The Only Gift Guide for a 7-Year-Old You’ll Ever Need

Qwirkle is one of my favorite family board games. The tile-based game is kind of like a cross between Scrabble and Set: Players add their tiles to the collective grid, either by matching shapes of all different colors or matching colors of all different shapes. You get extra points for completing a set of six tiles and you can block your opponents by anticipating where they might try to place their pieces next.

Strategist contributor Youngna Park’s two kids each have one of these magnetic block puzzles that they like to fidget with in the car or while watching a movie. The toy comes with different ideas for shapes you can make, but her kids usually just turn it into different creations of their own.

I included the Yoto Mini audio player in our guide to the best gifts for 5-year-olds, but the genius of Yoto is that the vast card library makes it a great gift for almost any age kid — from toddlers to tweens. So if your favorite 7-year-old already has a Yoto device, this card featuring the official KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack is sure to be a hit. If they’ve already got the KPopcard or their interests lie elsewhere, there are hundreds of other options, like the soundtracks to WickedandWicked: For Good, a throwback The Sound of Music soundtrack, or multiple audiobooks from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

LEGO of any variety is typically a hit with this age group, and the brand’s three-in-one sets are a great bargain. They’re a go-to among Strategist parents for birthday gifts, stocking stuffers, and Easter-basket fillers, and there are tons of themes too, so you can easily find a three-in-one set for every kind of 7-year-old, from a unicorn that transforms into a seahorse and a peacock to a race plane that becomes a helicopter and a fighter jet. This spider-scorpion-snake set is one of my favorites because it includes a yo-yo-esque cord that makes it look like the spider is actually spinning a web.

According to Milk Teeth co-founder Catherine Newell-Hanson, this is the age when kids start to get the hang of playground classics like jump ropes. This set of two will let them practice outside by themselves or with friends.

Jewelry-making is a major fascination among elementary-school kids, whether they’re weaving rubber bands on Rainbow Looms or stringing up classic alphabet beads to make friendship bracelets. This kit from craft brand Hey Clay is unique in that children can make their own rings by sculpting every part from scratch. It comes with a ring-sizer disc, a ring-measuring cylinder, and enough air-dry clay to make five flower rings, and you can download an app to access interactive instructions that are easy for kids to follow. Hey Clay also sells a kit for making rings shaped like donuts, cake, and ice cream, as well as a variety of other kits themed around other kinds of jewelry and accessories, the Minions, and poop.

If they aren’t as interested in crafty stuff, these Transformers-esque beaded unicorns transform into jewelry with a simple twist and click. There are a variety of different animals available, both in “family” packs like this one and in mystery blind bags; they also make adorable mini action figures.

This neon Origami set byCreativity for Kids pairs with accompanying YouTube videos that walk kids through the many different designs they can fold in 3-D.

Newell-Hanson says this set of dual-tipped markers from Ooly is one of her favorite under-$20 gifts for elementary-school kids. Each marker has a brush tip on one side and a cute stamp in the same color on the other.

Erin Boyle of Reading My Tea Leaveslikes these chunky colored pencils for kids who love to draw because they are easy to use; come in beautiful, highly pigmented colors; and are sturdy and long-lasting.For 7-year-olds who already have plenty of classic rainbow colored pencils, Boyle suggests this set of skin-tone shades.

Here’s a fun way to get kids talking about math: Mobi is a Bananagrams-like game that has kids create simple math equations on the fly. My niece, Lila, started playing with it at age 7 and says it doesn’t feel like learning because “it’s just fun.” Also, who doesn’t love a whale-shaped carrying pouch?

“Kids this age are geniuses at improvisation,” says Rumaan Alam, a novelist and father of two. “A pad of Post-its is a flip book; it’s a storybook; it’s a wall mosaic that won’t cost your security deposit; it’s two-dozen very small paper airplanes. It doesn’t sound like much of a gift, but trust me: Kids love office supplies.”

Along those same lines, Abby Kerlin, program director of general education at Bank Street Graduate School of Education, says that, often, the best thing you can give an imaginative 7-year-old isn’t actually a toy. “When your kid is pretending to wait tables and asking, ‘Do you want oat milk in your latte?,’ they’re revealing how carefully they have been observing the world around them,” she says, adding that what they need in that moment is a parent who is open to playing along or offering a pad of paper so they can write down the order. This five-pack of restaurant guest checks serves the same purpose while adding authenticity to their pretend play.

Plus Plus is a popular building toy made up of plus-shaped recycled-plastic pieces that kids can use to make anything from a moving car to an alien to Earth (the sets are also convenient for travel because they are both engaging and easily portable). Most of the pieces are exactly the same shape, with additional accessories available like wheels and baseplates, but they come in a wide array of colors and two sizes. The set pictured here has 70 pieces that let you build a pretty realistic crab.

With this kit, kids dig into a molded block of clay and use chisels, brushes, and a magnifying glass to uncover highly realistic fossils and gemstones, making them feel like real scientists. Then they can classify their finds by looking them up in the accompanying booklet.

But if digging for gems isn’t their idea of a good time, this DIY pinball machine that uses gumballs instead of metal balls is just as engaging with a more exciting payoff. Once the build is finished, kids have a real working arcade game to play with.

For kids who are getting into hobbies and sports, Roberta Golinkoff, a professor of child psychology at the University of Delaware, recommends supplies and equipment that nurture those interests. If you know a 7-year-old who loves to kick a ball around, this set of soccer goals and practice cones makes a great gift they can play with right out of the box: The nets pop right out of their carrying case (and then fold back in with a simple twist).

No one can deny the joy of jumping up and down — especially if it’s on a super-bouncy pogo stick, like this one thatAlexandra Figueras-Daniel,an assistant research professor atthe National Institute for Early Education Research, recommends. “The pogo stick is a great balancing toy that will definitely require a bit of practice,” she says. But that’s a good thing: “I think toys that are just slightly above ability levels are great as they encourage persistence and also avoid becoming boring too quickly.” This model, which comes in a bunch of colors including blue, red, and yellow, features non-slip pedals and a safety foam handle. As with any other playthings they could potentially fall off of, it’s recommended that children wear a helmet and other protective gear when using pogo sticks.

Kids start learning the general concept of time and the vocabulary around clocks and watches in kindergarten, but first and second grades are when they begin to actually tell time on their own. An analog watch helps them practice this skill, while giving them a sense of newfound independence. Flik Flak is owned by the same parent company as Swatch, and the kids’ watches are made in the same Swiss workshops. The band of this watch can be personalized with up to 11 characters and one of six emoji.

This battery-operated ATM-meets-piggy-bank helps kids learn how to budget and save money; they use their pretend debit card and pin code to deposit bills or coins in the designated slots and can look to the digital screen to see their savings accumulate (or dwindle as they make withdrawals).

Beyblades were invented nearly 30 years ago in Japan, but the spinning, battling tops are still at the top of many elementary-school kids’ wishlists. This set comes with two interchangeable die-cast tops, two zip launchers, and a stadium with X-Celerator rail and multiple knock-out zones.

Park told me that her kids are big fans of Jellycat’s whimsical stuffed animals and, in particular, they love the brand’s Amuseables line that includes a pretzel, egg, avocado, and hot dog. Ever since I saw its stuffed-animal bags, which come in all kinds of shapes, not just animals, from a croissant to a boiled egg, I’ve been obsessed. They are the exact type of toy — cute, tween-adjacent, and funny — that I would have loved at this age. And because the bags double as an accessory, they’re a great gift for children who have way too many stuffies but are still asking for more.

Strategist senior writer Lauren Ro recently got this leather baseball glove for her older son’s 7th birthday. It’s an upgrade to his previous glove with extra palm padding and increased flexibility that makes it easier to close when catching.

Ro also bought this puzzlelike wooden marble run for her 7-year-old. Instead of building vertically kids can change out the placement and orientation of nine wooden tiles to create 28 different paths. The brand also makes a larger more complex version called the Oort Cloud that lets you race marbles side-by-side.

Around this age kids may start asking for a phone or a smartwatch so that they can talk to their friends and plan their own play dates. But if you’re not ready to open that can of worms, getting them a Tin Can landline phone is a great alternative. Anyone with a Tin Can phone can call another Tin Can phone for free, or you can pay $10 a month to call and receive calls from exterior numbers. The phone works with Wi-Fi and parents get to control a list of contacts and working hours via an app.

This remote-controlled LEGO passenger train is definitely a splurge, but it has a ton of play value. The 764-piece set features a bullet locomotive, a passenger car, a dining car, dimmable headlights, and six Minifigs.

If you’re really looking to splurge on your American Girl gift, doll obsessives and their parents will be delighted by this handy and stylish storage trunk.

Trolio’s daughters received this kid-friendly table saw that cuts cardboard as a Christmas gift from their grandfather. Instead of using a sharp blade like a jigsaw, the Chomp Saw works like a really fast hole punch to literally bite through cardboard as you feed it into the mechanism, depositing the chewed-up material in the dust bin below. The metal guard on top protects children’s fingers, and the included accessories — a hole punch and scoring knife — make it easy for them to plan out projects and create complex shapes and inner cutouts. The more kids practice with it, the more elaborate projects they’ll be able to create; when Trolio’s younger daughter was 7, she used it to construct some add-on accessories for her Barbie DreamHouse and an angular fedora inspired by a current obsession with Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego series.