This year, kids have been glued to screens all day long.
It's time to bring them back into the real world.
I have a few gift ideas that will keep kids busy in clever ways, with hands on activities to discover, to doodle to engineer and maybe even light a spark.
Within
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this is circuit explore by educational insights.
It's kind of like Lego but connecting these pieces teaches the engineering basics of how a circuit works.
kids can learn that they need to connect the lines on the side of the toy to complete a circuit and make things light up or move.
It's for ages six and up.
my four year old picked it up quick Three different sets include ways to build rocket ships and Mars, rovers and space stations, mix and match parts to invent your own creation.
And it can also connect with Lego bricks sometimes.
Sometimes you just need to shake things up with a battle robot.
The Ninja bots are my favorite toy robots of the year.
chop your hand past the sensor to pick a fighting style to train your warrior.
These guys taunt each other and swing comical weapons until one falls down.
Losers cries, winner does a dance.
it also recognizes what weapon it is holding when you switch it up.
[UNKNOWN] rockets, game on.
There is pplenty of repeat play here.
The more it wins, the more it levels up.
Now, if you want a robot toy to be a little more educational, then make your own robot This is the kids first robot factory by Thames and Kosmos.
And it's good for introducing kids to basic engine and concepts.
The manual is an illustrated storybook to help youngsters build eight different battery powered, motorised Bots and kids can also make their own contraptions as they go through the story.
They can learn why each robot moves in its own way.
And yes, even though it's simple, they too have battle skills.
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Here's another take on a DIY robot.
Kids can build anything they can imagine out of plastic with the three doodler start.
It's a 3D printing pen that melts sticks of plastic so you can draw them into any shape and it won't burn a little hands.
The nozzle and the melted plastic are not hot.
Draw directly on tables or on paper and peels right off.
There are expansion sets that even help you build vibrating robots that do the thing all robots love to do battle.
See [INAUDIBLE] further.
Here's a doodle that's a bit sweeter.
The Chocolate Pen is yes, a pen that draws in chocolate.
The melted candy sits in a heater tray.
You stick the pen into the pool of warm, gooey chocolate and it sucks it up into a syringe inside.
Once loaded, press a button to doodle with candy.
Little hands will have an easy time filling up the molds provided they don't eat all the chocolate before it gets to a mold.
You can also draw whatever design you want on wax paper and it'll cool in 10 minutes.
Or you could just eat it right from the pen that works too.
You made that [UNKNOWN] .>> There are easy ways to get kids crafty even if you are not the crafty type.
I subscribe to KiwiCo crates.
These are boxes you get in the mail pack with a few science and engineering lessons and they're catered to different age groups.
The box we get is of course for little ones cuz I have little kids and I like the quality of the items.
That these are not just for little kids, they can get pretty advanced with problem solving engineering boxes for adults too.
And if you're stuck trying to find screen free ideas, well just look to the old school screen.
Lite brite is back.
The machine slimmed down a bit, but it's still got the pegs you love to punch into holes.
Now that's sure to make any kids light up.
