I'm looking for suggestions regarding what to get my 9 year old for Christmas that he would really love. He has outgrown his train table where he used to enjoy (and at times still does) building elaborate tracks with his Thomas stuff. He would love something that he could create/build and then has moving parts to play with. He's very mathematically inclined and loves building, so I was wondering what parents of kids with similar interests have gotten them. We have little ones at home, so toys without small pieces would be a bonus!
At the risk of stating the obvious, what about Lego? You're not likely to find anything that will appeal to a 9-year-old builder that doesn't have small parts. The no-small-parts building toys are very much targeted at the 3-year-old set developmentally.
I don't know. That's a tough age. My kids began to leave behind traditional play shortly after that age, so to me it seems a little old to start investing in one of the major toy ecosystems that you anticipate adding to for several years. But the robotics elements of Lego Mindstorms might be something that would carry his interest into the teen years.
I would have to agree that Lego is great for math/building loving kiddos. Just have a table or a specific place for them so the little ones can't get them and the big kiddo can.
Other 'building' toys for that age would also have small pieces- would be Qubits, Q-Ba Maze, Keva Builder sets, or Plus Plus. All are geared for older kid builders (7+)
We haven't bought any knex yet, but I look at it longingly for my 8 year old. Do you get fischertechnik in the US? They have stuff that works for the older age range as well. He is also doing a mindstorms class, but they'd haven't programmes anything yet, just built the first robot and done some preliminary stuff on the computer, so I can't speak to the strength and weaknesses yet.
My son liked the Keva blocks a lot. (Other brand names are Kapla blocks and Citiblocs.) He also had hours of play with Snap Circuits at that age. The thing about the skinny blocks that's better than Snap Circuits (or an Erector Set, or Legos) is that they don't come with a lot of instructions or models. If there are instructions or a model, my kid will try to follow the instructions. He gets a lot more pleasure and I think more benefit from the more open-ended stuff. (Yes, I know, of course, you could make your own thing with Snap Circuits or Legos, but my child has that kind of love-of-rules personality.)
My sister has two sons who once lived their train tables too - so when they drifted from their trains she turned their train tables into Lego tables and they now spend hours building and rebuilding elaborate Lego creations.
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