At What Age? - Dallas,TX

Same problem at my house except my son would rather read than play with toys. He does still like his legos. And needs a bigger bike. but i'm stuck as well. Giving money and letting them pick just doesn't seem like enough fun.

Normal.
What about a basketball hoop for the driveway?

My kids don't really play with toys anymore - girl 7 and boy 9. They like legos and building stuff, drawing and art stuff, video games, board games, playing outside etc. NONE of the batman, spider man etc action figures EVER got played with here. DD plays with Barbies sometimes but really just likes to change their clothes.
Check out the Snap Circuit kits on Amazon.com
Razor scooter?
Soccer goal
nerf boomerang
new ball
croquet set

My daughter just gave away about 4 large bags of toys from my 7 year old grandson. She says he is too busy with sports, loves to play outside, occassionally play his DS and they play board games a lot. He helps his dad trap hogs or weld, so he is active and loves it all. He just has never played much with actual toys. He's all boy, loves to play ball of any kind or wrestle or play chase, etc. But gets bored when he sits down to just play with random toys. Your son is perfectly normal! Most people would love for their child to get outside more!! Enjoy him! Ideas for Christmas Maybe plan a Christmas trip or something to a theme park for the entire family, get him swim lessons at the "Y" or somewhere, baseball or football camp of some sort, since he loves that!

It seems to me that children are reaching that "growing up" point so much faster than we did. I reluctantly put away my barbies when I turned 12. Mostly because I was entering Jr. HS and didn't want to be make fun of. ;)

I would be grateful he is into sports. So many kids now-a-days are into video games, phones, ipods, and whatever else. At least he's active. Maybe let him pick some sports equipment for Christmas? Sign him up for Hockey, or something else exciting- Maybe tickets to some sporting events to go with Dad??

Best wishes-

You could ask your son if it's time to give some of the toys that he doesn't play with to children who need toys to play with. See what he says.

It's clear that right now he's in love with athletics. Your challenge is to let him do what he enjoys and keep his life in balance at the same time.

You might mention to him that even the best athletes - you'll know what names will get his attention - do other things, too.

If he insists he doesn't need his toys, you could clear them out of his room or the playroom. But, if I were you, I'd keep a few in the house, put away - because he may change his mind.

For Christmas - tickets (with mom, dad, and a friend) to a sporting event coming to Dallas? Books about sports or players?

My son (9) has NEVER really been into toys. He likes DOING things, not pretending to do stuff (except for certain exceptions).

Part of that's my "fault". I never got him a play kitchen... he learned to cook with real food. We didn't have play tools, he helped with real ones. We don't have play cameras, we have real ones. He LOVES playing, but he mostly finds toys pretty uninteresting when the real thing is RIGHT THERE. He'd rather REALLY build something, than build a model of it. (EX: is a catapult. A slingshot, fine. He's down with that. But if he's going to build a catapult it's going to throw water balloons at trees, people, etc... not a plastic ball at plastic people)

The major exceptions are
- board games
- video games

Although it can be argued the real thing ISN'T right there. I mean... Portal2... can't recreate THAT and live. No United Nations Space Corps and Covenant and Cortana and universe to save in real life. He'll do dance games on kinnect (and looooooves them) right up until there's the option to REALLY dance with other people.

For my son... that's the bottom line: if the real thing is around THAT is what he wants to do. Not pretend to do the real thing. And like yours, sports and active play is a HUGE thing in our house. In the snow, or sun, we're outside 10+ hours a day (unfortuantely that's only 6-8mo a year... and only 2mo a year if we don't drive tot he mountains every day).

Filming stuff has been a HUGE
Swimming indoors has been huge (it rains here 10mo a year)
CLASSES (snowboarding, aikido, gymnastics, drama, rockets, etc) have been huge
MEMBERSHIPS have been huge
Musical instruments have been huge
His own cooking gear has been huge (his own knife, board, apron, etc.)
His own tools (hammer, flashlight, etc.) have been huge
Cameras have been huge (free to very cheap... but these are PRICEY cameras if we were buying them not on cybermonday or getting them as free handmedowns. They're not toy cameras)
Treehouses, also huge.

Those sorts of things are what play looks like in our house :)

Toys.... just not so much

You should be ecstatic that he wants to be outside! Most kids hate playing outside and have to be forced. I wouldn't worry one bit. It's not normal for kids these days, but it should be! As for Christmas, get him stuff he can play outside with since he loves being out there. Besides just sports stuff, there are lots of cool things for him to explore nature. Kudos to you for having a kid that likes the outdoors (:

The toys change as they age.
My son (just turned 13) will build anything - Legos, Kinex, he has several catapult kits he's built.
He's got a few RC indoor helicopters to fly and we're big Dr Who fans so he likes the RC Daleks Grandma sent him.
We've been doing more educational toys - stuff from Edmund Scientific
My husband has a boat, a real one, but you know what they say:
"The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys."

My son is 5 and he has never really been interested in toys. He loves sports, going to the park and getting underfoot when mom and dad are trying to get something done around the house.

wow that's sad....my boys are 7 and 5 and still play with toys all day long.........why don't u ask him what he would like? Wii sports?

Older boys usually stray from toys before girls from what I have noticed. They often still like the nerf guns, leggo building sets, gaming stuff and spots equipment.

What do you consider toys? Mine is 10.
He still plays with Legos and his people. He makes huge buildings fall on top of the enemies.
He also plays with sticks and nerf guns. We have a complete nerf arsenal. Even hubby has one.
The kids are getting rc helicopters for Christmas and he has a couple rc cars that he will torture the cats with.

So rc cars, helicopters about $30-$40 at Walmart
Legos they run from $10-$100's
Nerf
New basketball, soccerball, football
Get a football with his favorite team on it
nanobugs at Walmart
In Wireless magazine:
a sweatshirt where you fold your arms together and the pattern forms a shark or T Rex page 11
the Yoda bathrobe, oops, in whatonearthcatalog.com page 40
The NFL projector pen pg 6, in Wireless
favorite tv shows dvd, mine got M*A*S*H last year
Is he ready for a DS or PS3? We have a Wii
basketball hoop
soccer goals

Does he have a pitchback net? My boys, almost 6 and almost 9, would spend hours in the yard fielding balls thrown against that net. My older son isn't much into toys either so I too am having trouble coming up with gifts. He wants the Mindflex dual game, along with his brother, and a hot wheels RC car, that's it. We dis get him a radio/docking station for his iPod touch so hemcan listen to it in his room with speakers.

A snowboard and some lessons?

Can you drive to snow from where you are??