Girl toys that might appeal to 5yo boys??

[SASM]

Or, better yet, girl toys that would appeal to my girl? Okay...I have an almost-3yo DD and a 5yo DS. We have an insane amount of trains, dinos, cars, pirate stuff, etc. DD LOVES all of this stuff and I have no problem with that as they play well together, for the most part. However, they can be quite rough. My issue is that they do not play with any girly things to give them some quieter play time together. They do have a play kitchen and DD does have dolls but they do not play with them, other than banging on the pots and pans. They both play house at preschool in their respective classrooms but not at home. We do crafts, etc but I'd really like some toys that I can leave them alone with, unlike crafts. So...are there any other girly toys that you can suggest that might be of interest to my 5yo DS to get some quieter playtime together?? Toys that make noise would be great as long as they are not banging pots and pans. Oh...to answer a question (I am sure) ~ DD's only interaction with girls are 1) in her classroom and 2) the occasional trip to the playground, when it is warm enough.

TIA!!!

[August Mom]

That older brother sets the tone, doesn't he? I have a 5 year old DS and 8 month old DD and she could care less about her dolls. She's all about balls and his toys.

Now my kids are much further apart, but here are ideas that come to mind -

Puppets (DS loves puppets) - we like Puppetos (sp?) by Manhattan Toy that have 1 adult puppet and 1 child puppet but this may not help your situation - you need 2 child puppets

Doll stroller - DS has one and used to love to push it. We put it away, but if there was a sister involved, he might like it.

Shopping cart - same principle as doll stroller, but they could use items from the kitchen to play store.

Puzzles with girly themes - DS loves puzzles

[shishamo]

This isn't exactly a girl toy, but building toys like legos, marble run, k-nex are great for both boys and girls and they are quiet activity. You can't have too many legos in my opinion, it's the only toy that my 8 (DS), 5 (DD), and 3(DD) all play together quietly for hours.
(ETA: we have both Duplos and Legos, and they are both being played quite a bit. Get non-themed, plain ones)

My 5 and 3 year olds like to play Memory (game) together.

Play kitchen is also great, both boys and girls like it. We love the Mellisa and Doug wooden pizza set, it's in gender neutral color and great fun.

[hellokitty]

I have two boys. However, I grew up being the only girl (and oldest) with two younger brothers close in age. What I remember most of the times we played together were stuffed animals, puppets, listening to books on records (yeah, I'm OLD!), playdoh, board games and just pretend play in general. You might be surprised to learn that I was never into, "girly" toys. I hated dolls (still think they are creepy), the closest thing I liked to dolls was fashion plates (remember those, lol?). Anyway, I was 3 and 4 yrs apart from my brothers and did not often play that much with them. However, when I did, I would just jump in and play with their transformers and GI Joes. I don't think you need to worry about boys toys vs. girl toys, b/c they will play with what they have. The only, "girly" toys that my brothers seemed to like to play with were my little people. Otherwise, they were all about the cars, trucks, robots... your typical boy stuff and I seemed to lean more toward the boy toys more than the girl toys, but even so a LOT of our play was pretend play, it wasn't like fighting and stuff.

[Karenn]

I have a 5 1/2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old. They love to play with DD's dollhouse together. I furnished it with Playmobil which I think makes it appealing to DS because his first experience with Playmobil was knights and pirates.

I agree with the doll stroller idea. I can't tell you how many fights we've had over strollers. We had to get 2!

[karin4]

How about dress up stuff? Both my sons and daughters loved playing with costumes, props, stuff like that. If you have a full-length mirror available, too, that's even better!

Oh, and a big chalkboard and chalk-- it's art stuff that you can safely leave them alone with, and there's almost no mess for you to come back to.

[C99]

Blocks, Magna-Tiles, and Duplo-Lego.

[CiderLogan]

Board games, coloring (just papers and crayons doesn't create too much mess), shopping cart/playfood/shopping basket/play money/cash register, puzzles?

[kijip]

My son loves his dollhouse, stroller, dolls. I don't really consider them to be girls toys. He also plays with younger kids on things like blocks, simple games, puzzles. Easel?

FWIW, I was a total tomboy from day one and played rough even though my older brother did not really play with me at all (big age gap, 1/2 sibling who did not always live with us). Kids just are what they are.