Favorite Gifts for 3-5 year olds!

Perfect Gift Ideas for 3-5 Year Olds that Inspire Learning and Development

In keeping in line with my last post on toys that inspire open-ended play, I thought I’d camp out on favorite toys during these magical preschool/kinder years! I love this age. It is a time when imaginations really start to kick into high gear and our children are eagerly exploring their environment. They question everything and they love to use their senses to experience the world around them.

So here are some of our favorites for the 3-5 year old crowd:

Costumes & Books – My philosophy of education during this stage is to stoke their curiosity by learning about INTERESTING things. Kids love to ask questions. Introducing our kids to great books, encouraging free, imaginative play and talking with them about anything and everything gives them such a wonderful foundation. As such, pairing costumes and books is a favorite gift combination as is reflected all throughout this 31 day gift guide series.

Of particular interest might be:

Colored Wood Stacking Bowls. I love Waldorf-inspired wood toys and these gorgeous bowls top the list. My babies and toddlers love to stack them and find hidden ‘treasures’ that we’ll place under some of them. My preschoolers have played lots of sorting games and they have come in handy as my boys have played all kinds of imaginary games – including ‘house’. For all of their macho, rough and tumble tendencies, they also love family and have played ‘house’ with surprising frequency. If bright primary color aren’t quite your thing they come in natural stain, cool or warm colors. I was at my sister’s house this week and noticed that her kids have a set too which means that all 3 of us sisters have purchased these beauties for our kids! Beautiful wooden bowls and colored bugs are the perfect combo for developing important preschool skills.

Bug Counters (we use these for counting, building patterns, sorting by color or by type of bug, etc) I love these and they pair beautifully with our wooden bowls.

Lauri toys are perfect for the preschool age!

Lauri Toys – Do you own any Lauri toys? They are simple, portable, and engaging. Plus they have an excellent replacement policy. Lose or break a part of your set and they’ll replace it! If your kids are anything like mine, that’s a nice policy to have around. Here are a few of our favorites:

Color/Shape Sorter – I love this peg stacker/sorter. We’ve used it to learn colors and identify shapes. Plus it is a great way to hone fine-motor skills! It is a popular item that I’ll put in our bag when going to piano lessons or church and I need to occupy the little ones.
Pegs/Pegboard – another great Lauri toy. I like the box and handle that stores it all, making it easy to tote around and quietly occupy the preschooler.
Fit-A-Space – this set packs a powerful punch. It helps develop the pincer grasp (essential for writing), provides sorting opportunities, color comparisons, and fine-motor dexterity as you put the puzzle pieces back together.
See-the-Difference-Puzzle – This is a great puzzle that hones visual discrimination.

Pattern Blocks and Boards – Melissa & Doug has a great pattern block set. Even a three year old can work on matching the colors/shapes to the boards. Plus it is a great toy that grows with your child. My older kids will make patterns on a table simply by looking at the pattern or will make their own. I printed and laminated some extra pattern cards from Confessions of a Homeschooler that I keep with our set.

Kitchen Play – All kids love to imitate life and a good deal of our life is spent in the kitchen – cooking, cleaning, and eating! Plus this is a great way to work on fine-motor skill development as you pour, stir, stack and cut!

Kitchen ideas: You can make your own with any of the ideas I’ve posted in my play kitchen pinterest board. I love the diversity of ideas out there. (An outdoor mud kitchen could be fun too!) You can also buy one. I prefer wood and these options are beautiful: turquoise vintage kitchen, classic red, and I’m partial to this unfinished wood kitchen because it’s the one we own. We found ours on Craigslist! As long as something is in good condition, your kids won’t know that it isn’t new!}
Food: We love these two sets that promote imaginative play and fine-motor skill development: Pizza, Fruit cutting. Here is an amazing collection of felt food tutorials if you are the DIY type!
Utensils: Greta enjoys her tin tea set and we’ve been happy with our Ikea dishes and pots/pans/utensils (crazy that you can also get these on Amazon) that she received for her birthday!

Gifts that Promote MOVEMENT.

Movement is so essential for wiring the brain to learn. I enjoy giving gifts that inspire my kids to go outside, to play hard, and explore.

Balls, sports equipment and such make for great gifts. We want our kids kicking, climbing and running. All of these strengthen vestibular stimulation which in turn promotes learning.
We love our Plasma car and having a set of plastic cones. This Spin n’ Saucer is a fun alternative indoor/outdoor toy to the Plasma car that provides lots of sensory stimulation.

Pairing a book and a real-life item make for some fun Christmas Gifts!

Flashlight + Book {Flashlight}
Flashlights and kids go together. My dad has a set of mag-lights in different colors that he keeps at their house. When the boys were younger, he’d come up behind and them and whisper and invitation to go hunting for “DANGER” with him. These advenutrous boys of mine were all in. I’m a big fan of wordless books and this book is breathtaking in showcasing the wonder awaiting discovery with a flashlight.

Umbrella + Book {Yellow Umbrella}
I don’t think there can possibly be a child who doesn’t like umbrellas. We’ve had a set of vintage-esque duck umbrellas in different colors for as long as we can remember. My kids love them. In fact, I wrote about how valuable they are as an open-ended play item back 5 years ago. So why not give the gift of an umbrella and a book to go with it. I stumbed upon this beautiful book at my sisters house several years ago. It is nearly wordless and the illustrations are stunning. I was bummed to see that it is out-of-print, but as long as you don’t mind buying a used copy, I think it would pair well with an umbrella and capture the imagination for some rainy day play. This book seems to beg for a yellow umbrella! We love our duck head umbrealla, but this one with the curved handle has great reviews for kid use and it is adorable.

Curious about cultivating these precious preschool years? Here are resources that I love to share every time I speak on the topic: