The Parents Daily is your source for advice and information for rasing your kids.
Author: Gary Clay Article source: http://www.articlealley.com/. Used with author's permission.
Choosing presents, especially at Christmas can be fraught with danger. This danger is compounded when buying for children even more so if you don't have any children of your own! So what do you do when searching for perfect presents for children and how do you ensure you buy something that is going to please both child AND parent?
When buying gifts for kids there are really three main age ranges - Under 2s, Under 10s and Over 10s. Each age group has it's own particular dangers and it makes sense to tackle these independently.
Under Two Years
Young children have special needs and toys designed for this age group will have had to face extra testing, for this reason the first thing you need to do is make sure you buy from a reputable retailer. That bargain on e-bay might look great but when Mr Teddy's eyes fall off and junior decides to eat them you won't be flavour of the month when the family are sat in casualty instead of round the dinner table enjoying that turkey!
There are three types of toy that are ideal for under threes
? Teethers and Rattles (for kids under 12 months) These toys have taken on new dimensions in recent years and you can now find all sorts of exciting and stimulating designs.
? Soft Toys. The vast majority of kids will at some point in their lives love a soft toy. Get in early and buy them that heart melting favourite and you'll be in the good books for years and part of their lives forever!
? Learning Toys. These form a number of different varieties including stacking and sorting toys (putting shapes through holes), activity toys (play gyms, baby walkers etc)
Under 10 years
If you stick with quality traditional toys here you can't go far wrong. Most parents won't complain your turning their children into video game addicted couch potatoes and you'll also be aiding the child's development (As proven by a team of U.S child psychologists!). Good quality wooden toys will last beyond Boxing Day and chances are will beat the Playstation game hands down. You'll find a growing range of quality traditional toys due to a backlash against the electronic games industry for both girls and boys.
Over 10 Years
Modern children of this age are very street wise and will take great delight in telling you your carefully wrapped offering is ?pants', so when buying for this age group you need to box clever. There are certain safe bets when it comes to kids of this age including.
? Into Music? Then why not buy them a download voucher from Itunes or similar
? Into Film? Cinema vouchers are great, dig deep and you can get them enough to take a few friends along too and no doubt mum and dad will thank you for the 3 hours of peace and quiet!
? Into Saving the Planet? Oxfam have a great range of ethical gifts you can buy for communities on their behalf. I was quite shocked by this but modern teens actually think that you buying a donkey for a drought ridden community in Africa is actually pretty cool!
These are just a few ideas that hopefully will fuel your imagination and mean that when little Johnny wakes up on Christmas morning he might think you're the greatest, well at least for 10 minutes anyway!
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