Let’s Find the Gift That Really Fits Your Kid
A parent-to-parent guide to choosing gifts that match your child’s play style, grow with them, and don’t end up in the donation pile.
My book But I’m Bored is officially open for pre-order. I wrote But I’m Bored for every parent who’s ever questioned the hustle. Who’s looked at the endless enrichment options and wondered, “Is this really what my kid needs?”
This book is for you if you’ve ever thought:
What if we just… slowed down? What if play is the thing that builds everything else? If you preorder But I’m Bored and forward your receipt to ButImBored@penguinrandomhouse.com, I’ll gift you six free months of my paid Substack, Something Playful by The Workspace for Children.
This means six months of deeper support, practical tools, and behind-the-scenes insight, completely free, just for helping me bring this book into the world. If you’re ready for a more connected and less pressured way to parent, preorder But I’m Bored today.
Thoughtful gift giving is my love language- especially when it comes to children. Choosing something that helps them feel like, “This is exactly what I wanted!” in the moment AND something they return to over and over again is a challenge I love to take on. Each year, I try to help a few people in my IG community to find gifts for the littles in their lives by learning their child’s play style, developmental stage, and interests, and then taking it from there.
I did a few light ones in my IG stories over Thanksgiving weekend, but now, for my paid subs, I am going deep.
I wrote this post to feel like we are having a conversation about the child in your life that you want to wow with your gift-giving savvy. I want to help you understand WHY a certain gift will be a good one for this child and how to keep play going for years using that toy or material. I am not sure how or why, but I have been blessed with the ability to meet a kid and just know what would get them playing. Let’s get into it:
Here’s what you’ll find inside this post:
3yo loves cars, dump trucks, and garbage trucks
For paid subscribers:
4y, Loves potions, organizing, and outdoor play
6y art and creating things out of paper and tape
8 y, boy needs to burn energy in a small house
4.5.y Dress up, anything fancy, pink, or rainbow sparkles!
5y, loves paper!! Cutting, making books, drawing…
6y, loves her nugget- making forts and hideaways
3yo loves cars, dump trucks, and garbage trucks
Supporting vehicle play grows with your child when you approach it with curiosity and value. At three, children are often moving into a golden era of construction play. They’ve moved beyond the vroom vroom of their toddler years, and now they’re starting to create worlds those vehicles inhabit.
Here are some ways to support extended vehicle play because around four or five years old, vehicle play will transform again, and when you have the toys to support the play, it will grow exponentially. They’ll start to move into elaborate parking structures, create traffic jams, and other problems to solve. This is where executive function skills are practiced.
Around five to seven, you can expect vehicle play to morph again. Now they’re building towns and bridges with specific weight and symmetry requirements. They are using their newfound confidence and dexterity to build bigger and more detailed worlds to support their vehicles.
So.. what to avoid and what to invest in?
Avoid themed play sets, and aim for materials that say yes to a variety of ideas. When you spend money and take up space with the big parking garage, you will probably get a lot of excitement on upon opening, but come February, it’ll probably be collecting dust. Why?
Because today’s parking garage is tomorrow’s car wash and next week’s fire station.
Instead, think ahead about play. How can you meet their interests where they are now and still be ready to go when those interests go deep, or change?
These materials grow WITH them. The blocks that make a simple garage at 3 become the multi-level highway at 6. The flexible roads adapt to every idea. The simple wooden truck? Still getting used years later because it does exactly what their imagination needs, nothing more, nothing less.
These are the materials that won’t end up in the donation pile. They’re the ones that hold a thousand memories because they supported a thousand different ideas. That’s the difference between a toy that entertains and tools that empower.
4-year-old loves potions, organizing, and outdoor play
Potion play gets really fun around four. They’re organizing materials, mixing ingredients, and moving their bodies…it’s exactly what they need.
They’re building executive function as they play. They plan “recipes,” follow steps, and change course when something flops. They’re forming hypotheses and testing them, without even knowing it’s science. And this kind of play grows with them.
At five or six, it becomes about measuring and following recipes. Around seven, it shifts again. Now they’re inventing experiments, opening “businesses,” and making big creations with friends. The play is still fun, but now they’re learning how to learn. That’s the magic.
So... what’s worth buying and what’s going to get crusty and forgotten?
