What is a good educational gift for a 7 year-old?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What is a good educational gift for a 7 year-old?

Posted: 12/18/2016 6:43:50 AM EDT

I'm a bit late to the party, but with Christmas around the corner, I'm trying to think of a good (fun) educational gift for my niece.

I'm thinking about stuff like the electronics kit called "Little Bits", or maybe a computer game like Kerbal Space Program, but I really don't know what else is out there.

Any suggestions from the hive?

Posted: 12/18/2016 6:44:52 AM EDT

[#1]

Wooden sword.

There'll be bumped heads and blisters but lots of valuable lessons will be learned.

Posted: 12/18/2016 6:54:43 AM EDT

[#2]

Glock 19

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:00:11 AM EDT

[#3]

Snap Circuits...I have boys the same age and they love building little projects with me using those things.

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:05:56 AM EDT

[#4]

Battleship.

Letter/number recognition, strategy, and you can throw in naval history.

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:21:21 AM EDT

[#5]

Model rockets. I think the company is estes

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:27:48 AM EDT

[#6]

Lego Mindstorms stuff is good, but like all Legos, they are pretty expensive.

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:27:51 AM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

Quoted:
Snap Circuits...I have boys the same age and they love building little projects with me using those things.

View Quote

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:48:13 AM EDT

[#8]

Bronze team membership.

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:57:19 AM EDT

[#9]

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:01:38 AM EDT

[#10]

A few weeks hard labor on minimal food should be pretty educational.

Teach them to appreciate living here.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:10:30 AM EDT

[#11]

Quote History

Quoted:
Snap Circuits...I have boys the same age and they love building little projects with me using those things.

View Quote

My boys are in college now, but we got a lot of mileage from this.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:11:37 AM EDT

[#12]

Get them outside. I just gave a 7 year old a pair of binoculars. Just a step up in quality from Walmart store brand will keep a kid busy.
Although... I prolly shouldn't have mentioned the part about magnifying sun light to start a fire in an emergency...

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:25:21 AM EDT

[#13]

1911.

#MAGA!

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:34:20 AM EDT

[#14]

!0/22

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:35:38 AM EDT

[#15]

Wooden birdhouse kit and some paints

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:37:10 AM EDT

[#16]

Minecraft if she has a game console or PC.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:47:11 AM EDT

[#17]

Quote History

Quoted:
Bronze team membership.

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At seven? You DON'T get a bronze membership for a 7 year old. You get them a lifetime membership... might as well make it worth the money.

And... I was going to suggest Odyssey magazine but they merged with Muse over a year ago and I have no idea how good they are.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:47:52 AM EDT

[#18]

7 yo girl?

How about an Easy Bake Oven...

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:49:04 AM EDT

[#19]

Drums, you can use them to work on math skills

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:49:11 AM EDT

[#20]

Why does it have to be an "educational" gift?

She's 7. Get a "fun" gift or it will end up stacked in the top of the closet with the other crap that doesn't get played with.

What's she into? What's she like? That's the first things you need to find out.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:50:59 AM EDT

[#21]

Quote History

Quoted:
7 yo girl?

How about an Easy Bake Oven...

View Quote

My daughter got one last year from her aunt. We opened it when she got it and she did one thing with it, and that was the end of it. It went into the landfill on the next dump run.

Those things are a stupid waste of money and raw material, like most toys.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:51:48 AM EDT

[#22]

A basic telescope.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:55:12 AM EDT

[#23]

Quote History

Quoted:
Why does it have to be an "educational" gift?

She's 7. Get a "fun" gift or it will end up stacked in the top of the closet with the other crap that doesn't get played with.

What's she into? What's she like? That's the first things you need to find out.

View Quote

I subscribe to the idea that most toys should be educational in some capacity. Not boring, but they should at least be working on a skill when they play .

My 4 year old can do 100 piece puzzles all by herself, she has an aptitude for them, but she has received them as gifts since she was old enough to walk, starting with those big easy 4 piece ones.

She also has a tablet with a bunch of reading programs on it, so she can read books and work on words at the same time. She thinks she's playing, and she's learning a great deal (with one of us helping from time to time). It also has a very scaled down Minecraft type game on it, so she can work on building and moving on a plane, her stuff is pretty basic right now, but I'm going to let her start working with a laptop and the real game soon.

Her big Christmas present is an ATV...hopefully she learns a few things about not crashing into stuff so it can transfer over to learning how to use the lawn mower and tractor eventually. Plus I want to buy a new ATV and I need a riding partner.

Posted: 12/18/2016 10:01:45 AM EDT

[#24]

I had a microscope that I just loved, even though it was cheap and crude.

I had an aquarium and loved looking at the scum and stuff. There were paramecium, rotifers, vorticella, hydra. . .

I understand they have really cool digital ones now.

Most of my friends kids have no curiosity about anything at all. I find it kind of disturbing as your brain soaks all that information in while you are young.

Posted: 12/18/2016 10:07:17 AM EDT

[#25]

Quote History

Quoted:
1911.

#MAGA!

View Quote

Not a bad idea, 1911s are pretty educational. You'll learn words like malfunction, stovepipe, failure to feed, etc.

Posted: 12/18/2016 10:28:42 AM EDT

[#26]

Quote History

Quoted:

At seven? You DON'T get a bronze membership for a 7 year old. You get them a lifetime membership... might as well make it worth the money.

And... I was going to suggest Odyssey magazine but they merged with Muse over a year ago and I have no idea how good they are.

View Quote

I'll take two. One for each grandson. Link, please.

After all this recent talk of AI robots taking over the job market, Grandma and I got our 2 grandsons (8 & 6) some robot building science kits. Solar ten robot
kit, salt powered robots, just lots of fun looking, gotta figure it out and build it yourself type projects. Picked up three for each boy. The eight year old is autistic (barely, but it's there) and smart as hell. I really think he'll love it.

Stuff like this

Since the courts just overturned the ban on Bucky Balls, I picked up a couple sets of those.
Bucky Ball pic:

Of course, while on the magnets page, I ordered a whole bunch of miscellaneous magnets.

Then quite a few 'science experiment' books and kits. Nothing like the ones I had as a kid, but looks like they can have fun with them.

Posted: 12/18/2016 11:23:00 AM EDT

[#27]

Quote History

Quoted:
Snap Circuits...I have boys the same age and they love building little projects with me using those things.

View Quote

This!

Posted: 12/18/2016 11:50:09 AM EDT

[#28]

Speer reloading manual.

Posted: 12/18/2016 1:08:37 PM EDT

[#29]

Quote History

Quoted:
A basic telescope.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:
A basic telescope.

Indeed. Who ever said educational can't also be fun?

Quoted:

I'll take two. One for each grandson. Link, please.

I don't know when they offer it. I always assumed it'd be on the store page though.

But hey there's always the NRA lifetime membership too!

Posted: 12/18/2016 1:16:55 PM EDT

[#30]

If you have a Hobby Lobby go see what they have. They have a coupon for 40% off an item that you can print or pull it up on your phone.

Posted: 12/18/2016 1:17:57 PM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
I'm a bit late to the party, but with Christmas around the corner, I'm trying to think of a good (fun) educational gift for my niece.

I'm thinking about stuff like the electronics kit called "Little Bits", or maybe a computer game like Kerbal Space Program, but I really don't know what else is out there.

Any suggestions from the hive?

View Quote

Drums, the gift of music.