K'Nex or Magnetics for 5 year old? Or is he too young?

[Berrie]

I'm afer a present for ds's birthday. I see that the age on them is 6+. Are they too hard and which is best?
Thanks

They are both good and DS who is 3 can do either of them. The age is related to whether they can follow instructions to make the models on the leaflet. They can put the pieces together "freestyle" from a very young age.

I'd say K'nex has more play value to it.

my (nearly) 5 yr old DS finds K'nex too tricky, but he does love Kids K'Nex - bigger pieces and less ambitious models to make.

haven't got magnetix but it is always recommended on MN as long as your DS doesn't put magnets in his mouth any more - ie absent minded, he is not a baby!

K'nex is brilliant and has a long play value to it - dd at nearly 9 still likes it but it does require a bit of finger strength to get the pieces to snap together.

That's really useful thanks! Dd might well take the magnets!

K'nex. My 4 year old happily plays with K'nex.

Magnetix have powerful and very small magnets in them and there was a recall some years back because some children had swallowed them and more than one magnet in your intestines can make you very sick and sometimes kill. Plus it's a bugger if they get near certain electrical equipment or your credit cards!

Geomag seems to be built better, imo, (and the magnetic bits are in the rods rather than the balls and harder to swallow) if you do go that route.

With magnetix I think the age restriction is to cover themselves as there was some controversy over damage to intestines if magnets were swallowed. Ds is 4 and is just getting into magnetix, it is very easy for him to get satisfying results from which is important to my ds as he gets frustrated very quickly. He has some kid knex and one set of older knex but hasn't taken to either in the same way as the magnetix.

Decisions decisions! Good job it's nearly Christmas!

dd (5) has glow in the dark magnetix and geomag. She loves them, has played with them loads. I'd say geomag is better, I got dd's from TKMaxx. Never tried K'Nex.

My 5 year old finds Kid K'nex easier to use than K'nex and loves Magnetix.

ds got k'nex and magnetics for Xmas last year (he was 3.10 at the time). Novelty fo magnetics wore of quite quickly and hasnt played with for a couple months now ( he doesnt like the fact that once you have built something you cant do much with it as it just collapses)

Interest in K'nex has continued - he makes models freestyle has some wheels and plays with the "cars" he makes or flys the "planes" he makes.

geo-mag