Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Christmas/Hanukkah/etc presents?

So, the holidays are rapidly approaching and I was curious if anyone has any great ideas for their kids?

DS7 is totally 100% obsessed with Legos and has been for years now. I am thinking of buying him a Snap Circuits set from Amazon... seems to fit with the building theme, but might teach him something (different) in the process. http://www.snapcircuits.net/

He also requested a Rubik's Cube! LoL

For younger readers, Australian author Greame Base does a wonderful range of picture books which have stunning illustrations and all most all of them have a mystery to solve or a code to break. While the reading level is not terribly high, the codes can be quite tricky and the themes in them are great. Amazon puts his books at around grade level 3 - 6, so just adjust as necessary I guess!

Giant 30-inch Battleship Playset from amazon for my son.4
Fisher-Price Little People Animal Sounds Zoo Playset for my daughter.1

If you want to allow your children to permanently stain your house a nice shade of blue, you can buy a chemistry set.

DS5 has gotten a tremendous amount of mileage out of the Mega Rig Space Shuttle. It is very well made, and snaps together many different ways. Plus it comes with an alien with suction cup feet.

http://www.amazon.com/Matchbox-Mega-Rig-Space-Shuttle/dp/B0014412KI

DeeDee

My son LOVED Snap Circuits at 7. Good choice! This year, at 11, it'll be Rocksmith and wireless headphones. They grow up so fast.....

Mega Rig Space Shuttle = totally awesome! We also bought the dino helicopter set and both sets snap together in great ways! Super durable too! We all love the Blokus game.

Second the snap circuits and Greame Base (DD5 and I were just reading Animalia this afternoon for the first time).

Lego, Mindware KEVA contraptions, and erector sets are all popular in our home.

Oh, and geeky T-shirts from shirt.woot.com for DS7.

I want to make this fabric tea set, but I'm not sure if I'll get a round 'tuit before Christmas. Those pesky round 'tuit's are so elusive.
http://www.cherishedbliss.com/2011/08/fabric-tea-party.html?m=1

And maybe I'll buy this bop it.
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3529049
They like noisy flashy noisy things you can touch a lot. Bet it's a hit!

The whole family enjoyed the Wii, and then we saw the Xbox Kinect device, and I knew instantly they'd solved the major problems with the Wii motion controller in a very elegant way (yes, I'm a tech nerd, this is a perverse source of pleasure for me). So that was going to be the big-ticket present for DD6 this year... but DW vetoed, because she'd been asking for her own laptop for quite a while now, and we just acquired a bedroom set for her that includes its own desk, just waiting for a computer.

As the resident tech nerd, I'm officially going to resent my family when they all have newer/better systems than mine.