Great Gift Ideas for Young Girls
Young girls (toddler to just prepubescent) like getting presents just as much as anyone of any gender or age, and because society has for so long dictated what girls' interests may and may not be, it is particularly delightful for a gift-giver to see the recipient register honest joy at receiving something culturally new. Here are some items - traditional and less so - that would make fantastic gifts for young girls:
1. A chemistry set. What is more fun than mixing potions and conducting experiments? The same impulse that drives some girls to cook or create perfumes may also drive them to mixsulfurand water and paint an ordinary piece of paper into a rain-predictor, and to learn about catalysts, chemical reactions and how elements work. Wrap it in a periodic table and your gift is complete.
2. A doll house. Of course, not all doll houses are equal. Find one that is large enough to accommodate the kind of dolls your recipient already has, and which has plenty of furniture made to fit it. Make sure you provide a selection of such furniture - enough that if there is no follow-up (no one buys more furniture for it) she can still change rooms around occasionally. Even better: a house and/or furniture that the girl can construct for herself. Investing her energies in such an enterprise can turn a house into a home.
3. Paper dolls. For girls too young for the first two items, paper dolls improve manual dexterity while not requiring too much of it to start with, satisfy every child's need to tinker and take control, and give the playing child a surrogate - and avatar, if you will, to represent her and, to a certain extent, live out her fantasy. Vinyl dolls do much of this as well, but just as books ultimately provide a more rewarding experience than movies because the reader helps to create the book's world and the movie presents it already created, so the paper doll leaves room for the child to complete the missing dimension. As she grows a little older and more dextrous she may appreciate more intricate costumes for her paper dolls. There are books of historical dolls and costumes, and learning who wore what when will ground the little girl in history the way learning dates, wars and kings alone cannot.
4. A Diary. A toddler may be unable to make immediate use of such a gift, but a child doesn't have to be much past toddler age to have begun learning to write, and a diary may just give her the motivation she needs to practice doing so. Who doesn't want to confide in a secret friend and express herself completely and without reservation? Best of all, it's a gift she will still appreciate when she's got grandchildren of her own.
5. A train set. Obviously this is not a casually bestowed gift, by virtue of its expense, but it would make a great present for a little girl in whom you are emotionally invested (a family member, as opposed to, say, the young daughter of the friend of a friend who is dragging you along to a party). Tiny children like little wooden train cars that connect magnetically, but it doesn't take long for them to reach an age at which a real electric train set, with tracks and signals, mountains and streams, bridges and tunnels, stations and houses, and all kinds of railway cars, will fascinate. The only danger is that everyone else in the family will want equal time with this delightful toy!
There is nothing wrong with giving a little girl a traditional doll, or a teddy bear, arts and crafts materials, a baseball glove, a little red wagon or, if you're close and she's been a good girl, a bike or trike. (You may be handing over car keys eventually.) There are girls who would like a worm farm and others who would run screaming from such a thing, but might enjoy playing dress-up with a supply of old clothes and costume jewelry. The better you know the child in question, the better you'll be able to decide what it is she would enjoy. However, the five items listed above will please most girls if they have one attribute that can be found in almost all children: curiosity.
