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Thought-Provoking Gifts For Young Kids?

Posted by timothy on from the grey-putty-and-wires dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Societal norms and my sibling's procreative endeavors have put me in the position of having to buy gifts twice a year for young children. What makes them happy are unremarkable bits of plastic. They already have innumerable unremarkable bits of plastic (from their parents and grandparents). My preference would be to get them gifts that challenge them to think creatively (or at least to think), which they'll be able to pick up and enjoy even after they outgrow their train/truck/homemaking fetishes. Beyond the Rubik's Cube, what thinky toys from your childhood are still in production? What new thinky toys have you discovered that work for the 5–10 age range?"

13 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. Capsela by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela

    1. Re:Capsela by spauldo · · Score: 2, Informative

      That would be great, if you could still buy them. See the bottom of the wikipedia entry where it says they're only available used.

      I loved my capsela stuff. I wish I still had it around so my son could play with it when he gets a bit older.

      --
      Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
  2. C=3P by Improv · · Score: 3, Informative

    Paper, pencil, paintbrushes.

    --
    For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
  3. Lego by gbjbaanb · · Score: 5, Informative

    unremarkable bits of plastic... I had Lego when I was a kid too, and it was great - helped my imagination in a constructive way - no use thinking about spaceships unless you could put one together from little blocks.

    Today, we have Lego mindstorm - robot lego with software controllers. For something that was enjoyable and improving back then, and enjoyable and improving now is pretty cool.

    1. Re:Lego by winterphoenix · · Score: 4, Informative

      On top of Lego, K'NEX are pretty amazing pieces of construction material. As a kid, I started training with the basic sets, then got into the "master" sets. There's nothing more amazing for a child to do than to build a structure that is twice as tall as them. They are a bit expensive, but looking back they were worth every penny to me.

      --
      I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar
    2. Re:Lego by swillden · · Score: 3, Informative

      Indeed.

      Although one thing I've noticed is a serious reliance on "specialty parts". Now that spaceship comes in a kit with a special cockpit, wing, and landing gear piece..

      The mindstorm stuff looks really cool though. I _really_ would have had a blast with something like that as a kid.

      Lego is shifting away from those specialty parts, partly because of the limited building possibilities and partly because their exploding unique part count was increasing their costs. It's cheaper to produce fewer unique parts.

      I'm happy to say that my kids have pretty much lost interest in the pre-designed kits. We recently stumbled over a big plastic bin full of thousands of assorted generic lego parts at a garage sale and they immediately pooled their money to buy it.

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    3. Re:Lego by icebraining · · Score: 2, Informative

      The "Bionicle" kits are the worst; they are completely made of custom pieces, absolutely impossible to build anything else from them.

      --
      Dilbert RSS feed
  4. The classics by Anrego · · Score: 4, Informative

    Don't know about modern stuff (which I know is what you asked about) and may not be within the age range (I really have a hard time envisioning age) but the classics like meccano and K'nex (if you don't like picking up billions of mini nuts and bolts) were great.

    Looking back, I learnt a lot about structure (triangles, width to height ratios etc) and gear ratios just as a side effect of messing around.

    I can't be the only one who as a kid one day realized that if you hook a small gear to a large drive gear.. the small gear turns faster! Then tried to make a massive tower of alternating large/small gears.. only to discover that when you get to the top.. you have a fast spinning gear that can barely drive the weight of it's own axle.

    Nor the only one who tried to make a crane, only to realize that the second you attach a load, the whole thing crumbles .. seems pretty simple as an adult .. but learning that as much force is applied to the structure as the load was pretty neat at that age.

    AND of course, eventually everyone builds a crossbow .. those elastics that came with K'nex were pretty damn sturdy.. making something that could punch a hole in a piece of paper from across the room wasn't too difficult. Then trying to come up with a trigger mechanism was great fun.. and more lessons on the whole force/structure thing.

    Aside from "mechanical" toys.. there are also electrical.

    Not sure of the age range, but when I was a kid my dad made me what was basically a board with a power source, some lights, switches, and some other odds and ends. It had contacts (bolts) and a bunch of alligator clips for connecting the stuff. I had a lot of fun playing with it, and I've seen commercial versions of this now.. so might be a good idea. Also rates high on the "learning without realizing" category.

  5. 150 in one by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Informative

    Perhaps I'm atypical, but I absolutely loved my "150 in one" electronic kit. Here is a pic of the exact same kit I had when I was 8. I built every project, and came up to plenty of my own little circuits. I don't know what the modern equivalent is nowadays - perhaps heavier on the digital / logic side?

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:150 in one by MarkRose · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm 28 and I still have mine, literally 2 feet from me. Along with a few others I picked up as a kid. They were by far my favourite toys, next to Lego. I can't get rid of them, even though I haven't built anything in years. Though my favourite of the kits was the 200-in-one model that had a few NAND gates. Building latch circuits and binary decoders was fun! I was never into the analog stuff as much... my brain hated anything imprecise.

      --
      Be relentless!
  6. Zen magnets ("buckyballs")? by JavaJones · · Score: 2, Informative

    Surprised no one has mentioned the magnetic ball kits, they're "all the rage". I prefer Zen Magnets: http://www.zenmagnets.com/ (for the following reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Tka4NUmUo). Of course they're probably a choking hazard, depending on age of the children. Maybe other Slashdotters have more sense than I...

  7. Re:K'NEX, not just for kids ... by zippthorne · · Score: 3, Informative

    All your friends have boring girlfriends.

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    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  8. Re:K'NEX, not just for kids ... by RichiH · · Score: 2, Informative

    Depends. I am interested in how medicine works, etc. I could not care less about crime stories. She is learning more and more command line stuff on her Linux system, but she does not care about building stuff.

    Stop pretending this is a black/white all-or-nothing thing.