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Our children are young. It is a daily struggle to keep our kids away from electronics, especially one of our sons. He wants to watch TV, play video games, etc… as much as he can. We have him on a time limit and we do not watch it throughout the week (only on the weekends). However, with his birthday so close, I wanted to share some ideas for gifts for boys…
7 Gift Ideas for boys
1). Books:
Anything that encourages our children to read is a great thing. As a teacher, I know that I value reading and make it a priority in our house. My favorite books for our seven year old are short chapter books. I like Cam Jansen (easy chapter book), the Box Car Children and The Magic Tree House.
If you want to go a step further, allow your child to have their very own library card. Let them go each week and pick out whatever book they want! Now you are saving money and they get to have an endless supply of books! (Their own library card is the part that will make this extra special).
The reason that I love building sets is simple – they let the kids BUILD and then PLAY. A few months ago, the kids got Transformer Construct-bots. It put them to work with their creativity! You can make it into several modes (Vehicle to Robot) without taking it apart & rebuilding it. My very favorite part is that unlike some building sets, these ones are completely interchangeable. Here is what our kids made:
I made these kits for our kids. As your kids get older, you can put more ‘age-appropriate’ things in here (paints, etc…) that they can do alone. I just get a lot of things that the kids can “create” with, such as cotton balls, sticks, buttons, etc…
4- Sports equipment:
A football (or baseball set… or really any outdoor sports equipment) can go a long way when you have sons. I think that we play sports outside at least 5 days a week. Just tonight we went out to toss a baseball and before I knew it, a game of two turned into a game of six… we all played.
5- Toys from your childhood.This is a funny one, I know, but my in-laws brought out an old box of toys from when my husband was younger (Transformers, cars & more). It is a great way to let your kids experience what you experienced years ago.6. PLAYMOBIL Dump Truck
Haul sand with the Dump Truck. The truck bed can be removed and used as a bucket and sieve for playtime fun in the sand. The bucket piece is also great for molding the sand into small buildings! You can also use the removable ramps to help drive the truck over soft sand. Perfect for play either at the beach or in the sandbox – the possibilities are endless! Set also includes one figure and truck with removable. bucket, sieve, and ramps.
7. PLAYMOBIL Excavator
Dig up fun in the sand with the Excavator. The shovel can either be removed and used on its own or situated into one of two positions on the vehicle. When placed in the lower position, the shovel can collect sand as you move the excavator. Or, place the shovel in the upper position to keep it out of the way as you drive. Once your sand castle is built, remove the PLAYMOBIL flag from the back of the vehicle and attach it to you castle walls. Place the PLAYMOBIL 1.2.3. figure in front of the vehicle through the roof opening. Perfect for play either at the beach or in the sandbox – the possibilities are endless! Set also includes one figure, excavator with removable shovel, PLAYMOBIL flag, and more.
Becky, your philosophy is exactly the same as mine when my kids were younger. I finally gave in during the “tween” years, and truth be told, a little earlier only on the airplane or long car rides. I think children need to use their imagination and their bodies for play, so we always had a ton of construction toys, figures for imaginary play, and sports stuff hanging around. I love your ideas, as well as the fact that girls can benefit from them too!
I’m sure when they are teens/tweens I will be hearing all about electronics… I’ll enjoy it while I can! lol!
Thanks for the gift guy! I have girls to shop for this year!
My nephew would LOVE these. He’s a fan of Transformers and loves to build so I think this would be a perfect last minute holiday gift for him!
These are great gift ideas. I have two boys and you can never ever go wrong with books and sports equipment (our eldest is getting soccer cleats because he loves soccer so much!). thanks for all these great ideas!
I think you nailed it on the head! I have a 7 year old boy and he’s getting video games, transformers, rainbow loom for Christmas!
I think our kids could be BFF’s 🙂
My kids out grew Transformers quickly for some reason, but they LOVE books. We can never have enough. If we aren’t buying them, we are at the library. Can’t go wrong with books!
You’re right about girls loving those toys too. Our daughter would love them!
That looks like so much fun!
Transformers are a great gift for boys. I remember buying them for my sons when they were little and I am sure they will be around when and if I am lucky enough to have grandchildren.
Perfect toys for ages 7 and up. The kids in this age group have that burst of creativity and imagination. And even if the robots have small parts, we parents won’t worry that the kids would put them small pieces in their mouths and accidentally swallow them. My boys went crazy over robots too when they were that age. Now they are so into gadgets.
These are such great ideas!
This is a great list!
Oh the adventures they’re going to have with these. I really like toys that encourage creativity and imagination.
Great Post! I’m fond of the DIY creativity kit. Its a great way to spend time with the lithe ones.
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