My biggest pet peeve with holiday gifts has to do with toys that are only played with a few minutes and then get set to the side.  I love the toys that get played with over and over again.

Here are some of my favorites:

  1. Lumi Drone – really there are a lot of drones, but the lumi is easy to control. It doesn’t have the camera like some, but it is easy to control.  My son played with ours in the house over and over, up until that fateful day when he decided to swap to advanced and broke the light in the living room.  We haven’t used the drone in the house since then, but that is more a statement on my son’s feelings toward breakage than the drone itself.  It includes games and kids can play it in the house, and I know I mentioned EASY!
  2. Cosmo Robot – This robot is small, but it’s cute!  My son likes driving it around and playing games with it.  The robot comes with some accessories that let you play games, including tap tap, and you get to see who gets the most points. There are a few other similar robots now, but Cosmo is one we have.   I’ve seen my little one drive it around the house using the camera through it’s eyes (viewing it on my phone) to see to steer.
  3. Meccano Robot, We have the large robot. It took us a couple people, a couple days to built.  I know the company has some easier kits now, but this one is kind of fun.  The robot lets you give it commands and will do activities like dance.  You can also record actions on it. So that it can repeat after you.  It even has the tell me a joke!
  4. Raspberry Pi, we have a plain raspberry pi, but there are several kids versions.  I think Kano is a popular version.  The plain kit can be anywhere from $35 to $60.  The Kano was on sale at Target on Black Friday for $99 and looks like Amazon has it for $119 right now  We currently have a plain kit, but if the Kano had been available when we found ours I might have went for it instead. The Kano is a Raspberry Pi but comes with several extras just for kids.  There is also the Piper and the Sunfounder kit – and I’m sure a few more.  If your child is really into electronics and computers this is the way to go!
  5. Kindle for Kids, I use the kindle myself, but my son is more a paper kid.  My son insists all our books come on paper but when we are out somewhere and don’t have a new book with us, he will settle for a kindle book.  I just use the app on my phone or ipad, but for younger kids that want educational apps too, the kindle for kids is great!  It comes with a two year guarantee in case something happens to it and is in a oops proof case.  No worry about broken screens.

 

It’s always great in our house when we can combine learning and fun, so most of these overlap and are active toys in one way or another.  They may contain affiliate links.  We have all of them at our house for my son except for the Kindle for Kids – (We have Kindles but not the one for kids.)