Raspberry Pi

[Moonflower12]

Aibu in getting my DD (8) a raspberry pi as her main present for Christmas? She is reasonably bright and enjoys STEM subjects.
Is it a good idea or not? If not, why? And does anyone have any suggestions of a better present?
I know nothing about coding but willing to learn along with her.

I asked my Dh as he loves all things tech...he said no...it's a brilliant idea! He said you can get robotic and a whole array of as on's..which sound cool but I have no idea!
I suppose though it depends what she has asked for?

@lalaloopyhead
Thank you so much. We will look at getting her one.

She only had her birthday 2 weeks ago and wanted Guinea pigs, which she now has. She has no idea what she might want!

Reasonable pick. There are a whole bunch of nice kits which, money permitting, would make a better gift than a "bare" Pi.

Great idea.

There’s an integrated RPi & keyboard around (RaspberryPi 400?) that has a certain swish about it...

I’ve been umming about getting my 9yo niece one for Christmas.

Good idea with the add ons but also look at Nixie fun klock kit with tubes. It's a bit retro but Ds1 really appreciated it last year.

I'd definitely look into one of the kits that come with the raspberry pi and the bits to make something, it can be a bit hard to know where to start otherwise. Maybe a no-weld one at that age.

We have the pi400 for our 8 year old (ASD loves computers). Highly recommended!

He can do loads on it, and is very chuffed to have his own computer. We are happy that he can use it to learn to touch type, access homework like myMaths and enjoys writing stories. We will look at scratch next.

If you've not bought a bundle, you'll also need

1. An SD card
2. Keyboard/Mouse
3. Power supply
4. Hdmi cable to connect to monitor or TV

Get an SD card will the Raspberry Pi OS pre-loaded, otherwise Xmas morning will be spent learning how to copy OS images to an SD card.

BTW - great present!

We have the pi400 for our 8 year old (ASD loves computers). Highly recommended

The pi 400?

I still have some of the original Raspberry Pis!! Love how they have moved on since they were developed.

Such a great idea for cheap computing.

You can do some interesting electronics with it. Learn Python, Sonic Pi, Scratch.

It’s a brilliant present. As well as the list of extras above I would suggest a project book which will give her ideas of how to get started.

Great present. My husband turned ours into a retro Nintendo! It is awesome!

Yeah I've bought my 7 yr old daughter a Pi400 for Christmas. She's done a few things using Scratch so hopefully she'll get into this too. If not I'll nick it.

Get a couple of usb game controllers and preload retropi on it with mario kart etc on it so she doesn't have to learn how to do it on christmas day.

There is a lot of fun stuff here for kids interested in tech. DD has thoroughly enjoyed the stuff she had from here.

www.techwillsaveus.com/

Anything STEM is a great idea. My DD8 loves coding too and has the Kano Harry Potter wand. It’s reasonably challenging (I struggled with some of it) but she is very competent. It really helped her excel with her coding at school.

Thank you everyone. I shall look into all your advice.
We were thinking of getting 'extras' so she could do more stuff with it.

There's a kit called Kano which uses a Pi with other bits for learning to program and they seem pretty cool, so might be easier to use that a pi on its own?

You could have a look at the Turing Tumble as well if she’s into techy type things. Just got one for my son- been very entertaining so far.

Just to update:We got the Pi 400 kit and DD absolutely loves it. We have Minecraft on it and now she's looking at Scratch.

Thank you everyone for all your help and advice.

Bringing back a Zombie thread but this conversation is really useful. I am looking at a RP 400 for my 8 year old this Christmas!

Yes. Brilliant present!!!

Have thought of getting our kids one. Took the plunge. They’re so o good.