Toys that have a certain age mentioned on the cover may seem totally irrelevant for your little one. For example, you may be thinking of buying a bubble gun for your one year old who has just learnt to walk and would love to run behind bubbles. But you see a for children above 3 years of age boldly staring back at you from the label. To add to this children grow mentally and physically at different paces. Some children learn faster than others and can understand language much faster than other.

A young Einstein like this will soon find the toy a hackneyed one. Contrarily, a child who is a slow learner may get too overpowered by a toy beyond his age.

The trick is to choose toys which have a longer life and those that can be used by a wide range of ages. These toys have tools which allow for adjustment according to the age of the child. One such tool is the Leapfrog reading system and can appeal to children between the ages of four to twelve.

Board games are still a favorite among most kids. Children love gathering together around a board game and indulging in competitive game of Life, Monopoly or Scotland Yard. While bonding the family together they also teach the important lessons of logic, handling money and life. Playing with your children will also make you feel nostalgic because they will spark buried memories from the past from the time when you were a kid.

With times like these when most kids do not inculcate the everlasting habit of reading, a gift of a book may not be initially appreciated too much but will be much remembered many years later. They will remember you as the one who gifted them their first books and initiated them into this new world which allowed you never to be lonely. To try and teach kids t read, they should be presented with books which they would like to read.

For the boys the slightly crude Captain Underpants series is more apt and the girls prefer Junie B. Jones. Even if the child you are gifting to is an infant, you can choose picture books to keep the lil one occupied for a while.

Now that most of the popular cartoon characters have their own feature movies, video CDs of these movies also makes a great gift. The Harry Potter series, PeeWees Playhouse and many more are a few among a huge list.