6 year old mostly only child

JustAThought

Im godparent to a 6 year old who spends most of his time alone - he has 3 much older stepsiblings who visit but mostly live in another house. He has a TON of toys and boardgames but the attention span of a newt - and sadly no little friends his own age to play with or cousins to drop over or siblings to play with. He is always alone and is very alone. I’ve bought bikes & scooters & pogo sticks & jigsaws but am really struggling with what to get him this year. Something adopted (like an elephant) would not be appreciated. Any suggestions please ? Fish or pet are also not an option. Back garden is filled with swingsets & trampolines & slides & for me playstations and tablets etc are financially out of the question. Desperado. Help please!

John_Rambo

Tickets to the science museum in Trinity (or the equivalent in your closest city), a voucher for a shop in the same city and a promise to bring him in once it's safe or once you & his folks are happy for you to bring him in. You're buying dinner too!!

cee_jay

My godson is also an o ly child, but a lot older now.
His presents were always lego and books, and sometimes a rugby jersey as he grew older.

joeguevara

Telescope is a great idea and could be perfect. With my three nephews at 6 they preferred binoculars to a telescope. Mainly because was stationery whereas binoculars can be brought out on adventures like bird watching, or playing explorer etc.

The best gift I bought the youngest when he turned 6 was a microscope. Got so much enjoyment putting everything under it and learned a lot.

Spanish Eyes

My godchild gets a token gift and a monthly lodgment into his little account. By the time he is 18 he will be minted and can pay for his driving lessons or whatever. He is too young to know this yet, but his parents are delighted. Just an option.

_Brian

6yo should be all over Lego.

Irishphotodesk

A trip with you ... cinema, shopping, or bring him out to something like a play center or GAA museum or imaginosity (assuming you are near Dublin and the places are open)

Trip to the zoo ?

John_Rambo

joeguevara wrote: »

Telescope is a great idea and could be perfect. With my three nephews at 6 they preferred binoculars to a telescope. Mainly because was stationery whereas binoculars can be brought out on adventures like bird watching, or playing explorer etc.

The best gift I bought the youngest when he turned 6 was a microscope. Got so much enjoyment putting everything under it and learned a lot.

They're excellent. There's good metal detectors out there too if he's near a beach.

SineadSpears

My kid was the same. Absolutely no interest in toys & hates Smyths (I do too so that works out well;)) even to this day, he's a young teen & he is soooo hard to buy for. Unless its gaming stuff. It kinda makes things easier but its not great as his only real interest.

He kinda likes random things. He asked for binoculars one year. We are in the city so I don't see where the idea came from but he got them anyway. He asked for a credit card so he could pay for his own things. He's asked for a treadmill this year lol.


What about a cheap little camera? You could print off a list of themes for him to capture. Like
take a photo of a car, an animal, something red, a mystery photo- something up close & everyone later has to guess what it might be??

Say you will bring him to the park or beach one day & he can go exploring

joeguevara

John_Rambo wrote: »

They're excellent. There's good metal detectors out there too if he's near a beach.

Just be careful on this one. I would love a metal detector and always wanted one as a kid. If on a beach probably no issue at all but can be a grey area if near monuments or national sites etc. But definitely a great gift. Maybe 6 is a bit young.

Was shocked at strictness of some of the laws https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/The-Law-on-Metal-Detecting-in-Ireland#:~:text=It%20is%20against%20the%20law%20to%20engage%20in%20general%20searches,Culture%2C%20Heritage%20and%20the%20Gaeltacht.&text=The%20onus%20is%20on%20the,in%20accordance%20with%20the%20law.

JustAThought

Hmmm - food for thought! Some great suggestions here and some I know other relations have tried and seemed great but did not fo down a bomb! I love then zoo but he has an annual family pass his grandparents give him & has zero attention span for museums/lego (sadly!) I’ll definately get something from the suggestions here - thank you to everyone for your creative ideas and help!

joeguevara

JustAThought wrote: »

Hmmm - food for thought! Some great suggestions here and some I know other relations have tried and seemed great but did not fo down a bomb! I love then zoo but he has an annual family pass his grandparents give him & has zero attention span for museums/lego (sadly!) I’ll definately get something from the suggestions here - thank you to everyone for your creative ideas and help!

I'm not sure if it is a thing anymore but in the 80s in primary school the teacher made us subscribe to an international pen pal thing. Now most of us were just taking the pi55 sending absolute bs about Ireland and pictures of val doonigan. One boy though who was very quiet and a bit of an introverted. But by havinf a friend in a different country that he could interact with, express himself, find new hobbies, made him blossom into a confident young man. As your godson seems a bit lonely for kids his own age something like that if still exists could be good.

My mates son was given a dicta phone for just record ing himself and he loved that too.

JustAThought

hmmmm! His reading & writing is extremely slow -
he was late going to school so wouldn’t be up to writing letters at all - he can barely write his name! But I do like the dictaphone idea - he is always leaping about and being extremely noisy &
messy - maybe some kind of recording gadget or karokoe playback kind of thing might work. Or binocolours or a microscope & a
list of things to look at. Definate good possibilities there! Thanks!

Demonique

How about a subscription to the junior version of National Geographic?

mirrorwall14

I have a six year old who is also not a fan of writing/drawing. I got him one of these during this lockdown and he absolutely loves it. We print out pictures of his favourite things (currently pokemon) and he traces them and colours them in for his wall. Plenty of pen control practise (which I’m delighted about) and he’s much happier because his pictures look right

A4 Lightbox with 3 Adjustable Brightness LED Light Board for Tracing Drawing Ultra-Thin Only 4mm Artists Tattoo 5D Diamond Photograph Designed,Power by USB Cable https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07B93R956/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_FfyYFbNH3TPQC

Also he loves playing music on his toniebox. We will let him get an Alexa eventually for his room but for now he’s happy playing songs on the everywhere group (sitting room and kitchen) and jumping around the place to then

Metric Tensor

Our lad loved this last year and it is one of the Christmas items that still gets use. Probably helped that he likes geography of course!

https://www.smythstoys.com/ie/en-ie/toys/pre-school-and-electronic-learning/leapfrog-toys/leapfrog-electronic-learning/leapfrog-magic-adventures-globe/p/177174