As your eight-year-old girl gets closer to teenage years, it’s important that she have access to increasingly challenging toys that both inspire her creativity and cause her to think critically. Many of today’s gifts and toys for 8 year old girls offer 21st-century skill training and will better equip her to head into her teenage years.
How Do You Choose Gifts And Toys For 8 Year Old Girls?
Kids at this age are building on skills learned the previous two years. They’ve solidified many of their own interests, and it’s important to continue to challenge them. Their friends are more important, and they are experimenting with limits.
Challenges
Kids at eight, especially girls, are beginning to test limits by challenging their friends and challenging themselves. They frequently try to best their scores and times in games and other activities.
They also enjoy having puzzles to solve, which encourage critical thinking. Things that allow them to experiment with different solutions and create their own types of answers for different things.
Longer Projects
At this developmental age, children are ready for longer projects that help them sustain focus. Toys that offer children the chance to stretch their imaginations also help them practice sustained focus.
This pays off as they learn to keep trying for things that challenge them and don’t offer immediate gratification. It’s critical that children be allowed to practice focus through toys that aren’t immediately solvable.
These long projects can take the form of science kits or computer and tech-based toys that come with multiple steps and can take several days to master.
Individuality
Your eight-year-old girl is exploring her individuality at this stage. She is asserting independence and loves to test her creativity. Toys that give her many avenues to express herself through art projects or beauty crafts.
It’s also a great time to explain that everyone learns differently and it’s ok if she doesn’t immediately grasp a concept or feels unsure of her skills. Toys and projects that help her to work through this at her own pace and give her confidence in who she is will be the best types of toys for her personal development.
The Best Gifts And Toys For 8 Year Old Girls – Reviewed
With these characteristics in mind, there are a few great choices for your toy choice. We’ve compiled a list of toys that address the aspects of this list and include plenty of chances to solve problems, address STEM skills, and express her growing creativity. Let’s take a look at the list.
ALEX Spa Super Mani Pedi Party Kit
The Alex mani-pedi kit is a creative way for your eight-year-old to express her individuality. It features 88 pieces, all the essentials for manicures and pedicures.
There are five colors of nail polish and four colors of glitter. She can also add any of the 72 stickers and sequins to her nail design. The kit comes with tools like toe separators and nail files so she can effectively finish all her nail art. There are enough supplies to share with friends at a party.
The polish is intended to peel off easily so that her nails aren’t exposed to toxic remover products. She can create nail designs that remove quickly so she can design again and again.
It’s a good way for her to experiment with her creative side. Alex Toys provides all the tools for her unique personality to appear as she participates in popular nail trends without all the harsh chemicals. She can get as crazy as she wants and peel it off to go to school the next day.
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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Mega Gemstone Mine
National Geographic’s toy line is intended to get kids interested in science and exploration. Their gemstone mine gives your eight-year-old a chance to explore how the environment produces different types of gems and to find her own.
The kit includes at least 15 different gems to uncover. Some kinds include tiger’s eye, pyrite, quartz, and others. It also provides all the tools she’ll need to make her own explorative digs. There is a chisel, brush, and magnifying glass so she can dig through the soft rock exterior for hours.
There’s a 16-page booklet included that will teach her all about the gemstones she’s uncovering as well as how each type is made in the natural environment. The book will help her identify the gems as she reveals and cleans them.
STEM toys are essential parts of your eight-year old’s learning process. This particular model focuses on science as she identifies gems and learns about their different properties. It’s good for focus while giving her a chance to collect something she’s interested in.
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Gili Stem Toys: Construction-Engineering learning kit
Gili Stem Toys Construction and Engineering set is an elaborate set of building blocks that will allow your eight-year-old to design her own machinery. There are 361 pieces, and she can build a dump truck or propeller plane.
The great thing about this kit is that it teaches her how to visualize machinery as she builds. STEM toys are a critical part of her mental development, and once she makes the provided models, she can design her own machines based on principles she’s learned.
The pieces are durable and provide movement. They are non-toxic ABS plastic. The toy teaches the concept of motion and results through building the two provided models. It provides just enough challenge to give kids motivation, focus, and allow them to feel good about their budding engineering abilities.
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Duddy-Cam Mini Quadcopter Drone
What could be more exciting than her very own helicopter? This drone is a durable flying toy that will provide hours of entertainment as she manipulates the controls.
Remote control toys provide practice with motor skills and hand-eye coordination. It has a six-axis gyro system that offers better stability even during windy days. You can even play at night with the system’s LED light display.
The controller is versatile and provides kids with greater flexibility to perform tricks and stunts. It has a 50-meter range for racing and other exploration.
The battery for the drone is rechargeable and comes to a full charge in just 30 minutes. It is connected to a polarized charging port with USB for convenience. It provides up to seven minutes of flying time on each charge. The controller requires two AAA batteries.
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Kanoodle
Kanoodle is a type of 3-D puzzle of which there are many pieces but only one correct answer. Kids can try out 101 puzzle challenges in which they attempt to fit 12 puzzle pieces into a correct shape.
The pieces are different combinations of balls stuck together in different shapes. Think tangrams but in 3-D. There is a 44 page illustrated book outlining the challenges and a carrying case to keep everything together.
Kids stack the pieces in one of the puzzle challenges or create their own stackable shapes. It teaches spatial awareness and critical thinking, two critical mathematical skills. The puzzles range from simple to incredibly tricky, providing hours of interest.
Kids choose a design and are given a starting point. The trick is to fit the rest of the pieces into the plan without compromising the shape. Kids can begin with 2-D and work up to more challenging spacial puzzles.
The carrying case is compact, and the entire toy system has been a finalist or recipient of several significant awards.
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Ozobot Bit 2.0 Coding Robot Starter Pack
The Ozobot Bit is a simple, codable starter robot to spark your eight-year old’s love of computer tech. Draw commands on paper using color coding and the Ozobot Bit responds by reading the colors.
This unleashes creativity and strategic thinking. It comes with an instruction booklet with directions for activities, games, and challenges. When she masters these instructions, she can expand on the Oxobot universe through mobile apps and the Ozoblockly editor.
It provides a chance for you and your eight-year-old to learn how to manipulate the robot. The Ozobot Bit is about an inch wide and works with any appropriately colored marker. It fulfills the STEM toy technology category, teaching your eight-year-old to think critically and prepare for life in the digital age.
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LEGO Friends Heartlake Hospital
Heartlake hospital is a building kit that emphasizes your eight-year old’s love of medicine. It includes 871 pieces to build the building, including the reception desk, x-ray center, and emergency entrance. There are separate pieces to build an ambulance.
Accessories include nursery furnishings, a helipad with helicopter, and an anatomy skeleton. It comes with a few figures including a doctor and newborn baby figure, as well as the Olivia character.
These legos are compatible with all other Lego sets to help your eight-year-old expand her Lego universe. It’s an excellent kit for aspiring workers in healthcare or to develop her view of what is possible. When she’s done with the hospital, the pieces can be reassembled into anything she can imagine.
It fulfills the STEM requirements so necessary in the digital world and promotes engineering and strategic thinking.
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Spinmaster Games Perplexus Epic
The Perplexus Epic is a challenging puzzle game. It’s a 3-D labyrinth that she can flip and twist to solve. It’s easy to learn to use, but challenging to master.
The interior is a series of twists and turns with over 125 barriers. Users must maneuver the ball through the numbered track without falling off the path. When the ball falls off, the game starts over.
The Epic is a continuation of the original Rookie game and the next step from the more elaborate Twist. It teaches strategic thinking and helps girls practice hand-eye coordination. It provides hours of fun without screens, batteries, or blinking lights.
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Kano Computer Kit 2017
Kano’s Computer kit is a storybook that teaches all about computers and coding. Through the story, kids learn to build their own computer and then perform a variety of commands and activities.
There’s a central computer brain plus other bits and pieces. As she reads through the book, she builds the computer and learns to program different commands.
Activities include art projects, hacking the popular game of Minecraft, and rewriting the rules to the vintage game Pong. The computer also connects to the internet so she can watch Youtube or browse through her favorite websites.
It fulfills a vital component of STEM toys including technology and engineering. It’s her first chance to get into the foundations of computer systems and technology and will encourage a lifetime of interest in this 21st-century skill.
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American Girl Ultimate Crafting Super Set
American Girl’s crafting set allows your eight-year-old to design and build her own jewelry for her and her American doll as well as other crafts. It includes things like twine, floss, clothespins, beads, and other tools to create.
There’s a design guide to help her build different types of projects, but it’s also great for her creativity, and she creates things from her own imagination. The set is well made and has a wide array of items to spark her creativity.
A significant part of the kit is that it offers storage options for available materials. She can organize her materials for use depending on her personality and preferences. It’s important that she be able to vent her creativity while also learning to organize and keep up with the materials. These are foundational cognitive skills.
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The Takeaway
All the toys on the list address critical aspects of your eight-year-old’s mental and physical development. They offer a chance for her to express creativity and practice essential 21st-century skills.
Which toy seems to fit your eight-year-old the best? Let us know which one you chose in the comments below and tell us a little about her.
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