What are you all getting for your kiddos? Toys seems to get worse and worse every year so I have a hard time finding anything decent these days.
I have boys and girls 5 and under. They absolutely love and I can recommend toys like: magnet tiles (like the Magna/Picasso brands), Duplo Legos, animal figures (like the Schleich brand), the Melissa and Doug food toys (right now the ice cream set is the favorite of those; https://www.melissaanddoug.com/products/scoop-serve-ice-cream-counter), and anything to do with art/coloring/stickers or whatever sort of craft. Now the dumb Duplo likes to shove non-Whites as the figures so avoid that if you can, otherwise my kids love to build with them. Also, I wouldn't get younger kids animal figures like deer or moose with antlers because they will bend them off. I know there's cheaper brands but from my experience anything cheaper than Schleich and they're cheap, ugly trash. Mega Blocks are fun too for them but our set seems to have stopped connecting (they're older hand me downs), is that something that happens often?
Do you all have any recommendations for toys/brands for young children? Or ones to stay away from specifically? Children's book recommendations would be appreciated too! Feel free to use this thread for recommending gifts for other age groups as well.
Kids will make use of maybe a handful of favorite toys and the rest will collect dust.
Buy them tools under pretense of a craft or activity, then you can spend time with them as well, and they'll get use out of them for years.
Last year I got my 10yo a charcoutery board, cheese knife, and some nice meats and cheese; she loved it. She's gotten it out a bunch of times since then and even set up a board for company.
Son's getting a nice handsaw and a decent hammer; we'll build some skid-flower boxes for the spring.