Would prefer it to not be “hair” 'makeup" girlish oriented, but rather something challenging for her mind. I am her Uncle, and would like something maybe aimed at DIY outside of Lego if you know what I mean. Budget is small, maybe 39.99? Can move either way if needed
Advice, much needed as a 36 y/o male with no kids
I once bought my niece a marble run. I got some shit for it, because I guess some people just don’t get it? But she loved it, and my 6-year-old daughter now loves marble runs too.
My daughter also collects rocks, so a rock tumbler was a big one for her.
Another gift for a niece I got shit for was a drum. She loved it. She was so excited that it was a real instrument. My brother always said he’d get me back, but my daughter got a full-ass drum kit for Christmas, and I think it’s great.
Oh, and make your own slime kits are huge right now. It’s science-y, DIY, and kids love slime.
I once bought my niece a marble run. I got some shit for it
By her parents? Either way, who the hell criticizes a gift to someone else? Especially if the recipient ends up loving it!?
It was good natured. I wasn’t offended.
I just think it’s funny how some people are all about marble runs and some people just don’t get it. No in between. Personally I’m all about marble runs.
I mean, the drum was an asshole move.
Look, I told you I was drunk and saw a crazy 1-day only deal!
EDIT: I thought you were joking too! 🤦♂️ I didn’t see the edit from the original comment…
I had a marble run at about 6. It was awesome.
I was about that age when I was gifted a microscope. No idea if you can still find them that cheap, though
Microscopes are definitely available in OP’s price range.
I had one as a kid, and LOVED it. It came with a bunch of sample slides, but I always took some small bottles with me on my daily summer bike trips (we were free range back then), and collected samples from swamps, puddles, drainage ditches, etc.
By the time I got to high school, I sailed through science classes, because I already knew how to make slides, and had already seen much of the stuff we were discovering.
Yes, also had a microscope at around that age, even with some sample plates that you could look at, such as a squeezed fly.
I also got a microscope around this age - now I’m an environmental scientist
Another good one would be an easier STEMmy puzzle. I had one that was a bunch of shapes that had to fit together into its small case. Kinda of Tetris like.
Might be able to build one, could be worth looking into, thanks!
In my area’s thrift stores, $500 microscopes are available for $10, no joke. People buy them for their kids, kids never use them, into the box and off to the donation center!
We gave our 5yo a microscope for his 5th birthday, and he loved it!
My 6 year old son absolutely loves the Snap Circuits kits. We’ve also started teaching him collectable card games (Pokémon, Yu Gi Oh , etc) which challenge his reading and strategy skills. Plus great quality time activity. There are tons of Stem kits out there for less than $40.
Sent me back mentioning those snap circuits lol. Have her build the simple AM radio and watch her mind be blown OP, you won’t be disappointed
Yugioh and snap kits were my faves back then, now over 20y later I’m still playing yugioh and soldering, so I’d say it was a worthy investment of my family and my free time. Problem-solving card text is probably good for understanding programming logic, too.
There are also kits for learning about electricity for kids of that age. For making a light switch or making a doorbell buzzer and simple things like that.
Now that sounds amazing, any kits or companies that sell something she may like
SnapCircuits!
They have a bunch of different kits, there’s like a music one that’ll even let you make a circuit that plays music from a phone.
They are absolutely a WONDERFUL introduction to electricity for a kid.
@lifeinmultiplechoice@lemmy.world see my comment above, sorry i hit the wrong reply button :-)
I’ll be sure to check it out, thanks for the ping
i had those as a kid, with clamp boards where you could plug in resistors, transistors, switches, diodes, a spool and in later editions even simple IC’s, speakers, lamps, a potentionmeter and so on; was powered by a 9V battery and you could build a radio, flipflop’s, alarm circuits and so on; i spent countless hours with that, was called Elektro Technik by Kosmos. They still have similar stuff on https://store.thamesandkosmos.com/ from what i saw, even if there aren’t as many expansions as i had, but instead there’s more robotics stuff (which is probably more fun for kids anyways)
Found it, this was the comment you were pointing me to right? I’ll save it and I’m going to dig through all these sites/suggestions on Friday night/ Saturday to narrow it all down. Those do look cool! Thanks
K’NEX. I used to build all kinds of cool stuff out of those when I was a kid.
She needs a sword. It’s educational.
Is she too young for an Arduino starter kit?
https://store-usa.arduino.cc/products/arduino-starter-kit-multi-language
Edit: the great thing about these is that you can eventually add a raspberry pi to the mix for even more functionality and learning fun!
Spirograph, Crystal growing kit, search for stem toys for 6 year olds, ask her parents what she’s into.
I’ve been doing stem toys for my niece for a few years and she always loves them. She just turned 9 in August.
those crystal growing kits are awesome! I might get myself one for Christmas jijiji
Thinkpad thin client with Gentoo
You gotta make sure there’s that little dot in the middle of the keyboard or else it isn’t worth it.
Board games. Catan junior, Loopin Chewie, Robot turtles, Tsuro, Abracada…What?, camel up.
Regular price
Catan Jr, didn’t know that existed I’ll have to look into what games are around. I know her Dad taught our parents how to play Settlers of Catan a number of years ago before she was born, so that’s something that she may have parents/grandparents to play with. She has a brother that is 2 years younger, so maybe they’ll be able to play that together soon enough.
Ticket to Ride: First Journey and Qwirkle are also good choices for that age range. Qwirkle is great because it’s simple but fun for all ages. My kids loved it when they were young and still play it frequently at 16 and 25.
I looooved K’nex when I was a young girl, would recommend
Ill have to look into what that is, thanks for the suggestion!
Check out Meccano as well, similar idea as a construction toy.
Do you know what she likes? I think a lot of “cool” ideas are presented here, however, remember she is still 6, and kids that age learn a lot through unstructured play.
Toys that have multiple ways to play with them, such as craft beading kits and doll houses are stimulating to the brain in more ways, and often preferred by children to circuit building kits, for example. The former is well within your price range, if she is crafty.
Unfortunately I’ve only seen her a couple times because the distance and my time/money. I know she likes animals, they go to beach and waterparks. She likes Halloween, even when she was 3 she was trying to make friends with the giant blow up scary things. She’s got a 2 wheeled scooter she likes. Baking, crafts. Swings, pools… they are always going on trips it seems. (Thankfully my brother has a family shared album so I’ve seen 1000s of pictures of her growing up and always doing things). They are I suppose upper middle class, and I’m not lol. So it’s one of those trying to find something that they wouldn’t have off hand bought her when they saw it, and I know my brother likes Legos, so I assume she has any cheaper set she would have liked.
If she likes drawing a big set of decent-ish markers could go a long way.
Something like that.
Maybe not in the “smart mind challenging” category but there are plenty of craft kits for your budget: paint canvases by numbers, make your own accessories with clay, bead jewelry, basic engineering kits (build your own robot types), dig your own fossil kits, build-this-or-that-with-LEDlights, gardening kits for kids, etc.
My point is to expand your horizon a bit, it’s perfectly fine that you want to cater to her intelligence and not just go for something girly in a cliche sense. But she can also enjoy crafting stuff.
There are plenty of brain teaser type toys. Maybe something like Rush Hour or Snap Circuits
Books are always good too. When I was her age I was really into the Magic Treehouse series
Both of these are great and another cool one is laser maze!
