Best Gifts for Ages 5-8
Ages 5-8
Hape Toys’ Space City Quadrilla is a glow-in-the-dark version of a marble maze with loops and turns. It has 176 pieces to custom build the maze and helps develop engineering skills. 6 and older. Rhen’s Nest Toy Shop and Treehouse Kid & Craft. $149.99
“Ready, aim, fire!” was the battle cry heard among our 5-, 8-, and 10 year-old testers while playing Kaboom by Blue Orange. Children take turns being the Master Builder or a Saboteur as one player quickly constructs towers with wooden blocks while other players fire wooden dice on catapults to knock down the towers. 6 and older. Kazoo Toys and Rhen’s Nest Toy Shop. $24.95
Learning Resources’ Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set lets your child develop coding skills by programming the robot mouse to go through a sequence of steps then race to find the cheese. 5 and older. Kazoo Toys and Toys R Us. $60
The Slackers Ninjaline lets your kids train like a Ninja with seven different hanging obstacles to swing from. Attach the Ninjaline between two trees and attach the different obstacles down the line, then swing from one to another until you make it to the end. 5 and older. Brilliant Sky Toys, Kazoo Toys and Treehouse Kid & Craft. $100
The LEGO Medium Creative Brick Box has bricks in 35 different colors to encourage open-ended play. It also includes windows, eyes and wheels for construction play. The set comes in a plastic storage box to keep pieces together. 4 and older. HobbyTown and major retailers. $35
The Activating Origami Set by Teknikio lets paper meet electronics. Using circuits and conductive tape, you can add light to origami shapes. 3 and older; adult supervision recommended for 7 and younger. Treehouse Kid & Craft and teknikio.com. $24.
My First Bananagrams utilizes lowercase letters and word-building to help your child build his or her vocabulary. Place all of the 80 letter tiles facedown and each player takes 15 tiles. Be the first player to use all of your letters in a connected word grid. Variations of the game are by reading level. 4 and older. Barnes and Noble and Rhen’s Nest Toy Shop. $14.99
Thinkfun’s Yoga Spinner Game encourages physical activity – players must perform the yoga pose on their card and hold it for 10 seconds; first player to collect a card in each color wins! Our 5-year-old tester loved the game but had a little trouble holding the poses. 5 and older. Learning Express and Shenanigan’s Toys. $14.99
Pop ‘emz by Fat Brain Toys has over 200 colorful pieces that suction to windows or mirrors. Kids can create art of many shapes and sizes with the colorful hexagon-shaped suction cups. 5 and older. fatbraintoys.com. $19.95
Make your own toy dog with Pup 002 by Paper Punk. This comprehensive paper figure kit doesn’t require any scissors or glue. It comes with over 20 shape templates, stickers and adhesive dots to help customize different figures. Follow the symbols and fold until the figure is built. 6 and older. Target and paperpunk.com. $14.99
