Best toys for 10 year olds in 2021

While kids love playing in a team, they also love competing against each other at this age too! Both are social ways to play and at this age the sillier (and less serious) the competition the better. We love the Throw Throw Burrito game (featured, £24.99) for this exact reason and trust us when we say, your 10-year-old will too. Beware though – it causes (wonderfully fun) chaos!

By the age of 10 most kids have been playing with Lego for years and so they'll be ready to take on more challenging and intricate sets now that require more concentration, precision and time to build.
We love LEGO race car set(featured), £114 from Amazon.

Social games that allow children to fit in and play with their peers are incredibly popular at this age, as being accepted by their social circle and being part of a group is really important. Trading cards give children this opportunity as they can swap and play to their hearts content. Football cards, WWE cards and Pokémon cards (featured, £13) still hold currency on the playground.

Creativity is still key for children of this age and with their developed skills, focus and attention to detail they'll be able to taken on art and craft projects that are a lot more complicated and perhaps take a few days or weeks to complete. The sense of achievement they'll get when they finally have the finished project will be just as rewarding and enjoyable as doing the project itself.
We love this 3D animal colour and build craft kit (featured), £13.99 from Amazon.

By the age of 10, children can play adult board games that involve multistep, strategic decisions and longer periods of focus. They will now be able to play games that can go on for an hour or two – great for long afternoons with friends and a rainy weekend in with family.
For 10 year olds we love the Disney Villainous Game by Ravensburger (featured), £34.99 from Amazon.

This doesn't have to mean conventional, traditional puzzles – there are so many modern, quirky and unique puzzle games out there for kids at the moment.
We love this Falling Marble Logic Maze Puzzle (featured), £35.44 from Amazon.

Playmobil is so much more than just the figures with the u-shaped hands these days, with sets spanning everything from horse farms to hidden temples bursting with wild critters. The perfect imaginative play tool, there's nothing better for encouraging that 'small world' play and imaginary play the experts talk about above.

Thanks to the proliferation of iPhones, a 10 year old probably knows more about snapping selfies, applying filters and documenting daily life than you do. While they might be familiar with a phone camera, giving them the gift of an instant camera allows them to take photos and immediately see the results. The polaroid pictures make perfect project material for kids who like to create collages, scrap books or journals.
We love the instax Mini which comes in 5 different colour options (featured), £64.99 from Argos.

Kids these days start to learn coding at a young age both at home and at school, so by the age of 10 they can master more complicated coding puzzles and challenges. Combine their coding skills with something else they love – like cars, robots, computers or superheroes (featured) – for the perfect gift.

The gift of reading is a great present at any age and by 10-years-old, children are about to read more complex book, with chapters and few images. By this age children may have begun to develop a particular interest in certain genres or authors, so this will help guide you in the decision of which book to buy them.

It's important to encourage kids to keep exploring and learning at this age, so giving them a construction project which challenges their building ability and skills is great.

Is there anything more satisfying than a brand new pencil case full of new pens and pencils for a kid? Get them excited to start back at school after the holidays by providing them with a range of colours to write and doodle with. New notebooks, pads and journals are also a great gift, too.

We love these children's stationary and writing kits from Not On The Highstreet (featured), £30.

Imaginary games are often deemed as something for 'little kids' but this is just a stereotype. It's still really important to encourage their imaginations to run wild and let them, dress up, play imaginary games or with 'small world' sets – as these help kids process things they are seeing and hearing in the world.
We love the dress up outfits from Rubie's (featured), £21.55 from Amazon.

Yes, it's a game with a screen BUT it's also a toy that most 10 year olds really really want. When it comes to the best toys for 10 year olds, The Nintendo Switch Lite (featured, £199) is one of the best in its field - easy to play, fantastic graphics and great compatible games to boot.

Word game like Bananagrams (featured, £16.38) are fantastic for helping to build up a child's vocabulary and spelling speed as well as increase their confidence using and spelling longer words. A game loved by adults and kids alike, this is an easy, portable table game that the whole family can enjoy wherever you are.

These timeless toys have been entertaining kids for decades and they're still going! These days remote control cars have become a bit more sophisticated along with all of the advancements in tech, so you can get models that are controlled by lasers, can be coded on a computer and will even drive up walls.

Music teachers and professionals generally recommend that children start learning to play an instrument between the ages of 8-10 years old. This is not only because they have the concentration and ability to focus for long enough to master the basics, but they also have the lung capacity and dexterity in their fingers to being to learn wind and string instruments properly. Buying them their first musical instrument – and lessons with a professional to help them learn – is a gift that will last for years to come.
These trombones by award-winning British manufacturer PBone are approved by music teachers and are REACH safety compliant (featured), £105.52 from Amazon.

Whether they're cute and cuddly or armoured and ready for battle, collectable toys are big with kids of this age. What they want to collect will depend entirely on what their friends are into and what their interests are, but the most important thing is that they can play and trade them with friends and also have the option to invest their carefully saved pocket money in growing their collection. Current popular collectibles include Hatchimals (featured), L.O.L Surprise dolls and Littlest Pet Shop creatures.

Kids of this age still have bags of energy to burn off every day and so buying them toys that they can play with in the garden – especially team games they can play with siblings and friends –is great for getting them outdoors and exercising.
We love classic garden game Swingball (featured), £24.99 from Amazon.

We're not telling you to buy your child a pet – although we're sure they've nagged you for a kitten or puppy plenty of times by now – but getting them something they can feel responsible for, nurture and watch grow is great for kids of this age. Think along the lines of a plant or maybe even go for a no-hassle family pet instead in the form of a Tamagotchi (featured, £15.99)!

Kids of this age love collaborative games they can play with their friends, so anything that require them to work in a team to play will often by a winner.
This Capture the Flag team game, £39 (featured) is a best seller on Amazon.

If your child doesn't have these already, then they're probably asking for at least one of them! Great for playing alone or with friends, encouraging physical activity and letting kids explore the limit of their own bravery at this age, many kids love nothing better than a trip down to the skate park with one of these. Scroll down for the bestsellers in each of these categories...

Click the link below for the bestselling scooters for 8-10 year olds.

Click the link below for the bestselling skateboards for 8-10 year olds.

Click the link below for the bestselling bikes for 8-10 year olds.