The Only Gift Guide for a 4-Year-Old You’ll Ever Need

If you’re looking to encourage a musically inclined kid without much effort, I suggest this kid harmonica from Hape. It comes with a rechargeable light-up display that attaches to the back and guides children through a handful of songs: Red lights indicate when to blow out, and blue indicates when to suck in. Switch it to band mode, and it will play all of the other instruments along with your kid. The harmonica also detaches for free play, so kids can jam without any help.

To win this game, kids use a spinner and draw cards to help their monster — called a Meef — get all of its 12 teeth back before anyone else. The teeth are housed in a central pile that shrinks or grows depending on where the spinner lands and which cards each player draws; if you land the spinner on the lucky blue tooth, you get to take all the teeth from the pile. The illustrations are cute and silly, and there’s even a little bit of counting and simple math baked in.

“Open the box, and you’ve got the basics of an auto-body shop,” saysJason Feifer, editor-in-chief ofEntrepreneurmagazine, podcast host, and dad of two. There’s a big plastic drill that spins at non-dangerous speeds as well as the disassembled parts of a car — chassis, roof, wheels, bumpers, and a bunch of screws. To kids, it becomes an endless experiment: They’ll spend hours mastering their screwing technique, changing the wheels around (or screwing them into the roof or front bumper.)

Strategist senior writer Lauren Ro’s family loves playing this dinosaur-themed cooperative game (a gift to her older son for his 4th birthday) where kids have to work together and use their memory to get the dinos to safety before the volcano explodes. “My kids love the many interactive components involved: rolling the die; flipping over tokens to try to find the matching dinosaurs; and even building the volcano in the center when you get unlucky,” she says.

Speaking of dinosaurs, this clay-dinosaur craft kit makes kids feel like one part artist, one part paleontologist as they mold their own prehistoric beasts, using little tools and bright clay to cover upfauxfossils.

Before they actually start to learn to read, children work on pre-reading skills like letter forms, storytelling, and spacing, among other things. According to Lori Caplan-Colon, a speech and language pathologist atMontclair Speech Therapy, this set of wooden letters with corresponding pictures and word guides simplifies the process by letting kids focus on the simple act of building a word.

Corey recommends stocking a play space with age-appropriateart suppliesthat support process over product, and scissors are a superlative tool for honing fine motor skills and improving hand strength. The wacky edges on this easy-to-grip, child-safe set come in six different shapes for wavier, more interesting borders.

“I love this little gift for vocabulary and language development,” saysDr. Alexandra Figueras-Daniel, an assistant research professor at the National Institute for Early Education Research. The set of 36 illustrated storytelling cards can be arranged and rearranged into different stories and scenarios, allowing kids to create a new narrative every time they play with it. “It’s inexpensive,” Figueras-Daniel adds, “and great to carry in a bag for waiting at a restaurant or taking on a trip.” For kids who are especially interested in making up elaborate situations when they play pretend, it’s a wonderful way to put their creativity to work.

Many 4-year-olds are ready to graduate from Duplos and move on to playing with full-size LEGO bricks, whichDr. George Sachs, a child psychologist and founder of theSachs Centerin Manhattan, says “allow children to develop their own creative ideas and foster spatial awareness.” They’re incrediblyengaging and will often keep kids busy for longer than you’d think possible. Joanna Faber, co-author ofHow to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen,recommends them for theiropen-endednature. This set is specifically designed for children 4 years and up, and comes with beginner-friendly instructions for simple builds.

“Cash registers are an excellent toy option,” says Helen Sadovsky, a pediatric occupational therapist who runsToy-Ideas.com, because they teach counting and money-management skills and can be a great part of imaginative play as your child sets up their very own store or restaurant. This sweet little register from Target’s in-house brand Gigglescape comes with 31 pieces, including pretend cash, sundry items, a small grocery basket, and a credit card.

Art supplies are endlessly appealing to kids at this age, who are beginning to master the fine motor skills needed for more complex drawing, painting, and sculpting. And to satisfy a 4-year-old’s penchant for variety, Tze Chun, founder ofUPRISE ART, recommends this beginner craft library that she says contains enough of a mix to keep little kids busy but is curated enough to motivate them to use their supplies carefully. She also likes that it works as a “perfect self-contained activity” and can be easily brought on a trip.

These dominoes are especially good for preschoolers because they are sturdy, brightly colored, and plentiful (youwilllose some to mysterious corners of the house). Lining them up for the big knockdown is a great parent-child activity, and 4-year-olds have just enough focus and motor control to create some basic trails themselves. The hardest part will be teaching your kid the willpower to not send the tiles toppling while you’re only a handful deep.

A large part of every child’s education is social-emotional — learning how to interact with other children and process feelings. For that reason, Caplan-Colon suggests giving this age group a toy that encourages empathy and pretend play, like this veterinarian kit that lets them treat and care for a plush kitten and puppy.

If kids only see dolls without private parts, says Caitlin Meister, founder of theGreer Meister Group, aneducationalconsulting practice in Brooklyn, they could be getting a message that there’s something about those body parts that is shameful or bad. Instead, she thinks it’s important to give children dolls that accurately represent the human body, like Miniland’s baby dolls, to help counter any unintentional negative messaging. The brand’s dolls are all anatomically correct and represent a range of different races.

But not every doll has to be educational. Meister suggests that kids should play with a mix of realistic dolls and dolls that don’t shy away from fantasy, like this singingGabby’s Dollhousemermaid doll that lights up, changes color in water, and plays music from theupcoming movie.

Milk Teeth co-founder Catherine Newell-Hanson is a repeat buyer of these personalized superhero capes that have been a hit with many of the kids in her life. You’ll need a bit of lead time, but the result will undoubtedly make the recipient feel special. “The Etsy seller who makes them can also include a matching mask,” she notes.

For our roundup of thebest art supplies for kids, Erin Boyle ofReading My Tea Leavestold us about her favorite chunky colored pencils. “You can use them like a crayon, add water to use them like a watercolor, and they even work on whiteboards,” she says, adding that they are a very good way to satisfy kids (or parents) who want the color intensity of markers but don’t want to deal with lost caps.

At this age, pretend-play narratives become more involved and can even merge with real life. This picnic set contains everything needed to stage a lovely outing with real, fake, or imagined snacks.

“Plips” are part fidget and part building toy; kids can assemble unique sculptures and patterns while practicing their their fine-motor skills. But what I like most about them is that the pieces make a satisfying “pop” when pulled apart.

If cats and dogs are old news, here’s a toy that lets children play midwife — sort of — to arabbit. When you first open Mama Surprise (and a grown-up sets it up with batteries), she is alone in her hutch. But after feeding her some carrots and comforting her with a few head pats, she is ready to give birth to three babies. One of senior editor Jen Trolio’s daughters received the older guinea-pig version of this toy for her 6th birthday and loved re-creating the surprise over and over again. But she easily figured out how it worked, so Trolio suggests giving it to kids around 4 years old instead.

Jocelyn Greene, founder ofChild’s Play NY, emphasizes the importance of imaginative play for 4-year-old kids, because kids start to get the most cognitive and social benefits from this kind of play around age 3 and beyond. She says pretending to be someone else — whether it’s a race-car driver, makeup artist, firefighter, or surgeon — is not only fun, it’s critical to a child’s development, as they explore how to navigate the world in someone else’s shoes. This play couch add-on turns your kid’s Nugget into a car wash, complete with a fringe-adorned entrance and exit.

Another toy that taps into the fun of make-believe is this plush campfire set from Crate & Barrel’s kids’ line. “Although my kids got it for Christmas years ago, they still play with it to this day,” says marketing manager and mom of three Irene Kwon, who notes it makes for a particularly good cold-weather activity. “During wintertime, when we’re mostly indoors, my kids rely on their creativity to get them through those long hours at home. This toy really sets the stage for a cozy, relaxing, warm winter’s night — sans fireplace.” To make it even more like the real deal, Kwon suggests giving your child a cup of hot cocoa “to enjoy with theirfauxmarshmallows.” (And real ones — if they’re lucky.)

This pretend-play pilot dashboard from Melissa & Doug has the feel of an arcade game while still being totally screen-free — kids can fly the “plane” to a handful of different locations depending on which of the three double-sided windshield cards they choose, and the scrolling dashboard, buttons, and levers all trigger lights, sounds, and real-sounding in-flight alerts.

Kids who like playing in a sandbox will have even more fun doing so with this swiveling excavator crane, according to Lacerda. She told us the toy keeps her daughter “very occupied for long stretches of time” and “it is always a hit when friends come over.” Simply set it up in the sandbox — or at the playground or the beach — plop your kiddo on the rotating seat, and watch them dig and dump to their heart’s content.

This beautiful and gender-neutral modular woodendollhouseis perfect for small spaces since its three “rooms” can be expanded and arranged in multiple ways, then slide together for easy storage. It also comes with a design-y chandelier and furniture for a bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen, and dining room. Plan Toys sells half a dozen different dollhouses, most of which I have seen in person and all of which foster hours of open-ended imaginative play and are built to last for generations. I love that this one can be separated into parts and rebuilt as children see fit, and that all of the brand’s doll furniture can be used for any of the dollhouses it makes. We previously featured a similarly open-plan (but not as portable) dollhouse from Plan Toys in our story aboutthe best dollhouses.

If you’re willing to embrace mess, Lacerda loves how mud kitchens encourages creative play. Her daughter enjoys grabbing sticks and leaves from the garden and adding them to the removable sink on her mud kitchen, where she also likes to wash and clean her toys. This outdoor kitchen from Hape comes with a sink, burner, oven, shelving, and a set of stainless-steel pots and pans, plus a ladle, making it easy to whip up mud pies — or whatever else is on the menu.