Present idea for a quirky 7yo

[ILoveAFullFridge]

Ds2 (just turned 7) loves taking things to pieces, and often manages to put them back together again. He also loves junk modelling.

I'm thinking of getting him a scaled-down woodworking set, with real tools, real blades, etc.

What do you think?

Any other suggestions?

How about something like a Rubik's cube or snake?

Meacano?

There's also the added challenge that he's dc3: we have Meccano (not particularly interested), lots of different Lego (enjoys), K'nex (just starting with it), various types of Rubik (not at all interested).

Sounds like my DS1. He is always pleased to have origami paper and more origami books (the Science Museum ones are impossible for adults to follow but he seems to have mastered them) and pipe cleaners for making little guys to play with. He also had one of those electronics sets wthere the connections are made with poppers which he loved. Anything Minecraft or Bad Piggies (which is 'not just a game, it's an engineering experience' he tells me.)
Re woodworking set - too messy for my liking. But then our grandpa has a whole workshop...

John Adams hot wires

A magic set!

Loads of silly things to figure out.

John Lewis had some great ones last year.

How about these? There are loads of different sets you can get and of course you can be imaginative and build your own designs. To deconstruct you just soak in water and the cement kind of disintegrates and you can start again with new cement. (You can get refills of cement) Teifoc Real Bricks

Or a starter electronics kit for making circuits etc... My son has one which has all sorts of wee things in it to do like making a bulb come on, sounding a siren, making a rotor blade spin etc... Will see if I can find a link - we bought it a good few years ago now.

Just google Cambridge Brainbox sets and you should find lots of ideas - circuit kits as well as kits for building models of boats etc... FWIW we bought ours at least 3 years ago now (maybe even 4) and it's still going strong.

I'd say tools are an excellent idea, but I would definitely avoid the 'childrens tools' sets, and get a nice tool box + 'real' tools in appropriate sizes.

We did that for dd when she was small, and the tools will still be useful to her when she is an adult (in fact I often use her hammer when I'm doing a small job).

You do need to make sure they have somewhere suitable that they can do their woodworking though - maybe even consider a small workmate to go in the garage if you have one!

My son (lego/engineering mad) loved Fischertechnik - it's a bit more challenging than lego. He also hated Mecanno

There are loads of sets oof varying prices - here is a relatively small set. It's not cheap tho!

www.amazon.co.uk/fischertechnik-520397-Fischertechnik-Tractor/dp/B00BF4XNNG/ref=sr_1_32?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1385490850&sr=1-32&keywords=fischertechnik

I'd also recommend LaQ (pronounced La-Que) if you can get it. Expensive, but great! This is the amazon link, but if you were interested it might be worth looking around. I don't know how widely available it is in the UK though - it was released about 5 years ago here, but was always hard to find and now it seems even harder to come by. Really worth it though if you can get it - very different compared to other construction type things. LaQ

I like those reusable bricks! And pipe-cleaners are a brilliant idea, too: excellent stocking-filler.

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He played a lot with them earlier this uear, but seems to have moved on a bit. perhaps next year we might try them again, for his burthday. We have a couple of Cambridge Electronics sets.

Homeworkmakesmemad Thanks for the link, just bought a set for my DD. Her Dad is a bricklayer so I think they will love doing this together.

Sorry for hijack OP :)

That's so cute Almost - very glad to be of service

oh yes, just remembered about this stuff too - my sons used it at their summer club to build shelters and all sorts - it's brilliant!

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=makedo&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Amakedo

They had the freeplay stuff - it's essentially just a pile of really good fasteners for joining boxes etc together to make structures with.