Christmas Collecting for Kids

To make it easy on yourself and others when buying presents for children, think about building collections of toys that engage the child for longer than a few minutes. When children focus and use their hands to manipulate something, they develop concentration and independence – valuable skills for life!

Some ‘busy hands’ collection ideas that will give you, your extended family or friends something that can easily be added to include:

• Blocks of different sizes, colours and shapes (wooden is great). • Duplo and Lego, available second-hand as they last forever. Extra bases are fantastic – they’re inexpensive and give a starting place to build on to. • Dress ups – these can be made, or treasured bits found in op-shops – a good selection of these items will last for many years. • Animals are the perfect toys to collect bit by bit – build up a farm, a dinosaur, zoo or sea collection. • Stationary – think tapes (Japanese washi tapes are very now and so creative – check out the Pinterest page for washi ideas), coloured paper, a new set of pens. • Car collections – make a racetrack complete with block landscapes, or a shoebox garage. • Dolls – making clothes, furniture, blankets or a little quilt will give so many hours of creative play.