The LEGO Boombox Lets You Blast Your Music By: Annie Ho -As the gift buying season shifts into high gear, you have endured Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. But invariably, I have found there is one demographic that is particularly impossible to shop for: the tween set of 9-12 year-olds. While younger kids enjoy toys and other simplistic gifts, teens are happy with money and toddlers want something to bite down on. Tweens, on the other hand, are happy with pretty much…nothing. At Adknowledge, we are technology obsessed gadget junkies, so we believe there’s hope with the younger generation as we pass on this love of all things technology-driven. As gadgets quickly fill the void of gift giving, you might avoid yet another eye roll at a box of wooden toys or darling powder-blue-holiday-themed sweaters. Candy is always is a good option, but you pay for it later when your son-nephew-goddaughter starts bouncing on the walls at bedtime. Here are a dozen fun, educational and simply awesome gadgets that your tween (gender irrelevant) will thank you for, rather than say “thank you” but give you a nonverbal look, as if to say, “You.
Billed as “the fastest way to learn guitar” the newest version of this game (available for Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3) will apparently teach you to play guitar in about two months. Tweens are always asking for a guitar, and if you’ve given into that, you probably would like to actually hear them play competently. And since this gift teaches something, it also counts as educational, but you don’t have to tell them that. The soundproof garage needed to avoid hearing this music is sold separately. Buy Rocksmith 2014 here. Kids are getting into programming and computers at younger and younger ages. Your tween most likely already has her own laptop and yearns to learn more. This recently fully funded Kickstarter for Kano will offer just that. For under $100, your tween can build his own computer, then learn to code. While simplistic, Kano is a great gateway machine into a career as a developer. And let’s face it, while your goal is to make your loved tween happy, the real motivation is to create the next Zuckerberg (preferably without the hoodie).
Kano is currently available for purchase via its Kickstarter campaign. Music is just as important to your tween as it was to you when you were a kid. The difference is, you needed to lug around a dual tape deck boombox to enjoy music in a crowd. With technology such as Bluetooth, this has obviously changed. The Ecko Spray speaker—designed to look like a can of spray paint—fills two important needs for tweens: it plays music and makes them look like the rebel they think they are. Thankfully, it doesn’t actually spray any paint, but they can pretend it does. Buy the Ecko Spray Speaker here. Speaking of music, sometimes you don’t want to hear it when your tween does. While the popular “Beats by Dre” headphones have revitalized the over-the-ear style of headphones, they don’t offer the best sound and price. Skullcandy has consistently been making products that offer both quality sound and reasonable price. The Hesh 2 headphones come in a multitude of styles and colors to fit tweens’ style, something they’re most likely still trying to find.
Only issue will be to explain that “Skulls” are not an actual form of candy (Yes, this is an actual question I have received from tweens). Buy the Hesh 2 Headphones here. If you aren’t ready to make the commitment to the next gen consoles and want to keep your tween a tween as long as possible, the Nintendo Wii has been more than willing to fill that gaming void. Now with the Wii Mini, Nintendo is hoping that the $100 price point is small enough to fit into the budgets of many families. The compact system has all the benefits of a gaming system without all the benefits of a gaming system. That is, it plays games and that’s about it. With the multitude of things next gen systems offer in the way of entertainment, sometimes simple can be better. Get the Wii Mini here. Not all holiday gadgets for tweens have to involve some sort of indoor, hand-held activity. Take the X4 FPV Quadcopter from UK-based Hubsan. This awesome remote controlled flying machine has a 4.3 inch LCD screen on the remote, so your tween can run surveillance on the backyard.
The range of 100 meters will help you avoid any spying complaints from neighbors. There is no way a quadcopter with a camera wouldn’t be the most fun thing ever. This is one toy that actually encourages imaginary play—such a novel and important concept. Buy the Hubsan X4 here. Kids of all ages love to take pictures. They also love to break things – inadvertently, of course. It’s never their fault, not in a million years. The Nikon COOLPIX AW110 Digital Camera has solved that problem, with a shock and waterproof frame that will fight the elements of nature and the living room. Not to mention that it shoots 1080p HD video and has built-in Wi-Fi and GPS, with mapping. With an electric compass in there as well, you can drop your tween off in the woods and they’ll eventually find their way back home with a nice set of nature pictures (And don’t be offended if you see upshot pictures of kids’ nostrils. I am told that apparently, this is quite normal for 9 – 13 year olds.)
Get the Nikon COOLPIX AW110 here. Science toys have come a long way since the cheap science kits we used to mess with as a kid. The gender bias is gone and girls are just as encouraged as boys to enter into STEM fields of study. This is a good thing for society as a whole. A great entry point into the world of science—specifically robotics—is the LEGO EV3 Mindstorm set. Your tween can build robots that walk, talk, think and do anything in the range of programming skills that increase with every use. A simple revolutionary robotics toy, Mindstorm will help evolve your tween’s mind so she’s prepared for the eventual robot uprising. Just one piece of advice, if you want to use this little machine to learn how to truly program – think about buying the Lego EV3 education version. The software is sold separately and it costs a bit more, but you get a rechargeable battery. The retail version does not. Not having to buy 93 batteries is worth the price of the education set.
Buy the LEGO EV3 Education Set here. Buy LEGO EV3 Mindstorm here.Sadly, your tween has no idea what you are talking about. Between that and cassette tapes, you are feeling old right about now. Fear not, with the Anki Drive System you can bring back slot car racing for a new generation. Working through an iOS app, the cars run on a flat vinyl track that includes coding to help the cars stay in their lane without player interaction. Each car only takes about 10 minutes to charge and if everyone is iOS equipped, that equals fun for the whole family. Slot car racing is back! Get the Anki Drive System here. This Bluetooth-controlled ball is simply adorable. There is no reason any tween, teen, kid or adult wouldn’t love controlling the Sphero through their smartphone and annoying the cat. With a range of about 10 meters, the Sphero 2.0 is waterproof and durable, and makes cute little chirping noises. It’s like a pet you never have to yell at your tween to clean up after, and there are tons of available apps for augmented reality gaming.
Get your Sphero rolling here. Thankfully, one thing hasn’t changed from generation to generation: fascination with the universe. It remains a great mystery and there is no lack of interest among every age group. No matter the educational standards, other interests and so on, kids are always curious about space. So how about bringing space a bit closer? The Orion StarBlast 6 is completely portable and lets in enough light to show details of the moon, planets and beyond. Next time your tween says you’re unbearable to live with, he can look through the telescope and pick a far-away place to dream about. Get a window to the universe here. This last one is for the big spenders. Tweens like to make stuff, right? They are just getting into the arts perhaps, or making more complex LEGO structures. Maybe they like to build model airplanes. (Yes, kids still do that.) The point is, the urge to create will never end. With the revolution that is 3D printing, one could literally print out the pieces of a one of a kind model then assemble that.