Children's presents that don't end up covered in dust/landfill

[mrsdarcy]

Following on from another thread...

I have a car full of crappy toys that I am going to take to a charity shop tomorrow. Many of the toys were presents from friends (£5 - 10 stuff), many others were from grandparents. What presents have you given or received, for what sex/age group, that have been a success? My boys are 5 and 6 and my list is:

books (eg encyclopaedia, Traction Man)

football

star wars figures

top trumps

gardening things

And the duds:

magic set

Leap Pad
Shrek etch-a-sketch

soft toys (took me a long time to throw them out how many soft toys can a child actually enjoy owning??)

lego/playmobil with teeny weeny bits that get lost - fun for 1 afternoon then just frustrating

Hello mrsdarcy,

for dd2, aged 3 the ideal toys are

1. Polly Pocket
2. Polly Pocket
3. Polly pocket Get the drift?

with dressing up costumes (wands and beads obligatory - how else can a child be an effective secret agent!)for those occasional do something else moments.

For dd1, aged 5, life does not exist beyond the felt pen.

So why is there so much plastic in my house?

ds 4 in sept,
successfull;
thomas train stuff
thunderbird stuff
books
sports equipment

unsuccessful;

huge plastic easel
workbench
remote control cars
fisher price garage
playdoh
art stuff

DD is 3 1/2

Fave toys
Cheapest buggy you can lay your hands on.
Garage (ELC version, 9th hand from Cancer Research shop) and cars (always popular with visitors of all ages)
Just been given 2nd hand Tomy battery operated build your own car/helicopter thing. MARVELLOUS for adult participation.
books and story CDs for car (newspaper freeby Famous 5 and Narnia are current faves for car journeys)
Farm (duplo and other animals, fences, feeding toughs etc)
About 6 soft toys
Sandpit
Etch a sketch for visiting older siblings
Playdough
Puzzles - buy as many as you can at NCT sales/jumble sales etc and accept they have a short shell life.

Duds
Leap pad
Lego/duplos/megablocks building stuff. She just doesn't.
The other 95 soft toys.
Barbie
Most things with batteries.
Very posh PLAN wooden figures and household stuff eg kitchen. Beautiful but doesn't do it for her.

Dressing up stuff - doesn't have to be expensive whole outfits. DDs fave accessories (she's 3)are:

construction hat (about a fiver from Lego or ELC)
police tabard & walkie talkie (£10 ish from BHS)
any pink tiaras/wands (try Claire's)
Doctor coat (double as vet, epends on whether she has a doll or toy dog in her arms at the time)
Pirate eyepatch (free with magazine)
Foam sword

Get a few kids and a basket of dressing up stuff (ours lives in one of those cheap pop-up laundry baskets) and they'll spend ages playing.

Just to look at teh other side of the argument - what would I not buy - I would never buy arty stuff that needs supervision for others unless I had been asked to. I feel I am either forcing parental assistance or condemming the gift to a life in the cupboard. My DTDs recently recieved a mask making kit, wind chime making kit, 2 paint your own piggy banks, playdoh, foam printing/paint thingys and collage stuff for their 5th birthday - When DD3 was 10days old!!! They are all still in the bottom of the wardrobe 12 wks later. We MAY get time to do SOME over the summer.

I normally buy something that is non-collectable (e.g. not polly pocket, my little pony, power rangers etc.) unless you know what the child collects.

My gift would always be something that I would be happy for my own child to receive I know that sounds obvious but I don't believe that is the case given some of the presents we have received.

I think, mrsdarcy, that you have a fundamental problem here, in that children vary so hugely and what they play with varies as well.

For DS (aged 5) the hits are:
books - but he is still getting picture books and we mainly read chapter books - wonder if he may go back to the picture books when he starts to read independently beyond the reading scheme books
footballs - but how many footballs does one boy need? Also he has several leather footballs which he is not allowed to play with in the garden
CDs - but 90% of his are ones that I have bought or DH has burnt.
Swords and other paraphenalia
Leap pad

But that is because it is summer and it is red hot and every available second DS is out with a football.

In other weather conditions he plays with knights/castle, power rangers, lego, farm stuff, playmobil (though would discourage more of this because think he is growing out of it), cars etc.

Duds:
soft toys - never been interested in them
cars bigger than matchbox size since he was about 3

DS does a lot of playing though.

DD (2):
ELC £5 pushchair (brilliant toy)
play kitchen and associated food/crockery etc (but have vast quantities)
Dolls and bottles/bowl/cup/spoon/dummy/bib etc, pram, highchair
Happyland stuff
Balls (of any description)
Bags
Puzzles

Duds:
too many pull along toys on a little string

The two things I regret buying are - an expensive trike(should have gone for the cheap version) and a kids croquet thing from elc which doesn't stay up well and seems a waste too.
Cuddly toys -have far too many of these, but all gifts. Would have had more, but ended up giving some to other people as gifts. DD(3) also got given a leapfrog writing desk which she is not that into.

worst thing ever without a doubt at all:

BARBIE PEGASUS HEAD!!!

Looks hideous, the hair comes out when you comb it and neither of them have paid the blindest bit of attention (unless you count dd2 aged about 3 months trying to eat the sequins).

Best ever is the Aquadraw, even my two stop fighting when this comes out.

lego, duplo and playmobile are very popular with my 6, 4 and 2 year old. we'll have all your bits!

DUDs for us include

Croquet sets. those wooden mallets are far too tempting to whack your sister over the head with, it seems.
Dolls house. however nice, they ignore it.
Anything which needs ME to set it up or fix it.

Ds was given a Mini Maglite torch for his 7th birthday, which has been a huge success -- several of the dads were practically falling over themselves to get it off him! And for Christmas someone gave him a battery-free torch from one of the scienc-y catalogues which you shake to provide the energy.

I have been giving ds's 5-8yo friends Yu-Gi-Oh cards this year, to great acclaim. One particularly cool, strapping 8yo practically kissed my knees when he opened his present, so I figured it was the way to go.

Otherwise: books, book tokens, lego, duplo, playmobil and garden toys are the order of the day here.

Oh forgot to say what she does like-loads actually, but a few are - trampoline, barbie makeup face, tea/kitchen set, geomag, books

Fennel, if you (or anyone else) want the playmobil, lego or leap pad, and can pick up by the end of the week, you're most welcome . I'm in the north-west.

Fair enough, Bozza, but there are a few themes running through this thread. I'm in the same situation on books - we read chapter books together at bedtime but when the boys start reading on their own they'll need pictue books. I don't feel so bad having a full bookcase though.

Well yes and in our case we have 2yo DD to read the picture books. But TBH most of the chapter books that DS has have been purchased by me.

Our chapter books are bought by me or by relatives. I love it when they send things like that - lovely editions of Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web and other classics. The boys' recent choices are Captain Underpants and Horrid Henry!

oh books ! thank you this thread has also given me ideas on what to buy for my ds(4) birthday next week

Well most of DS's Horrid Henry's have been bought by me.

Bozza - footballs. I have same thing with my 5 yr old ds. Football obsessed - he already was before the World Cup & that just made it worse. Don't mind though - it's good for him.

Generally:
His fave pressies at his party last week were:

Bradford City football
Bradford City teddy bear (like we need more bears!)
Goalie gloves
Seal diving sticks (to practice going underwater)
Books - story of sugar & story of wool

and from family:
Bradford City goalie shirt (I know it's a bit tragic isn't it)
Table football

He goes through phases of playing with lego so never sure about binning it, He had a lot of use out of it a couple of years ago.

my ds is 6
plays with
geomag
lego
playmobile...all of it has to be out
paper/pens
books favs being horrid Henry, underpants, poetry
ps2 fifa football mainly
board games, scrabble, monopoly,lego build it

ignores

remote control cars & darlek(desite begging for one
anything to do with star wars
action men
puzzles

and its his birthday soon

my ds1 (4yo) and ds2 (2yo) love:
footballs
(but agree with comment about not needing very many. Have even given some away);
books
(again, have far too many now, might hide half in loft or give away because we can't find the ones we need);
lego, duplo or megabloks keep coming out;
little animals or people for their little imaginative games (I love it when they talk to themselves about what the little people are doing, and do sound effects);
jigsaws;
playhouse - probably more for ds2 (2yo);
playkitchen - again, more ds2. Ds1 not really bothered;
dressing up costumes
wooden train tracks and trains, brio/thomas or cheaper versions;
DVDs;

These have been on/off favourites:
playdough
pens and paper
garage and small cars
blackboard

Duds:
soft toys.
Ds1 went through a phase of having four favourites that had to go to bed with him, ds2 not really fussed although occasionally has a favourite. Have bags and bags more, wish no-one would ever give them to us ever again.

noisy toys or toys which require too many batteries (6 AA for a push-along bubble machine seems like very bad design to me)
books with fiddly bits that get torn out and lost;
large heavy 'Complete whoever' books that someone thought would be a good deal

cars

• dp's dad brings about 6 more cars every time he sees the boys and we just don't need any more

Extra ride-on/push along toys.
One each is quite enough

Skittles set

Novelty bags that look like big fluffy dogs or whatever

Ds1 (4)loves

aeroplanes
space shuttles
books
pens/paper
magnetic drawing board
building blocks
outdoor toys - cars/tractors/scooter

ds2 (2) loves

cars
one cuddly monkey puppet toy
books

Amazing how they are all so different heh?

My DS is almost 5 and his faves would be:

• cars (am planning on counting when I get a spare few hours but he has LOADS - I find they are an easy cheap bribe!!)
• At the moment a plastic tea-set he received for his 1st b'day - he loves being a waiter
• football - has 3
• Power rangers and other little action figures

Goes through stages of lego - still prefers the duplo as can manage it easier

Playmobile - but just the vehicle types (I hate Playmobile - all those bits)

Leapster - great for travelling

Just getting into board games like ludo etc

Duds:

Workbench - should have bought him a kitchen
Leap pad

2plus2plus1 - I tend to buy "crafty" stuff for girls as most I know seem to like it but I steer clear of anything that requires major parental involvement or that will end up with lots of little bits all over the floor!

Feel a playroom clearout coming on!