Holiday Tech Gift Guide: Gifts for Children

This holiday season, your children, nieces, nephews or grandchildren might have given you wish lists, but if you also want to surprise them, here are some gifts that kids will love. These tech gift ideas are designed to engage, delight and encourage creativity.

3Doodler Start

If you’re buying presents for any arts and crafts fanatics this year, check out the 3Doodler Start, a 3D printing pen designed specifically for children. 3Doodler Start uses eco-friendly plastic strands that cool and harden rapidly, enabling children to make instant 3D creations.

The 3Doodler Start Essentials Pen Set, at $49.99, includes the Start pen, two packs of plastic strands, a micro USB charging cable, and an activity guide. Make sure not to purchase the 3Doodler Create or Pro, two other pen models that are only for age 14 and up – the metal tips on these pens get extremely hot.

PowerUp 3.0

Does the child on your gift list love paper airplanes or drones? PowerUp 3.0 is a nifty gadget that turns ordinary paper airplanes into app-controlled flying machines. The set contains rudders, propellers, a micro USB charging cable and some paper airplane templates for beginners. Once you construct your paper airplane, attach the module and have fun controlling the plane’s flight using the (free) accompanying app. Tilt your phone to steer left or right, and play with the throttle (in the app) to ascend or descend.

Young kids will love this one, and after the plane crashes numerous times, you’ll love how durable it is! PowerUp 3.0 ($49.99) is compatible with Apple and Android devices.

BOSEbuild Speaker Cube

For any kid who loves taking things apart, take a look at the BOSEbuild Speaker Cube, a gift that’s an engaging learning experience that results in Bose-quality speakers. The set comes with all the parts required to build your own speaker, including customizable colored LED lighting. The accompanying app gives kids the opportunity to experiment with how speakers and sound work, as well as learn about magnets, electromagnets, frequency and waveforms. After exploring sound properties, the app walks kids through the process of putting together the speaker. The end product is a durable, high-performance Bluetooth speaker that can be taken apart and customized over and over again.

Note: The discovery and build activities require the use of an Apple mobile device. Once assembled, the speaker is compatible with Bluetooth (3.0 or later) enabled devices. Meant for children age 8 and up, the Speaker Cube retails for $149. And after the children build the speaker, make sure to help them back up all their music and share music files and playlists among the family using the Fasetto app.