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Thought-Provoking Gifts For Young Kids?
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?"
How about books? I know it's not the latest high tech doodad but I would of loved to have gotten more books as a child.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela
Paper, pencil, paintbrushes.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
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.
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.
If "unremarkable bits of plastic" make the children happy, what's the problem with getting them unremarkable bits of plastic and making them happy?
Not everything is about you, hipster. Try being the "fun uncle" instead of the "odd uncle who's always trying to make them into something they're not."
I actually still like the little plastic blocks. I think that's what started or at least cultivated many an engineer's interest in the trade. Just get them a box with mixed blocks and they'll keep it for their kids when they grow up. My parents gave me 1 small kit when I was young (back when they had less custom blocks - the newer series are actually going back to those roots it seems) and then whenever I got some cash or gifts for good report cards I would expand until by 16 years old I got a whole city that took up the whole attic.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
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.
Thought-Provoking? Check.
Unremarkable bit of plastic? Check.
They'll be able to pick up and enjoy even after they outgrow their train/truck/homemaking fetishes? Check.
Won't have to pick out gifts twice a year after this? Check.
I still remember the lovely combination of little tiny nuts and bolts.. and deep carpeting.. and the sound it made going into vacuum cleaner!
Lego is always going to be the obvious suggestion in cases like this. Not the pre-packaged Star Wars/Transformers/whatever licenced stuff, but a plain old box of bricks.
Alternatively, though this might seem a strange suggestion taken at face value, that old 1960s favorite Spirograph can be an interesting stepping stone into all kinds of clever thoughts about geometry/mathematics. Plus you get some pretty pictures out of it.
As said above, it's hard to go wrong with Legos.
5-10 is a huge range to generalize about.
On the lower end of the range, books are great. They're starting to read or reading more but probably haven't decided what kind of books they don't like yet. There are several modular marble track systems on the market, Some even integrate with the Duplo-sized bricks. Everybody enjoys these.
The upper end of that range will want to choose their own gifts. Finding out if they're into Nintendo DS or another specific system can narrow the choices in a helpful way.
Seriously, right after Legos, a big heap of good old fashioned woods blocks were the best. Building towers, cities, etc is the best.
Giant refrigerator sized cardboard boxes too.
Get them a playhouse, and not a plastic one. Draw up plans, precut the pieces, and have them help you assemble it. Playhouses are a blank slate for childhood adventure to paint upon.
A bigger Rubik's Cube? Rubik's Hypercube?
Capsela is the best toy I ever saw that fits your requirements. It consisted of transparent plastic spherical modules with various gears you could connect to build vehicles and tools of various types. My younger brother played with his set for years and now he's a mechanical engineer who builds advanced composites for Ford. You can't buy it new anymore, but there's lots available on eBay.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Shuriken!
What, not thought-provoking enough?
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
What about one of these?
http://www.cracked.com/article_18494_15-unintentionally-perverted-toys-children_p2.html
My new standby (although you can only really use it once per child) is a book. Two actually:
The Dangerous Book for Boys
The Daring Book for Girls
Check em out on Amazon, actually really interesting stuff. The gist of it is it's all the stuff that a well rounded kid should learn as they grow up.
Some of the most fun I had as a child was when I had the raw materials to do something- and conversely often the biggest frustration was a lack of materials.
Wood, rope, large cardboard boxes, tape, etc. Strangely rope seemed to always be in short supply. Hammer and nails. Much learning occurs when idle hands are armed with stuff :)
And actually I think the best gift you can give is time. One of the best times I had with one of my young nephews was building a swing- just your simple board and two ropes off a tree limb swing. We discussed how big the seat needed to be- actually measured some assorted butts!, how big the rope needed to be, we measured and cut, learned about knots, tied the whole thing up, and it got a lot of use for years. The designing, acquiring materials, building, overall a simple but enjoyable project with an immediate return, and a template for many other projects.
Later projects were a potato cannon, tree fort with crows nest, for-real play house (including wiring in outlets, windows, insulating, basically a small guest-house)... we spent an afternoon pulling cat5 to all the rooms in their house and putting in a router... soldered up a pong game and a couple other odd electronics kits. Next up may be firearms if I can get the parents to buy into that :)
Time, encouragement, and patience are incredibly valuable and are remembered. Not easy if they're far away or too busy with all the distractions kids have these days. Maybe my entire comment is out of date in today's world. ?
Buy them porn...When I was a kid, I found it to be remarkably educational.
Ask your siblings if there's a particular piece of furniture that the kids could use in their room(s), (coffee/play table, dresser, whatever), find a used one cheap, get a bunch of paint and decorative type stuff. Spend a day decorating it with them, and you're set. Hell, you could even attach Lego mats to a coffee table and tether some basic tools to it, if they're into that sort of thing. I tried something like this a few years back and it worked really well.
Or, for really young kids, buy something really cool and BIG for yourself and give the kids the box. They will have more fun making that into a fort/dollhouse than all the paints and paper in the world.
Parents today often use writing/drawing as calm down methods, and the kids start looking at it as punishment. But at least these are creative devices, rather than passive entertainment devices. Kids bore quickly. Let them build the fort, then draw the fort.
Nothing with batteries.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
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...
just to see what they'll come up with
A crippling fear of electricity and computers!
Time and attention from interested, intelligent adults.
Or they could end up working for FedEx or UPS.
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.
I bought myself a K'NEX set called "The big ball factory," and some other sets of spare parts. My computer geek / engineer colleagues came over one night for a few to many beers. Everyone had a plan one how to improve the damn thing. There were four folks working in parallel on different sections at once, and showed no intention of stopping, and lost all track of time . . . just like what happens when you do hard core coding.
My girlfriend quipped to the other girlfriends, that if the beer didn't run out, she would have to chase them all out with a broom. Most of the girlfriends found the behavior "cute", especially since with every improvement, one of the guys would run to his girlfriend, and say, "Look, Romy, at that thing that I just built!"
When the folks were leaving, one of the chicks said, "I'm glad that these toys are in your apartment, and not in mine."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Timecube. Four toys in a single toy box.
When I was a kid, my dad would often tell me that if I do well in school, he would pay for my college, and if I don't, he would buy me a giant shovel, the kind they use on the farm to move cow manure for my 18th birthday. He would also take me to my grandfather's farm every now and then, just so that I'd see those shovels getting used.
I never got the shovel. I choose the path which implied a six figure income instead. So one could say that even though the shovel never materialized, it was pretty thought provoking.
Get them a tool kit. One of those hand-held plastic trays with a hammer, a pair of screwdrivers (X and --), a jigsaw with some different blade types, two clamps of any small type, some sort of measuring device and - if you want to be extra fancy - a hand-operated drill. Add a bottle of wood glue and a box of smallish nails. A carpenters pencil comes in handy as well. My 5 yo daughter made a candle holder for her birthday, heart-shaped with nails at the edges to hold the candles after I told her I did something similar for Yule when I was 6. A little help here and there and before you know it they'll make their own 'toys' which are twice as much fun as those plastic bits mentioned elsewhere in this thread. Plywood, hardboard, those waste bits of wood you're left with after doing some construction all come in handy.
I used to live next to a carpenter from birth 'till about 7. He had this barrel with leftovers in his backyard toolshop which I was free to pillage. I was lucky.
--frank[at]unternet.org
If you're going along those lines:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meccano
Ask me about repetitive DNA
"The problem with books is that if the parent is a religious fundamentalist type, you end up donating to the local circular file."
That only indicates that you insist on picking things that will insult the child's parents. The question was phrased by someone who wants to get what is best for the child, not someone who wants to insult the family.
Yes, it is inappropriate to give a child books with sexual themes. It is inappropriate to give a child books that belittle what the parents believe. Even if you worship at the Throne of Darwin, not everyone does. When in doubt, ask the parents advice. It will help you win in the long run. The child will reach an age where they make up their own mind. If you want to still be in the kid's life, then show a little respect.
It's the adult thing to do.
Everybody knows 3 people with my name.
Try Lego bricks. But not the fancy ones, just a whole bunch of the basic shapes. Or an Erector Set. These can only be beat by taking them to play outside.
Worked at Radio Shack many winters ago, and a lady came in and said, "I want your loudest, most obnoxious guns, and a whole bunch of your longest-lasting batteries."
I said, "This sounds like revenge. What did they do to you?"
"My brother bought my kids the popcorn popper on a stick last year." The brother deserved it completely, IMO.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
A few that may work for all generations.
Lego.
Music Instruments.
Hammer, Saw and nails.
Board Games.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
"The problem with books is that if the parent is a religious fundamentalist type, you end up donating to the local circular file."
That only indicates that you insist on picking things that will insult the child's parents. The question was phrased by someone who wants to get what is best for the child, not someone who wants to insult the family.
Yes, it is inappropriate to give a child books with sexual themes. It is inappropriate to give a child books that belittle what the parents believe. Even if you worship at the Throne of Darwin, not everyone does. When in doubt, ask the parents advice. It will help you win in the long run. The child will reach an age where they make up their own mind. If you want to still be in the kid's life, then show a little respect.
It's the adult thing to do.
"Worship at the Throne of Darwin" doesn't exactly show an example of being adult.
I think we can all agree that most religions are mistaken. Zeus, Odin, Vishnu, Jesus' miracles - I think you'll agree that at least three out of the four do not exist. There is no one religious view that reach the majority of children. That means that most children are being taught lies. In my book, that's child abuse. You're saying that the "adult" thing to do is to allow child abuse - in the form of indoctrination - until the child is old enough to "make up their own mind" - which they don't. Most people believe the same thing as their parents. The chance of getting the abuse to stop - the children to stop re-doing the abuse on their own children - is to start when they're children.
Oh, and by the way: "The Throne of Darwin" indicates to me that you disagree with "evolution". I contend that I have never talked to a person that disagreed with modern evolutionary theory. Everybody that disagree disagree with something else - because they do not understand what modern evolutionary theory claims.
If you want to be consistent with evidence and believe that God made the Earth in six thousand years and that evolution had no place in it, there is only one way to do this: You have to believe that God created the Earth so that it was supposed to look like it had been made by evolution. And he could have created it five minutes ago, with fake memories in you.
Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.