Looking for some great ideas for gifts for an 8 year old not-too-girlie-girl. (She's no longer into dolls and princesses, etc.) She is at a loss for what she wants and now so am I! What are you getting for that special 8-9 year old girl in your life? Would love to hear your ideas, big, small, all price ranges. Thank you!!
I pad mini we are splitting the cost with grandparents. So it is a gift from parent/grandparent. She loves to read and do math games on my I pad :). This is something I hope she will use for years.
My daughter is 10 and she's not very girlie either. I got her a lot of arts and crafts, books, CD's, a DVD, DS games, clothes. She's also getting a snow board as her big gift. She's been asking for one for two years.
I watched two 9 year olds and a 7 year old play for hours with a kitchen science kit. They definitely made a mess, but they loved seeing the different chemical reactions. Maybe a learn to sew kit or another craft kit (recently saw one to make your own scarf, something to paint etc). Video games if she has any system to play them on. My 7 year old is begging for an ipad mini. Legos if she likes to build things.
There might be some fun board games that she in now old enough for. MY almost 8 yo loves UNO and UNO attack.
My niece just turned 9 in October. I got her a shirt, hair bands and Lego Friends.
Does she have a DS? You can get her some games. Also Michaels, Target, Walmart has arts & crafts kids for just about anything. Giftcards are also great although not very personal but to go along with another gift maybe. Or is there a cute picture of her with her cousins that you can frame for her. Does she like to read? You can get her some books. I don't know many "girl" series but my 8 year old son loves the How to Train your Dragon Series by Cressida Cowell.
I loved board games and art supplies at that age. Was really into both and I think many eight year olds are. A bike or scooter is also a great gift if she needs one of those, or some kind of skates. Tickets to a play or musical performance/concert could be fun too.
Also, check out the Discovery Toys I have to offer. Several are great for eight year olds!
1. Mosaic Mysteries - create dozens of different mosaics using the different colored tiles. It's a great independent game. http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...
2. Wiz Kidz - my favorite! I love playing this game and can't wait till my son is old enough to play it too. Choose two cards to oair a letter of the alphabet with a category, and think up a word that fits the category starting with that letter (ex: things found in the classroom, letter "s"). Play for points (each letter has a point value), number of cards collected, or use a timer to race against time. Super fun for kids and adults. Makes a great stocking stuffer and is easy to take on the go. http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...
3. Fairy Tales Puzzle - 1500 piece puzzle that weaves in characters and scenes from popular fairy tale lore. Fun to put together and to try to identify the stories. http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...
4. Pond Puppies - two puzzles in one. A smaller, 100 piece circular puzzle fits inside a larger 900+ piece puzzle. Complete just the small one or do the whole thing for an even bigger picture of cute puppies. http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...
5. Solar Energy System - build a solar energy panel and power three different included devices. Also comes with extra experiments and information. Very cool science kit for older children. http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...
If you have questions or want more information, don't hesitate to ask. You can view these toys, and all of our other products, at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao Everything comes with a lifetime warranty!
when my girls were that age they wanted things doing with their interests. Playmobil was a HUGE gift that Christmas and many others. They would play with them for hours and even the 13 yr old would have friends over and they would all go to the basement and play with the Playmobil stuff.
Older daughter - telescope, science experiment kits, board games, stickers (she would do complex pictures with them), logic oriented toys like those ones where you have to get the ring off the stick or the two rings apart, magic kit (if you go to Chalkboard they have lots of neat unique stuff), K'nex and legos, zoobs
Younger daughter - baking and cake decorating things, art supplies, notebooks and journals and fancy stuff to write with, lip gloss and nail polish,
Both of them loved the box of 64 crayons at that age, sounds silly but they did think of them as special (and I do home daycare so we always have a ton of crayons around here, lol), magnatiles, barbie stuff - like the kitchen set or the vet set and I think we bought the big house for Barbie when my older daughter was that age, American Girl dolls and stuff (again, they both decided this past summer to not be as into them and get rid of a whole bunch of stuff, but they were 10 and 13 by then, the younger one loses interest when the older one does.
I think that year for each of my kids they were really into outerspace in school so the older one got the telescope and then when the younger one was that age she wanted the zoo set of Playmobil stuff.
My kids did not get video game or computer oriented stuff that young, and I'm very glad for that. They played and had fun and enjoyed being a kid for a lot longer then lots of their classmates. They were not immature by any means, and they both have wide social circles, in fact our house is where the kids wanted to always come cause we still had lots of toys and things to DO.
Edited to add - omg can not believe I left off books and puzzles (the 100 to 1000 piece kinds), duh
maybe something musical like a small instrument (recorder, keyboard, something like that) or a science kit? scrapbooking?
Things my 9 year old daughter likes...
-Radio/CD player for her room
-Science kits (She especially like chemistry experiments)
-Snap Circuits
-Art/craft kits, supplies
-American Girl Magazine subscription (She's not a big reader but LOVES this magazine.)
-Legos
Thanks for posting the question. My soon-to-be 8 yr old daughter is kind of the same. Her Christmas list consists of American Girl items and more stuffed animals. Both things we don't want to buy! I did look on Amazon for off-brand 18" doll accessories and found a few reasonably priced. We might end up buying the off-brand stuff just cause we don't know what else to get her.
She loves art & crafts so we're looking at: Alex Toys Knot a Lot 3 Piece Fleece Craft Kit, Faber Castell Create Your own 3 bitty books. She's at an awkward stage where she wants to sew but just isn't patient enough to do it yet (maybe next Christmas when she's almost 9) so we're hoping the knot tying kit will be more appropriate. I also plan on going to Hobby Lobby and see what kinds of art kits for kids they have. When I'm at Hobby Lobby I am also going to get various art supplies for both my kids (things that you don't see at Target) so each has a box of new supplies.
My daughter is more of the outdoorsy type so we're also looking at a new bike, an outdoor explorer set or some other outdoor game. Just found a game called Snipe Hunt that looked fun!
Does she enjoy listening to music? My daughters only request this Christmas is for an MP3 player! Of course she's getting more then just that =)
3DS??
My just-turned 9 year-old likes Legos, movies, games, microscope, sea monkeys. She also likes the Monster High dolls which are not traditional girly dolls and are something kind of different. She likes some technology too. There are some adventure-style games where you have to complete quests and figure out puzzles to get to the end. Big Fish games has some (she likes doing this on Grandma's iPad), and there are some for Wii and probably other gaming systems as well. Clothes are good; mine got a pair of boots for her birthday and loves them.
You can always get her a gift card and take her shopping or to lunch and a movie.
I have a daughter this age and here is a small lust of things I have bought already: a tablet, I bought the galaxy, logo friends sets, they have a reallg cute girl line, she loves to play school, so I bought a few things from the teachers store, I bought her this thing where she can design outfits and color them in, and a microphone thst hooks to a mp3 player so she can s I ng to here fav songs and lastly u bought her 1 direction tix for a summer show. Sorry for the rambling, but I went through the struggle 2 yrs ago and any suggestion helped. I also thought about a karaoke machine, but am thinking against for selfish reasons--shed love it but ne ver get off of it.....hoope this list gives you at least one more idea
8 is a great age for a lot of new arts and crafts projects -- check out a local hobby or craft shop and you'll see kids aged 8+ that are cool and interesting, paint by numbers, latch hook, etc.
We are getting our 8 year-old daughter a microscope for Christmas along with some science books. This is such a tough age!
Microscope, quality telescope, geology kit, chemistry kit, selection of fossils and a rock hammer, Erector set (the ones with motors), Robot building kit (there are some really cool ones for this age group), model ship/airplane, books, Kindle, 'grown up' art supplies - acrylics/oils, oil pastels, good quality colored pencils, pottery lessons, potter's wheel, a loom. Subscription to an appropriate magazine, membership at your local art or natural history museum.
