Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion what do your kids play with?

Hi All,
Any toy/game suggestions for 5 year old boy? I am getting tired of him "playing" on my laptop, downloading music, and using my phone to text people in my address book!!!!!!!

What does he like? My 5 yo dd loves the Playmobil dragon and Egyptian sets, large car sets from Maisto, lots of Legos everyone steps on, the new Hotwheels that change color (lots of those in our fridge/freezer), making concoctions out of everything, games from ThinkFun, and of course, her Nintendo DS and Wii. Getting these kids their own pc is a must--dd has had one since she was 2. A DSi may make your son happy as he can download stuff and play games, record music, or draw. Oh, I forgot another favorite--the Magnext magnetic blocks with the extras that let the child build intricated machines. We have their rollercoaster as well, a great physics lesson, but even better fun.

He has an apple itouch.... he loves it, but the downloading is getting out of hand. He doesn't like lego's - I wish he did!! I will check out the ThinkFun games.. are Magnext like Magnatiles? Those are a hit too!

Hmmm.... My son is 6.5 but here are some current interests or ones from last year:

computer games (mazes, puzzles, contraptions, etc.)
science and electronic stuff (snap circuits, science experiments)
Reading (loves fiction and non-fiction if it's about science or math)
building (contraptions, k'nex, zome tools, wedgits, marble mazes, dado cubes...)
Puzzle games (think fun games, sodoku, perplexus, rubiks games, brainteasers)
MATH (anything math related. makes up number games, playing with dice)
Workbooks (sodoku, crosswords, word finds, codebreakers, logic links, etc)
Music (playing on piano, using his Ucreate music to mix stuff up)
Art (magnetic mosaics, intricate design coloring books, origami, painting things)

In spite of all this and lots of other stuff he has to do, sometimes he still doesn't know what to do. He isn't bored really...just not sure what to do and what will keep him interested. When he was 4 we created a list for him that we have posted on the fridge called "things to do when I don't know what to do" When is unsure what to do he is encouraged to look at his list and pick something off of it. It has like 60 things on it so surely he can think of something. And of course it keeps changing as his interests change.

I was just talking to my friend about how none of my kids really likes to play with toys, per se. Take, for instance, my DS7. He loves to play outside, he likes to stack things (anything and everything), he likes to read, he likes to play soccer, and he likes to play video games. He also really likes to sing to his new iPod. He likes building lego projects, but once he's done he doesn't actually play with them. He has plenty of toys, but most he virtually never plays with. For Christmas and his birthday he asked for a quilt/pillow, a diary with a key, a lego set, a feather pen, a Yoda pillow, and some fuzzy pajama pants.

Does he like to play outside? What about sodoku or word search or picture find books? What about a sketch pad or diary for him to draw in? What about paper-airplane kits? Kidzui as an internet browser that keeps kids on kid-friendly sites, so that might be an option. What about a camera? What about those premade wooden castles and treasure chests that he could paint and decorate? How about building a fort with blankets and chairs and boxes? Don't know if any of these are helpful suggestions or not. But, I hope it helps!

Oh, and there are a lot of really fun, mentally challenging games for the DS, like the Professor Layton series, Clue, Club House Games, Brain Age, Sodoku Ball Detective, Nancy Drew, etc.

At 5, I would definitely have to say Nintendo DS and PlayStation were big things. He also liked cards then (just got him some Periodic Table Playing Cards that would have been as big a hit back then), and math workbooks, and it was Christmas at 5 or 6 when I got him a load of office supplies -- paper, note cards, pencils, erasers, stapler, labels, etc.

I'm laughing, because when we were asked what to get him for the holiday's, I said, "just go to staples and get him paper and pens and markers and labels"!!!!
I loves reading and writing - so when he is on the computer, he is in word typing documents, or on itunes running up a bill for music....(i know, we have changed the password numerous times!!). He does love work books too.
all the suggestions are great.... I will investigate.
It is interesting to read others posts - it's all so familiar~

lol, Last year for Christmas DS6 (then 5) got a notebook of graph paper with mechanical pencils. It was a hit! He doesn't really play with toys or anything. If you gave him an action figure he would have no idea what to do with it. He might take it apart though and put it back together.

Did you/ do you worry about that? My DS, 5 next month, reads and makes up his own stories. It's actually pretty neat as he includes all the appropriate book stuff - he said or then they go into the room. But he rarely plays with any of his toys on his own. If I do legos with him, he will do it, for awhile, and today we did some of a science kit. And he will do all sorts of workbooks, if i get them out. And he plays with stuff at pre-k in center time. But all other play served as filler for his imagination. It's sort of the opposite of that creativity/structured time thread. We"ve already noted that he needs to be in more physical activities because he won't necessarily chose it on his own, even though he loves soccer and swimming.

I'm sure this sounds weird, he got all this great stuff for Xmas which he played with once or twice but the haul for the library is read over and over. I can't seem to find anything that absorbs him like knowledge or the worlds he creates. I'm not sure why I am worrying about this!!!!!

DeHe

My kids are older (8 and 11) but here's what they play with most of the time:

Indoors:
Dolls or action figures
Cardboard boxes and other empty containers which they use to build stuff for the dolls/action figures
Fabric scraps, yarn and buttons which they use to make clothes for action figures and dolls
Legos
Drawing/Painting/Clay
Each other (rolling/wrestling around/other physical play)

Outdoors:
Sticks, dirt, old hoola hoops, the neighbors' dogs, bikes and other ride-on cars, water.

I supply plenty of tape, glue, markers and other materials.