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Please share some of your great ideas and age.

I'll start. DS10 lego video/animation camera. around $75. It comes with some editing software. We haven't tried it yet but I'm hoping this will keep him busy. Looks fun. Has anyone tried this?

I really need something cool for my DD8. Please help with suggestions. I need something that will seem equivalent to my son's activity above.

For my son who turns 9 next month- he is getting the Lego Mindstorm (crazy expensive though!!!), snap circuit set (sold at radio shack- the larger one has some kind of computer program software- I got a smaller set so do not know if it is any good or not) and some Eco type toys- water purifier, electricity from potatoes type of things (REI has some neat inexpensive ones)


Those are the main gifts- he is also really into Pokemon, bakugan and beyblade- so he will be getting some of those things also.

DS will be 5 in February. We are doing a magic kit, junior erector set and a spy glove, wrist thing with all these tools on it. He will also get books, klutz books and the Bella card mysteries from MindWare to take on the plane for our travel. I told my parents to get him snap circuits jr and my first crosswords and search a word. For his birthday (since its so close we tend to make one big list and decide which to get when) we are looking at a microscope we saw in a catalog which transmits to a view screen instead of using the eyepiece - not sure he would be able to do that well.

Fun post idea - can't wait to see options!

DeHe

Love the thread. Can't wait to see what others post. Both DSs have b'days in December, so we're always looking for ideas for ourselves to give them as well as family members who want ideas. One will turn 7 and the other will be 9.

They'll be getting a simple Janome sewing machine (really wanted by DS7) and a children's punching bag to share, and our whole family will be getting a telescope.

We're also getting these books for one or the other:
http://www.amazon.com/Calligraphy-K...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1289700223&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Faces...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1289699666&sr=1-5
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Leonardo-Vinci-Inventions-Yourself/dp/0974934429/ref=pd_sim_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Frank...mp;ie=UTF8&qid=1290449623&sr=1-1

DS7 is also getting a Trip Wire gadget(motion sensor with alarm), a weaving loom and a glow in the dark football, and an easel with art supplies.

DS9 wants books galore (mostly classics like Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn) and is also getting an easel with art supplies as well as canvas and acrylic paints.

DD7.5 is getting:
- a netbook computer (likely a Lenovo S10-3, per BIL's suggestion)
- a model frog ()
- beginning chess strategy book
- science projects to do at home book
- likely another book or two
- possibly paper-making tools (a small blender and some window screen, not a kit)
- maybe Snap Circuits

ETA: and a red-light flashlight.

I forgot to mention last week (and just checked to see that it's still there) we got DS8 the Space Odyssey Transporter marble track building game that is usually $79.95, on clearance at MindWare for $24.95. The Explorer version is $14.95 right now. He's been wanting one for a long time!

Hey, anyone know what you call those word puzzles such as the following?

XQQQQQQQME
(excuse me)

Or

CCCCCCC
(the Seven Seas)

My kids saw some recently and really liked them. I was thinking of getting them a book of them but can't figure out what to search on.

Thanks!

Search for Rebus

dd10 sewing machine
American girl doll clothes/accessories
no stress chess
dd3--no clue...she has asked for the Jessie doll from Toy Story--I think she needs a trampoline and gymnastics bar and anything else I can think of to wear her out.

I've seen things like that in the MindWare catalog. They have 3 books called Word Winks which I think are what you are looking for. Those were always so much fun

ETA: It looks like they call them visual wordplay puzzles (also visual verbal puzzles)

I got DD10 a magic set around that age. He still does little performance with his lovely sister assistant. We have added little pieces to this set over the years and gotten some books from the library. This tends to renew interest. He is good at card tricks.

Hope you have just as much fun with it.

Anybody purchased the Mind Flex game for their child or heard any reviews on it?

Love the sister assistant part!! Great idea about adding stuff to renew interest, also I guess you can add more complex tricks. We went with one for a 7-8 year old which might be a little old, but I suspect that is due to reading the information which isn't an issue for us, at least I hope thats the case because the ones for younger were so limited! DS has been wanting one for awhile, so I hope it fits his imagined idea!

DeHe

Dehe- I wonder if your set has the magic hat? We would stuff lots of beannie baby stuffed animals in the secret hiding spot and pull out the rabbit last and joke along the way there is something wrong with the magic hat.

ok back to presents...

When my daughter was around 10 or 11, I bought her a "practice head" from a cosmetology department. Even though she was gifted, she started enjoying hair styles. She was the only child who had one and she loved it - only about $25.

Strange gift, but she has gotten her use from it.

So... we are actually thinking of getting the Wii as a whole family gift. I think we will still get a couple other things and thankfully the kids grandparents asked us to shop for them and they will give us the money (yay amazon! I can have it shipped to their house so the can wrap them and the kids still get things they like). Anyhow, so with the other presents DD3 wholeheartedly loves everything. So she is quite easy to get things for. Probably more art supply stuff and pretend play things (I could wrap up a set of sticks and the girl would be happy). : ) DS6..we got a bunch of the mindware books that are on clearance now. He loves Logic Links and codebreakers and the others are at a GREAT price so we couldn't help it. Also, thinking of having the grandparents get the Zometool creator 1 kit. Anyone have that? Do your kids enjoy it? I am also trying to find DS a cool geoboard to play around with. Haven't found a lot of good ones as I am looking for at least an 11X11 and want a circular one too. We are staying away from all the awesome games as we have WAY too many. Also going to get DS6 some more of the Basher books probably, or other science related books. He loved the Basher Elements books so I think he will like the others too. Love hearing what everyone else is getting!

Legos, what to chouse. DS8 loves them, but now the only ones of interest cost way to much. 2 years ago we purchased the Eifle tower, he built in in two days and loved it, it still is on a dresser in his room. Last year we did Mind Storms, fun for about a week, but did not really take off. This year I have looked at the Melinium Falcon. DS would love it, But $499 is way to much for another build in 3 to 4 days and put aside. Are their any other building type toy ideas that have worked well?

Dominos are a simple suggestion, but kids can really get into making mazes with them. My daughter would add other things to them to make cool mazes. We'd watch Youtube vids of really interesting domino mazes.

While she enjoyed specialty building toys, she had more freedom with basic Legos and dominos.

I brought dominos to a Cadette Girl scout meeting - 11-13 year olds and showed them the vids and they completely loved making mazes. One never knows what they will like at that age???

I've seen them called "brain teasers" and some other names. Here are some from Critical Thinking, on sale right now:

http://www.criticalthinking.com/searchBykeyword.do?catalog=p&searchKey=063&sale_only=true

Has anybody tried the Singer sewing machine for kids?

I'm thinking of this for my DD8. It has a finger protector cover around the needle.

Yes Please! We are also looking for sewing machine guidance for my 10 yr. old dd. I don't sew and am clueless. So far the feedback I have gotten is *not* to get a kids machine, that they don't last/work as well. I will share any other advice I get.

Here's a good place to mention. Those of us who deserve frequent buyer miles from amazon- it's available. It's not much. It's 4% commission from sales. You sign up on the affiliate link at the bottom of amazon.com. (it's free). You can search anywhere in the amazon website and get a cut and paste link to any product they advertise and post it on your webpage. If you or anyone else clicks it goes directly to the amazon page with that product like if you went straight through amazon first. But you get 4% sales commission. I opted to get paid in Amazon credit (guilty blushing). Anyway it's like a rewards card if you buy from yourself.

Tell me how well that Lego cam works after you try it.

I never really buy many presents for my kids because my house overfloweth from our parents and grandparents gifts. My mom bought me a bike and two kid trailer, and bought Wyatt a bike. And she bought Espy a pink baby swing. And there's a stack of wrapped who-know's-what's.

The hubby and I might go look at a "styrofoam" and amp. so ds can hear himself singing over his drumset. Don't know why ds can never remember it's called a "microphone".

So far we've bought these for DS5:

Redshift 7 Planetarium software
Educa 3D Tropical Scenes Puzzle 27 Cubes (this might be a bit basic for him, but it's pretty and DS1 can play with it too)
Storming A Castle: National Geographic Maze Adventures
Wilson NFL MVP Junior Football with Pump and Tee, Brown
Scary Stories Treasury, ISBN-10 0060263415
Kasparov compact magnetic travel chess set, 7" (a very nice little carved wooden set; found it for $20 shipped)
Inuyasha complete series, episodes 1-167 plus 4 movies (but I broke down and he's currently watching it with me, lol)

So far, we've only bought DS1 a block puzzle and some Magneatos, the big ones. I dunno how much more we'll get for either kid, if anything; we're packed to the rafters with books, toys and electronic gear as it is. Christmas is a little blip in our year-long pattern of overconsumption of educational and fun stuff. I will probably tack on some additional Sculpey clay, though.

Thanks so much for saying that out loud, so to speak! I feel the same!! Too much stuff.

For ds10 I have gotten: more hexbug stuff, 1 big lego kit (agree with Edwin, the ones we don't have already are getting sparse!)
some dragon ball z books, a big nerf gun thing.

For dd4, a train set, target had a good price on their sets, a large ballerina doll, a small shopping cart with food and her big pick, a pink ds game, since I think she is growing out of the leapster... at least that one is small in size. (she did want a bunch of other HUGE things, but I am working every day to let her know that santa will not be bringing her a new bed with all new accessories!!) Sigh.

You're quite welcome. If you decide to add on any train pieces, Toys R Us has some decently-priced sets of curves, etc. under their Imaginarium brand. I also found lots of deals on cool specialty pieces a while back on eBay, but I haven't checked pricing in many months.

That reminds me that I need to get DS2 another bookshelf for Christmas.

I gave each kid a book and said let's make room for new things. If they haven't played with it in a year it can go.

I got the following for DD10:
Perfume Science kit
Magic Penny Magnet kit
Jishaku game
6-in-1 Solar Building kit
LEGO Harry Potter The Burrows
Soda Can Robug

I got the following for DD5:
Flipbook making kit
Quelf Jr. game
Wiki Stix
EZ Fort
Origami kit

Some existing favorites that we highly recommend:
Wedgits (we all have fun building with them)
Marble Run
The Amazing Labyrnth game
Settlers of Catan game
Magnatiles (both kids have been happily playing with them for the past hour)

I hope this helps.

I was just about to go on a mission looking for this thread. I just bought Disney cars and monsters Inc in chinese. I might have to get a different DVD player to play them. A multiregion samsung looks inexpensive. I was looking for something like "your baby can speak Chinese" but ran across these instead. Does it get any cooler than that?! I also ordered some simplified Chinese caligraphy books two men and the bear, the fox and the goat, and the wind and the sun. We live in a bilingual Spanglish speaking community, may as well treat the family to a third language. Also, while my mom was visiting she bought me a bike and trailer for Christmas. She left for Florida and I did not wait till Christmas to use it. Woo, (shaving carrots @ me).

Just picked up the Original Perplexus Maze for my six (soon to be seven) year old. Someone brought one to school and he loved it. I ordered it at Amazon for $20, I think it usually retails about $25.

Same here! We also do Christmas the first day of winter break, because I'm opposed to wasting a week of break to boredom, when it could be spent having fun with new stuff.

DD7.5's getting:
- Laptop (Acer-Aspire Laptop / AMD V-Series Processor / 15.6" Display / 2GB Memory-Mesh Black-AS5252-V333 from Best Buy). Was going to be a 10.1 inch netbook, but I was unsuccessful in snagging one at a good price, so got this for ~$50 less than the netbook I'd wanted.

- Printer (Epson-Stylus 420), only because it was $10 when bought with the above laptop. And a second printer (HP Deskjet 1050, $20 from Walmart), which might end up being donated to her classroom instead of given to her - I just couldn't pass up the "deal."

- Fleece pullover hoodie and matching fleece gloves from the Children's Place sale

- Two Life of Fred books, which may be saved for her birthday, or for pulling out at random on a day she's feeling mathy. Books just seem to get lost in the shuffle at Christmas, and I don't know that she's quite to the point she'll enjoy them. Although she certainly enjoyed The Number Devil despite not having nearly enough math background to follow the explanations.

- FlingSmash for Wii, only because it comes with a Wii Remote Plus, and was cheaper than a Wii Remote Plus.

- Active Life Explorer for Wii. My parents have the predecessor game and like it, and this is supposed to have a better controller.

- Music for the lap harp my parents got her.

- A chess strategy book . She can beat me reliably with no strategy, because I suck at chess. But that also means I can't give her any pointers beyond "OK, now if you move that piece, I'm going to get your queen," followed by her saying "No, you won't, because I just got your king." My parents have loaned her my dad's really nice wooden chess set.

- A red flashlight, for reading in the backseat of the car after dark.

- A frog!

If you're in the Greater Washington DC area( they are located in Herndon, VA), I would recommend providing your DS/DD with a gift certificate or registration for one of the really cool science or math enrichment courses offered at PACE School of Mathematics. Courses, such as Rocketry, Geometry and Technology, Graphic Novel Computer Animation, Cool Chemistry, JAVA Programming and Aviation Science for Kids are all intriguing and appropriately challenging for gifted and highly motivated learners. You can visit their website at http:// www.pacemathematics.com or call their Community Liason, Tai Smallwood at 703-232-1669.

Edwin and Chris,

We've had really good success finding the high end legos on craigslist and e-bay. Like you said, they get built a time or two, collect dust for a few years, then parents decide to move them along. DS got a really nice Starwars collection not long ago.

Chris.... Tell me about Hexbugs, they are featured at the top of the list this year!

For those of you with Hexbug fans, the battle bridge set is on sale at woot.com today only. $17.99 + $5 shipping, about half of what you'll pay for it elsewhere.

Someone asked about MindFlex - we looked at this for a gift, but the reviews I read looked a little disappointing, so we passed. So far for my D8, we're looking at books from the Monster Squad series and Harry Potter years 1-4 Wii game (she's currently WAY into reading the series) and we're kind of stuck right there. She's at an age that "toys" don't interest her very much, but will probably add some crafting kits, as she like creating very much.

Here's an oldie but a goodie: balloon animals. DS is currently having a blast with them. A book and/or list of web resources, assortment of balloons, and a cheap pump or two would make a fine present for a kid who's never tried the activity.

The two main balloon types are 260 (2" filled diameter) and 160 (1"). The two biggest makers seem to be Bellatex and Qualatex, the latter of which we use; avoid no-name brands which may make ballons that pop easily, and aren't as easy to work with. The 1" balloons might be better for very small hands.

Wow - wish I'd got it for that price !! Ah well - I think it'll be one of the most played with toys this year for ds, so I'll try not to think about the savings I missed out on LOL

funny to read through this thread!I think all of our kids would get along!

I just got the Qualtex 260's on amazon for DD7! She recently became obsessed with twisting balloon animals and she can do it herself, scares me to DEATH and DS can't stay in the room when she is doing it lol And DS9 is getting the Hexbug Battle Bridge. I missed the woot sale too, well - I'd already shopped lol But they had the bugs 50% off at Target so I got a few extra and an ant for Ds, he really wants an ant! He is getting Perplexus also. My parents are getting him a laptop.

DS got Mindflex last year and it doesn't get played with.

Big hit of the day today... Crystal Climbers. I had something similar as a child and it was my favorite. I found this at goodwill today for a few dollars and couldn't resist. Both DS9 and DS7 are having a great time with it. It's 50% off at Lakeshore Learning, only $9.99 so if it's ok to share the link...
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca|productSubCat~~p|XK467~~f|/Assortments/Lakeshore/GreatGiftsForKids/greatgiftsforkids/under10.jsp

DS9 also wants Elec tronic Monopoly,books, wii games and ds games.

OH, also... I just bought a Coprolite (fossilized dino poop) and a few small meteorite slices for DS9 from ebay

Last year the big gift was a Metal Detector

I made the boy make these santa's for the grandparents. The hubby said I'm safe from the child labor laws because it's just a few and I'm not mass-producing. We almost had a labor dispute, but the management won. I said, you cannot cut circles until you draw them first. When you've had more practice you can just eyeball it and cut, but for now you need to draw out your project before you use the scissors. Happy Hollydays!
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/c31891ac.jpg

Very cute! The one on the right bears a striking resemblance to Abe Vigoda, the old fossil.

La Texican, I love your pictures.

I bought a pogo stick for my daughter!

Val

Just noticed the Frame Games series, by Terry Stickels.