Are you looking for gifts ideas for a three to five-year-old? These are the types of gifts that I love to give! These are gifts that I will often give to friends and there are also lots of ideas here that would work in Christmas stockings. Many of these gift ideas can be adjusted to suit the child's age and stage in development.

Baking - Child size wooden spoon, Montessori-style baking apron and The Ultimate Kids' Baking Book. Other children's cookbooks that I like to give include The Tickle Fingers Toddler Cookbook, Little Helpers Cookbook and Cooking Class. Etsy is my go-to for aprons, we use aprons from Marula Tree (UK), Handmade Montessori (US), many sellers make aprons for toddlers and preschoolers. 

Science - Awesome Science Experiments for Kids, light prism, children's compass, magnet, outdoor thermometer, children's measuring tape, large pipette. 

Nature Walk - Go-find-it, children's binoculars, adjustable head-lamp.

Bugs - Bug-opedia, insect toobs, bugnoculars, magnifying glass.

Play-dough - Texture rolling pins, child-safe scissors, play-dough. It's super easy to make play-dough at home but I also like play-dough from Etsy for fresh colours and scents. Toobs are fantastic for friend gifts and for Christmas stockings. We have enjoyed play-dough from Little Wilding Dough (AU) and Little Munchkins Playdough (UK).

Gardening - Child-size watering can, children's gardening gloves, children's gardening tools and seeds. I like to give home-grown or bought sunflower seeds, they grow quickly and look fantastic in the garden. Even something so simple like a packet of beautiful flower seeds and a children's hand trowel would make a lovely gift.

Life-cycles - Butterfly life-cycle kit, Caterpillar to Butterfly and butterfly life-cycle model. 

Painting - Hard cover sketch pad, tempera paint palette and a paint brush. We could also give Paint Sticks or a nice set of pencils, Lyra Groove and Lyra Ferby are favourites.

Wild Life - Australian Sea Life and sea turtle model. I often give books and a model animal (or model car/truck/helicopter). It can help extend the child's learning, the model provides something the child can feel and hold, and later play with and it makes the gift feel extra special.  This can be translated to so many areas of interest. If giving a book about space why not add some model planets. Or a dinosaur book with a model dinosaur. 

Other fun small gift ideas include bath crayons and Wikki Stix. I like to give gifts in calico drawstring bags, we can decorate the bags with fabric paint or leave them plain so they can be re-used. The drawstring bags make it easy for the recipient to carry them around and make it clear that the items so together.

You might also enjoy a previous article Montessori Stocking Suffers - Babies to Preschoolers. 

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