Thought-Provoking Gifts For Young Kids? 458
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?"
Capsela (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsela [wikipedia.org]
C=3P (Score:4, Informative)
Paper, pencil, paintbrushes.
Lego (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.
The classics (Score:5, 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.
150 in one (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps I'm atypical, but I absolutely loved my "150 in one" electronic kit. Here is a pic [flickr.com] 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?
Re:Lego (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What's Wrong with Happy Kids? (Score:2, Informative)
> Try being the "fun uncle" instead of the "odd uncle who's always trying to make them into something they're not."
>
Word.
Zen magnets ("buckyballs")? (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...
Re:Capsela (Score:3, 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.
Re:Lego (Score:4, 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.
Re:150 in one (Score:4, Informative)
Re:How about (Score:1, Informative)
The problem with books is that if the parent is a religious fundamentalist type, you end up donating to the local circular file.
Re:Lego (Score:3, Informative)
The "Bionicle" kits are the worst; they are completely made of custom pieces, absolutely impossible to build anything else from them.
Re:How about (Score:1, Informative)
Seconded for books. Don't forget legos as well! Don't just buy the theme sets, buy the sets with tons of blocks and random pieces so they can get creative. I probably spent more time with my legos than anything else.
As for books, some recommendations appropriate for the double-digit ages:
You could probably pick up a few months (or years, depending on how fast they read) worth of good children's books on Amazon for less than the price of a game console. Plus books aren't laden with any of that silly DRM nonsense!
And
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler for the older ones.
Re:K'NEX, not just for kids ... (Score:4, Informative)
All your friends have boring girlfriends.
Re:Let me tell you a story (Score:1, Informative)
Well, it depends if the *only* thing they did was shovel. I come from a farming background and it is pretty interesting, crop rotations, keeping an eye on international markets for when to sell and what to plant, GM or not, which strains for yields, soil analysis, determining weed infestation and treatment methods. What time is good for harvesting (will it rain, are the crops dry enough for storage, should you pay for drying or risk a day waiting) and those are just the crops. Plus land management, large equipment purchases, technology investments.
You get to work outside with your hands if you are someone who enjoys that. Some people just have the feeling that it isn't valuable if it isn't physical.
Life has a different tempo, you stop in at your neighbours for lunch and tea, you don't have a boss and you can avoid the rat race feeling.
Of course, since you're your own boss, you can fail and not make any money that year. You try to diversify.
I'm recently moved to Europe doing a post-doc in biochemistry so no life on the farm for me. But it's not a job for useless dummies either and that tempo of life is nothing to scoff at.
Re:K'NEX, not just for kids ... (Score:3, 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.