sweet2ndchance Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 For various reasons, we haven't celebrated Christmas in years. But we are celebrating this year at ds's request. Normally I have a running list in my head but I am just drawing a blank. He is 7 going on 8. His birthday is the day after New Years. So we are looking for birthday gift ideas too. He wants a skateboard but we live in the country. On a dirt road. A quarter mile away from the black top. Where the speed limit is 45 miles an hour. The nearest skate park is 45 minutes away. We plan on getting him his first bike as his "from Santa" gift as a compromise. It will be a mountain bike so he can ride it on our property and on the dirt and gravel driveways. He is a gamer kid, loves video games of all kinds but I'm wanting to stay away from buying him more video games. Maybe some video game inspired toys? He has a lot of Minecraft Legos (and a lot of legos in general) and while he likes Mario, I'm not really keen on getting him the Mario lego sets. He loves science and science experiments. His current aspiration is to be a scientist when he grows up lol. We have lots of science kits though. I've thought about Snap Circuits but I'm not sure he is ready for that. He is not reading on his own yet, so while he is getting some books for Christmas (because it used to be a tradition of mine before we stopped celebrating Christmas) getting him some book series he can't yet read isn't likely to go over well. He likes board games and card games. We have Uno, Monopoly Jr, Sorry, Candy Land, Connect 4, Battleship and many others. I bought a cribbage board at the thrift store and he is still asking me to teach him how to play lol. I thought about getting him Zingo to help with his word recognition skills. But we have no other kids living at home with us or in the general area to invite over to play. So he would be playing against adults all the time... not sure if Zingo would be a good choice in our situation. Opinions? Other options? Just need a few more ideas for Christmas/birthday presents that aren't terribly pricey (trying to keep each one under $50ish) and aren't just floor fodder (If anyone gets him more Hot Wheels cars this year, I might scream lol) Speaking of Hot Wheels, what can we slip in his stocking that isn't Hot Wheels lol. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purpleowl Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 My 6.5yo who loves video games also likes t-shirts with favorite game characters. Maybe a magic tricks book/kit? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drama Llama Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Last year my 9 year old got a stocking full of his own tools, which was a big hit. We have a workbench, but he still liked having things that were his own. If he likes strategy games like Battleship, Mancala, checkers, and Mastermind have been a hit here. If he is in that stage where he likes stories, but only ones that are too hard for him to read, what about audiobooks? The Bunnicula audiobooks are wonderful, and were a big hit when my kids were about that age. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Snap Circuits are awesome & he’s the right age Audio books any GameWright card games in his age range (zingo is more for preschoolers- my 5 year old is past it) cool bike helmet 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Oh adding reusable water bottle with stickers and cool science themed tee shirt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 16 minutes ago, purpleowl said: My 6.5yo who loves video games also likes t-shirts with favorite game characters. Maybe a magic tricks book/kit? Oh, magic kits! I bet he'd like that! 12 minutes ago, Hilltopmom said: Snap Circuits are awesome & he’s the right age Audio books any GameWright card games in his age range (zingo is more for preschoolers- my 5 year old is past it) cool bike helmet On the Zingo... he is still struggling to read BOB books. He is in vision therapy and looking into more testing to find out why he struggles so much with reading. He doesn't even score as kindergarten level on word recognition. Would Zingo really be below his level? Are there any other word games that might help a child that struggles with word recognition? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 There are some great ideas on this 2015 thread (not just for 8-year-olds). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) There are a ton of Mario-inspired board and card games: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mario&i=toys-and-games&rh=n%3A165793011%2Cn%3A166220011&dc&qid=1606091393&rnid=165793011&ref=sr_nr_n_1 (ETA: There are also Legend of Zelda-inspired ones. I have a gamer girl.) Edited November 23, 2020 by MercyA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Kinetic sand Aarons Thinking Putty for stocking 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopmom Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 47 minutes ago, sweet2ndchance said: Oh, magic kits! I bet he'd like that! On the Zingo... he is still struggling to read BOB books. He is in vision therapy and looking into more testing to find out why he struggles so much with reading. He doesn't even score as kindergarten level on word recognition. Would Zingo really be below his level? Are there any other word games that might help a child that struggles with word recognition? Ah so maybe the “sight words zingo” version. The original would be too easy/boring. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 SET is a game that involves no reading. Rubik's cube A juggling set I second the suggestion of t-shirts. I also strongly second the suggestion of audio books. Does he have a player of some kind? (CD player or something else appropriate to the format of audio books you select.) Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.