Need suggestions!

Hey everyone!

My monsters turn 5 in April and I need some ideas and suggestions, of things that you KNOW are good. Please suggest anything and everything your kiddos like, where they actually LEARN something.
We are having a big Star Wars party and I know what they want as far as this goes.

Thank you bunches in advance!

 

My kids love sequence math and jr. monopoly. Both teach math skills.

 

Timothy, in particular, loves games. We have a ton now thanks to bdays and xmas. Probably the favorites are Connect 4, Sequence for Kids, Rummikub, Blokus and Monopoly Jr. He doesn't read well yet, but loves the math and logic games.

For just general fun, Lego's are still big. You might also do a pass for a museum or zoo or a subscription to a magazine like National Geographic for Kids.

Marissa

 

Legos are a HUGE hit here. Ryan is really into the Star Wars & Indian Jones Legos. We also have Leapsters and they have lots of cute educational games.

 

Lego!

 

Someone gave us the game: Royal Rescue last year and my kids loved it! So for Christmas we bought another one that is similar called Castle Logix. It is a really smart game.

Here is a link: Royal Rescue

Castle Logix

 

Mine LOVE automoblocks. They are not only educational but are quality toys that don't break after being played with a few times. This is a link to them:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=automoblocks&x=0&y=0

They also really like Zoob, especially the Zoob man. They encourage creative play and motor skill development. A link to Zoob:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=zoob&x=0&y=0

Stacking cups are something that they are into lately and are doing at school in P.E. They help develop hand eye coordination and are a lot of fun. I have to say I am impressed with how well they can do them!

 

Games are a big hit with my 5 yo (girl) as well (Zingo, Jr. Scrabble, Monopoly, the German Haba games). She also loves her Princess (pink) Lego. Also she's really into children's encyclopedias, atlases, flags, etc (educational books). We got her a globe for Xmas, which she loves, she knows where we live, where grandma & grandpa lives, where she was born, where her friends moved to ... Another thing she loves are kids' cookbooks. She also likes the toys / puzzles with words, reading, etc. (we have Early Learning Centre toys here - UK thing) and they have a bunch of great stuff on who to learn to read, write, maths, clock, etc. We also have a magnetic letter box. I mainly buy educational stuff right now ... we have all the play stuff ... and it's so bulky as well. Besides the fact that she leaves for school at 7.25 am and is back at 3.30 pm ...

 

Thanks so much for all the suggestions!! This is great! I checked out all the links and love the ideas. I think we should be set! :crazy:

 

My kids are more hands on type. I bought a dry erase board and hung in the kitchen and we practice our words, letters and numbers on it. They have so much fun with it and I do too!