Gift Suggestions to Help Kids Explore the More “Techie” Fields

When I was pregnant, one of the things I liked doing was hounding my friends for toy ideas. On average, my friends have a masters’ degree each, some having PhD’s and a handful with “only” a bachelor’s degree. Many of them, especially the men, work in fields that I didn’t consider going into, just due to lack of exposure to those fields, so I don’t know how to introduce concepts from those fields to my daughter. Electrical engineering to me is something that someone goes into in college, but that shouldn’t be when the initial exposure takes place. Kids should be building robots, learning to code, performing science experience, going to all kinds of museums (art, history, science, etc),

So at point in a person’s life, what science trip or toy, turns someone from not being sure what he or she wants to do and makes that kid decide that she wants to pursue chemical engineering? That’s why I asked for toy suggestions from this wide group of people. As a librarian and former English major, I know how to help my daughter get books. I don’t know how to get her interested or even started in the direction of electrical engineering.

I was very pleased to see some of the items that my friends had suggested make it to this list on Lifehacker of gift suggestions for kids. My daughter won’t be old enough for a couple more years for a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, but now that I know these items are out there, I’ve made a mental bookmark to get them for her. Hopefully these items will help guide me to more things that will help introduce her to fields I know nothing about. I don’t care if she doesn’t become a wizard chemical engineer; I care that she had the chance to decide that for herself.

I hope this list helps you find a good gift suggestion if you’re looking for a kid in the 4+ range. A lot of these items may need parental assistance to get started. I wouldn’t let my daughter alone with a soldering station at first, at least, even if she is old enough to handle it just fine thank you very much.