The 10 Best 10 Year Old Girl Gifts
Special Honors
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Editor's Notes
December 09, 2020:
Due to availability concerns, we removed the KPblis Mermaid Knitted Blanket and replaced it with the Dan & Darci Flower Growing Kit. Not only is this pick a fun, creative project, it’s also educational. After decorating the planter, kids get to plant their own garden of flowers and watch it grow. This would be an ideal gift for children who love the outdoors.
We also removed the VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX2 and instead opted for a more engaging and collaborative gift: the Zen Laboratory DIY Slime Kit. It includes 18 fun colors of slime and various mix-in accessories, allowing kids to use their imaginations and make whatever combinations they come up with. Not only is it a lot of fun, it’s a project that helps develop fine motor skills and promotes imaginative thinking.
November 21, 2019:
In revisiting this list, we found it prudent to remove the subscription to American Girl Magazine, which is not only suffering from availability issues, but which can be a tough choice for gift givers who might not have the means to get stuck in an annually renewed subscription program. One-off gifts are undeniably easier to manage, and they don't come with an expiration date.
In its place we added the Doctor Unicorn Soft Bathrobe Sleepwear, an exceptionally comfortable robe that's decorated with bright colors and patterns, and that has a hood designed to look like the head of a unicorn. It's one of those gifts that's liable to get daily use, as girls can wake up and hop into it whenever they come downstairs for breakfast or toss it on when preparing for bed.
We also promoted the Thames & Kosmos Sophisticated Perfume Science, which offers girls a phenomenal marriage between something that is girl-focused and something that aligns with gender-neutral STEM education goals, preparing them for the increasingly difficult science classes they're going to face in the years to come, and allowing them to smell good while they're at it.
Great Gift Ideas For A Girl Of Ten
Anyone who claims it's easy to buy a great gift for a ten-year-old girl has likely never tried to buy a gift for a ten-year-old girl.
Anyone who claims it's easy to buy a great gift for a ten-year-old girl has likely never tried to buy a gift for a ten-year-old girl. A young lady at this age straddles the gap between childhood and adolescence, and as such her interests may lie anywhere from pop culture to fantasy to music to fashion. Ten-year-old girls are often pressured by peers into acting more mature then they may actually feel and may feel pressure from their family (though inadvertently in most cases) to continue to fulfill the role of the young child.
If you know the young woman for whom you are buying a gift well, it should be relatively easy for you to select a fine item for a birthday, Christmas, Hanukah, or for another gift giving occasion. If you're less familiar with the child in question, then buying the right gift requires thought about the American ten-year-old girl at large.
Many American girls love music, movies, and clothes, but others are also fascinated by science, arts, and the natural world. A gift that can blend areas of interest is always a safe bet, as it has a good chance of meeting a girl where at least one of her interests lies. Look for items like a kit combining science and play or math and fashion, movies and memory challenges or a subscription to a magazine that covers everything from cooking to young adult literature.
Perhaps the safest bet for a child of this age is to get a gift that is perfect for children of any age (or for adults as well, for that matter). An art set containing a wealth of artistic materials — such as paints, colored pencils, and pens — allows a youngster to explore her artistic interests whether they are sketching out ideas for haute couture dresses or whether she prefers to draw princesses or comic strips. Musical instruments too are more than appropriate for a ten-year-old girl (or a child of seven or 17 or 70); get a girl of this age a genuine instrument, not a mere toy approximating a musical instrument.
Your art or music related gift may well help to encourage a child to pursue a nascent talent, turning it into a fulfilling hobby or even a gainful career. And at the very least, these gifts will prove innocuous if not smashing successes -- better to play it safe then to get a girl a gift she dislikes.
Gifts That Support Academics
As most American children enter kindergarten at the age of five, most girls will be ten years old for a majority of the time spent in the fifth grade. Thus a look at the standard topics covered in this year of school — as well as an examination of the level of rigor in fifth grade academics — can help a person gauge the appropriateness of a gift they are thinking may bolster a young lady's academic success.
A gift that relates to cooking or age appropriate books about the topic can be a great way to get a young mind thinking about math in an enjoyable manner.
When it comes to fifth grade mathematics, the Common Core standards include three primary areas of focus. These are developing an understanding for the addition, subtraction, and subsequent multiplication and division of fractions, the further exploration of division using multiple digit numbers, and the understanding of the properties of volume.
A short while spent dwelling on these three areas of math study will lead many people to think of a real world application where much of said math comes into play: cooking. Following a recipe involves using fractions, volume, time, and much more. A gift that relates to cooking or age appropriate books about the topic can be a great way to get a young mind thinking about math in an enjoyable manner.
Fifth grade social studies involves studying the United States of America in many schools; this often includes the rote task of learning state capitals, but it can also present a thrilling ride through the rich history of the nation. And nothing makes history come alive like a great book that can put a young lady into the shoes of a relatable character. Historical fiction is always in style, no matter what era the book covers, and fiction is the ideal entryway to new concepts.
Developmental Milestones Of A Ten-Year-Old Girl
One of the major changes you will witness about a girl (or a boy the same, in most cases) as she enters her double digit years of life is a newfound sense of self. This can manifest itself in the quest for achievement and recognition, which usually pans out in positive ways. A ten-year-old girl might start completing chores or attending to all of her homework without being prompted by a parent, for example. She may begin to strive harder at sports, music, or at a hobby such as acting or art.
She may begin to strive harder at sports, music, or at a hobby such as acting or art.
On the other hand, with an ever large sense of self worth also comes an occasionally overblown sense of self importance. Ten-year-old girls can be easily offended if they feel that they have been slighted in some way, or worse yet, ignored. Watch out for the tantrum of the ten-year-old girl, for in her anger she is capable of the same cruelty an adult can conjure through language, but without the filter achieved by age.
Physically, ten-year-old girls are on the verge of the growth sport of puberty, but most are still children in shape and size. Expect a ten-year-old girl to grow by between two to three inches and gain between five and ten pounds during the course of the year. The last of the child's baby teeth are likely to fall out during this year, often replaced by permanent teeth before her eleventh birthday. Ten-year-old girls have excellent gross and fine motor skills, and much of the rest of the development of their body control is simply a matter of practice and experience, not of physical ability.