A Selection of Toys for a 3 Year Old Boy

Here are a few ideas off the top of my head...

Toys for a 3 year old boy need to be educational - that's my opinion. You may not necessarily agree with it, but I'm one of those people that think preschoolers should get the best start they can when it comes to learning. Obviously, not every 3 year old will have the same level of ability, and for each boy the amount of challenge needs to be taken into account.

Now, that's not to say that the chosen gift should be dull, because the best way to learn is to make something fun and interesting. So, I've put together a page on this site that presents what I think are educational toys for a 3 year old boy that are also fun and interesting. I've kinda said all that in a roundabout way, but I hope you see what I mean.

Applicable to all toys for kids of any age, one of the main considerations that parents have (and this is from my own experience in providing advice to hundreds of parents) is longevity. In other words, how much mileage is their boy or girl going to get out of the toy? This would certainly be a big factor when buying for kids aged 3, and I personally find this quite a difficult thing to decide because there are a number of variables.

Firstly, toys with longevity need to 'grow' with their users. As an example, a kids' tablet pc would be suitable here, as it can be updated with new and more challenging apps and games to maintain interest and learning as the boy gets older. On the flipside, such devices tend to have a broad range of content - great for engaging attention across a broad range of activities, but maybe not so great if you want to focus on specifics, like just learning letters or basic math. This also starts to bring about questions as to the 'value' of such toys, on a scale of cost-per-amount-of-learning. Educational toys that focus on one thing tend to be less expensive.

Secondly, it all depends on the boy in question. Like I said above, there's going to be a range of abilities and parents should take this into account where they can.

Lastly, one boy's cast-off is another one's gold. For any number of reasons, which I'm not going to hazard a guess here, kids of any age might just find toys and games, suitable for any age, interesting. I've read numerous reviews where older siblings, aged 7 for example, are playing with their younger brother's toys (for 3 year olds).

So, after all this, I guess what I'm trying to say is... well, I'm not really sure now. These were just a few ideas off the top of my head...