Author Topic: Gifts for Kids  (Read 23402 times)

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: What Would You Buy?
« Reply #25 on: 02 May, 2014, 05:27:38 pm »
Child is approaching her third birthday.

I have decided to get a kids' cookery book as cooking with kids can be fun, if messy.

David agrees this is a good idea and is all nostalgic about baking with his late Grandma. (I have just produced a CAEK myself and David is licking out the remains of the mixture.)
I see there are cookbook variants 'For Boys' and 'For Girls'.

WTF?? Kids of any sort like cooking and eating don't they?

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: What Would You Buy?
« Reply #26 on: 02 May, 2014, 06:01:31 pm »
Painting stuff.

(Despite being an appalling sexist) when my daughter was about that age I used to go toy shopping with her and buy her lots of boys' toys (cars, guns, construction sets etc). She's grown up to be a ghastly feminist and reckons I only did it because I don't like girls. Us chaps can't win! Although there may be a smidge of truth in what she says - but it's weedy girly-ness that I don't like; not girls per se.

hellymedic

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Gifts for Kids
« Reply #27 on: 07 May, 2015, 08:44:20 pm »
Partner's niece is approaching her 4th birthday and her father was a house guest here last night.
Told him I'd ordered various Dr Seuss books for her from Amazon.

Then I confessed that the books were really for him to enjoy cos kids are the perfect excuse for adults to have fun in ways that would embarrass adults by themselves. (My little brother gave me much scope for this.)

He was a bit surprised.
Don't we all do this?

woollypigs

  • Mr Peli
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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #28 on: 07 May, 2015, 08:50:00 pm »
Lego! Then they both will enjoy your gift, that is if he can share with others :)
Current mood: AARRRGGGGHHHHH !!! #bollockstobrexit

hellymedic

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #29 on: 07 May, 2015, 09:04:39 pm »
I gave her some Lego a while back.
She'll get some more when some of the interesting stuff seems age appropriate.
The sort of Lego suggested for 4-5 year olds is a bit dull (or PUKY PINK)

Mr Larrington

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #30 on: 08 May, 2015, 02:01:52 am »
Couldn't stand Dr Seuss as a small Mr Larrington and nothing in the last mumblety-Several years has managed to change my op!on.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #31 on: 08 May, 2015, 10:06:43 am »
Playmobile is good for kids who like acting out stories and adults find it fun too.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #32 on: 08 May, 2015, 01:05:20 pm »
Couldn't stand Dr Seuss as a small Mr Larrington and nothing in the last mumblety-Several years has managed to change my op!on.

Fair enough.
You are just young enough to have been exposed to his bukes as a small.
I am not.

Unloved bukes can be freecycled.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #33 on: 16 December, 2015, 04:04:32 pm »
Playmobile is good for kids who like acting out stories and adults find it fun too.

It is nice! Mum recently got some for her grand daughters and it seems well-made, with good attention to detail.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #34 on: 16 December, 2015, 04:08:06 pm »
My sister-in-law has suggested this http://www.halfords.com/kids-zone/ride-on-toys/trikes/schwinn-roadster-trike-12 tricycle for my parents to give her three year old daughter for her birthday.
I do not like it, one little bit!
Do others have any experience?

Vince

  • Can't climb; won't climb
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #35 on: 16 December, 2015, 04:13:25 pm »
A bit young for a fixie.
216km from Marsh Gibbon

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #36 on: 16 December, 2015, 04:15:30 pm »
ugh, that is terrible.

A Pashley Pickle for when child is older.

A balance bike  for younger ones.

As far as books go, 'Each Peach Pear Plum' is essential reading.

<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #37 on: 16 December, 2015, 05:02:53 pm »
Each Peach Pear Plum.

Ahhhhhh. (Drifts into parental reverie.)

When I last checked all four of us could recite that from start to finish, and the last time it was required bedtime reading was about eight years ago.
Rust never sleeps

Kim

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #38 on: 16 December, 2015, 05:22:27 pm »
My sister-in-law has suggested this http://www.halfords.com/kids-zone/ride-on-toys/trikes/schwinn-roadster-trike-12 tricycle for my parents to give her three year old daughter for her birthday.
I do not like it, one little bit!

I'm all for recruiting darksiders young, but that looks unpleasant, and I reckon it'd be better to wait a couple of years and get a Kettler pedal car. (Do they still make those?)

And of course balance bikes teach balance...

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #39 on: 16 December, 2015, 05:39:26 pm »
Just been on the phone to Mum.
Despite my doubts:
Kid is DELIGHTED
Mum says it's 'just right'.
Happy child is squealing in the background, bombing round grandparents' (wooden-floored) flat.
Trike is thankfully not PINK so should be suitable for Little Brother when the time comes.
Sometimes we are WRONG...

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #40 on: 17 December, 2015, 12:22:04 am »
My sister-in-law has suggested this http://www.halfords.com/kids-zone/ride-on-toys/trikes/schwinn-roadster-trike-12 tricycle for my parents to give her three year old daughter for her birthday.
I do not like it, one little bit!

I'm all for recruiting darksiders young, but that looks unpleasant, and I reckon it'd be better to wait a couple of years and get a Kettler pedal car. (Do they still make those?)

And of course balance bikes teach balance...

No experience of it, but I reckon as a first 'bike,' that's a bit rubbish, but as a 'ride-on toy' it's great (assuming, at least, that it's reasonably well put together and that it weighs somewhat short of the metric tonne you expect for kids' bikes). It's red, it's shiny, and it's got a platform at the back you can carry toys or other kids on - what's not to like?

hellymedic

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #41 on: 17 December, 2015, 12:53:12 am »
I think it is heavy but is well-constructed.
If purchaser and end-user are happy, who am I to argue?

It has pneumatic tyres so I hope visitations are infrequent and tyres get pumped enough.

hellymedic

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #42 on: 17 December, 2015, 12:58:12 am »
I spent AGES agonising over a suitable gift for 4½ year old niece.

Ended up with Slinky, Plasticine and a butterfly kite.

Was unimpressed by offerings from Lego (the £99 train set was out of our reach...) and partner didn't seem keen on Playmobil.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #43 on: 17 December, 2015, 05:44:26 pm »
I do get the feeling Lego is going a bit Brooks.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #44 on: 17 December, 2015, 07:44:31 pm »
I am fussy.
I want my gifts to be:
Fun for kid and adults
Non-gendered
Affordable
Age appropriate
'Open-ended'

Much Lego seems very limited in its 'closed' scope but a bag of bricks by itself seems BORING.

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #45 on: 06 July, 2016, 07:52:29 am »
Family and friends of our kids were always giving small (£10) prezzies for birthdays, xmas etc. We got to the point where we and our peers decided to give prezzies as cash instead to all the kids parents and guardians. This way we could save up and buy a big-price prezzie e.g. that really expensive bike; nintendo; day out to the theatre.

Still doesn't stop the buying of smaller prezzies, mind.

As an aside my kids loved Dr. Seuss. I think I must have read that scrambled eggs book to them about a 100 times. The one where the kid makes a scrambled egg from the eggs of 50 different birds or something.

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #46 on: 06 July, 2016, 11:06:14 am »
Much Lego seems very limited in its 'closed' scope but a bag of bricks by itself seems BORING.
If Lego isn't doing it, they should be doing this; selling bags of randoms. Each bag to include some special bricks and some rare bricks or figures. Make the figures only available in the bags of randoms.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #47 on: 06 July, 2016, 12:52:15 pm »
For the under 5s, you can't beat a Richard Scarry book or several.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


hellymedic

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Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #48 on: 06 July, 2016, 04:13:20 pm »
Little girl was 5 in May. I gave up being clever and bought various artists' materials.

Will have to think about the winter eventually...

Re: Gifts for Kids
« Reply #49 on: 07 July, 2016, 07:00:36 pm »
For the under 5s, you can't beat a Richard Scarry book or several.
I detest Richard Scarry. I find them virtually unreadable.
Quote from: Kim
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