I'm looking for recommendations for a toy for my son's upcoming 8th birthday. He is pretty advanced and reads far beyond his age. He says he wants to work in robotics when he grows up! I want to encourage this and am looking for a toy or kit that would be age appropriate. I'm sure he could do up to a 10-12 year old toy range. The only thing that I have found is the motorized Erector Set, which looks pretty cool. Any reviews of it or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. His birthday is 4wks from tomorrow. Thanks!!!!!
Thanks so much for all the great ideas! I went with the Electronic Snap Circuit kit that Vanessa suggested. I bought the SC500 model for about $65 on sale at Amazon and even got free shipping too. I know my son will love it! Plus it looks like something he can mostly do on his own. The Lego Mindstorm looks awesome, but maybe alittle too advanced and too expensive for this year - maybe next year. Thank you all!!!!!
My son was given a Lego Mindstorm set a few years ago. He wasn't quite ready for it... but if your son is really advanced and into that sort of thing, it might be worth your time to check it out.
http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx
Hi A.,
My sons loved anything Rokenbok! (not the cheapest...but great products!)
http://www.rokenbok.com/catalog/2002_pd_ss_rokworks.html
Good luck!! Jen
My son is almost 8 and my parents got him the motorized Erector Set for Christmas. He also is very advanced in reading and math and is a whiz with Lego. He can build an 800 piece Lego model in nothing flat. He was not able to build with Erector. He understands the schematics and knows how to build it but the nuts and bolts are too hard to manipulate. Even my husband and I can't do it, our hands are too big to fit in where they need to be to hold the nuts. The tool they give you is worthless. It was an expensive present and has given us nothing but frustration. I put it in the closet and will bring it out again in a year or so.
Have you checked out the Legos website? My boys have participated in the FIRST Legos Robotics Competition for 2 years now. They build a lego robot and program it to do different missions - they change each year. Many high school and middle school do the bigger robotics build, they have developed the FIRST legos thing for younger children, 8-12 I think. We saw much of the stuff they used right on the Legos website - not what you would find in a store!
Lego mindstorm is fantastic - my husband who has a PhD in Cybernetics (robotics) got one for his birthday a few years ago and constantly plays with it with our 8 1/2 year old twins! I have also seen a build a robot arm in some toy catalogs - check online. Alternatively get a book of experiments he can do - look for electronic science projects and you will be on the right track. We also have an Electronic Snap Circuits kit (model SC300) where kids can build alarms, power lights and motors etc and my 2 REALLY love that as they can do it all themselves which we got from Amazon for around $40 or $50..again, check online and good luck with your little engineer!
I was also going to suggest Rokenbok. I used to work at an educational toy store and they were very popular!
Hi, check out legos, they have a website where you can see all the products and it sounds like this may be the perfect thing for your son.
