Nov 24 2009
Christmas Gifts for Under 3′s
What's the best gift for a young child? What presents would be suitable for 1 year old boy? What's suitable for a 3 year old girl? These questions are so common coming up to christmas time, and many people can be ill advised. Shopping for young children's gifts can be very hard, but if you follow the advice below you should have no problems selecting a suitable gift.
Newborn Babies – One Year Old Children
Newborn babies are fascinated by color, movement, shapes and sound. Children under the age of one don't really “play” in the way that older children do, as they have poor coordination and they have not yet learned how to pretend. Gifts for kids age 12 months or under should stimulate the senses of sight, hearing and touch.
Newborn babies and children 1 or below lack the coordination to “play” like older children do. What excites them is visual, audible, texture sensation. Gifts for this age range should be colourful, produce sounds, and have many different textures to stimulate the young child. Consider that young children put everything they can into there mouths, cardboard books are not really suitable for this saliva attack. Toys should be easy to wipe clean, not too heavy. But most importantly make sure they cant trap the fingers anywhere if the item has moving parts.
Some well received gifts for this age range include plastic books that produce sounds, stuffed animals/teddies, items with different colour/textured fabrics attached, and activity center mats and stations.
Toddlers Age 18-Months – Two Years Old
Toddlers between the age of 18 months and two years of age are toddling, walking, and exploring the world in a new way. Most two-year-olds do not yet have very good eye-hand coordination, so avoid toys and gifts that require keen dexterity and manipulation. Instead, find toys that encourage toddlers to think and hone skills like coordination and matching. Toddlers between the ages of 18 months and 24 months don't really play with other children per se, so holiday shoppers should avoid gift ideas that require more than one child (i.e., board games).
Toddlers are keen explorative children so finding a toy to keep them interested is difficult. Stick to toys that don't require precise manipulation/movement as they are still developing their hand-eye coordination. They generally don't play “together” so toys that require two or more children are probably best avoided.
Great gifts for toddlers include stacking bricks, simple train sets, puzzles that have very simple large piece's, push along vehicles. DVD's and videos are also a great item to buy a toddler at christmas, find out there favorite show and see if they are available to buy.
Toddlers Age 24-Months to Three-Years-Old
Gifts for this age are much easier to determine. The children now have better coordination, they observe activities closely, and are becoming very creative.
toys that imitate adult behavior are enjoyable to children this age, also things that can “make”, be creative with are good.
Some appropriate holiday gift ideas for two-year-old's and three-year-old's include kitchen play sets, a grocery cart and play food, a doctor kit, baby dolls, dress-up clothes, fairy or princess costumes, indoor tents for a pretend camping trip, car or train sets, a plastic tool kit or tea set, and large Lego-type blocks. Many kids between the ages of two and three will also enjoy a Christmas gift of art supplies like age-appropriate coloring books, crayons, washable non-toxic markers, Play-Doh, finger paint and sidewalk chalk.
Kitchen play sets, garage set, vacuum cleaners etc are all good items to buy children of this age. Also paint sets, play-dough, and colouring activities are well received.
This gifts are a guide that should inform you in making a decision on what gift to buy, there are many other alternatives to those mentioned above. My main piece of advise is to narrow down your search to two or three items and then ask the parents if they would be suitable gifts. Nobody spends more time with these children than there parents, they are the most valuable source of information available to you.
If you follow my guide all should go well this christmas when you go shopping for children's gifts, if you would like to see what gifts for children are hot this christmas visit Best Gifts For
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