My little princess will be turning 4 in October.
I am looking for gift ideas. She loves to read, color, play outside. She loves games as well.
Thanks in Advance
This might sound crazy, but my 3-year-old daughter, when we were at my cousin's house, was playing with her son's toy night vision goggles and was absolutely nuts about them. She didn't want to give them up when it was time to leave and my cousin ended up buying her some for her birthday. The package said for ages 8 and up but we've been supervising her when she has them and so far she's been fine.
Anything Melissa and Doug - especially the cutting food
An art easel?
Any of the storybooks by Gyo Fujikawa - especially Oh, What a Busy Day. Her book Babies and another called Baby Animals (I think) are for infants so don't get those. Up until recently, almost all of her books were out of print and were selling for easily $40 to $100 on ebay if in good condition. They are beautiful, detailed books that will take up her entire lap. They were my favorites when I was that age, and the type of book that parents loved so much they want their children to read.
Does she like to dress like a princess? My 4 year old loves her Disney princess dresses. If you don't want to spend that much for them, Target has some nice ones too in their girl dress up section of toy isle. Even just tutu's she loves and can wear them when we go out too. She loves books too, but anything girly whether princess or Barbie is even better and will always get some Oooooohhhhh's whether her birthday or Christmas.
My grandson ADORES his kitchen play area!!! They have set up an adorable stove and refrigerator and they have been adding the wooden food, metal dishes and cooking utensils, and recently found a really cute wooden toaster to add to the mix. It is something that she could play with for years to come and you could just keep adding to it at each holiday or birthday. It is also a great things for we Grandmas...lots of things we can be on the lookout for!!!
Something that I am going to get together for my grandson is modeled after a gift that my Mother made up for my girls years and years ago...she found an old suitcase...spray painted it with fun gold paint and then filled it with dress up clothes!! Hats, gloves,shoes,long skirts, fancy blouses, scarves, clip earrings, necklaces, etc. They had hours and hours and HOURS of fun with it!!!
Anything to help spark her imagination and not tie her down to playing with it just one way is fantastic at this age!!
There is a game called I Can Do That it is a cat in the hat game Very cute and active with no winner, mine just turned four and she got an ABC and text electronic game, the games are easy enough for her to play and it is little enough for her to carry around, she really likes it.
Here are the toys my daughter really liked playing with when she was 4:
Disney Princess dress up clothes
Barbie computer
Play kitchen and toys
Play store and toys
Leapster and game cartridges
Scooter
Candyland game
Chutes and Ladders game
Memory Match Game
Crayola brand art desk
Disney Princess Pretend Beauty Playset
Ride-on toys
Tricycle
Happy birthday to your daughter! You've gotten a lot of great suggestions already. I wanted to let you know about Discovery Toys, as we have a lot of great products for kids, including many new toys that just came out this fall. Here are a few of my favorites for a 4 year old girl with your daughter's interests:
Garden Works (fun gardening toys & tools for outside): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
Princess & The Dragon Set (book with CD + game + Dragon puppet - available as a set or as three separate pieces) The book and the game are really cute and really fun (haven't seen the puppet in person but I hear it's cute too): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
Big Hungry Bear Collection (same idea as above): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
Sounds Like Phonics: Short Vowel Fun (a fun card game, kind of like Uno or Crazy Eights, but with words): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
Sounds Like Phonics: Letter Fun Lotto (fun Bingo-style game with multiple variations of how to play): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
Playful Patterns (create different pictures/mosaics): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
Zingo: (very fun bingo-like game): http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/esuite/control/product?P...
I hope you find something that will be perfect for her. All of my toys are available at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao
If your daughter really loves reading and games, I can't recommend the book collections enough! They are both really nice books and each game comes with multiple variations of how to play. The accompanying CDs are also nice for the car or if you have a child who loves to listen to music as they wind down at bedtime (it's reading the story with music in the background).
K.
I've had card table playhouses made for my girls 2 years ago. They are great because they are easy to set up, indoors or outdoors. They are a bit pricier now than what I paid for but you can still customize to your hearts content. She can play pretend and do her coloring in her little house.
here is the link to the seller. This particular one was originally ours a http://www.etsy.com/listing/28384460/post-office-card-tab...
These are what we have
Post office
School House
Grocery Store
Boutique with paper doll figures the kids ca dress up
2 cottages for each childs with their name on it
Seller has a library now would be perfect for your little reader. She will even customize these to fit your existing table.
Check her out if my ling does not work she is on etsy.com and her user is missprettypretty
I recently bought an inexpensive camera for my 4-year old granddaughter.
a little cute superhero cape. My sons love them and when little girls come over to play, they love to dress up in them too:
markers crayons and construction paper. scissors and glue its amazing how these simple things will keep them happy for HOURS lol
Because kids at that age have such unique preferences (we have a 4 year-old son), we took him to Toys-R-Us, Target, Walmart several weeks before his birthday, paid really close attention to what he was playing with and took pictures with our phones to send to family members who were asking for ideas.
Our son has a great imagination, so we're asking primarily for books right now. He's really into his letters. We've gotten him a few work books from Target/Sam's Club for preschoolers. He can't get enough of them.
Costco also has cheap sticker books - the ones that you match the picture and description to the sticker or that teach colors, counting, etc. Both of our kids (2 year-old daughter, too) go through those like candy.
Build-a-Bear is also a huge hit in our house right now. Any clothing, accessories, etc. is a great gift idea - I don't mind because it sparks the imagination and keeps them being creative instead of in front of the TV.
Our daughter all time favorite toy was called "The Twizzler".. It is a spinning handle bar you hang from a tree.. She spent so much time on that thing.. When kids came over they fell in love with it too.. We have photos of her in a Tutu and cowboy boots spinning on it, she has the biggest smile..
Here is one on Amazon, I have purchased them at lots of the independent toy stores sell them.
http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Swings-Twizzler-Fun-Ride/dp/... .
If she hasn't seen the movie The Princess and the Frog, you should get it for her; if's a bit different than most disney movies but it is my favorite out of the recent ones.
