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At 8 years old, children are not yet officially considered tweens, but they are experiencing what child therapist Glenda Stoller, co-founder of Village Parenting NYC, calls “a tremendous growth spurt in physical, emotional, and cognitive development.” In school, they are beginning to get the hang of homework and independent reading. Whole worlds, real and imagined, are opening up for them through books, social interactions, and the hobbies and sports they get involved in. More than ever before, they are in charge of how they play and able to follow complex instructions, whether they are building their own gumball machine, challenging a friend to a game of Nok Hockey, or making a tiny clay flowerpot.
To help entertain and challenge their exploding brains and bodies while nurturing their independence, we talked to professionals like Stoller, as well as lots of discerning parents, to curate a list of the best gifts for 8-year-olds. We then organized their suggestions by price, so if you have a specific budget in mind, you can use the table of contents to jump right to that section. Otherwise, scroll through the whole list to get a full picture of the toys and gifts that the 8-year-olds in your life might like.
Meanwhile, if you’re also shopping for kids in other age groups, we have gift guides for 1-year-olds, 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, 6-year-olds, 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and 12-year-olds — plus the meticulously curated Strategist Toy Store, filled with all our greatest hits.
Under $25
When I asked Strategist contributor Youngna Park about the toys her 8-year-old daughter likes playing with most, slime and putty were high on the list. “I don’t quite understand the phenomenon, but she saves up her allowance for Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty,” Park says. Somewhere between a toy, a fidget, and an art supply, Crazy Aaron’s biscuit-size tins of putty are wildly popular among elementary-school kids. Not only do they offer tactile play, they also come in a huge assortment of styles including glow-in-the-dark putty, magnetic putty, glitter putty, and even putty that’s crystal clear.
This DIY kit teaches kids about gears and electronics by letting them build a motorized machine that makes rainbows spin around their room. Adrienne Appell, senior director of communications at the Toy Association, likes that the kit also contains educational experiments about the science of light and the weather conditions that cause rainbows. But the finished product is also just pretty to look at.
“Your kids become inflatable Goodyear Blimps in these Gobstopper-shaped entrapments,” says Zibby Owens, author, mom of four, and host of Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. “My twins got the set as gifts for their 8th birthday and spent the afternoon crashing into each other, rolling around in the grass, and laughing hysterically.” The suits are made of durable PVC, but in case the wrestling action gets particularly intense, there’s a repair patch included.
You might remember the feel of these rectangular decks in your hands as you fanned them out from their fastened corner to reveal each of a thousand trivia questions written by Chris Welles Feder (eldest daughter of Orson Welles). The look has been modernized and the material has been updated since you were a kid — it’s based on school curriculums, with categories for the third-grade set including math, science, social studies, and language arts. But in this form, the quizzing doesn’t feel like school; it becomes a game that can be played anywhere, including in a car or on a plane. “And even during dinnertime,” adds Kate S., a nanny for the New York–based SmartSitting agency. She likes to buy sets for the level just above the child’s actual grade, to challenge them and help them get ahead in school.
Nicholas Elmi, chef and partner at several restaurants in Philadelphia, including Royal Boucherie and Laurel, bought this American Girl cookbook for his daughter Grace when she turned 8 to complement her obsession with the American Girl doll of the same name. “Her backstory is that she loves to bake, and after a trip to Paris, Grace falls in love with Parisian bakeries and helps save her family’s bakery,” he says. The book has recipes for cookies, brownies, pies, cupcakes, and more.
What 8-year-olds may not realize as they’re utterly absorbed in this balancing game is that it’s encouraging socialization: Up to four players can get involved, watching the tower wobble and shift and change shape with each newly added piece. Playing together in smaller groups is also a great way for kids to develop self-esteem, according to Stoller: “They’re more competitive at this age and love to play games together, so peer interaction is very important.”
Austin, Texas–based dad Bryan Camphire calls this the best chess board for elementary-school kids because it’s affordable, portable, and magnetic, so you won’t lose any of the pieces.
Collaborative games teach kids to work together toward a common goal or against a common threat. Caitlin Meister, founder of the Greer Meister Group, a private-tutoring and educational-consulting practice in Brooklyn, recommends this collaborative game where players have to work together to get off of an island that is sinking into the ocean. She says it’s fun for kids and adults because it’s different every time: “You reassemble the board each time by laying out tiles, so it doesn’t get boring.”
Camphire also mentioned having just bought this game for his daughter, who is very into math. “Her teacher has this game in the classroom, so I bought it for us to play at home,” he says. To win a card, players have to get to the center number by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing the five other numbers on the card. The first player to collect five cards wins. Each player starts the game by choosing their own level of difficulty, meaning kids (and adults) of different ages can all play together.
We have heard from dozens of experts and actual kids about the magic of Squishmallows. And even if your favorite 8-year-old already has a bedroom full of them, it’s still a good gift. Especially if you are adding a really hard-to-get Hedwig the owl or slightly less hard-to-get Hufflepuff Badger to their collection.
Pokémon may be more than 25 years old, but the franchise is just as popular with grade-school kids as it has ever been. Ali Mierzejewski, editor-in-chief at the Toy Insider, says there are all kinds of new licensed toys being released — including Squishmallows and new video games for Nintendo Switch — but that even these basic trading-card packs will make an excellent gift for an 8-year-old.
Basic art supplies like printer paper, colorful painter’s tape, paint sticks, and colored pencils make truly wonderful gifts for kids this age. But it can also be nice to balance out the freedom of open-ended materials with books and magazines that provide guided activities and help young readers practice their comprehension skills. Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang recommends this giant drawing and coloring book from artist Taro Gomi for its ability to ignite kids’ creativity. Each page has an unfinished drawing with instructions to complete the image by adding your own details and objects.
Park’s daughter is into all kinds of art-making and crafts, from drawing and sculpting to making her own jewelry. She has a polymer bead set similar to this one that Park says has been a big hit over the last year and a half. The beads are cute and big enough for little hands to manipulate. Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio, who also has an 8-year-old daughter offers this tip: “avoid kits with too large of a variety of clasps or jump rings as they just create frustration when they break or are too difficult to thread.” According to her, this kit has lots of interesting bead choices that will fit on the included elastic, to keep things simple and fun.
This is an ideal stocking stuffer or Easter basket filler that Brenda Bisner, SVP of content at Kidoodle.TV, described as a “keep in your purse at all times” gift. It’s a speedy dice game — there’s one labeled L that you pass to the left, one marked C to put in the center, and an R to pass to the right — that comes with chips for the winner to collect. “You can make this a lot of fun without taking up a lot of space. I love to have this on hand for when the crayons and coloring become boring. I feel like the ‘cool mom’ when I pull it out.”
Elementary-school kids love anything that’s miniature — hence the success of toys like Five Surprise Mini Brands. But if that miniature toy is also a working pottery wheel, then you’ve got a toy that’ll blow their minds, says Zahn. The box includes ten mini pottery projects kids can complete to progress from total beginner to pottery master.
Under $50
“This is so fascinating to play with,” says Ruka Curate, founder of the Tiny Treasures Nanny Agency. The 12-inch-tall anatomical model of the human body has nine squishy versions of vital organs inside of it, which can be removed with forceps and tweezers, along with the rib cage and other skeletal and muscular systems.
Mom of two Misko Beaudrie told us that her 4- and almost-8-year-old children both love their Jellycat stuffies because they’re so soft and come in so many fun designs. In addition to bears, frogs, and other animals, the brand sells a collection of plush potted plants, bonsai trees, and big smiling blooms like this petunia plush. It or the other versions — daisy, daffodil — would make a stylish addition to any 8-year-old’s bedroom.
This portable planetarium was one of the Toy Insider’s top STEM picks for 2023. Senior editor James Zahn says it’s a huge value for the price. Not only does the projector turn any darkened room into a shimmering and rotating night sky, it also comes with 24 high-definition slides that kids can change out to create different combinations.
If having their very own gumball machine isn’t enough of an incentive to build this colorful tower, the cool and creative stunts your kid can make it do should convince them to get to work. Assistant manager of content and digital communications at the Toy Association Maddie Michalik says the coin track is completely customizable, so kids “can watch as their coins perform stunts before triggering the prize compartment to open.” The kit introduces a variety of STEM concepts like simple machines, force, gravity, and more, and Michalik likes that it lets kids “deconstruct and rebuild their creations to make different configurations.”
Kids this age tend to amass all sorts of little yet Very Important things, from small toys and stuffies to books and journals to pretty rocks to pictures they’ve drawn. And for those who like to always keep the many treasures at hand, Park recommends installing a set of these simple canvas storage pockets within arm’s reach of their bed. After hearing about them from Park, Trolio bought one for each of her two daughters to hold their latest rotation of prized items. To make them a little more special, she decorated each one with patches and embroidery.
Beaudrie recommends Prism Designs kites like this one, which she and her family like to take on camping and beach trips, and which she has often given as gifts. She says they are durable, easy to pack, and fly really well.
Stoller points out that perhaps the best thing you can do to encourage a kid’s love of art and art making is to gift them something that takes their artwork to another dimension, literally. 3Doodler is widely recognized as the best 3-D printing pen on the market for kids. It works by gently melting, then pushing out, a brightly colored, nontoxic plastic filament that hardens almost instantly so that kids can create everything from silly-looking monsters and wearable accessories to entire cityscapes and imaginary flying vehicles.
The half-pound of roughly textured rocks that come in this set are transformed into polished agate, amethyst, and seven other types of real gemstones when you put them through the motorized tumbling machine with some grit powder and water. “Any budding crystal or gemstone collector will get such a kick out of this,” says Tara Maria Famiglietti, a mom and jewelry designer of ONDYN. Famiglietti notes that you can shine up any other rocks you happen upon, too: “There are even quartz rocks you can find in Central Park and throw in here to have your very own polished crystal stone,” she says. Of course, it’s not immediate gratification: The tumbling process involves multiple stages of running the rocks through the machine for days at a time. But that’s an “added bonus,” Famiglietti says. “It teaches patience.”
Under $100
This enhanced edition of the ever-popular Pokémon trading-card game “is inspired by the popular Pokémon GO mobile app, which has been downloaded more than one billion times,” Michalik says. The cards feature live-action images of the Pokémon characters and objects from Pokémon GO.
There is an entire cottage industry of toys that double as stress and anxiety relief. Fidgets and other sensory toys like slime are the most well-known, but I have also been seeing a lot of soothing plush toys for kids and adults. Among them is this weighted sloth — the brand also makes an elephant, a cat, and a puppy — that truly feels like it is hugging you back. I tested the 4.5-pound Hugimal at home this fall and were it not for the responsibilities of parenthood, I could have spent hours in its soft embrace. I like that it doesn’t cover your whole body the way a weighted blanket does. I would absolutely recommend buying one for nervous or overstimulated 8-year-olds.
Lego sets are usually a crowd-pleaser, and once it’s built, this 497-piece ocean-exploration base can also provide hours of pretend fun. The set comes with interchangeable living and working quarters, plus a docking submarine, underwater drone, five researcher mini-figures, and a shark and stingray. Trolio says her two daughters have several different pirate-ship and undersea Lego sets that get lots of play. There are also lots of licensed Lego sets, including Harry Potter, Gabby’s Dollhouse, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Mario Bros. for 8-year-olds with specific pop-culture obsessions.
If the 8-year-old in your life is ready to level up their art supplies, consider getting them a big set of water-soluble colored pencils like these from Swiss brand Caran d’Ache. Park’s daughter loves to draw, and has tried every type of colored pencil, pastel, paint, and marker out there. For vibrant and smooth color, which Park says can require a bit of an investment, her family likes Prismacolor and Caran d’Ache products. This set can be used dry to create traditional colored-pencil drawings, and when you add water, the colors transform into lovely watercolors. And because plain old printer paper can’t stand up to a lot of water, you might want to gift it with a set of watercolor paper postcards.
$100 and up
Beaudrie says these colorful magnetic building toys, also recommended by Park get a ton of use from her kids “anytime we’re in the car for longer than 45 minutes, on a plane, or going out to eat.” Compared to Legos or Magna-Tiles, they are a lot more portable, and according to Beaudrie, they’re easy for kids to play with while sitting. You can buy them in packs of varied complexity based on a child’s age. But all the pieces are compatible with each other, and like other open-ended building toys, the possibilities are endless.
Games that encourage full-body movement are particularly beneficial at this age, says Deb Vilas, director of the Child Life program at Bank Street Graduate School of Education. Along with classics like Jenga, Connect Four, and Twister, Vilas recommends Nok Hockey. The fast-paced game is incredibly durable, uncomplicated, and a great antidote to too much screen time, she says.
The glory days of the department store may be over, but kids still experience a sense of wonder in the two-story shopping tower here, complete with a working elevator and revolving door that lead to the fashion boutique and cosmetics counter, set amid patterned ceilings and a movable quarter-balcony. Curate finds this to be a beautiful gift for this age. Even if they’re not familiar with the Calico characters, the old-world aesthetic — and Chocolate Lounge serving tiny treats — has an undeniable pull.
“Last year we subscribed to CrunchLabs and he love, love, LOVES them,” says Beaudrie about her son, who is really into puzzles, strategy games, and building stuff. Each month, you get a box with a new toy to build and new videos to watch that explain the physics behind how the toy works.
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