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Toys for School Age Children
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Older school age children (9, 10, 11, 12 year olds) developmental milestones and their abilities and interests: Physical Development
- sports important to both sexes - this age range is ready for athletic and team sports
- riding (bicycle and horseback), skating, swimming, sailing, tennis, fishing, and a variety of ball games including baseball and soccer
- enjoys dexterity games pick-up sticks, marbles, jacks, darts, ring toss, tiddlywinks
- can make complex constructions and models, and do jigsaw puzzles of 100 to 1000 pieces
- interested in a variety of arts and crafts - small muscle ability is essentially that of an adult by age 10
- may be interested in formal music, dance and art or craft lessons
Mental Development
- able to play and carry out activities on own
- emergence of independent critical thinking - evaluates ideas and people-may be interested in biographies and history
- increased individual dii Icrences in abilities and interests
- may be intetested in science-increasing abibity to arrange, classify and generalize
- may enjoy hobbies, collections, or scrapbooks
- interest in stories or plays, and acting in them
- interest in gadgets and inventions (including computers)
Social Development
- can work cooperatively with others and is interested in clubs and in group activities and productions
- can play complex card and table games with rules - begins to be able to lose gracefully
- enjoys competitive games and sports
- interest in drama and dramatic games (charades, gestures)
- growing interest in the larger community and the world
ALL TOYS for Older School Age Kids
Great increase in individual differences in abilities and interests-may be interested in
- reading (and in specific kinds of books)
- science (with some specific interest like chemistry or astronomy)
- computers (some like to make their own programs)
- hobbies
- crafts (skill approaches adult level by age 12)
- building models
- collections (some become serious collectors and many enjoy small collections)
- formal training in arts (music, drama, drawing) or specific crafts (pottery, weaving, carpentry, sewing, etc
- producing shows or plays (live actors, animals, puppets, etc
- both sexes now enjoy athletics and/or competitive sports, but specific interests vary-child may be interested in formal training in some athletic skill
Fine motor abilities begin to approach that of an adult-may enjoy dexterity games, complex constructions, or puzzles
Interested in more complex table games and enjoys strategy and competition - can now stick to the rules and lose gracefully
Active Play
Push and Pull Toys
Ride-On Toys
- two-wheeled bicycle (can usually manage adult size by 11 or 12 and can manage a bicycle with geared speeds)
- battery-powered ride-ons (many can manage gearshifts)
- (12-year-olds not yet ready to handle motorized ride-ons that require consistent judgment about speed, safety, etc )
Outdoor and Gym Equipment
- complex gym sets with rings, bars, swings, ropes, rope ladders, slides (many children getting too big for average size of home
- sets)
- complex climbing structures
- jumpropes
- some like weightlifting
Sports Equipment
- baseball, basketball and soccer equipment(regular size)
- football (regular size)
- flying disks (regular size)
- roller and ice skates
- ski equipment
- hockey equipment
- sleds with steering mechanisms and hand brakes
- toboggans
- croquet sets
- ping pong sets
- horseshoe sets
- badminton equipment
- tennis equipment
- golf equipment
- swimming and underwater equipment
Manipulative Play
Construction Toys
- large sets of blocks or bricks (at least 80-100 pieces)
- construction sets (wood/plastic/metal) - can put together complex pans, manipulate tiny nuts and screws, and follow directions
- sets with motorized parts
- complex gear systems
- can copy or build models following instructions - prefer sets that produce realistic models
Puzzles
Pattern-Making Toys
- great increase in design skills in this age range
- design or pattern work in virtually any medium (wood, plastic, paper, cardboard, cloth, tiles, heads, etc
- kits to produce design products
- design interest merges into arts and crafts interests
Manipulative Toys
- may enjoy producing or manipulating
- math models
- mechanical models
- science models (of body, stars, planets, etc)
- simple physics models
Dressing, Lacing, Stringing Toys
- stringing beads of any size or material
- many skills such as sewing now becoming crafts
- may enjoy
- simple to complex handlooms
- jewelry making kits
- knitting kits
- needlepoint kits
- leather sewing kits
- leather and plastic braiding kits
Sand and Water Play Toys
- can operate small real boats with adult supervision (sailboats, rafts, canoes)
- elaborate model boats, including gas powered boats (with supervision)
- remote control boats
Make-Believe Play
Dolls
- dolls are increasingly decorative pieces or hobbies
- preference for lots of accessories
- interest in careers (dolls with roles)
- may enjoy fashion dolls/teenage dolls, costume dolls, collector dolls, dollhouse or miniature dolls, haircutting dolls, dolls representing familiar characters, fantasy/action characters
Stuffed Toys
- small collectible toys
- large, floppy sniffed toys (some interest in oversized animals)
- very realistic toys
- replicas of famous animals
- (may have particular love of horses, dogs, cats, bears, etc
- unusual, unique stuffed toys
Puppets
- can manipulate puppet theater, curtains and scenery
- interested in scripted puppet plays
- may enjoy hand puppets, puppets on rods, stringed marionettes
Role-Play Materials
- mirrors (used in adult way)
- dolls and role play leads to sewing (for dolls), real cooking, dramatic games (characters, etc ) and real dramatics (making up or giving plays)
- dolls, doll houses, toy soldiers, scale model toys may become hobbies
- child may like
- real cooking and sewing equipment
- make-up and disguise kits, props, adult
- clothes and costumes for plays and dramatics
Play Scenes
- elaborate doll houses (may become hobby)
- may be interested in collections or hobbies with toy soldiers, forts, robots, etc
Transportation Toys
- remote control vehicles
- electric trains
- electric racing cars
- gas-powered toy cars (11-12 years) (with adult supervision)
Projectile Toys
- water pressure rockets
- guns that shoot smaller projectiles
- cork guns (11+ years)
- BB guns (with adult supervision - 11 + years)
- combustion rockets (12 years) (with adult supervision, 11 + years)
CREATIVE PLAY
(arts, crafts, music)
Musical Instruments
- may be interested in real instruments (piano, autoharp, ukulele, children's sousaphone, recorder, violin, horn, etc) and formal lessons
- may be interested in formal dance lessons (ballet, modern dance, tap dancing, folk dance, acrobatics)
- may be interested in songbooks and group singing
Art and Craft Materials
age 10-13-formal art lessons following interest
- crayons, paints, markers, pencils, art chalks, casein paints
- variety of papers, sketch pads, art papers and cardboards
- very complex coloring/design books
- stencils
- papier mache
- all glues except dangerous ones
- regular scissors
- clay (oil-based, sell-hardening, pottery clay)
- plaster of paris
age 10-13 formal craft lessons following interest
- can learn and use (lessons and kits) real sewing, knitting, embroidery, needlepoint, crocheting
- working (simple) sewing machines
- weaving (heddle or looper loom)
- clay modeling/pottery/ceramics
- jewelry making (beads, enamels, shells)
- printing
- leather work and leather braiding
- photography as art (real equipment)
- woodburnmg
- more complex woodworking
- basket making
- kite making
- puppet making
- (and other crafts and skills)
Audio-Visual Equipment
- record or tape player to run by self (if not too complex or fragile)
- blank tapes to make own recordings
- story and book records/tapes
- individual preferences in music - some like
- popular music
- classical music
- folk music
- musical comedy music
LEARNING PLAY
Games
- now likes games requiring speed, dexterity, strategy, competition, extended concentration
- labyrinth games, chess, cardgames, more complex math games, complex detection games, word games/spelling games, quiz games, dominoes, checkers, Chinese checkers, bingo, marbles, parcheesi, theme and strategy games
Specific Skill Development Toys
- conceptual models (human body. physical world, stars, space, moon)
- science kits (chemistry sets, science models, weather kits)
- microscope
- telescope
- field binoculars
- protractor
- clocks, watches, stopwatches
- calculators
- standard typewriter (can learn to type)
- more complex video games including target games
- computers with.
- game-generating computer programs
- word processing programs
- typing programs (age 10 and up)
- drawing/graphics programs
- special-subject programs spelling, vocabulary, grammar, chemical elements, economics, history, geography, ecology, political science, programs to teach programming
Books
- great individual differences in amount and type of reading preferred
- some like childhood classics, myths and legends; biographies, poetry, mysteries, westerns, adventure; fantasy, science fiction; science, information books, anthologies; books about animals (especially horses), books about sports; dictionaries (age appropriate)
- some prefer specific types of books or books by a specific author
Adapted from the CPSC Which Toy for Which Child booklet
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