Ask HN: Math and science gift ideas for kids? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Math and science gift ideas for kids?

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I'm father to a bright and curious 6-year-old girl and want to nurture her interest in science, math, and how things work. Inspired by a query from her grandmother, I started compiling a list of science and math gift ideas up at http://stemkids.io. Are there any favorites I'm missing? What inspired you as a kid?

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Female programmer here.

Some of my favorite toys were Legos. My little brother used to get all the Lego presents growing up (because he was a boy) so I would use my allowance to buy my own. When she's old enough, try out the Lego Technic series or the Mindstorms. I had the entire first-gen of Bionicles (this is where my allowance went for a year), a Mindstorms R2D2, and the RCX 2 Mindstorms kit by the time I entered middle school.

I don't think you'll get a lot of mileage with the prepackaged science/engineering kits. I used to get those all the time for presents. Barely used them. They're just not that fun and don't have a ton of reuse. You also get seriously railroaded. You want to explore at that age, not follow a set of instructions.

Same goes for telescopes. The kind that parents are willing to buy are the kind that will probably get used only a couple times (unless your kid is REALLY into space). Also applies to the star-projector things.

Set, the card game. What a great game.

Equations is a competitive math game for 3rd-5th graders. You can scale it for lower grades by taking the exponents and square roots out. It's best played amongst peers. Get the rules off the internet, not from the boxed instructions. I was pretty good at it back in the day--my team placed 3rd at regionals. I volunteered with my old elementary school's Equations club a few years back and whooped those kids (still got it, baby). ;)

I think early access and training in hardware tools can really open up the possibilities for any kid that likes building things. I was always building things as a kid.

EDIT: Punctation and details.

Bionicles were comparatively inexpensive and allowed enough freedom to build things cool things with just one or two sets (much better than the other contemporary Lego lines in the early 00s).

Please please please have a copy of these books in your house:

http://www.amazon.com/Princeton-Companion-Mathematics-Timoth...

http://www.amazon.com/How-Solve-Mathematical-Princeton-Scien...

Its certainly too advanced for a 6 year old (or even a 16 year old, TBH) but just having it around is really great, I think. I remember when I was younger, I would look up stuff in more advanced books even if I couldn't understand them right away. The feeling I had was always: "Someday, I will be able to understand this..." which made me learn more physics and math.

"How to Solve it" is especially great if you do/will teach her in the future.

I maintain the list for kids >= 3 yrs old here: http://goo.gl/rLGwtr. This list is in progress and perhaps always will be. Initial items were from the things I myself loved and wanted but couldn't :(. I've added suggestions from here.

For <= 3 yrs here's another list... http://www.amazon.com/registry/baby/3TYUVBEO9672C

Awesome list! Got some great ideas for my 3 year old daughter's X-mas gifts. Thanks!

Here are some ideas . . . (some are probably more advanced for 6 year olds . . . but will give you ideas for the future).

magnatiles, squares and triangles that snap together to make buildings and other structures, high quality and all kids love them. (they are pricey but this is one of the best toys we ever bought, now at target). http://www.amazon.com/Magna-Tiles%C2%AE-Clear-Colors-100-Pie...

Legos in general . . . are great. Mixels are popular now and give you a lot of creative options to combine them.

Consider lego mindstorms a little advance for 6 but something you could build projects on together. (check out the Lego Jr. FLL program and FLL robotics competitions for kids).

The snap circuit sets are fun, again something you can do together initially.

html/css is always fun for kids, get them a domain and hosting and start teaching the basics.

There are lots of great how things work books out there and lots of great documentaries on netflix.

Create a water board . . . get a square piece of plywood and attach tubes, containers and help them set it up to flow top to bottom (great fun in the summer).

Penrose Tiles, of course:

http://mathartfun.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/PenroseTiles.ht...

The online shop for the new Museum of Mathematics in NYC has some of fairly cool stuff, also:

https://shop.momath.org

A gyroscope, a radiometer, pentominoes, a lego bucket, a chess set? There are also the Handy _____ Answer Books. I see you've already included the Cartoon Guides to ____, which are great. There's got to be a set of children's encyclopedias, but there is also the Internet [1].

[1] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

EDIT: I don't remember pentominoes being square, more triangular/rhombus shaped. Wikipedia shows unfamiliar shapes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentomino

As a soon-to-be-father, I'd also be interested in infant/toddler ideas. Though simply reading to and talking with them as often as you can is probably the obvious winner there.

See hobby lobby section on this stuff. Tons of ideas. I take my kids there about once a month to buy these types of things.

Also Errector.us

Also not sure if Capsela is still around but I loved those.

Good luck,

Jordan - FolioSwarm

I came here to say "Capsela", too. I loved those so much! (Although it's hard to tell if they still exist; the sets I could find on Amazon were so expensive, I have to assume they're the toy equivalent of "out-of-print".)

Then, of course, the perennial classics of Erector sets, Tinker toys, and Lego.

Yeah, Capsela I think is done, but there are replacements. Problem is I can't think of them. Just put gears into eggs and there you go. Pretty genius. This is how we should build cars, computers, everything. Just snappable parts that do something you need. Did I just say that, "Computers". How cool would it be to snap in a graphics card, software, pictures, apps, etc? Clunky I know.

I wouldn't discount simple toys like baseballs and frisbees as motivating understanding and enjoying nature.

Not sure if people still play with ant farms, but Darwin and E O Wilson both played with bugs.

Telescopes.

Have heard good things about Robot Turtles - I think it was on HN before too --

http://www.robotturtles.com/

Good one. I missed that on HN. Thanks!

Robot Turtles is great (and now available at Target). But, I think it is really best for kids between ages 3-5. My six year old can breeze through it and gets bored quickly, even with the harder rules. However, my 4 year old loves telling us how to move her turtle.

For older kids that find Robot Turtles too simple you could try Robot Rally. You can really tell the difference when you're playing with a mix of programmers and non-programmers.

My daughter went to a friend's house this weekend and played Junior Explorers and loved it - all about wildlife and nature. www.juniorexplorers.com

Circuit Scribe kits & Kano.me could be good starting points.

A large, magnetic, dry-erase board.

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