Yes he has a scooter but he would love a bike (good idea). Any thoughts on hot wheels?

He'd definitely be OK with proper Lego. My DS got a few of the Star Wars sets for his 4th birthday in August and LOVES them. We sit with him to make the spaceship (or whatever it is) then he happily creates his own with the bits.

there's a good hotwheels race track which has four lanes, and a shows which car won the race. Best thing is it fold away neatly, doesn't need batteries and makes no noise! Sorry can't do a link because the Argos website is down at the mo.

Lego would be fine at 4yo. Have a look a Playmobil too.

I just checked out GeoMag and it looks great. Perfect. Thanks. Will also think about Lego now. I gather there is a shortage. Will have to research which things to buy.

I would leave the hot wheels for another year, quite often you need to be very accurate when launching a car, and if it just falls off the track it is disappointing. The main problem with scalextric is that it takes so long to put together, then they get bored after 10 mins.

Don't get me wrong ds loves lego and was got his first set at about 4. But he finds it a lot easier to be creative with either K'nex or Geomag.

I also love playing with Geomag - in fact got my own set the other Christmas

oh no, please dont buy hotwheels!

from my experience (grrrr), the tracks are ok ish to put together, a nightmare to get apart, dont do half of what you imagine and are very easily broken.

i have sworn never to spend money on anything hotwheels again. its not cheap and ds has only ever had a day before he's fed up with it.

this is the hotwheels track i mentioned It is a good one and trust me, we have several of the "the tracks are ok ish to put together, a nightmare to get apart, dont do half of what you imagine and are very easily broken" variety

K'nex, Geomag, Playmobil.
DS2 (4.5) likes k'nex but Playmobil is king in this house.

I'm with Chippy on that particular Hot Wheels track. DS (just 4) loves it.