Toys That Can Build Careers : These Holiday Gifts Appeal to Budding Architects, Interior Designers and Gardeners

It’s hard to be jolly as you dash from store to store trying to find the right toy for your tot. Perfect playthings--that is, toys that are fun and educational and that fostering creativity and develop motor skills--may seem difficult to find amid the movie- and TV-themed merchandising, but they’re out there.

And because toys are expected to be more than just fun, why not have them introduce young minds to architecture, interior design or gardening? In addition to inspiring careers, they can encourage children to help around the house.

Here’s a little help finding the perfect gift to inspire that budding Frank Lloyd Wright or Martha Stewart this holiday season:

Architecture

Whether your child is at the stage where she is stacking blocks or ready to erect a miniature mosque, there is an appropriate building-related toy.

For the toddler and preschool child, there are wood blocks that can be stacked and piled to build villages.

* Village Blocks ($15) from the Hearth Song catalog ([800] 325-2502) is a collection of 60 wooden blocks shaped to re-create an old-fashioned European village. Columns, arches, towers, brightly colored roofs, cones and pyramids can be mixed and matched in various combinations.

* Little Architect Blocks ($26) from the Young Explorers catalog ([800] 239-7577) come in bright colors, with plenty of grooved columns and flat boards to make the walls. The set includes 50 nontoxic wooden blocks.

* Blockbuster Set of Building Blocks ($225) is an FAO Schwarz offering for the toddler who just can’t get enough blocks. The set includes nine trays of wooden blocks made from Indian plantation rubber trees. All stack on a wooden base with wheels.

* Duplo Baby Block sets ($5 to $20) were chosen this year for a recommendation from Parents magazine. The five sets are designed for children ages 6 months to 2 years and include plastic blocks with rounded edges and a few animal blocks that make rattle sounds. They’re available at most toy stores.

* Classic Unit Blocks (individual $1.75 to $22, sets $30 to $210) are the big wooden blocks remembered by most from kindergarten. T.C. Timber is one of the main suppliers to schools of these durable blocks and also offers them to the public through the This Country’s Toys catalog ([800] 359-1233). Each block in a set is proportioned to the “unit,” of which each side is about twice the size of the next smaller side: 5 1/2 by 2 3/4 by 1 3/8 inches.

* Master Builder Blocks ($20 to $80) won T.C. Timber a recommendation from Parents magazine. These hardwood architectural blocks come in four sets from which can be built a cathedral, temple, castle or a 9th century mosque.

For ages 7 to 12, the toys get more involved and require more concentration. Some need parental guidance to help create skyscrapers and Eiffel Towers.

* Girders and Panels ($45) in the Young Explorers catalog is 550-piece kit that lets kids build skyscrapers up to 30 inches high . . . with elevator. The kit comes with everything a child needs, including plastic parts that snap together.

* Young Architect ($79), also a Young Explorers offering, is a reusable design and building set for the budding architect. The blueprint kit leads kids from designing a floor plan to building a three-dimensional acrylic model on top of it.

* Junior Architects ($40), another Young Explorers item, offers lessons in drafting and moves on to working in three-dimensional shapes made of plaster molds and construction sheets.

* Teifoc ($63) is a Young Explorers item using sugar-based cement and miniature bricks to create a house and garden. Soaked in water for a few hours, the cement dissolves and can be used to rebuild.

* 3-D Jigsaw Puzzles ($20 to $60) are great as a family project. These thick puzzle pieces combine to make scale models of some of the most impressive structures in the world, including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Empire State Building, the U.S. Capitol and St. Basil Cathedral. Available in many stores and catalog; the Worldwide Games catalog ([800] 888-0987) has a good selection.

* Erector sets ($15 and up) are making a comeback, according to Marshall Cordell, president of the Brainstorms catalog. Erector has sets for everything from biplanes to motorized Ferris wheels.

Interior Design

* Color-Me House ($50) from Young Explorers will inspire young interior designers by letting them hand-decorate a dollhouse. Pieces lie flat, so the interior of the house can be worked on in great detail using simple templates as guides. Once the inside is complete, the house is put together for finishing touches. There are also six pieces of furniture and a paper doll family.

* Dollhouses are a great way for kids to learn about furniture and spatial relationships. The $99 dollhouse offered in the Childcraft catalog is made of birch plywood. Furniture is sold in sets and range from $30 to $40. The FAO Schwarz wooden townhouse is a limited edition and comes completely furnished for $6,500.

* Make Your Own Museum ($30) from the J. Paul Getty Museum helps encourage an appreciation of fine art as well as an understanding of the use of space and color. The kit includes everything needed to create a museum: three free-standing galleries, reusable stickers depicting 70 works of art, punch-out figures of museum workers and patrons, and abstract stickers for creating original artwork. There is also a guidebook containing historical information, famous collectors and collections and how a typical museum works.

* Coloring Playhouse ($39) offered by Flax Art & Design catalog ([800] 547-7778) is made of white corrugated cardboard covered with outlines of animals, an alphabet roof and five washable markers. It also folds flat for storage.

Handyman

* Bingo Bed ($26), also from Young Explorers, offers classic pounding fun for the future contractor or parents’ helper. The hardwood bench is dotted with eight pegs that can be pounded out and back in again with the wooden hammer.

* Junior Tool Kit ($20) is perfect for fostering a love of fixing things. These tools, offered by Hearth Song, include a saw, C-clamp, 12-inch ruler, eight wrenches, an awl, standard and Phillips-head screwdrivers, pliers, ruled right-angle square, a level, a hammer, sandpaper and instructions for the use of each tool.

* Junior Workbench ($60) is a perfect place to store kid-sized tools as well as a good work space for kid carpenters. The one offered in the Childcraft catalog ([800] 631-5657) has a large surface area, a Pegboard back and built-in vise.

* Tool belt ($13) is essential for the junior handy-person. Made of suede leather, the belt offered by Childcraft has an adjustable canvas strap and is fastened with a wide buckle.

Gardening

* Power Sphere ($40), another Young Explorers offering, is modeled after the Biosphere 2 lab in Oracle, Ariz. The kit includes instructions for 60 quick and easy experiments in gardening in a greenhouse.

* Children’s Garden Tools ($20) are not plastic toys but pint-sized tools made of forged steel with wooden handles. The set of three tools, offered from the Hearth Song catalog, includes a level-headed rake, spade and hoe. There is also a wheelbarrow from the creators of Radio Flyer wagons ($29). And so the little tykes don’t get blisters while they garden, there are children’s gardening gloves offered in four sizes ($6).

* Vegetable and fruit rattles ($13) are tailored in corduroy, fleece and velour and are offered from the Hand in Hand catalog ([800] 827-9745).

* Pathway Stones Memories Kit ($20) is a way to create steppingstones with your children’s handprints or footprints. The kit from Brainstorms includes a sturdy box filled with cement that you just add water to and then design. Each kit makes one 12-inch stone about 2 inches thick.