Best Gift Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Buying gifts and toys for your little loved ones can be a hard, rough and tough process. Usually kids are the hardest family members to please especially when it comes to holiday and birthday gifts. How many times have you exploited your budget to purchase a toy to gift your child only to find out that it’s been discarded a few days later and sometimes hours? However, the one million dollar question is how to give your child a gift that is fun, entertaining, interesting and educational that they will love and cherish for years to come?

In order to successfully choose the perfect gift that is the most suitable for your child a set of steps must be followed. The following are the three golden steps that guarantee you a successful gift purchase process:

1. Understand clearly the child’s profile in a desired age group.

2. Define objectives and explore options.

3. Ascertain safety.

1. Understand clearly the child’s profile in a desired age group

Toddlers and preschoolers are confined in the age bracket of 18 months to 5 years. They are full of energy, active, always mobile and are filled with enthusiasm. They are very aware of their environment and surroundings via various sources such as television, friends and even story books or comics. Kids at this age start developing a sense of self-independency and ideology; they have their own taste when it comes to clothing, colors, toys and accessories.

Furthermore, toddlers and preschoolers have an imagination which is bound to no limits and tend to be very creative. In other words, to put in a much simpler way; the laws of physics don’t apply to them. According to them Superman can fly and shoot laser beams from his eyes and Sylvester the cat can actually speak English. They enjoy living in a world which is not bound to limits of logic that we adults live by.

2. Define objectives and explore options

This age group gives you the upper hand as it provides a wide variety of creative options of gifts for kids to choose from. Nevertheless, since the kids belonging to this age group have a high sense of awareness, selecting a suitable gift to suit the needs of your child can be very annoying and difficult. Moreover, there’s always a high chance that your gift might be rejected and never played with.

Always ask yourself the question “How can my child benefit form a good gift?”. Below is a list of possible gift options that are most appropriate for this age group, they also combine all the latest trends among kids.

a) Growth and motor skills enhancement

Toddlers and preschoolers grow very fast. They are increasing in height, weight and their physical ability is intensifying. Exploit this fact to your advantage by opting for toys and games that will motivate to work out and develop an ideology of exercise importance. The following are some possible options:

· Ride-on toys

· Roller skates

· Bikes and tricycles

· Swimming gadgets

· Ball activities

· Knock-me-down dolls

b) Help foment curiosity and alleviate learning

Since they are taking their very first steps into a new world unknown to them, they are keen on exploring the environment and their surroundings. In order to aid them in maintaining and growing their sense of curiosity and further widening their knowledge, the following are the perfect toys for this job:

· Lego kits

· Building blocks

· Theme sets

· Kids puzzle games

· Jigsaw puzzles

· Electronic toys

c) Gifts that motivate outdoor play

Now a day’s computers, TV and video games are holding our little ones prisoners indoors turning them into couch potatoes. In my opinion any gift that motivates your child to go outside play and explore the outdoors is the most perfect gift. Some of these gifts are:

· Mini Football kit

· Mini Soccer Kit

· Mini Baseball Kit

· Mini Basketball Kit

· Or any type of gift similar to the ones mentioned above should do the trick.

d) Stimulate creativity and imagination

It’s extremely important to make sure that our kids explore their creative and imaginative side. These skills are of utter importance to their future success. Unlike academic and physical performance, creativity and imagination can’t be monitored. The good news is that there is a wide variety of toys available that aid in ameliorating these skills.

· Ride-on toys

· Construction toys

· Stuffed toys

· Craft activities

· Musical instruments

· Coloring books

3. Ascertain Safety

Safety is one major issue to consider when opting for any gift especially with toys. Safety is surrounded by several aspects that need to be considered especially the ones related to the child’s age and his/her learning curve.

· Make sure the toy has no sharp corners or edges, but only smooth rounded edges and corners.

· Never gift a child of this age group a toy that they would go around shooting with e.g. shooting guns, bows and arrows…etc.

· Ensure that the toy is of high quality and won’t break easily causing accidents and injuries.