2018 Hacker Kids Gift Guide
Fun gift choices that foster design thinking and coding skills in kids both young and old.
November 21, 2018
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt6d90778a997de1cd/blt6266c99e09407b77/64f0d5321a08c06603027f3c/01-hackerkid.jpeg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
We're in a golden era for teaching kids about science and programming. Gone are the days where experimentation toys are limited to potato-powered electronic kits. Security nerds and hacking experts who want to get their kids into coding and tinkering have a ton of options at their fingertips today, as niche toymakers home in on the foundational skills kids need to excel in computer science, hardware hacking, and more.
The following is a cool mix of holiday gift ideas for getting youngsters excited about hacking.
Price: $51.99
Ages: 2 years and up
Early education experts say understanding patterns, colors, and geometric matching form the earliest foundations of math and engineering skills. Get toddlers and preschoolers into constructive, design-oriented thinking with these magnet tiles. They're great fun and encourage creative engineering from a young age.
Price: $47.01
Ages: 3-6 years old
Price: $249.99
Ages: 6 years and up
This is the ultimate hacker kid gift for those who have been very good girls and boys. It's a box kit that comes with step-by-step instructions for kids to build their own tablet and then learn to code on it via 100-plus coding challenges built into the system's operating system. Kids will learn Python, JavaScript, and Unix, and will be taught the basics of loops, variables, and logic through fun games and art projects, including a Hack Minecraft app.
Price: $20.99
Ages: 8 years and up
A hybrid between a building blocks and circuit-making kit, Snap Circuits makes the basics of electricity and magnetism easily accessible for kids to learn. No soldering required: Everything snaps together so that kids can experiment early on with circuits, minus the safety fears.
Price: $129.99
Ages: 8 years and up
Tamagotchi pets ain't got nothin' on this! If ever there was a game to teach kids about the power and fun of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, measuring environmental phenomenon, experimentation, and the scientific method, this is it. Players use physical sensor pods that gather data about light, sound, and temperature around them to hatch and raise virtual creatures within a gamified app. Different creatures crop out of different attributes of the environment where the sensors are placed. As a bonus, if kids have access to mom's or dad's 3-D printer, the game creates models of the little critters that can be printed out.
Price: $33.99
Ages: 12 years and up
One of the most affordable starter kits for learning to program embedded devices, the Circuit Playground comes packed with electronic goodies built directly into the board. It has multicolored LEDs, can make synth sounds, and can sense temperature, sound, and motion. Kids can run MakeCode, Circuit Python, Arduino, and Code.org CS Discoveries on this little board. Best of all, the manufacturer has a ton of great online lessons, documentation, and sample code for them to dig into as they get started.
We're in a golden era for teaching kids about science and programming. Gone are the days where experimentation toys are limited to potato-powered electronic kits. Security nerds and hacking experts who want to get their kids into coding and tinkering have a ton of options at their fingertips today, as niche toymakers home in on the foundational skills kids need to excel in computer science, hardware hacking, and more.
The following is a cool mix of holiday gift ideas for getting youngsters excited about hacking.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like
CISO Perspectives: How to make AI an Accelerator, Not a Blocker
August 20, 2024Securing Your Cloud Assets
August 27, 2024