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25
Aug
It is increasingly difficult to find a toy that can hold his interest for more than a week.
We bought a motorized bike for Little Edison two months ago. During the first week, he was extremely excited about it. He rode on the bike as soon as he reached home from school. He refused to come down even when the battery was flat.
Little Edison riding the motorized bike around the neighbourhood
But his excitement dies down very quickly. He still rides on the bike now but less frequent – only when he sees his little friend next-door cycling and he wants to join the fun.
Last week, we bought an inflatable pool for him. My FIL diligently pumped the pool, trimmed the grass in the garden and set-up the pool nicely for dear Edison. He was super excited and spent the whole afternoon in the pool. My FIL even said that he took his afternoon nap in the pool! When he was asleep, my FIL then carried him out of the pool.
Little Edison playing with my iPhone in the inflatable pool
Feedback from my MIL is that he even wants to eat in the pool. So, she feed him lunch inside the pool. But again, his excitement dies down within a week. Now, he doesn’t even bother to go near it.
Do you still buy toys for your preschoolers? Are these toys able to hold his / her interest for more than a week? I’d love to hear from you.
Update on 8/30: Thanks for all your comments and ideas, I really appreciate them.
- Published by Emily in: Everyday Things
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24 Responses to “Do You Still Buy Toys for Your Preschoolers?”
I bought a leap pad explorer recently for her birthday present. Its is pretty interesting and can learn a lot for edison. You can try google and see.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your recommendation. Is it a game or educational laptop? I heard of leapster, is it the same?
Hee, i know what you mean. love at first sight but short span.
following are toys that has remained as Shawn’s staple for coming 2+ years already. he plays with them almost everyday. still in v gd condition. so it’s really worth buy for us although it does cost quite a bit
1) ELC farmyard
2) Playmobil Noah’s Ark
3) Lego Duplo (many sets)
4) Bicycle
Hi SY,
I like Playmobil too, but HB said that it’s too expensive. So, it remains in the KIV list for sometime. Haha! As for bicycle, we have two at home but they are really under-utilized. He doesn’t like cycling, strange… cos I thought all kids love cycling, except him.
Its like a Ipad but its for children produce by leapfrog. Most of the games are quite educational. Its the next version of leapster. Now everyday I tell my DD if she is a good gal during the day time she can play leappad during the night time. So far this has been working.. Another form of treat to let her behave well
Hi Amy,
Like iPad? Sounds cool. I saw a mommy organising a spree with Amazon to buy this Leappad at US$99. I shall check it out at Robinsons first.
I’m quite selective about toys cos storage space will definitely run out some day. So far, the various blocks sets bought at 1+ year old have been regularly played with till now 2.5 years old. We just bought a balance training bike to help him learn to cycle.
We’ve a similar motorized bike (a gift). It doesn’t require much motor skills learning, so isn’t challenging enough to hold interest. The training bike is a better long-term investment as it’s much more challenging.
We bought several ELC HappyLand sets for pretend play. Quite well-received after a year too.
Generally, the simpler and more creative the toys allow the child to be, the longer play span it has. After getting the blocks and pretend play sets at 1-2 years old, we hardly have to buy new toys. More of getting puzzles and books nowadays.
Hi Mievee,
I agree that books and puzzles are better choice now. We’re increasing his book collections too, and we read together almost everyday.
My Bub has never tired of her cooking toys! And a few fave stuffed toys too. She imagines all sorts of scenarios with them.
I think that inflatable pool your boy has will be a fave for a long time to come though!
Hi Corsage,
I bet most girls love cooking toys. I loved them too when I was young, haha! I bought one for Little Edison a year ago. Now, he hardly plays with them, so I packed it and put them in the store. They have been collecting a lot of dust since then.
I realized very late how stupid am to pamper her with so many toys!!!! Being the only daughter to us we kind of bought everything a child will ask and that was super waste of money!!! She hardly plays with them. Once she turned 3 I completely stopped buying toys as such. We got her lots of puzzles, coloring books , painting stuff, and since she’s a girl she lives soft toys. Now she’s four yrs plus so no more toys literally. She has kitchen toys which she plays once in a while. No more with soft toys , she pretends to okay school !!:) other than that she’s a book worm , loves books.. I read out a lot of books to her. Got 2 library cards to borrow more! Apart from that I set up a bookshelf full of books to inculcate reading habit. As it’s high time for her. That’s about it. Hey ur inflatable pool looks awesome My dd kept asking for one but not possible in an HDB
Hi Lacy,
Books are really good. We visit the library quite often too, but we never borrow the books – cos I tend to forget and didn’t return them on time. Haha! The inflatable pool is really good, I bought it at ToysRUs. He can have a dip when the weather is warm.
Oops typing error. I mean she loves soft toys and plays school with them
Heya
I came across your site while surfing. I have a 3.5 yr old boy. My husband loves to buy him toys. darth vader costume, transformer figurines, soldiers and beyblade. yes, these keep him entertained, it’s been months. sometimes, i find him playing by himself, but his highlight of the day, is waiting for papa to come home, and they play these together! that’s the real reason why they have holding power.
we’ve stopped buying books, because my home is now turning into a mini library. he loves reading. we’re now big fans of the local library. we do lots of art and craft, so every month we are buying paints/ glue/ paper/ glitter/ stickers etc.
the other thing we indulge in is, dinosaur, reptile and insect toys. he loves them to bits. he’d play with them, jar them, try to catch real bugs, watch documentaries on them and borrow books from the library to learn all abt their species.
Hi May,
Thanks for visiting my blog. My hubby is totally opposite from yours. He is a minimalist – rarely buy toys. I’m the one who is buying them. Recently, my boy has interest in guns. He pretends to be a soldier, running and shooting around. Quite funny too. On the insect toys, I didn’t buy them cos I’m afraid of all sorts of bugs. Haha!
Haha. im afraid of insects too. thats why i encourage him to catch bugs so that he will be the one insectnapping round the home! tsk tsk.
If your in punggol check out if the Mobile library bus comes near ur neighborhood, Molly the mobile library comes near our block ever 1st or 2nd sat of every mth . So easy don’t have to go all the way to the library. I chose the SMS and e- mail alert option so I won’t forget to return back the books. Incase it’s due to return I just quickly go online and renew the books so I have more time in had to return them without having to pay fine. Just wanted to share this info.
Hi Lacy,
Thanks for sharing with me the Mobile Library. I’ve never heard about it… it sounds cool to me too!
Interesting blog. Hi Emily,i tink it’s very normal for kids to hav short lifespan on their toys, esp.when it comes to boys. Hence,not to worry too much. Wld like to share my 2cts tots… I’ve got 2 boys – 3.5yrs&7mths. My elder boy is a car fanatic. Hence,we wld buy differ cars for him each X we go shopping.Till now,he has 100 over cars. But we dun display em all at one time. We go by batches.Once,he is bored with tat particular ‘batch’ (which he does o e time), we will swop frm e storeroom. Sometimes u will be amaze tat toys tat r kept for long,makes new waves again. But wat is most impt is… Make it a point to join in the toys games with your kid, esp when Edison has got ‘no’ playmates at home other than you&ur spouse. Perhaps u may not realise it, but it certainly makes a lot of differ for your boy.
Hi Joyce,
You have a good point here. Old toys that are kept for long can make new waves again. I do that too, cos I don’t want my living room to be full of toys. I’ll usually keep some of them in the store room. Once in a while, I’ll take them out and rotate with the other toys. Oh yeah, we do play with him too.
For Jordan, some toys which managed to sustain his interest for the longest of time are … (1) Thomas & Friends MegaBloks (he only enjoys constructing the trains so we bought only the trains for him to construct), (2) Little Tikes Golf Set (I bought it last Christmas and it’s still a “must have item” for him everyday till now), (3) Leapfrog Words Builder (the one which you can place 3 letters to form a word) … it’s quite an educational toy.
Hi Jennie,
Is the Little Tikes Golf Set durable? I bought at least 3 sets (China brands) from Kiddy Palace. Our boy probably hit them too hard.. most of the balls are either dented or spoiled.. Haha!
Yes, Little Tikes is definitely worth paying for! Before I decided to spend more to get him the Little Tikes one, I already threw away at least 3 sets of those cheapo type (actually one of the sets I threw away was not exactly very cheap too as I paid more than 10 bucks for it). The previous sets were discarded as the clubs were either broken into half or dented by my violent Jordan. Wait for sale … I paid only $29.90 for the Little Tikes one when Toys R Us was having sale.
Hi Jennie,
I’ll try the Little Tikes one if his interest in golfing comes back. Haha! The cheapest set I bought was from Carrefour for just 5 bucks.. haha! But the clubs are mostly broken and balls are all dented. Wonder how much strength he use to hit the balls. He used to play everyday. My FIL will standby to pick up the balls for him.. sometimes the balls fly too high and they went to the neighbour’s garden too.
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