I want to buy some toys!!
Posted by Miss Jones on Aug 02, 2007 · Member since Jan 2007 · 98 posts
The G-rated kind.
My partner's kids spend school holidays with us - mainly Christmas (summer) holidays (but also Easter/end of term hols). A nearby store is having a big sale and I'm interested to know what kind of toys/kid's fun things you all recommend or remember from your own childhood that you adore :)
I would love to hear everyone's ideas on what we can all get involved with and be entertained. We have two boys aged 10 and 6 years old. They are pretty competitive and love all kinds of board games, outdoor sports such as cricket, soccer, footy (Australian Rules) etc
Any thoughts?
I played with some of my brother's toys, actually. We were buds back then. We used to flood our sandbox and play "rescue" with the Lego men and any other toy we happened to have that would tie in. We were very makeshift in our playing efforts. ^_^ I did have some Barbies but initially I was never into them much. I liked my brother's action figures.
Legos
Crayons/Markers/Glitterpens/etc
Clay/Play-Doh
Board Games:
Operation
Candy Land
Life
The toys I remember most fondly probably aren't around anymore...the spinning, singing top, the Lincoln Logs and other building blocks, especially the brightly-coloured ones, and Matchbox cars. Our basement had a cement floor painted maroon (??) and it was perfect for drawing roads, houses etc on with chalk...kept us busy for hours. After you drew the "map" you ran the cars around and told each other what was happening.
Another source of hours of fun was my sister's "quiet box". This was a shoebox full of stuff like tongue depressors, cotton, glitter etc. and construction paper and coloured foils. We were only allowed to use it when we were sick or the electricity had gone in the winter. With a stack of old magazines to cut into (safety scissors from the box) we could make collages, puppet shows with puppets-on-sticks, paper lanterns, etc.
And of course the Slinky! WHY is it so much fun? Who knows! I wish I had a proper metal one...you can only get plastic here and they don't work. Bubbles were fun too.
Thanks MD :) I love paper and colouring as well! Last time they were here we bought canvases (it was Easter and raining most of the time) and paints and they made beautiful paintings for us which we have hanging on our walls. I think we will see if they would like to paint for us again - it certainly was creative artwork :D
I'm almost ashamed to admit I loved Barbies as a child - I cut off a few of my "Barbie's" hair so they could become boys and "romance" my other Barbies.
I did this until I was about 12 ::) uh I had friends too....honest!
'My little ponies'? I had a collection of them - in 2nd/3rd grade, you knew you were someone's friend if they put a 'my little pony' on your desk for the day.
I'm almost ashamed to admit I loved Barbies as a child - I cut off a few of my "Barbie's" hair so they could become boys and "romance" my other Barbies.
No shame involved. I had Donnie and Marie Osmond dolls.
oh I loved action heroes too! And lego! Great ideas :)
My mum bought my sister and I Matchbox cars and "construction kits" so we could build our own race course (she never really did believe in "girls" & "boys" toys).
Operation! I think I am going to buy this for the kids ( and my own personal pleasure ) - I dont think there is a kid out there who didn't get enjoyment from this lol
I can remember making a lotta doghnuts from Play-doh - I think everything I ever made from Play-Doh was food related hmmm...
Donnie and Marie Osmond dolls - do you still have them? Antiques roadshow are after you ;D
One of my favorite games as a kid was to put my GI Joe on trial for war crimes. Then once he was convicted I would sentence him to death and hang him from my treehouse. I'm not making this up.
A frend of mine used to torture his GI Joe for information. That was destructive though, he would often burn holes in him with a magnifying glass. I could hang mine over and over without damage.
LOL
This cracked me up! Interrogating your GI Joe? Love it.
My Barbie lost her head once (she was a birthday present from a friend and we had a fight shortly after). My mother was slighly concerned when she walked in and saw Barbie (and the Rock Stars') heads rolling around on the floor.
P.S. I re-attached all heads once the argument was over. Barbie lives!
I always loved Monopoly as a kid. You wanna talk about competitiveness... I don't know if a six-year-old would enjoy that though. Maybe Monopoly Junior?
Battleship is also fun, as well as Stratego. And the best game of all-time is Uno! That's pretty simple to teach young kids as well, and it will teach them numbers and colors.
I played with both Barbies and Power Ranger toys when I was little. I also had a Puppy Surprise (anyone remember those?) and I used the puppies in my Barbie games rather than buying a Mattel doggie for Barbie. Polly Pocket was fun too, and I actually found a Mini Max (I think that was the boy version) in a playground so Polly had a boyfriend. I guess I'm not the best reference for boy toys. ;D
Do you have a gaming system like Nintendo or something? Those always make for fun times. I still own a NES and play it frequently. If you have a Playstation or XBox, not to mention some cash, maybe you can look into buying a Dance Dance Revolution game and dance pad (you can also buy games and pads used at places like GameStop). That game always provides a lot of fun time, and boys like it too!
Geez. I was all excited to open this thread...
But anyway. I really liked (and yeah, still do) playing with Legos and Lincoln Logs. I also enjoyed working out really big jigsaw puzzles with my Dad.
I also had a great time just hanging out with Dad to help him on home improvement projects.
Sometimes we'd all play softball/ teeball (for my younger brothers) in the backyard.
Board games I liked included Clue, Memory, Scrabble.
Play- Doh was a lot of fun.
On another note... pizza night was the greatest. Mom would let us all make our own pizzas, however we wanted. I do that sometimes with my kids now, and they love doing that, too.
Geez. I was all excited to open this thread...
I'll bet you thought exactly the same thing I did. ;)
Sorry for all those who opened this expecting something uh..more. Next thread - Veg*n toys for us adults ;)
Feelinsoreal - I had a puppy surprise (and a puppy surprise book! - gee and here I am thinking I was deprived as a child).
I bought an X box for my partner (and the kids) a year or so ago and they enjoy it but I kinda want to drag them away from that stuff. Though the dance stuff sounds cool and I'd bet they'd love it ( and uh maybe me too) - maybe for Christmas :)
Uno is cool too - the last couple of times we've played the 6 yr old beat all of us, he's a clever bugger.
Tkitty96 - we have scrabble and the kids are quite good but we do end up with a lot of "it", "and", "the" words and so our game comes to a sad end lol
Yeah. I also had fun reading the dictionary as a kid. So...
Well I guess I could buy the kids a dictionary each.....
Somehow I think they would be less than impressed.
Kinda like saying "Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a copy of the Holy Bible!!!!!"
I try to avoid tears if I can :D
No, a gift of pajamas earns tears.
With dictionaries you can learn all kinds of insults. Kind of fun.
I loved as a child I had an "alphie" robot where I could play games with by pushing a button. I also had another robot trivia thing...don't remember his name. I'm not a robot person, but I guess what I'm saying is interactive can be fun for young'ns or older children.
I enjoyed card games, puzzles, and of course---video game consoles! I bought my boyfriend a nintendo DS and he's a big kid, at 20, but there were some awesome games on there and there's a IQ booster game too you can get which has all types of puzzles.
Have you ever played Cranium? It is a really fun game for a group of people. There is a Junior Edition. Cranium has a bunch of different games under the label of the same name. Get the one called Cranium. It is incredibly fun.
I loved as a child I had an "alphie" robot where I could play games with by pushing a button. I also had another robot trivia thing...don't remember his name. I'm not a robot person, but I guess what I'm saying is interactive can be fun for young'ns or older children.
I enjoyed card games, puzzles, and of course---video game consoles! I bought my boyfriend a nintendo DS and he's a big kid, at 20, but there were some awesome games on there and there's a IQ booster game too you can get which has all types of puzzles.
OMG-Alphie ROCKED!!!! I might still have him somewhere...
My brother had our original NES until about a year ago when his ex g/f stole it. I implored him to try to get it back- you can't beat original Super Mario.
i second the uno.. but you should get the uno attack version that has the machine with it. it's awesome!! my friend and i have played it for hours (and that was like 2 years ago) it shoots random amounts of cards out at you when you don't have anything to put down. it's nervewracking but super fun and my 6 yr old nephew can play, too.
i also loved my 'scrabble: sentence game for juniors' game.. which i have to admit i only parted ways with a few months ago when i cleaned out my old stuff from my parents house. it was set up like scrabble but instead of having letters on the tiles it had pictures and short simple words, so you had to piece together a sentence. idunno why i kept so much of that old stuff.. my friends kids really made out like bandits. i told them it's not too often a 4 & 6 year old hits the jackpot when a 28 year old 'woman' moves and has to get rid of stuff.
Bubbles, playdough it is alot of fun get them the playdough tools so they can make any shape of food.
The one game that I used to love so much when I was a kid and I still do now is Connect four. Me and my sister used to have such contests it was like we were playing for a million dollars.
I'm telling you when we were playing you couldn't hear a pindrop in the house. Everyone had to be quiet. LOL
Get them one of those kid ovens so they can bake desserts in it. But you got to watch them on that.
Get them waterballoons and water guns and let them have waterfights.
Pages