My geeky 15yr DS and the weirdest Christmas list ever

[FuckingHateRats]

My son has asked for: headphones (standard), dried mango, dried banana chips, microfibre cloths to clean his glasses with, and one of those blue BIC pens that have the four coloured nibs to make notes in his classes 🤣🤣🤣 he's also added refills for his pilot BtP pens (a very specific request).

I have bought the usual slippers, a (Primark) oodie, pringles etc.

He has significantly less to open than his younger sisters.

I'm thinking of ordering Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors amzn.eu/d/9NJkl9U THIS BOOK (he loves maths and coding so seems right up his street) but would love any ideas of (hopefully useful) bits and pieces he can open. He's asked for so little and says he is really lucky because he doesn't need anything🤷🏻‍♀️

He does not care about branded clothes, does not care about his hair etc, so things like aftershave and sporty t-shirts/joggers are out.

A soldering iron and kits to solder with it.

Another book recommendation here - Poems That Solve Puzzles: The History and Science of Algorithms is very good.

How about a Haynes manual for the Hubble Space telescope or the Space Station?

I've bought various things from Maths Gear over the years, though all the best stuff for Christmas presents may be sold out by now.

We have the Set game that's sold there, I really like playing it but it's one where you have to be pretty well matched if the same people aren't going to win every time.

I just bought my 15 year old son some glow in the dark Ring Spinz magnetic fiddle toys as a stocking filler - he's always loved magnets and spends a lot of time playing with those tiny strong magnetic balls that I think must have been banned from sale.

www.therange.co.uk/toys/cards-puzzles-and-board-games/jokes-tricks-and-sensory-toys/glow-in-the-dark-magni-rings/

How about some Govee LED strip lights to put behind his headboard

An Echo dot & a smart plug...DS can then turn his lights by saying 'Alexa turn off gaming zone' aka his desk with a laptop on it.

I second the BBC microbit..get the V2. DS's computer science teacher recommended the website Pimoroni.com for microbits

shop.pimoroni.com/products/new-micro-bit-v2

I was a bit like that as a teenager. I found the computing centre next to bletchley fascinating and the space centre in Leicester for days out.

Books-wise you can't go far wrong with going to your local bookshop and asking. There are some gorgeous books about space out there that would bulk it out a bit and something with Hubble photos would be amazing. I also loved my subscriptions to national geographic and new scientist at that age - if you're interested in how things work out tends to translate across. I'd also recommend books about things like bias is tech as they're fascinating and useful. Technically wrong is a good start. Invention by design was another favourite as it covers all sorts of interesting inventions and how they happened.

I'd also recommend the Arduino or raspberry pi. We've recently bought from kitronik and they were good and delivered quickly. I'd love a microbit but they always seem to be out of stock. A good project this time of year is coding Christmas lights to music using a pi. We've also made a fan newbie emulator and that was fun. The other benefit is they have loads of add ons so that's years of presents sorted.

If you want to get him books, I can strongly recommend Chaos (by James Gleick). I read it about the same age as him, as a similarly geeky 15yr old.

If you're going to get him a Raspberry Pi, maybe think about getting a robot arm kit to go with it. I can almost guarantee that he'll love it - getting computers to make things happen in the physical world is one of those things that short-circuits our brains with glee.

I'm saving this thread for future use

@Mince314s microbits available here...

shop.pimoroni.com/products/new-micro-bit-v2

I'm loving this modest list! Pens and dried fruit and the other things he's asking for are what my (spoiled, I guess) DC would ask me to pick up in a routine grocery shop. Of course, headphones can be counted as a "big" gift.

Just followed beautifulyoungmind's link to the Range was poking about on there and you can buy an acre of land on Mars!

www.therange.co.uk/stationery/souvenirs-and-gifts/gifts/an-acre-of-land-on-mars/?position=19&s=5567943#5567943

The Cypher Files (an escape room in a book) by Dimitris Chassapakis is genius & very appealing. A bit more accessible for a 15 year old than the first book Journal 29. The bright kids I've bought this for as presents have absolutely loved it

The Cypher Files: An Escape Room… in a Book! amzn.eu/d/2ctjvZW

When my son was younger (he works in IT now) he used to like little electronic kits that came in mint tins. Pretty sure I got them on amazon.

A 15 year old boy with younger sisters might like a bit of one on one parent time. Could you run to an overnight somewhere taking in a museum or visit that he'd enjoy?
The space centre at Leicester or the Science museum in London or the Computer museum at Bletchley perhaps?
Throw in a decent dinner and a night away in a hotel (or camping if you go later in the year) and it could be great fun!

I'm not very good at doing one master reply!
This is the ultimate link to maths books....

nrich.maths.org/books

Do you really think headphones, some snacks, something to clean his glasses with, a pen and some pen refills is a typical selection to Christmas presents for a teenager?

@Mince314s my DS and the rest of the family loved the Computer Centre next to Bletchley. We didn't know it was there before we went so they were annoyed they only had an hour to go round after Bletchley. They still talk about it years later

I got my teen a wireless charger for his phone its a 3 in one thing so charger radio and clock, also got headphone stand and a tower thing his games go in. Teen boys are so hard to buy for.

Does he play chess? Computer chess is great, excellent for his brilliant mind.......Lego architecture.....lots to choose from....great builds....money to buy parts to build his own computer....my son is studying software engineering....this are the things he loved doing.....

@Lurkertoposter Andy Weir books are aimed at adults so perfect for a 17 year old

@FuckingHateRats Adrian Tchaikovsky and John Scalzi are other scifi authors worth looking into.

@PutYourBackIntoit Do you have any idea of their delivery times? Just wondering if there's time to order something for DS in time for Christmas.

He sounds lovely.

These books are really cool, and written by the people who make the XKCD webcomic:

www.waterstones.com/book/what-if/randall-munroe/9781848549562

And

www.waterstones.com/book/what-if-2/randall-munroe/9781399804233

The 2nd one is a recent release so you may be able to get hold of a signed copy for him.

The book Godel, Escher, Bach

Sixthing What If? and What If? 2 by Randall Munroe.

Assuming he's already read Operation Hail Mary by Andy Weir, I agree with pp that Adrian Tchaikovsky is worth a try, I'd suggest Children of Time to start with, but then I do really like spiders.

Alex's Adventures In Numberland by Alex Bellos is quite good.