any novel ideas please for a transport mad5 year old?

[mckenzie]

It's Ds's 5th birthdya and everyone is asking me for ideas for presents. I in turn have asked DS but he's only come up with 2 things.
I can persuade a few family memebers to add to his premium bonds but some people do like to give a physical gift.

Any ideas please? He's quite a young 5 (I think) who is mad about all forms of transport.

TIA.

bump please as I've exhausted Google, ELC, and the Argos catalogue!

DS2 was like this - he ended up with a huge collection of model buses, trains etc and also videos of various train routes (mostly steam) and buses.

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=nb_ss_d_h_/026-0085837-4187675?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=steam+trains&Go.x=11&Go.y=7\Steam train DVDs} at amazon

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=nb_ss_d_h_/026-0085837-4187675?url=search-alias%3Ddvd&field-keywords=transport&Go.x=9&Go.y=10\DVDs transport in general}

\link{http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=nb_ss_b/026-0085837-4187675?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=trains&Go.x=7&Go.y=12\books about trains}

\link{http://www.simplytrains.com/\model trains website}

\link{http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/other/events.html#200604\directory of model exhibitions} (you could take him to one in your area!)

DS2's big summer treat from grandma was always a trip to Glasgow by train from Preston and a whole day in the station looking at trains

(He is 13 now and has grown out of it - bit sad really, he used to love it so much!)

Whereabouts are you? If you're anywhere near London, take him into town and go on a bus, a tube, a Docklands train and the riverbus - I know this isn't a product your family can wrap up, but take some pics of him on each and put them in a big frame for his wall.

Or this could be a rubbish idea, in which case...not sure!

That's a brill idea, hunker - DS2 still has lots of pics from his trips to Glasgow ("and this is the mail train, and this is the mail train from the other side, and this is me in front of the mail train, and this is me behind the mail train....")

I have a feeling DS1 will be a transport fiend too - he's totally in love with buses and has just discovered that trains have numbers... (James...red...five! he informed me today...thought he was talking about his brother, but no, he meant Thomas the Tank Engine's friend!)

Would something like \link{http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Product.aspx/TruHome/TruOutdoorSports/TRUOutdoorandSportsSandWaterTables/230065?ref=Search\this} be too young?

\link{http://www.kidscasuals.com/buses-transport-designs.htm\Buses, cars, bikes, trains on T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, socks...}

\link{http://www.gltc.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?language=en-GB&productID=G4533&CatID=SSBedding\trains duvet set}
\link{http://www.ninight.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=146\trains, planes & trucks wall decorations} (and other stuff)
\link{http://www.askbaby.com/cars-trains-trucks-planes.htm?pageNo=45\cars, trains, trucks & planes, all sorts of things}

Similar to Hunker. The London Transport Museum is great!!!! I took ds and niece lst year(they were both 5yo) and they loved it. They have a children's trail and a childrens' area (ring and check what activities if any are on). Also check which characters are around. The characters are people from the past who talk about a particular exhibition and then answer any questions. Give him a disposable camera and a trvael themed album to stick his pictires in when they're developed. Because it's down covent garden there's brilliant buskers, the Haagen Daz(?) shop, little covent garden type shops to window shop in. There's even a mini Hamleys I'm sure (foggy memory of a well dressed toy shop window). Good Luck

thank you all very much for these ideas.

DS's Nan and grandma tend to take him into London fairly often (they're both pensioners so it's free travel) so Hunkermunker, although you're idea is great I think, it wont really work as a birthday present.

The London Transport Museum is still closed for refurbishment isn't it?

(Note to self - check their website).

Gillian76 - that looks good and especially as DD is only 1, I'm sure it would get used for a good few years to come. I shall offer that idea to one of DS's grandparents.

and thanks for all the other ideas too - they've all gone into the pot.

Why don't you take him to a steam railway for his birthday treat? Don't know how far you are from London but my equally transport-obsessed ds (admittedly only three) loved the miniature railway at Chertsey in Surrey - moments from the M25 junction. It's child-sized but big enough to sit on, IYSWIM. If you are towards Kent, there's the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch (sp?) railway. Or north of London there's the little railway at Whipsnade zoo - day at the zoo plus steam engines. There's another small railway at Leighton Buzzard in Beds. Or various aircraft museums if that rattles his cage - the RAF museum at Hendon, the De Haviland Museum in Herts and another one in Beds somewhere.

London transport museum is shut - opens 2007.

My ds (4) loved Hamleys!