Gift For a 5 Year Old

Hey guys, my nephew is turning 5 in a few weeks and I have no idea what to get him. Do any of you guys have a good idea of what to get him or what the hot toys out this season are for kids his age? I want to get him something that he will play with and not just collect dust in a corner. I bought him a marble racer for Christmas this past year and he didn't seem to interested in it when he opened up the present, and then he didn't want to play with it when it was assembled.

My sister is a little picky too on what he gets. It can't be anything too violent. I got him a decepticon transformer for his birthday last year, and then for his Christmas list she wrote "transformers (autobots only)". I personally didn't think it was too violent of a toy, but I'm not a parent so what do I know LOL.

I am trying to make it my goal to try and get him something semi-educational since no one else ever really makes an effort to him stuff like that except my other older sister. I think he has all of the Leap Frog stuff already, or most of it. I'd also prefer not to get him anything cowboyish/country since that is all my sister's in-laws get him. I think last year he got boots and spurs and some other things along those lines.

Any help is appreciated in my gift search!!

How about something that will get him outdoors like a little bug aquarium or something like that? Teach him how to catch tadpoles and raise them into frogs or get him a praying mantis egg and let him watch it hatch and set free all the little babies.

I've never heard of the praying mantis egg thing. That sounds kind of neat. I forgot to add that last year I kind of bought him something like that. It was a light up ant farm. You could just go outside and catch a few ants and then watch them make tunnels in the gel stuff that was in there (instead of sand). It had LED lights in the bottom of it so that the gel lit up. Was kind of cool, I thought. I'll look for the praying mantis thing. Thanks for the idea!

Oh yeah those butterfly things are cool, my kids love them, you get the 5 baby caterpillars and food and an enclosure, and you feed the catapillars, they turn into a caccoon and then a butterfly and you can keep the buterfly for a month before you release!

I'm guessing with those you have to send off for the catepillars? I was looking at Discovery.com and they sell those there. There weren't good reviews on the praying mantis one, but the butterfly one had pretty good reviews. A lot of people were complaining that the praying mantises were dying or died before they matured and they followed the instructions fairly well. I guess you didn't have any problems with bad catepillars?

At five a bottle of bubbles and some chalk and he's set for a day or two.

Take him to your local pottery studio and let him make his very own special gift! I've taken my nephew every year for his birthday for the past 4 years - he begs to go every yr so now it's almost a tradition! They have a lot of masuline pieces at most of those places too (you could always let him paint a plate or a mug/etc) There's always a lot to choose from. This is by far a favorite b-day treat in my family

My daughter just turned five, she wanted a wooden train set. her and all of her friends, boys and girls have been playing with it none stop, for the last week, Her friends boys and girls also play littlest pet shop . I thought it was a girl thing but my friend with five boys says it's big with boys too.