Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Holiday gift suggestion thread

Thought it might be fun to share ideas here.

I especially need suggestions for DS4--interests are the ocean (esp. deep sea), weather, geography, and games. We already have Scrambled States of America, which he loves, but DD is bored of it. He reads at about a 3rd grade level, more or less, although he will pore over nonfiction books written at a higher level than this. (Not huge on the DK books, though.) Games everyone can play together are always good, although we have many. He plays at about a 2nd grade level or higher.

DD8 has finally surrendered to Harry Potter. We have the books, but some other items might be fun if there is something neat out there. Her main request is a digital camera, so I need a rec there.

They both also like building. We have a wide variety of building stuff, but I'm open to new ideas. I am considering Capsela. We have lots of Legos, but no Mindstorms--can someone give me a rundown on that? They usually only build the kits once.

DS5 recently played this game with a four year old and an eight year old. They had a lot of fun.

http://www.amazon.com/YogaKids-The-...d=1352050544&sr=8-1&keywords=Yoga+garden

DS5 is obsessed with geography and has all of the "GEOPUZZLES". They are so much fun I do them as well!

I also got him a huge laminated world map with all the world flags at the bottom, and a book about geography. He will pick a country by looking at the flags, go to his book and find the continent it is in, and then find the country on his map. Amazing the countries he can ramble off that I never even knew existed....:-)

This Geo line looks great. I'm wondering if anyone has this game?

http://www.amazon.com/GeoDice-Educa...e/dp/B004BFRNT6/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

One word (sort of):

www.ThinkGeek.com

No relations or interest... just a BIG fan.

Dandy

p.s.
www.thinkgeek.com/product/b278/
(This is more a gift for parents to inflict on, er -- I mean *share* with their PGlets!)

For a digital camera, it depends on how much you have to spend and the functional requirements. You can get a digital SLR and a starter lens for not much money these days; that would be nice for someone interested in learning photography, but not as easy to carry around as a little point and shoot camera.

Here's what I'm thinking for my builder boy: Erector sets are good, or so I've been told. We'll get one and see how he likes it. My brilliant (or possibly ridiculously bad, we'll see) was a box of supplies to make his own robots. There are bunches of robotics instructional sites, and I think I might get a bunch of pieces that are used in those, then show him one of the sites and let him pick the one he wants.

She's not getting an SLR--*I* don't have one, and I'm a pretty decent photographer. You can learn just fine on any digicam with a manual setting. Anyway, I wouldn't trust her not to break it. She's a bit of a klutz. I'd like something that's designed to be tough or has a protective case or something but isn't dumbed down or poor quality. There are plenty of nice little point and shoots these days, but mine, for instance, is slick to handle and fragile.

Olympus makes some water & shock-proof cameras that are pretty decent, and not super expensive.

We are planning on giving DS my husband's current iPhone (4), because he's going to get a new phone. We'll just take the sim out, so he can only use it on wifi, but he's going to be super-duper excited, I just know. Hah, he loves playing games on that thing.

We've also got a little netbook that I won from work that we're going to give to both kids, so they have their own computer to play on (right now they use mine.)

I'm debating on whether or not I can justify the cost of buying DS8 the Lego Mindstorms set. On one hand I know he'd go NUTS if I got it for him... on the other hand, it's like $350!!! That would be his only present, aside from the netbook & iphone.


For your son I'd recommend the Snap Circuits set, just because they are so awesome. They are simple enough in the start sets for a kindergartener, but can be much more advanced, if the child wants to go there with them.

If you don't want to shell out for the MindStorms set, check out the Technic line. Maybe you could get him one or two of those, plus the engine pack to power them.

I bought our NXT 2.0 set on sale a while back for $200. Look for a sale (of course), but also realize that on Lego's site, as well as at Amazon and at most resellers, it should cost under $280 at the regular price. If you found that $350 price at a reseller, I'd carefully check prices before buying anything from them.