I need gift ideas for a mechanically gifted 4 year old - Page 2

[Grace and Granola]

Originally Posted by EarthRootsStarSoul 

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/91e4/

My 3 year old loves this.  I have to help him put it together, but he loves to watch the water running. 

That is so NEAT!  My boys would love this.

[leighi123]

He just turned 3.5 this month.   The marble run is addicting, even for me.  We bought the add on that makes music notes, so its an added challange to make it play a tune instead of just a jumble of sound, but even without the sound blocks it 'sounds nice'.  And it does have a 'goal' - if you put the blocks the wrong way or forget to add a ramp or plug a hole, the marbles fall off, go the wrong way, or stop in the middle.  It has to be done right to get them to the tray in the bottom!   Levi has pretty much played with it every day sense he got it for christmas.   Its also something I can help him with, or not.  He can follow the book for ideas, or make up his own (at this point, his own runs are a lot smaller than when he follows the book), or we work together and try to use all the blocks, or make it as tall as we can, or as long as we can....   Its a really fun toy!  
 

Originally Posted by Grace and Granola 

This looks great!  and your son is adorable :)  how old is he?

Moominmama--I've looked at the gear sets, but my dh doesn't know if ds2 would love it because it doesn't have a "purpose."  He thinks ds2 needs to create things that will have an effect.  Like if you could put all the gears together so that at the end of it all it would "do something."  Does that make sense?  I think it's cool...but my dh thinks more like my ds than I do!
 

Originally Posted by leighi123 

A Quadrilla set.  Levi LOVES his, and it takes some thinking to figure out where to put what.  Its a wooden marble run, but there is more to it than the plastic kind.  You have to use the right block (different colors have different paths for the marble to go though), point it in the right way, balance everything right, block holes in the platforms, add little ramps in certian places,etc.  There are even blocks that play a music note as the marble goes through, and blocks that switch back and forth between which way the marble releases...  Its pretty cool.  

Here is ds playing with it, he set this up himself following directions in the book, but he makes his own sometimes too. 

http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u218/leighi123/baby/January%202011/?action=view&current=100_0147.mp4

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u218/leighi123/baby/January%202011/100_0150.jpg

 

[Tigerle]

Yeah, a Quadrilla set is on my amazon wishlist for DS...DH is opposed at the moment, so I just got him one of those smaller plastic ones for Christmas. I thought he might be a bit young for the Quadrilla set - do you feel it is more challenging in the engineering or in the fine motor department?