Kerileanne99 Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 So I am hoping a few veterans can help me with ideas:) I have a little one, with big ideas. I know more than a few of you in this forum will have had lots of experience with that! Mine is turning four in December, so I need ideas for both birthday and Christmas. The Basics: She is a math and science fiend these days, but loves art as well. Yeah, I know, four...but she can read just about anything put in front of her and is almost finished with Singapore 2B. I would say her favorite area of science is anything ocean-related. (She insists she is going to be both an oceanographer and an astronomer, lol.) This means that, combined with her age, she loves everything from the UK cartoon The Octonauts to reading serious non-fiction books and encyclopedias. She also loves anything 'new and exciting' math related. She did ask for "a ton of fun math books" by which she means living math books. We read at least one of these per night as our bedtime reading, and I have ordered 31 new ones to wrap up and read during December...sort of a math advent/countdown kind of thing. Fun, but this eliminates the request as a gift:( She also does Soroban, and has requested the next level of software, and has asked for the second Dragonbox app. Art wise, I have ordered a stack of new drawing books as she loves these and it has become a daddy/daughter nightly activity. Also, a ream of printer paper(to stop the printer raids!), and markers, pencils, etc. Things so far I have or family has gotten: A huge backyard playscape (partly to make things easier for wheelchair mom!) More ZomeTool Brock Magiscope Snap Circuits Rover More puppets/play silks for her puppet theatre So I really need a couple more ideas! Primarily anything aquatic, ocean, math, type theme. Obviously complicated by the complete asynchronous divergence of ideas! Oh, she has just about every Schleich creature and Toob you can imagine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 European-style board games Marble run Lego We-Do They aren't ocean-related, but they are all related to math and logic in some way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black-eyed Suzan Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 I thought of the Blokus board game. The Junior edition is for 2 players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 Are you looking for educational materials or toys? My ocean loving dd has been really excited about the Playmobil dolphin series. She loves this one and also this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted November 19, 2013 Author Share Posted November 19, 2013 European-style board games Marble run Lego We-Do They aren't ocean-related, but they are all related to math and logic in some way. She really likes Legos, so I wonder if the We-Do would be a nice next step? She can use the computer a bit, and it might be a nice way to involve mom and dad a bit more in her creations. Off to take a look:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted November 19, 2013 Author Share Posted November 19, 2013 I thought of the Blokus board game. The Junior edition is for 2 players. Thanks, I actually didn't realize there was a jr version. We have the regular set, but she would rather play a game of 'patterns' she invented on it! We all play together, according to her own rules:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted November 19, 2013 Author Share Posted November 19, 2013 Are you looking for educational materials or toys? My ocean loving dd has been really excited about the Playmobil dolphin series. She loves this one and also this one. At this point for her there is not much difference between educational materials and toys:) and I am quite happy with that as it saves me a bit of money. We have loads of Legos, so I never really looked at the Playmobile stuff...but I think she would go nuts for the ones you linked! It seems to be a nice mix of educational/imaginative play. We took her to Sea World last month and she was absolutely heartbroken that she could not do all the behind the scenes tours due to age...so much so that we are taking her back in January as she will then meet the age requirements. The Playmobile aquatic vet set looks like something she would really, really enjoy! Thanks for the idea:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uff Da! Posted November 19, 2013 Share Posted November 19, 2013 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Magic School Bus kits are going over well with my advanced 3.5 year old. Homeschool Buyers Co-op is about to start a 50% off deal on a year-long subscription. Maybe the Life of Fred elementary set? DD loves them and requests that I read from frequently. A camera to document her trip to SeaWorld? Does she do dress-up? DD is getting a lot of mileage out of a personalized lab coat and scrubs. We put together a "real" doctor kit that gets almost daily use - stethoscope, otoscope, reflex hammer, blood pressure cuff, tongue depressors, penlights, thermometer, gauze, medical tape, all in a doctor bag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted November 21, 2013 Author Share Posted November 21, 2013 At age four, DD loved dissecting (with some help from mom and dad.) DS asked for a dissection kit for Christmas and, so far, no one has bitten. I'll be ordering specimens for him sometime this next year probably. We got the intermediate kit for DD. http://www.hometrainingtools.com/dissection/c/56/ Science kits in general went over and still do go over well. Magic School Bus kits have been the most user friendly ones that we've tried. Thanks, I always forget I can order specimens now:) She has commandeered my old dissection kit from back in the day, but...lets just say a new one might be in order! We are vegetarian, so I think that she believes that the fish/meat section in the grocery store is just the place to go to look for interesting creatures to take apart,lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted November 21, 2013 Author Share Posted November 21, 2013 Magic School Bus kits are going over well with my advanced 3.5 year old. Homeschool Buyers Co-op is about to start a 50% off deal on a year-long subscription. Maybe the Life of Fred elementary set? DD loves them and requests that I read from frequently. A camera to document her trip to SeaWorld? Does she do dress-up? DD is getting a lot of mileage out of a personalized lab coat and scrubs. We put together a "real" doctor kit that gets almost daily use - stethoscope, otoscope, reflex hammer, blood pressure cuff, tongue depressors, penlights, thermometer, gauze, medical tape, all in a doctor bag. I love the way you think:) I have done all of these in the past, with great success. Fred in particular, has made a home for himself at our house. I got her a subscription to MSB kits when the sale happened last year and it was a lot of fun. We made a portion of our Sunday afternoon 'Science Sunday' and did them as a family. It might be fun to investigate more science kits, although we are pretty well equipped for experiments around here now. The camera? Probably one of the reasons the last SeaWorld trip was so much fun. And I have literally hundreds of pictures of random people, random people's shoes, electrical outlets, etc., to go with the whales, dolphins, and penguins! One of the best gifts ever:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Your daughter is about 6-12 months ahead of my daughter, so it makes sense you've already done the things we're starting here! Since you already have my list, here are the things I haven't yet tried but are on my "next" list for DD. You may already have covered some of them ;-) Elemental Science Sassafrass series books Magic Tree House books Magic School Bus books and maybe DVDs More slides for the microscope The Way We Work by David Macaulay (we actually already have this but I hid it from her for a while. She was actually loving it as a read aloud, but some of it is over *my* non-science-y head so I need to pre-read a bit.) Games - Acuity, Perplexus Rookie, Sequence for Kids, Set Junior, Othello, Checkers, parcheesi, Skip Bo, mancala, Qwirkle, Rush Hour Jr, Can't Stop (this last one is OOP I think, but I snagged my mom' old board) We already have Uno and Rat A Tat Cat and she loves those Red Tool Box tools and kits Kiwi Crates or Green Kid Crafts Kapla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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