Seeking Advice on Gift

On my daughters 3rd birthday she received a radio flyer pink 3 wheeled scooter, it was the cutest thing and she loves it and gets good excersize outside!! I think it was at Walmart for 25-30 dollars.

I love the ideas of a play kitchen and dress up clothes that were suggested earlier - they are two of my dd's three favorites. The other one is a dollhouse - we got her the Loving Family one by Fisher Price - I think it is about $69 empty in Toys are Us, or you can buy it Deluxe (with more furniture and accessories than you can imagine), I think I got it that way on sale for $149. There was SO much to play with, that at first I left her just the basics and put a lot of the more detailed stuff away, and add it bit by bit. There is major furniture like beds, dressers, etc, but then tiny things like bath robes and cupcakes. We have fun playing together, but she also enjoys it on her own.

My daughter is turning 3 this month and we have two things planned to get for her. A bike, Target has cute little "baby" bikes for 3+ (this was actually something she saw and asked us to get for her birthday). I'm an avid scrapbooker, so the other is a kid-tough camera so she can take pictures with me.

These replies are all very WONDERFUL ideas!!! You couldn't go wrong with any of them!
I do want to point out that I like to use toysrus.com as an aide when buying any gifts for every occasion. On the site, and on the left of the home page, you can click on "Narrow By Age." With this example, in your case, you can select "3-4", and then it subcategorizes (i know that's spelled wrong) it by "Top Sellers, Customer Favorites, & New Additions".
There's always something on their age lists that I've never thought of before!
I'd love to hear what you finally settled with!

My oldest daughter just turned 3 a few weeks ago.... she loves a dollhouse, dress-up clothes, play-doh, crayons/coloring books and baby dolls. She just got a couple Barbies and some Littlest Pet Shop toys and LOVES those, too. She also loves Legos - not the big duplos, she prefers the "real" legos. And transformers.... but that's probably because her older brother is always playing with them and she's been around them for a long time. :-)

My kids, age almost 4 and 2 1/4 love their easel. It has a white board on one side and a chalk board on the other. It also has a roll of paper that covers the white-board side. I LOVE the paper roll...when they are ready for a clean slate, I roll the paper under and later use it for wrapping paper. I don't give them dry-erase markers yet, but finger paint, washable paints with brushes, crayons, chalk, etc. They love it. Ours is a wooden easel (Melissa & Doug) and they have decorated the wood part as well. You will need one that has adjustable height so it can grow with them.

Dressups, kitchen stuff and a teaset are all good ideas too.

Laura

How about a play kitchen? They make a ton of them, plastic or wood, big small and in between. You could tell people who ask that she would like food or dishes or other things to go with it. Three year olds love pretend play.

Hi K.,
Tana Hoban books are a great gift for three year olds. Ms Hoban produces "concept books" which focus on one theme (like the directional words, over under and through; or colors and/or shapes) and show examples of that concept over and over with pictures that are as big as the page. Our local library has many copies of her books. I have seen her books in the board book style, which is especially nice if your daughter is still learning how to care for books. The board book is also easy to carry around in a bag, purse or mini diaper bag if she is enjoying those sorts of play activities. Also, if the cost of living is hurting your budget these dasy, a low cost but memorable gift is to have a "Madyson-Day" that focusses less on gifts and more on time spent together at a park and/or library or . . . with a camera to record the fun. If the budget is not a strain, then I also want to share that there are lots of "Teacher Stores" (Holcombs and CREATIVE TEACHING are near us) that are open to all and they have terrific collections of hands-on activities and educational toys that make wonderful gifts. I am a Grandma and teacher and a budget conscious woman. I hope you and your daughter (and husband, too) will make some great memories with this birthday. Best of luck to you! Nancy Ann Smith

My suggestion is a contribution to a college fund for her.
My experience is that I have no recollection what any of my children received for their third birthdays. I have it all written down, and I would venture to say that they still have some of the things they did receive, but right now a college fund would make my life so much easier. Our son will be a Senior in highschool, and the college he wants to attend is approx. $____@____.com is a great person with many fine attributes and his GPA is 3.5, SAT's were really good, etc. His scholarship potential is high, but I am afraid it will still fall short and create a financial burden for him and for us. Your daughter will appreciate your time and attention on her third birthday, with a cake and three candles. She will appreciate play time in the yard or at the park, and she will love that you sing to her. She will adore your hugs and kisses and kind words of affection about how special, smart and beautiful she is. Years from now she will appreciate that you were prepared for her academic career and her move into the world beyond you. Good luck.

My boys are three and four years old. They love reading books and singing and dancing. There are books that have CD collections with them. They can sing and dance or you can read the books to them. We all sit and talk about the pictures. Since the songs are depicted in the books, they try harder to annunciate words that are hard to say and they remember longer phrases and sentences. They love expressing themselves through music and dance.

Sing-Along Songs & Stories for Kids by Suny Day Studios. There are 4 CD's and 4 small books with beautiful and colorful pictures inside.

Hi! I have a daughter who will be nine in January but I remember her turning 3 like it was yesterday. One disadvantage I have is that her birthday falls 2 weeks after Christmas! You may want to look into things like a little tikes drawing easle or maybe a tricycle. My daughter got those when she turned 3. She also got a little kitchen set for Christmas that year...she still has it and I still have easle and the tricycle!! Good Luck!

Hi K.,
Well if you don't already have one might I suggest a kitchen most definitely!! That is hands down the best item we have in our play room. It seems to transcend every age and sex. That is to say boys love it, girls love it! If you're interested I can suggest one that is very resonably priced and well-made also, not overly huge or a pain to put together.

The other nice thing about them is that, there are so many accesories you can buy for them and you can have other family memeber pitch in to buy the really nice wooden food etc...You can even add on to it as time goes on, like for Christmas you can set up a "grocery store" with a cash register and vegetable bins...It keeps my 3.5 year old daughter and my 15 mo. old son busy for hours!

Hi. What about some kind of art project? I went to Pat Catan's and bought a bunch of stuff for a little girl whose party I just went to. She turned 4. I read the packaging for the appropriate age. I used to work at a daycare with your child's age group. Art is always a big hit. Paints, crayons, kid scissors, etc.

For a three year old girl I'd suggest dress up clothes! My daughter started playing dress up at about that age & hasn't stopped (she's 7). When our nieced turned three I covered an old suit case with paperdolls (decopaged it) and filled it with dress up stuff, play shoes, a feather boa, a tiara, and lots of jewelry. She loved it!