What does your 8/9 year old son play with?

[DangerousMouse]

All DS wants to do is kick a ball around, he has no interest at all in Lego, he was into WWE figures but that's now passed, he loves crafting but only the really messy kind of crafts.
I'm looking for something he can play with that needs less input from me, like lego, cars, figures, trains, army men.. he's not into any of that either!

He gets plenty of time to kick a ball around but he only ever wants to do so in the house, so really need some toy ideas to get him interested in!

Hamma beads, those magnet stick things (can’t remember what they’re called), glow tracks, nerf guns, books (non fiction mainly), his little brother’s paw patrol figures, but obviously only when said little brother wants to play with them himself 🙄

Oh yes, building geomag bridges!

That’s it, geomags, thank you :)

Also stickbots

When my ds was that age he adored football and nothing else. When his friends came round he hid his Lego as they would get stuck into it and he just wanted football. We live rurally so had loads of space. But he was happy to play alone. He would run up and down dribbling the ball and doing commentating ad he went.
I just left him off. At least he was outside and not on screens. They often go through obsessions where it's all one thing.
His df would kick with him in the evenings.
And l did let him play with a soft ball in the hall. You can get soft indoor balls but we had no neigh ours to upset and l wasnt fussy about ornaments etc.
He also liked to get a football magazine every week and spent hours reading and rereading that. At that age too he began to read the sports page of the newspaper and watch recordings of his favourite team.
It was an obsession!!

My DS loves those Hot Wires sets where they can make circuits to power lightbulbs, radios etc. He plays with it for ages and loves coming to show what he's made work when he's done

Magic Kit? Martin's Magic kits are good.

Lego Lego Lego Lego Lego Lego Minecraft Lego Lego Lego Books Lego Lego Lego Lego

This is great, thanks, so in my amazon basket i have geomags and spy gear, I think I'll try and find him a robot too.
So wish he liked lego.. or reading.. or anything that's not a screen! To be fair he does over 8 hours of organised sports each week, he just needs some toys to sit and be calm with!

Geomags is much cheaper on EBay - you can buy big, unboxed bundles which are a lot more fun to play with.

Microscope. a kids one.
DNephew loves looking at stuff under there. Loads of random stuff. Like an old bone or feather from garden, carpet fibres, random food etc

Stickbots. Can spend hours making animations with them. There's one with a green screen which is especially fun but you need to give him your phone to make the films.
Pokemon. My son pours over the Pokemon encyclopaedia when he's not playing.