Gift Ideas: Late Elementary School, Pre-Teen (Originally: 10-Year-Old Girl)

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

William, Robert, and Elizabeth have all been invited to a birthday party this weekend, so I need to come up with three presents for a 10-year-old girl. She likes cats, and she likes anything cute or fuzzy. She likes Phineas & Ferb, and SpongeBob Squarepants. She likes crafts. She plays soccer. She’s William’s age and grade [at the time, this was age 10 and grade 5) and is mostly William’s friend, but she plays with everyone when she’s here. Normally I aim for about $10 for a party gift (in this case, from each of the three children) [and these days I aim a little higher than that], but I’d be willing to go a little higher because she’s a family favorite.

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

First candidate: Wild Republic Floppy Orange Tabby Cat. Most households already have more stuffed animals than they can handle—and yet, the sight of this cat reduced our household to “OHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!”s of cuteness.

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

Second candidate: Rory’s Story Cubes. These look fun—but maybe they’re the sort of thing that look fun to the grown-ups, but make the kids think of school. Still, William thought they looked neat.

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

Third candidate: American Girls Bears Sew and Stuff Kit. William found this and liked it. There’s also owls and raccoons, but William thought she’d like the bears best.

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

Fourth candidate: Toysmith Crystal Mining Kit. William got this for his 10-year-old birthday, and I think it was probably his favorite gift. There’s an assortment of pretty crystals buried in a block of “rock” (more like compressed sand/glue), and you chip away with little tools until you dig out the crystals. It makes a bit of a MESS, but the sand stuff is dry and easy to sweep/vacuum up, and then you have the crystals to keep in a little bag.

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

Fifth candidate: Plasma ball. This is getting more expensive than I had in mind—BUT, if two of the kids chose less-expensive gifts, it would average out to being okay.

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

Sixth candidate: Beanie Ballz: Guinea Pig and Beanie Ballz: Penguin. They’re grapefruit-sized, very very silky soft, and all the kids are losing their minds over how cute they are. I think we’d get these two (yes, yes, two Ballz, I get it, ha ha, very funny), but there’s also a monkey, a hamster, a panda, a dog, a pink cat, a bee, and a ladybug. [Follow-up: We DID get these, and they were such a hit when they arrived, the children could barely stand to give them to the birthday child. We now have the guinea pig at our own house, as well as the penguin in FOUR SIZES.]

 

(photo from Amazon.com)

(photo from Amazon.com)

Seventh candidate: Temporary tattoos: mini butterflies, Temporary tattoos: henna butterflies. We’d choose a bunch of different tattoo books.

4 thoughts on “Gift Ideas: Late Elementary School, Pre-Teen (Originally: 10-Year-Old Girl)

  1. rebecca

    I gave the Am Girls sewing kits a few years ago to a then-nine year old. She LOVED it. Thanks for the Airzooka blurb a few posts back. It’s in my Amazon cart this very minute.

    Reply
  2. Stephanie

    Great suggestions! I would like to add that Joann has lots of crafty kits (Creativity for Kids brand) and their 40/50/60% off coupons can be applied to them as I just bought one for my daughter for Christmas :)

    Reply
  3. betttina

    Dear sweet Swistle, thank you SO MUCH! I bought the Beanie Ballz for my toddler right after reading this post – went to amazon, asked her what color she wanted, she said purple, as soon as it arrived I wrapped it for Christmas.

    She opened this present early today, I’m hoping that she’ll play with it QUIETLY in church today (HA) and we all LOVE it. Thank you SO MUCH for the recommendation! We (*I*) have a household rule of NO MORE STUFFIES and I am so glad I broke my rule for this!

    LOVE it! (and you!)

    Reply

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