Best Toys for Ages 4 - 10 Yrs Old

My daughter is 13 now, so I'm not familiar with the current fads, but I always found that no matter my good intentions her favorite toys were the one SHE showed interest in. I let her go through sales flyers with me and observed the things she gravitated towards. I paid attention in the stores and listened to her requests, while making a mental list. As a parent I wanted to get her the most educational items possible, as a child she wanted to play. She always ended up with a mixture of things ,but the stuff she used the most was always something that she had requested in the first place.

Games! My 5-year-old son also likes Zingo mentioned below, and loves Uno. Junior Labyrinth, Blokus, and Qwirkle are other fun games that he can play and are fun for adults, too! Over the summer, my 10 yr old niece liked Qwirkle, too, so it could last a while.

Of course it depends on the child but I would say
some popular ones are:

play dough and play dough toys
building toys (k'nex, blocks, legos, etc)
art and crafts (paint sets, beading, clay, model magic)
simple, classic board games (ask someone who works in Toys R Us)
toys that can be enjoyed outdoors (slides, swings, balls, bubbles)
dolls and doll accesories
roller skates and/or inline skates
music

Good luck!

My 5 year old daughter absolutely loves zingo (it's a kids version of bingo). She also loves puzzles (the planets and the ocean). Any type of beads is a big hit. You should check out the Lake Shore Learning Center Store in Saugus.

Happy shopping. I am also looking forward to what other mom's recommend.

On the 4 year old side of that spectrum, I would recommend the Melissa and Doug toys that are sold at Learning Express. They have magnetic puzzle dolls (a sturdier version of paper dolls) and lacing/tracing cards. I also recommend Legos (comes in a pink bucket for girls) and Tubation (connecting tube pieces that my 4 year old loves). My 10 year old girl likes her Cats and Animal Crossing DS games as well as her American Girl doll (just one as they are very expensive). She also plays with her white board in her room very often (plays school alot) and loves her music as well. I hope this helps you out!