gifts for boys

[ontheedge]

Desperatly trying to think of gifts for nephews aged 7,11 & 12 who seem to have everything any ideas

[Jamma]

I mean this in the spirit of the season but if you approach the task simply as 'gifts' you'll not only widen your options but their horizons too.

[Yak]

A job lot of pyjamas? They won't love you for them but their parents might!

[candj]

Do they have Nintendo DS's ? If so, DS or other computer games. Or books if they like to read (lemony snicket, or those Charlie Higson books about a young James bond), or anything 'gadgety' ?

[EDmummy]

Books, books and books. The 7 yr old might like Mr Gum books. The 11 and 12 year old Darren Shan.

Or, how about sponsoring an animal. There are lots of different animals to sponsor. You can sponsor a guide dog (Guide Dogs for the Blind), Sky are running a sponsorship programme at the moment (it is a big cat but can't remember which one), there are also charities where you can buy a goat, chickens etc. It is never too late to get kids to understand about charity giving!

[womanofdulwich]

a ten pin bowling session

[Keef]

Amazon voucher.

[pebbles]

I've bought all my neices and nephews this year their own website - ie the domain is www.firstnamesurname.com and then i've got a mate to design a page with pictures floating across of their favourite things and music in the background of their fav footie team or tv show - i haven't seen the end product yet but i'm really chuffed and feel it's been an inspirational idea (even if i do say so myself!!! (i normally lack that with kids cos i always worry that they have everything adn need nothing!!!).

Good luck I know how difficult it is trying to buy!!

[womanofdulwich]

that sounds fab-how musch is it? ( the web site idea)

[pebbles]

WOD - anything from ?2.99 I found. I used www.123-reg.co.uk.

I then got a mate to do the design but before he offered i was researching how much to do a page and I think you're looking at around ?20-?40ish however the domain selling people also offer a simple webpage design template so if you're not wanting anything flashy and just want a message and a photo then it comes with the cost.

Glad you liked the idea, i'm really excited about them seeing their pages :)

[dulwichmum]

Lovely Womanofdulwich,

I do not mean to detract in any way from the idea behind pebbles thoughtful gift, but my son is 8 and he is already doing this sort of thing for himself at school. Kids are seriously advanced with regard to IT, they are even making short films/animations using LEGO figures and posting them on Youtube for eachother. You could set each of these children up a blog on blogspot with the childs name in the url and all of the features described above in about 15 minutes for free. My son is so much quicker at getting the hang of all of this than I am and could probably do it quicker than me.

Think about it, how many times have you seen three and four year olds playing on their parents iPhones on the train etc? Little ones are far quicker at all of this techie stuff than us. ?40 sounds like a lot of money if you think that these kids can probably create far more advanced sites for themselves by now. If the oldest is 12, you can be sure that the 7 year old is learning quickly from him.

I would go for an Amazon voucher. My son loved Mr Gum books when he was seven, but books come and go in fads, depending on what everyone else is reading in their class. They love vouchers, even book vouchers, and an Amazon vouchers allows them freedom to chose for themselves - anything from LEGO to music to books.

[curlykaren]

a voucher to take the three of them for a day out at 'go ape'.

[Dickensman]

A plastic sledge each.

A wind up recharging torch.

You might take a look on the Science museum shop web page.

A bit risky but all boys love them, a Swiss army knife.

A set of binoculars.

Kites.

Water pistols.

[missd]

This is a really good website -might help. I use it a lot

http://www.wickeduncle.co.uk/

[pebbles]

dulwichmum - oh my god that's just gutting, I had absolutely no idea schools taught so much now. Well I suppose at least they've now got their own names as domains and then they can continue to design as they like :(

I feel like i should phone one of my bros up now to see what they think but then again it's done so i'm going to give it to them and my bros quite like surprises as well

Ho hum .......

[dulwichmum]

Lovely pebbles,

I wish that my sisters would go to as much trouble as you have. That is what the kids will remember. My sister promises specific things to my kids for their birthdays and never ever remembers. Time is what kids appreciate. They just remember the effort you made. It sounds as though you really care about the kids and that is priceless.

[pebbles]

I just wanted to let you know that the websites were a HUGE hit (had xmas day with my family yesterday). The 8 and 6 yr olds basically were on them all day. There were links to footy teams and games etc and they just couldn't believe that they typed in their names and had a website.

DM - you are right - the 8 yr old does ICT at school so he's going to add to the already designed website but is so excited that now he can do it to his own one.

Really really recommend it - even if you just buy the domain and they can do the website at school.

I'm patting myself on the back :)

[dulwichmum]

Lovely Pebbles,

Well done you. I can't even download my own music. My 9 year old son does it for me.