Church Working on Donations for Older Kids. What to Buy?

The outdoor toys for SURE (razors, and they don't have to be new... new wheels and grip pads MAKE razors "new", and those cost about $10, balls for all sports, but BASKETBALL is one you can play on your own if you're an only child or need to be on your own for safety reasons, skateboards, etc.)

BUT

speaking from have zero extra cash at many times in my parenting career (like $50 a week food budget, when in our area WIC provides $150 a week in food... if that tells you how NOTHING we could afford; milk is $4 per half gallon), and one set of my inlaws also being in school raising kids and FAR worse off than we've ever been...

A LOT of the time poor kids are stuck inside.

Why?

Because it's not safe outside. In urban areas there's gangs, and in more rural ghettos kids steal your stuff and beat you up.

So a lot of poor kids have to stay indoors and AWFUL lot.

Books. Comic books. Art supplies. Experiment kits. Weights (like dumbbells). Board games (the more adult ones, like Chess, Ingenious, Risk, Mancala, Taboo). POSTERS for their rooms (not just teenybopper type posters but also science, art, gamers, sports). Friendship bracelet MAKING supplies. DVDs. Legos (like starwars legos. Those 200 & 300 piece starwars legos are HUGE with this age group). Puzzles. Journals. iTunes gift cards.

And don't forget experiences!!! Musical instruments (pawn shops have GREAT prices on musical instruments...we're talking $20 here but one better is something that can't be pawned again: a gift certificate for a rental. LESSONS OF ALL TYPES -dance, martial arts, art, music, languages, sports,- (these can be a $50 credit towards 3 months of lessons at a local community center. MANY of these centers offer bussing from schools. Similarly, a membership in an afterschool program through a local school.

Treasures: Cameras (have a hand-me-down? Ideally with RECHARGEABLE batteries; like you say... new batteries don't get bought), iPods (hand-me-down, again... WITH earphones. Walls are thin in low income apartments. People fighting, having sex, kids crying... poor kids' lives are often LOUD). Memory sticks/flash drives (most people have computers... but having a "room of your own"/ aka somewhere safe to store your stuff AND if their family DOESN'T have a computer, it's a way to transport "homework" and other work they do on library computers.

First of all, awesome of you to be part of such a wonderful project.
My community is so good about helping kids out with Toys for Tots and other programs.
It really is a blessing.

Electronics....blech.
Get some sports related things. Basketballs, footballs, soccer balls, a baseball glove and a baseball.
There are games called Hi-Q and Mancala. Check them out. Amazing! Boys or girls would like them.
There's also the handheld electronic 20-Q game that's about $10. You think of a thing and the game guesses based on your yes or no answers.
A friend bought my son one and we've had so much fun with it. It can be played alone.
For this age group, things that get you moving or make you think can never go wrong.

Just my opinion.

Blessings to you!

This might be surprising but when adopted a family the kids in this age range wanted coats (DFW is cold!!! at least for me this time of year), shirts/jackets from favorite sport(s) team, blankets and basic snack foods. The girls wanted pajamas. All the kids wanted new shoes because their old ones had holes and didn't fit properly. My own kid in this age range loves PJs, art supplies, clothes, shoes and old fashioned board games.

Last year I volunteered and you are right, the pre-teen/ teens are forgotten. Most of the parents went for fishing poles, perfume, jewelry, cologne, legos, make up sets, clothes, shoes, bath sets, watches, mp3 players, DVDs, skate boards, bikes, nerf guns, nice art sets... We could not give the sporting equipment away! No one wanted those at all. Hope that helps some.

Unisex - iTunes gift cards of $15 (99c a song, so that will give them 15 songs to download)

Girl - pretty scarf and gloves with hair clips and lipgloss or a secret diary

Boy - Fake sword, Pirate/Super hero stuff for make believe play (or a soccer ball/baseball bat and ball if they love sports)

good luck.

Great suggestions below! Hats off for doing such worthy work. What about some sort of "workout" equipment i.e. a stretch band, hand weights etc. My boys are getting are wanting to look "manly" and they're wanting these things. Don't think they're very expensive. Merry Christmas!

Don't forget clothes. My SD likes things with sparkles, fun socks, goofy winter hats, scarves (both for winter and for fun, like you'd find at Claire's).

Our Giving Tree has families on it and many times the older kids want things like "a football" or "a diary" or "an art set". This year my giftee is getting an art set (Michael's has them in all price ranges, and also sells paper packs) and a Hello Kitty diary with stickers and a pen. She's 12.

When I was an older kid/tween I loved my jumprope. You can also go for games that you can play alone, like jacks. What about card games like Uno? Portable and fun. Apples to Apples is another GREAT game for a wide age group.