15 Educational Gift Ideas for a 4 Year Old Boy
Ephraim’s fourth birthday is coming up in a few months and I’ve been thinking a lot about what to get him for his birthday.
I have been working at decluttering and reducing the amount of stuff in our house so I don’t want to get him just any toys. I know he would love things like tractors and cars but he really doesn’t need more (and he’ll probably get some from other people) so I don’t need to buy him more.
He has been asking for a water gun consistently since June of last year so I can guarantee he’ll be getting one of those, but other than that I want to get him educational gifts.
Here are some ideas I’ve come up with . . .
15 EDUCATIONAL GIFT IDEAS
FOR A FOUR YEAR OLD BOY
Little Passports
A child’s ticket to an exciting global adventure and a life-long appreciation of history, geography, culture, and language. Inspire a love and understanding of the world as your favorite junior globetrotter learns about a new country each month. All through a cute monthly subscription box!
Kiwi Crate
Kiwi Crate was built out of a passion for hands-on fun that encourages creativity and curiosity in children. It was also created to fulfill that wish and to celebrate kids’ natural creativity and curiosity. We want to make it fun, easy, and delightful to spend time building, exploring and creating together.
Jared likes playing games with the kids and this is one he’s had his eye on for Ephraim.
PitchCar Mini Game
PitchCar is at the same time a game of dexterity and a game of race cars. Choose one of the 8 cars, build your circuit and flick your finger to propel your racing car. Follow the best trajectories by using the guardrails, but watch out because your opponents are gunning for you. Entertaining and family oriented, PitchCar will enchant players of all ages.
Binoculars
I want us to get out in nature more this spring and summer and I think binoculars would be a fun addition to our nature kit as we get out and watch the birds.
Pirate Reusable Puffy Sticker Book
I love reusable sticker books, but the previous one we had for Raeca was too big for traveling and taking in the vehicle, this one looks like it will be the perfect size. Plus, pirates are awesome.
Castle Logix
Ephraim loves building and I like the uniqueness of these Castle Logix blocks. This comes with 48 challenges and will help develop logic and spatial reasoning – run and educational!
Quercetti Tecno – 80 Piece Building Set
This bestselling creative building set comes with screws, nuts, bolts and different colorful geometric shapes to make mosaic pictures, as well as build 3D structures. Using the included toy screwdrivers (phillips & flathead) and toy wrenches (allen and traditional), your young builder can screw the brightly colored shapes together or to the special board. Children will learn to match to the correct tools and to insert them in the threaded holes of the board. They’ll become familiar with basic mechanical skills and practice their manual dexterity.
Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards
The Pattern Blocks and Boards Set is designed to make learning fun and beautiful! The set helps teach children three and older matching and sorting skills, color recognition, geometric shapes, counting, and beginning math skills. Fitting the pieces onto the wooden pattern boards helps develop fine motor skills, problem-solving skills, concentration, and memory. Place them, trace them, stack them, or sort them — there are endless ways to play with this set that promote creativity and independent learning while making beautiful patterns and works of art.
AlphaBuild
Alphabuild helps a child recognize and understand letters, both upper and lower case, through the tactile process building each one. Develop fine motor skills as you explore the unique shapes an characteristics of each letter. The magnets hold your creations together making the building process easy and frustration free. This engaging activity toy will hold a child’s attention by stimulating imagination, creativity and discovery through open-ended building play.
KidsFirst Robot Engineer
Read the funny story of two inquisitive kids, Ty and Karlie, and build simple, non-motorized models of the robots they construct and fix during their adventure to an automated candy factory! During this zany outing, Ty and Karlie build various robots to perform tasks and solve problems in the factory. The robots have moving parts, wheels, and gears, so kids can learn firsthand about simple machines and gear trains. As you follow the story, you can build models of the ten robots featured in the story. Large, colorful plastic building pieces make it easy for small hands to put the models together.
Lego Creator Tiger
Ephraim wants a pet tiger, maybe we’ll just go with the Lego version . . .
Technically I’m counting the next two puzzles as one idea. I can’t decide if a 60 piece or 100 piece puzzle would be better for him . . . this particular 60 piece puzzle actually looks more difficult than the 100 piece and I like the idea of the African safari . . . good thing I’ve got a couple of months to decide.
Ravensburger Outer Space Puzzle (60 Piece)
Puzzle play is a wonderful way for children to have fun while developing physical, cognitive, and emotional skills. As kids work at solving puzzles, they are developing fine and gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination. They develop problem-solving skills and learn to think logically. Puzzles also help with shape recognition and help to enhance memory. Puzzle play encourages goal setting and patience—both of which are rewarded when the puzzle is completed!
African Plains Safari Jumbo Jigsaw Floor Puzzle (100 Piece)
Puzzle play is a wonderful way for children to have fun while developing physical, cognitive, and emotional skills. As kids work at solving puzzles, they are developing fine and gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination. They develop problem-solving skills and learn to think logically. Puzzles also help with shape recognition and help to enhance memory. Puzzle play encourages goal setting and patience—both of which are rewarded when the puzzle is completed!
The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
The Jesus Storybook Bible tells the Story beneath all the stories in the Bible. At the center of the Story is a baby, the child upon whom everything will depend. Every story whispers his name. From Noah to Moses to the great King David—every story points to him. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle—the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together. From the Old Testament through the New Testament, as the Story unfolds, children will pick up the clues and piece together the puzzle. A Bible like no other, The Jesus Storybook Bible invites children to join in the greatest of all adventures, to discover for themselves that Jesus is at the center of God’s great story of salvation—and at the center of their Story too.
I’ve been drooling over this book forever, the kids flip through it for hours when we get it from the library.
Maps
This book of maps is a visual feast for readers of all ages, with lavishly drawn illustrations from the incomparable Mizielinskis. It features not only borders, cities, rivers, and peaks, but also places of historical and cultural interest, eminent personalities, iconic animals and plants, cultural events, and many more fascinating facts associated with every region of our planet.
We already own Robot Turtles but if we didn’t we would definitely get it, four is a great age to start playing it.
Robot Turtles
This game teaches kids 4+ the ins and outs of programming in a fun, tactile game. Perfect for 2-5 players, this game has levels of increasing difficulty, introducing obstacles and more complex Code Cards. Beginner to Advanced levels will make it a family favorite for many years!
