Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
User Journal

Journal pythorlh's Journal: Ask /. - Christmas Gifts for Geeky Boys 19

Journal by pythorlh

It's that time of year again. This year, I'm trying to avoid buying nothing but video games for my boys, and my budget is too constrainted to allow for a PS3 or Wii. In case you don't already know, I have 4 boys. Ages are 13, 12, 10, and 6. The 6-year-old will also have a birthday in December, before Christmas, so that's fair game if you've got ideas. They are all video-game / computer game junkies. Right now, the oldest 3 are hooked on Runescape, and Puzzle Pirates. (I am also hooked on Puzzle Pirates. They take after their Dad. ;) )

The oldest, Joshua, is currently reading the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy. Unfortunately, he knows that I've already bought the Legends trilogy for him, so I can't use that. He's a dragon fanatic, and also likes generic fantasy. He has specifically asked for one or more of the Settlers of Catan expansions, so he's likely to get that.

My second oldest, Caleb, is just finishing "Belgarath the Sorcerer," after reading the entire Belgarion series, Mallorean series, and "Polgara the Sorceress." He's the one least into video games. Frankly, I'm at a total loss for him. He wants a laptop, but that's not going to happen. (They all want laptops. I can't afford 1, much less 4...(make that 5. I want one, too. ;) ) He likes crafts, but really only when someone else wants to help him craft. His mother likes crafts, but I don't, so that's not really the best idea, either.

My third son, Seth, hasn't really gotten bit by the reading bug, yet. He's currently learning flute, and just finished up the youth football season. He's the most outdoors oriented of the four. Last year I got him a pair of binoculars that had a built in camera, but he hasn't used it. He's begging for a Nintendo DS, but that's a little out of my price range, and as I said, I'm trying to avoid video games this year.

David is the youngest. Obviously, he's not into reading yet, either. Video games are his thing, with Sonic the Hedgehog games topping his list. He enjoy's Settlers, too, but he's a little young for it. I'd like to find something more his age range.

Suggestions? I went looking the other day, but I found nothing, other than a Marvel version of "Scene It!" which might be worth getting for one of them. Given my lack of ideas so far, I'll probably resort to video games by the time Christmans rolls around. They're in my price range (about $75 per child, plus another $50 for David's birthday). I'm debating pooling their gifts. I've done that before, buying a X-box that was for all four of them at once. If I do that, it'll be either a cheap laptop or a portable game system, PSP or DS. Then I have to find some small gifts to hand out individually.

Edit: Man... My grammar sucks some days. And I should pay more attention when I preview.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Ask /. - Christmas Gifts for Geeky Boys More

Ask /. - Christmas Gifts for Geeky Boys

Comments Filter:
  • Sufficiently geeky, and they have differing levels of difficulty that should be appropriate for all the age groups that you have listed. To this day, my wife still buys me a small lego set and stuffs it into my stocking for Christmas.

    The only other thing I can think of would be books.

    Depending on your total budget, you may actually be able to swing a Wii, but the controllers are $60 for a Wiimote and Nunchuck each. My parents used to do 'big gifts' to my brother AND I, so we shared them.
    • Legos were one of my favorite gifts for them when they were younger, but I don't think that any set I've bought them has ever made it to full completion. On top of that, probably less than 50% of all the Lego pieces I've bought them over the years still exist in my household. They have a tendency to get thrown away.
  • Jump them right out of their current interests- introduce them to model railroading. About $30 per kid will get them each their own easy-to-connect German-built HO set (Bachman has some nice sets)- add an additional $10/kid for switches, and don't forget the insulators for block control- this will give them enough track to set up quite a 4-block layout with intermodals. Cheaper than laptops, and it will teach them basic low voltage DC wiring.
    • I love this idea, but it'll have to wait until next year. We are extremely short on living space at the moment. I actually have an old molded plastic train setup, from before I can remember it.

      Slow Down Cowboy! You actually had more than one thought in a 2 minute period. We don't allow that here at Slashdot! Go take a nap or something, and come back later.
      • A thought before ruling it out completely- take a look at the Bachman Trains [bachmanntrains.com] track system. I've found it's much improved since years past- in fact, the built in trackbed snaps together so accurately that I've run it on carpet and even beds. Don't think a big stationary layout- think "a bunch of parts the kids can assemble and disassemble as they play that can be picked up at the end of the day"- kind of the HO version of those wooden Brio trains or those stupid plastic Thomas Take-alongs my three year old
  • Old, so inexpensive....
    Remade, so good graphics...
    Sid Meier history game, so educational, and not violent (sword fights end with the guy falling off the ship or surrendering)
    Sid Meier, so incredibly addictive.

    Pirates, Civ3/4, etc... all worthy of puzzle-types, with adventure and strategy built in... best of all? They can all share!
    • Pirates!... I have to look into this. They've asked for Civ 4, which I would be happy to get, but won't run on their PC. (Nor mine :( )

      Thanks for the suggestion.

      Slow Down Cowboy! We refuse to except any comment that hasn't been considered over a full 24 oz. bottle of Mountain Dew. Since it takes us at least 2 minutes to consume that Dew, you'll just have to wait.
  • I had originally played this set of games (based upon the Dragonlance novels) and they made no sense, but after I read Dragonlance, hey, cool games! :)

    Old though. Still very fun. :)
  • I have one of the older INTEL ones that plugs into your USB port on the computer; haven't seen the one at thinkgeek:
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/8493 [thinkgeek.com]

    The USB one is easier to use (especially smaller kids) than a regular microscope; I loved my cheesy old microscope as a kid. You could probably get a regular microscope, but for the price of a USB one (shop around) you would be hard pressed to find a decent regular microscope. For the life of me I can't understand why intel stopped making the USB

  • He has specifically asked for one or more of the Settlers of Catan expansions, so he's likely to get that.

    A good choice. If he's into German style board games, you can't go wrong with Puerto Rico [wikipedia.org]. It really is outstanding. Settlers is a fine game, and has done well by being an early mover in the market, but it has since been surpassed by several others. Also recommended are The Princes Of Florence [wikipedia.org], Power Grid [wikipedia.org] and Tigris And Euphrates [wikipedia.org][1]. Given that he's asked for the Settlers expansion, then I'd get him t

    • David is the youngest. Obviously, he's not into reading yet

      Huh? What's obvious about that? You said he was 6. I was starting to read quite avidly by that age.

      Well, that's true. He could be an avid reader, but he's not. Stories he likes are out of his reading range, and what is in his range bores him. I'll take a look at your game suggestions. Any suggestion for which of these is best for the younger boys? I'd rather not pick a game that can only be played by Josh and me. The younger boys, even Cal

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Tet ( 2721 )
        I'd rather not pick a game that can only be played by Josh and me. The younger boys, even Caleb, don't quite have the presence of mind to win at Settlers yet. I don't want to go with anything that would be even more complicated.

        Hmmm... wikipedia lists them all as having medium rules complexity (the same as Settlers), but high strategy depth (Settlers is medium). Thinking about it, I'd probably agree with that. If you want something a bit less taxing that the younger ones can play, then I'd suggest somethi

        • Thanks for the suggestions. We have Carcasonne. We all like it. I'll take a look at the others.

Slashdot Top Deals

Real Programmers don't eat quiche. They eat Twinkies and Szechwan food.

Close