Gifts for 13 Year Old Boys

The best toy and gift ideas for 13 year old boys

We understand the stress of trying to find the right gift for a 13 year old boy. Whether it’s for your son, nephew or a family friend it can be tough, especially since they grow so fast and their interests change so frequently. Toy’s, games and books they once loved may be now considered “uncool” or “too childish” by a 13 year old boy.

To help you out we’ve put together this guide with a list of gift ideas to either inspire or help you find the right gift for your 13 year old boy.

Our top gifts and how we select them

Using a combination of research and hands-on experience we’ve put together this list of top gifts for a 13 year old boy. All gifts that we include are are well rated, well reviewed and readily available. When we pick our top gifts we always consider the durability of the gift because longevity is important as we want the gift to last as long as possible. We also consider the entertainment value, because a highly entertaining gift will hold a boy’s attention longer and allow for more usage over time. The other factors we consider are how the gifts assist with healthy social and physical development and how effective they are at doing so.

Developmental factors in a 13 year old boy

A boy at the age of 13 is now officially a teenager. There’s so many changes going on at this time from social to physical development. Physically they will start growing taller, gain weight, strength and their vocal cords begin to enlarge causing their voice to deepen, although this may happen a little later for some boys. Socially they become increasingly independent from parents and family and end up spending more time with their friends. Hormonal shifts can happen at 13 years of age contributing to emotional ups and downs or mood swings along with other factors such as peer pressure, stress from school and the fact that they are becoming more body conscious.

Physical

It is important that a 13 year old boy is encouraged to stay active in order to keep him physically healthy and to continue this development throughout his life. At 13 he will want to do what his friends do and quite often this is playing PlayStation or Xbox which is no bad thing, however it can be unhealthy if he spends too many hours on it a day. While he is sedentary his muscles will not be engages causing loss of strength and fitness and a danger of obesity.

Active based gifts are anything that encourages him to engage physically whether that be through playing a sport, running around or using equipment like riding a bike. In our top gifts we always chose to include one or two active gift ideas.

Social

At 13 a boy is now able to engage in more complex social situations and will have a better grasp of social concepts such as humour or sarcasm. By this age it will also be obvious whether his personality is more introverted or extroverted meaning he will lean more toward the comfort of his own company or friends close to him or thrive on meeting and being around new people.

There’s no denying that social ability can be an extremely useful skill in life and is used by everyone living in a society on a daily basis. To help him develop his social skills, it is a good idea to consider gifts that encourage multiplayer or whether that be competitive or cooperative. We always include one or two social based multiplayer gifts as choices in or picks of top gifts.

Confidence

Confidence is extremely important in a boy age 13 especially due to its fragility and the fact that it is now linked to thinks like body consciousness, the stress of school and peer pressure. The best way to assist with his confidence is to figure out what his talents are and base a gift on that. So for example if he is a talented creative then consider an arts and craft based gift so that he can be more aware of his best abilities.

Mental

At 13 years old, a boy has a lot more brain activity going on than he did when he was younger. It is especially important to keep his mind stimulated and continue this development right up until adulthood as it will help him through his years of education and learning.

Gifts that assist with learning can be broken down into two types, knowledge based and mental or problem solving. The former would include informative or fact based books as an example and the latter would include problem solving challenges such as games such as board games, video games or building game sets.