Birthday present for seven year old girl?

[SixSpotBurnet]

DS2 is going to his friend's birthday party on Saturday - she will be seven.

Any suggestions for a nice birthday present? I haven't got any girls - what do they like??

She's not a very girly girl, and hates pink.

bump

oh ssb I can help, can't I?!

Is she a reader? - how about Carbonel, or Moomintroll, or Wolves of Willoughby Chase?

Is she artsy? - Hama bead kits, or a set of rubber lettering stamps? or stationery? Stationery of all sorts is good for 7yo girls, & needn't be flowery or sparkly or pink. (I can remember, as an echt tomboy, really liking being given stripy primary coloured writing paper sets.)

Is she sporty? - a cool aerodynamic frisbee went down very well with a friend of dd's. Or a hula hoop.

She is indeed very arty, not surprisingly as her dad is an artist and I think her mum studied Fine Art too! Art suggestions are good. Do you think WHSmith would have them?

Oh, if she's seriously arty, the Cumberland pencil people do metallic crayons in six colour shades and six precious-metal shades (copper/bronze/gold/old gold/silver/pewter) -in a lovely proper tin; and you can sometimes get them in a set with a pack of black die-cut cards for creating your own glorious glowing creations. I've seen those in WH Smith before now.

(Ours come out with formal ceremony whenever we have to do family b'day cards.)

Here is a link - scroll down to the set at its home factory shop

Thank you! I shall go and have a gander in WHS tomorrow!

I'd love to order something from the Derwent site but of course it won't come in time now. at usual disorganised dinosaur self!

I've ordered the card-making set - they think that it should come by Friday morning - and if it doesn't I can always get her a book in the meantime and tell her mum the rest of the present is yet to come. It's a disco (!) so there's no way she'll be opening presents there and then.

Thanks for your help .

The other thing that was a runaway success recently - which I didn't suggest as I thought it might just be too much on the sparkly side, but I just have to mention it because I think they are the most lovely things ever - are fake (acrylic) jewels - this is a US site, just for illustration. Tridias does them sometimes, but they can be difficult to track down.

Father Christmas gave ds & dd some about four years ago and they get pored over weekly still; dd gave a stash to a friend (in a pink heart-shaped box as-you-do) & all the mothers were fixated.

I think they might be right up DS2's street .

In the same vein as Bink's 'jewels', the items that have held attention/sparked imaginary games with dd over many years are these:

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_/203-6617135-8806362?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=schleich +toy+animal+figures&x=19&y=14

If you scroll down, you will see that there are basic animals suitable for toddlers, but also various dinosaurs and knights and unicorns (suitable for 7 year old girls).

We now have a vast collection, and they are played with for hours at a time (even now) in the bath, in the swimming pool, in the car, etc. (At the moment, dd has a set of about a dozen different puppies which she adds to with her own pocket money whenever she can.)

Oh of course, yes, unicorns! (Though I'm not sure whether the surreally precisely co-extensive Venn diagram of 4-to-7yo girls & unicorns is as precisely co-extensive where the girl in question is not girly. If you see what I mean. I hardly do.)

Anyway - EB - one of our other prized collections is Mythical Beasts of a similar kind (not sure if made by Schleich or not, though) - we have a gryphon (griffin?), a dragon, a unicorn, a phoenix. All from the Early Learning Centre some years ago - they don't seem to stock them now.

I really really want a Minotaur, a Sphinx, a Cerberus, a Harpy even? ... but I am not sure they are made. If you can tell me where to look I would be eternally grateful.

Oh yes, we have some of these and I know the DSs do play with them.

Oooh Bink - right there with you on the 'wished for' figurines - those would be fab! I haven't seen any like the ones on your list, but would imagine, if they exist, perhaps a museum giftshop might be the place to look? Will file this in the back of my mind, and let you know if I come across any in future....

For future reference (and archive searches!), another gift idea for 7 year old girls/children (or thereabouts), is a 'how to draw' book. DD is currently fascinated by this series, which doesn't appear to be generally available in the UK, but am sure there must be similar volumes on offer:

www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=justin+lee+how+to+draw&x=15&y=15

Hey Bink - it's arrived!!

Hooray! - and it probably comes with a little hand-written note from Carol in the Shop, or something. We never made it to the Pencil Museum when it was still on the same premises as the Pencil Factory - I think the Factory has now moved & the visit wouldn't be quite the same. But I still think a Pencil Museum is a lovely idea.

Our discovery of those pencils was at a British Museum Big Draw day - vats of stubs, including just one or two precious metallic ones, for you to scrabble through to do pictures of ancient Egyptian jewellery - and ds & dd fell in love with them on the spot. I spent about a month tracking them down.