Gift for 5 year old son

[korber]

My son turns five next month and I have no idea what to buy him for his birthday. Any ideas? I think I want to get something for outside.

[NicoleWisconsin]

Suggestions for outside:
Bike
Basketball hoop
Soccer nets
Scooter

[ellidew]

I know they don't promote much in the exercise category but we got my niece a motorized Jeep for her 5th birthday.

[Littlelamb11]

For DD's 5th birthday, when deciding on the big ticket item, we decided she had enough STUFF and decided to buy her an experience instead. DH and I got her great seats to see Wicked and then we took her out to dinner.

[Renrel]

Balance Bike or regular 2 wheeler
some kind of water play thing - pool, sprinker ect
a bounce house- I have seen them for under $200 with great reviews and if you have a party the present is also the entertainment.
A swingset or climber
A set of real but child size outdoor tools - shovel, rake, broom, wheelbarrow, ect
I think they make a pogo stick that is easier for the younger kids
A scooter

[espresso]

DH and I got her great seats to see Wicked and then we took her out to dinner.



Did you really? Did she like it/understand it? I'm very curious about this! I LOVE Wicked!

[Littlelamb11]

Did you really? Did she like it/understand it? I'm very curious about this! I LOVE Wicked!

Oh, she LOVED it, but she had been begging to go since she was 3 and knew all the music by heart and knew the story from listening to the CD over and over so she knew what to expect. The minimum age for them to go is 5 so we figured it would be perfect for her big 5th birthday present.

She's my naturally very musically inclined kid. She totally got it but that's just how she thinks. It's in her blood. She was mesmerized by the whole show and was fascinated by how everything worked, asking us at dinner after the show how they made the monkeys fly, how the OZ head worked, had questions about the acting, staging, blocking and costume designs and was all into reading the bios of the cast members and learning what other shows they had done...

[espresso]

That's awesome! I'm an elementary music teacher and honestly I wouldn't have even though to bring a 5 year old! What a cool gift idea!

If she is musically inclined you should start her on piano lessons within the next couple of years. :)

Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread!

[redsoxphan]

We bought a mini trampoline and a bike when our child was this age.

[Littlelamb11]

That's awesome! I'm an elementary music teacher and honestly I wouldn't have even though to bring a 5 year old! What a cool gift idea!

If she is musically inclined you should start her on piano lessons within the next couple of years. :)



LOL, already on it. She's been taking violin lessons for almost 2 years (2 years in the fall), I've had her in music classes since she was 2 weeks old and she has been attending concerts (5-6year at least) since, well, since before she was born. :p Shes a total music geek in the making---and being a professional musician/ music geek myself, I feel qualified to say that. :p Her idea of fun after her daily practices is transposing her pieces into several different keys, creating variations and then sounding them out on the piano.

[Renrel]

Littlelamb - All I can is is Wow, you have a very gifted youngster on your hands.

Some non-outdoor ideas -

Leapster
wobble board or balance board
Gears Gears Gears
marble run building sets
Erector set (There are ones designed for this young an age)
Tinker toys
Lincoln logs
Magazine subscription
Jumpstart World subscription (computer learning games that down load automaticly as your kids completes each of the 12 sequences.)
Books, particularly ones to help with early reading, be that letter recognicion, phonics, putting sounds together, or reading simple words.
Hide and seek stick (you hide the stick and it makes noices to let you know you are getting closer.)
mr. Scrambles (a talking toy egg that leads games of simon says and relay races and the like.)
Kids on Stage (A charades game for pre readers)
Color wonder stuff
Playdough sets
Play mobile sets
Floor puzzles
Zingo
Balloon Lagoon
Caraboo

[espresso]

Her idea of fun after her daily practices is transposing her pieces into several different keys, creating variations and then sounding them out on the piano.

OMG!! How wonderful!!!

[Littlelamb11]

Littlelamb - All I can is is Wow, you have a very gifted youngster on your hands.



Thanks, but I don't consider her gifted. I think she's just a regular kid that happens to excel in certain areas. All kids have their strong suits. There was a girl in DD's K class that can draw things free-hand like my MIL who has a degree in art. My nieces are the same way. They inherited the artistic eye from grandma. DD OTOH, can draw stick figures at best...just like her mom. :p There a a couple kids in her class that are amazing with math--well beyond the basic Kindergarten level addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It was amazing to watch them work on the days I volunteered in the class math center.

DD's strong areas are music and reading. And I know reading came easy for her partly because of her musical abilities. It's just how her brain works. Kids are sponges and she's just absorbing what comes easily to her in mass quantities. I don't think she's gifted, just doing and learning what she loves. And playing instruments and reading in preschool doesn't seem out of the ordinary to me. She wasn't the only child playing an instrument in her Kindergarten class and most of her Kindergarten classmates started the year already reading so many of them must have been reading in preschool just like her. All I can do is support her in her interests and her love of learning and do what I can to feed those interests as she hungers to learn more and more. Right now, that's giving her the resources she needs for her work on violin and piano and being the constant shuttle to and from the library and allowing her take out stacks upon stacks of books. :)

[Littlelamb11]

I'm trying to think of some other ideas for experiences to give as a birthday present for a 5yo boy. Most are probably pretty basic. Tickets to shows or sporting events that interest them, day trips to a museum of their choosing or an amusement park, doing a small inexpensive weekend trip that centers around the child's latest interest. I just think if you don't have a useful THING that the child really could use for the birthday like a new bike, giving an enriching experience along with the gift of special one-on-one time with them would be cherished just as much, if not more.

[Renrel]

On Littlelambs idea -
I don't remember how old I was but I do remember my parents taking me to see Fiddler on the Roof for my birthday one year instead of a party. I was very excited to do something so grown up. I was suprised when I was told I could not sing along (I listen to the tape alot but was no where near a musically inclinded as Littlelambs DD, though I thought I was star material.) but I did not sing and remember bits and pieces of that night very clearly. For me it was the grown upness of the event that was so exciting. I was actually a little annoyed when my parents threw a mini suprise birthday party for me anyway, because I thought not having a party was sooo grown up.

Littlelamb - FWIW a child can be gifted in one area and average or even below average and special needs in another. Gifted kids are regular kids who excel in one or more areas. The extent to which they excel incomparison to the norm is where the label comes in. Since I can not even carry a tune and do not know what you mean when you say she can transposing pieces, so maybe I am unduly impressed. If most the kids here age who are exposed to music and taking an instrument are doing the same thing then I would not concider her gifted. If they are not I would consider her gifted. But the label is not important. You know your child has a passion and you are giving her the resources to explore it, which I think is the best thing you can do for any child, gifted or not.

[jh124]

FWIW a child can be gifted in one area and average or even below average and special needs in another. Gifted kids are regular kids who excel in one or more areas.


That sounds like any kid and every kid I have ever met.