It’s about to be a summer of birthdays! My son who is the youngest child in his school year is going to turn 6 next month. But there are quite a few summer birthday boys in his class, so whilst he is the youngest, he’s not stuck at the end of August all alone while all his peers are nudging closer to age 7. He has a small group of friends who are like him… July and August babies, and they are now starting to turn 6.
We have quite a few party invitations on the fridge. His social calendar is pretty impressive! So I’ve been on the lookout for great gifts that we can give to his friends, when the next invitation rocks around. I think girls are often easier to buy for- there is always a fashion or beauty related game out, or something featuring a boy band. Plus there are some great authors – my daughter loves Jacqueline Wilson, so a box set of her books makes a fab present.
For boys, unless you are into the superheroes, I find it tricky to think of gift ideas. But then I discovered Orchard Toys- a UK company who make children’s games and jigsaws. I like the idea of gifting good old fashioned fun, because you never know what digital games and movies the kids have already got, plus the range is great value with most toys being under £10.
Here is my son checking out two of their games: Spooky Steps and Greedy Gorilla.
The games have educational value too, Greedy Gorilla teaches about healthy eating but it’s fun for the kids as the gorilla burps frequently during the game!
At the recent BritMums Live blogging event, I was given some Parragon Books to review. The titles I received were ‘Goodnight Little One’ and ‘Things You Never Knew About Dinosaurs’. My son has enjoyed reading these ever since, so they’d make a great gift for a party too. I’m encouraging my son’s independent reading at the moment, so he’s getting new books each month. Whilst he’s becoming more confident with his sounding out and observing the punctuation, I’m building on his sense of achievement by giving him slightly harder books to try, and it seems to be working.
I employed this strategy with his sister. When she was at this stage and could start to read unaided, I didn’t say “No” to requests to buy magazines and books for her when she asked me. I don’t buy them everything they want, but books and magazines – opportunities to read, are allowed at this stage, until that love of books is embedded in. My daughter now picks up a book whenever she can. Her love of reading has improved her spelling, her vocabulary, helped her mature, helped her understand the world, and now that pattern of behaviour is there, I don’t buy every book when she asks but I do encourage her to save up for it. I’ll do the same for him too.
So books are on my party gift list this year, along with some fun to play group games. What sort of things do you give for children’s party presents?
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[...] amazing what you can get on the internet! I’m planning my son’s upcoming birthday party and was browsing gift websites for ideas for toys and party favours for his goody bags. When [...]