Gift Ideas for Three Year Old Girls

The great thing about little girls, is the type of gifts they really love hasn't changed that much for the last several years. They love things that they can hold, play with and be creative with. The best gift ideas for three year old girls I've seen consider these attributes

• Creativity
• Imagination
• Physicality

Below is a list of several gift ideas for three year old girls with polls to vote on which ideas you like best for 2012 - 2013.

There is something about Disney Princesses and three year old girls. All of our girls loved princess dresses at the same age and would often want to wear their dresses to preschool or around the house for the entire day.

A themed gift that includes a princess dress, shoes, and Cinderella movie will make an excellent gift.

Every little kid takes a marker to a wall at some point. When we are cleaning it up, we always hope that they're water soluble markers. A great gift idea for a little kid is a set of markers that won't stain their clothes or do damage to the walls. With the coloring markers, add a few different coloring books like Disney Princess coloring book. Three year old girls will love this.

Coloring also helps to develop their spacial skills and small muscle coordination.

One of the best gifts our three year old was given was a doll house. A two story house complete with furniture and a few tiny dolls that lived in the house. The doll house was used a bunch, but the pieces broke and it became nonfunctional, but we still had a large toy taking a ton of space. Get a high doll house with sturdy furniture that will last and the kids will have a toy they will use for several years.

KidCraft makes some of the highest rated doll houses at reasonable prices.

Our three year old loves to help in the kitchen, the only problem is it takes a ton of supervision when she's stirring a hot pot. So, we thought we should get her a play kitchen as a gift. We set it up near our family kitchen so she can play while we cook meals. It's great to have an imaginary conversation with her and ask her what she's making.

At three, there are pretty uncoordinated so catching a ball with a mit is a lot to ask. However, I found that little toy bits have a felt inside and a ball with a velcro strip on it so it sticks to the glove. This is great for playing catch at a short distance. All you have to do is make sure that you can hit the glove when you toss it to her. They are never too young to start playing catch!

If you haven't seen a Plasma car, these are pretty cool. They work really well on any hard and smooth surface. Our old kitchen had linoleum and the girls would race around and around. The little kid puts their feet up and reaches over the top to grab the handle. They generate speed by swishing the handle back and forth. That motions moves the front two wheels. It takes a little practice, but a three year old can rip it up on one of these. Our little girls love them!

Our two youngest daughters learned to ride a bike at three years old. We started them on run (balance) bikes. Run bikes are two wheel bikes without peddles. They can use their feet for balance and push themselves around. When they're just starting off, they need help balancing and pushing, but they will soon get the feel for it. Once they learn to balance this way, riding a bike is a breeze.

Be sure to have them wear a helmet if they are riding the run bike. It's a good habit to start anytime they get on a bike.

Floor puzzles are puzzles that have really big pieces. Each piece is larger than an adult hand. These types of puzzles are great for small children. It teaches them about patterns, shapes, spacial awareness, and problem solving. All great skills for a three year old.

It may be over the top to get a three year old an Ipad or Itouch, but there are several great beginning spelling games that you can get for them on your device. Having educational games on a mobile device is a great way to occupy them when you're in places that they have to sit patiently.

The best games teach basic words by using the sounds of the letters. They can drag and drop the letters in order. At the beginning they need a little help, but our three year old was reading simple words one year later, largely because she played these simple reading games that we got her as a gift for being good.

Little girls love art projects. We purchased an easel for our daughters third birthday. We added watercolor paints and big sheets of butcher paper. My wife would set her outside on a hot day and let her paint. The easel seems to help with painting on a larger area of paper and since we can set it up outside, it helps control the mess caused from the water colors.

The Gyrowheel is a device that helps a bike stay balanced as kids learn to ride a two wheeler. It has a gyro in the wheel that helps keep the bike upright. It's pretty amazing to turn the wheel on, and push the bike down the street and watch it roll without anyone on it. Little kids can get comfortable on a bike this way without training wheels. If you want to teach a kid to ride a bike at three, this is a fantastic gift and a great way to do it!