What does your 7 year old son play with?

[Green_Tea]

DS doesn't seem to like to play with toys. He enjoys legos, but only in kit form - once he's done building the kit, he's done. He does not enjoy open ended building (and he has THOUSANDS of legos already). He has Beyblades, magnatiles, blocks, lincoln logs, a remote control car, snap circuits, board games, puzzles, stomp rockets, and indoor basketball hoop - they all collect dust. His preferred forms of entertainment are Minecraft and Animal Jam, or anything online or on the iPad. When his 30 minutes are up, he's at a loss. He has a hard time just PLAYING and struggles to entertain himself. Playdates are not much fun because he doesn't want to play with what we have (though he has a BLAST at other kids' houses with their toys and electronics). He has no trouble getting along with kids in general, and has tons of friends - but playdates at our house are kind of torturous because he claims that he and his friends are bored.

So, what does your 7 year old play with? I am specifically interested in indoor toys (he has a bike, scooter, balls, athletic equipment, etc., and we spend a lot of time outside. It's the inside that's a challenge, especially when it's 100 degrees out!)

[mom2binsd]

Mine likes to shoot pucks at his hockey net, he could do that for hours. He likes shooting baskets, riding his bike with his older sister, he loves to sort and place stickers in his sports books (currently baseball, but in winter hockey-we get them at the dollar tree). He plays with his sister a lot, they make up games, wrestle, play the Wii, and of course if I let them they'd watch those darn Minecraft youtube video's all day....

[JustMe]

Ha, ha. Good question. He mostly runs around, kicks a ball, pretends to play basketball (yes, I mean inside). He has zero interest in legos or anything like that. He has started to like to play monopoly jr with his sister, so we'll see how long that lasts.

I will be watching this thread because when I am busy and dd is reading, drawing, etc, he also tends to just sit around. I would love some more non-electronic activities that he would like to do.

[JustMe]

Oh, just remembered, the other thing ds does like to do is pretend to be a spy. He has walkie talkies and this consists of he and my daughter watching things around the house and reporting about them.

[Kindra178]

Mine likes to shoot pucks at his hockey net, he could do that for hours. He likes shooting baskets,


Ha, ha. Good question. He mostly runs around, kicks a ball, pretends to play basketball (yes, I mean inside). He has zero interest in legos or anything like that. .

Yes, to all these. He plays basketball, hockey, baseball, golf, tennis or soccer inside. He pretends to a be a certain team or player (tennis or golf). I encourage building, but he will do that with brothers moreso than on his own.

[Simon]

Ds1 spends lots of time reading (Zac Powers, Jack Stalwart are current favorites). He loves his army toys collection--those little green plastic guys plus a collection of tanks, helicopters, boats, etc. With friends or alone he sets up battles between armies or arranges ways to defend himself. He sets up courses for the monster trucks to run on and they sometimes crush the matchbox cars or drive over/around obstacles. The Playmobil castle is currently getting a lot of love. It had been put away because its such a choking hazard. We actually just bought a 2nd random castle so friends and brothers can have one to use, too. He has an air hockey table and a smaller table top foosball but they get less attention these days. Walkie Talkies are fun with friends. Ds doesn't like legos at all so I'm always jealous of those boys I hear about who can spend hours putting together sets. He does like K'nex, though.

Does he have access to everything all at once? IME, the kids at our house play a lot better when they have more limited options. I try to have only 2-3 major items available at a time and put the rest away. Currently, the army and castle are out, plus a few monster trucks. The marble run, snap circuits, matchbox cars, blocks, tents, and pirate ship+ accessories were put away.

[BunnyBee]

My DS is a little older, but at 7 (and still), he reads, builds things with Tinker Toys, crafts with duct tape, draws, writes and draws comic books, plays board and card games with siblings, shoots indoor basketball hoop, plays with Star Wars/whatever figures, has Bilibo or office chair spinning contests, doodle books, puzzle (mazes, logic) books, logic games (Rush Hour and the add on sets), listens to music, etc.

[Bryan mom]

DS loves board games. Top hits are:

Mille Bornes
http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-17147-Mille-Bornes-Card/dp/B0035A2PKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373992501&sr=8-1&keywords=mille+bornes

and Monopoly

[hillview]

DS1 just turned 8. He is just like your DS. Legos in a kit. For his 8th bday he wanted room decor. He likes books, games (chess, monopoly) occasionally a crafts project. A boxing bag is occasionally popular.

[California]

Have you ever tried rotating the toys? How did he respond to that? I've found my kids stay interested in their toys longer if the toys are not always available and are rotated through. We use plastic storage bins on a shelf in a closet and in our garage to store the majority of the kids toys, and rotate through one box at a time. Legos are kept in plastic baggies with directions, stored grouped by theme, and are rotated through theme by theme.

[sariana]

Does he play chess (or would he like to)? Would he like one of those sets where you can play against the computer (when a second player is not available)? Maybe that's not much better than a video game, but at least it's a three-dimensional, actual game, not an image on a screen.

[smilequeen]

It's such an in between age for boys (I imagine girls too, but it's been a while since I was that age and my house is all boy ;)). Mine is a little older now (8.5), but he's been doing many of the same things for a while.

He will sit and do lego sets. He likes beyblades. The big things with my 2 older boys is building beyblades (really just tops) out of lego. DS1 is not big into open ended building but he goes nuts building his own beyblades. He reads. He organizes his baseball and hockey cards over and over and over :) They have a table hockey game the 2 older boys will play. We have a pool table he loves. For some reason he likes to walk on the treadmill while watching a TV show. He will also watch TV or play Wii/ipod/computer games.

When it's hot it's so hard. He'd rather go out and play hockey or shoot basketballs. We have a sprinkler hockey game, so we try to set that up as often as we can. (this is why I want a pool!)

[Jacksmommy2b]

Mine does the spy thing and loves all electronic devices.

His main go to toy is his action figures. His favorites are super Heroes and his playmobil men. He has a few imaginex 'houses' like batman, etc and he could spend hours with them!

[Green_Tea]

Thanks so much for all the recommendations! A few people asked about limiting options... I know it sounds like a lot, but he really doesn't have access to much at all. He just doesn't seem to care about the things he does have (even when presented with similar options at friends' houses.) We have donated a significant amount of toys in the past several months. He doesn't seem to be a "toy" kid.

I think that one of the biggest challenges we face is that he really doesn't have a playmate in our house. My girls are very close to each other, but don't care to play with DS (or he with them). They just have very different interests. At the same time, he's not a kid who enjoys playing alone, and he doesn't have a super long attention span for any one thing (other than lego kits - and BRAVO to the PP who has legos organized back into their original kits! You are amazing! Ours are in a giant tub, which is fine, because DS has no interest in recreating anything he's already made once.)

DS is happiest outside at the lake - he loves to play in the sand, find creatures, swim, look for rocks. Clearly the solution to the problem is a lake house ;).

[jerigirl]

My newly 7 yo is really into origami. He will watch Youtube videos and fold along with the videos. Jeremy Shafer has a good channel. Also RobH0629. He also likes to make stick bombs with the big craft sticks/tongue depressors. He got tons of fun paper for his birthday. He also got a spirograph. That keeps him busy for a while too. http://www.amazon.com/Kahootz-01001-Spirograph-Deluxe-Design/dp/B009VE38CI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374084888&sr=8-1&keywords=spirograph