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Please suggest ideas for a Christmas gift.
There is a kid in my family who is nearly nine. His parents have wisely decided to dramatically limit his 'screen time.' Before this limit, he was consumed by stupid ipad games and all he ever wanted to talk about was Minecraft or ???something??? dash, which was a game where you just make a character jump.
Since they implemented the 'screen free house,' however, he's taught himself to solve a rubik's cube (he wrote some strange annotation on post-tits -- I can't make it out.) I can also solve the cube but am rusty and he is faster. Close to two minutes on a good try; he couldn't do this at all a few weeks ago.
He also was very happy when I gave him an old microwave because he wanted to take the magnet out. His current project involves doing something with plaster of paris. I think he's using it to make some kind of furnace and the mold is for the exterior. He knows all of the parts of a computer and has known how to use a soldering iron since he was six. When he was seven, I taught him how to sharpen kitchen knives.
Unlike that Muslim terrorist kid, he could probably make a clock. And I'm certain he could make a bomb.
Really tough to get him to read novels, though, and I can't seem to find the right bribe to get him to read a history book. Not even $500 worth of weekend driving school at the local carting track or a 3D pen that seemed to capture his imagination. He doesn't watch much TV and doesn't have much interest in it even when he's given free reign over the remote and netflix.
Makes me regret all the days I came right home from school and put the TV on for two or more hours of re-run cartoons. I swear, some days I'd watch cartoons until the news, watch news in the kitchen with my family over dinner, and then go back to the living room for "prime access" programming like Entertainment Tonight (my father was a contemporary of John Tesh). Those wasted hours...
Anyway, back to the kid. I asked him over Thanksgiving what he wanted to study in school. He said "science engineering." I wasn't aware that was a field of study.
Anyway, for Christmas, he asked Santa for a blow torch. Which is an idea. But I'd like to give him he can use to build other things, to do other things. Something really smart and cutting edge. Last year, I gave him a small drone, and he got pretty good at piloting it but he got bored with it we only really fly them together.
Anyway, any suggestions? I am having a good year and, regretfully, do not yet have any children of my own, so the budget is, well, generous.
install gentoo
a burned copy of gentoo
>very smart kid
everyone thinks their kid is special and of above average intelligence
do you want to know why?
Give him a Robot building kit.
He'll learn the basics of coding, while putting together a fun toy like Lego.
>>51608811
It's his wife's son.
>>51608766
get him a kindle with a shitton of books
parents can't complain about that
A few Breadboards and a shit ton of components, and perhaps a book about Circuits, he should enjoy it.
>>51608766
Not sure if this is suitable for a 9yo, but
A Meggy Jr kit and soldering iron.
He can assemble it himself and program games into it.
Get him a thinkpad that can't run video games. Also install gentoo.
>>51608949
see >>51608766
Maybe get him a poker set and see if you can turn him into some kind of poker savant for your profit.
>>51608766
Give him something that he can share with other kids, make friends. He is smart, that's good, but you don't want him to be anti social.
You don't want him to be bitter and alone and on 4chan, all those smarts won't get him anywhere if he's depressed.
>>51608770
>muh history
you're retarded
get him an air rifle
>>51608770
>I can't seem to find the right bribe to get him to read a history book
Go to bed grandpa, no one cares about how you clubbed dinosaurs to put meat on the table.
Get him a raspberry pi 2 or another SoC computer. Be careful, there is a port of Minecraft to ARM linux. Other than that though, he's unlikely to be running any games on it.
>minecraft is bad
You can build circuits in minecraft, you know.
I bet you think all games are bad.
>>51609153
He will probably do nothing with it tho, even adult retards from here don't know what to do with it at all. Arduino is more straightforward if you have no idea about programming, also there are probably some kits specially for kids, I dunno.
>>51608949
Very good idea
>>51608827
Nope.
>>51608824
What 'robot building kit' can you recommend?
>>51608843
Already has one. Not too interesting to him.
>>51608918
Good idea; is there a package you can recommend?
>>51608949
Will check it out.
>>51609084
Already taught him how to play. He's alright. Really good at knowing when to fold.
>>51609184
I use to be an editor at a gaming magazine. But I'd rather steer him towards building real circuits than minecraft ones.
>>51609153
Not a bad idea, but I don't want to push him in the direction of staring at a screen.
>>51609153
Yeah Raspberry Pi 2 would be good. He could build his own Retro pie console. That might make building things even more fun, when you get an entertaining result from it.
Or maybe it's a bad gift and I would just like one for myself which is clouding my judgement.
teach them to perform menial programming tasks for you
>>51609123
>making a kid a normie
This is why society sucks
I'd rather be a bitter old man with my computers than a normal kek after his second divorce
I would agree with a pi 2 if it wasn't for the screen rules. Lego technic maybe? (it is expensive though). Maybe he's interested in a musical instrument? Tools are nice, but I doubt he has the means to acquire materials to work with.
>>51609146
>learning history is bad
Is this really what /g/ has come to
>>51609800
>learning history is good
Is this really what /g/ has come to
>>51609807
See you after the decline of society my friend
>>51609800
you got memed son
seriously tho, it's a contentious response to OP who's acting like a clueless 40-something who wasted his childhood and and now wants this kid to do the same by not allowing him to use computers (screen time), or learn anything of value.
>>51609800
>learning worthless shit about some faggots starting wars and people dying for x land is good
Turn on the TV if you want to learn history, it's happening every day, and it's just as worthless now as it was back then.
Someone post that official /lit/ list of things that are degenerate.
>>51609790
I think he's beyond lego mindstorm shit. Real circuits, actuators, etc. sounds more promising.
>>51609821
>not allowing him
Not 40s, not my kid, not my rules, though I approve of them. And he didn't ask for a tablet or a laptop or something like that -- and he's assembled desktops before. Programming does seem like a promising avenue, though, and I think his dad would allow him that.
>>51609800
>history
>good
It's because retards like you that universities force people to go through 2 years of complete utter bullshit when they already know what they want to study.
>>51609864
>Uni forcing meme courses
Shit uni desu senpai
>>51609864
Developing a love of reading is pretty important in a kid. Reading is a fast-track to knowledge, and wisdom. It's not so much that it's a history book, per se, it's that it's a book.
>>51609880
>muh well rounded educashun
>>51609885
this is important
let the kid read whatever interests him
do not force him to read whatever YOU think is beneficial, or else he'll learn to hate reading
>>51609885
>books are the only way to encourage reading
ye old 1000 year old meme
>>51609898
>he thinks reading shitposts on the internet is equivalent to reading novels or prose consisting of hundreds of pages
>>51608766
Sounds like they should have fixed the problem rather than denying his access to information. You're also full of shit though, as no one is going to develop half of the skills you've described without the use of a computer or an impossibly large physical library they don't have.
Either follow >>51609134 advice, or buy them some anime shit to get a head start on their inescapable future.
>>51609134
this, bitches love air rifles.
>>51609885
I was forced to read novels through middle/hs, it was a complete utter waste of time. Learning pointless crap like 1800's vocab and bullshit like "mischance" and "thither".
I learned more real practical knowledge and proper writing out of PC world magazines and science journals my dad left lying around the house.
buy computer
anything else is secondary
virtually anything can be learned on the internet
>>51609924
your practical knowledge is really showing, what with your anemic vocabulary and all
>>51609935
>tries to make a writing skill burn
>doesn't know how to capitalize or use punctuation
ayylmao, go back to your harry potter kid
>>51609961
wheee fuck you kid
i don't care enough to use proper capitalization or even proper grammar on 4chan posts
i only come to this website to argue with nerds over their choice in chinese pornography drawings
>>51609935
>anemic
>look mom i used a big word today that i'm sure no one else understood lol!
>>51608766
get him lego ev3
>>51609980
what a worthless post
get him a ps4 bitches love ps4's
>>51609924
>>51609864
>>51609146
is it too late to tip my fedora to you, enlightened gentleman, sir?
>>51610024
>i unironically read history books because i'm an intellectual
I vote for a starter electronics kit, I had one as a kid and at first I stared blankly at it and played with my toys and videogames.
In a few months I started using it and really loved it.
It got me interested in how things work and led to programming.
Then led to being a social outcast and bullied for being a nerd. Nerds were not treated well in the 80s, early 90s.
Oh well. Thanks dad.
>>51610065
>i have the attention span of a gnat and am incapable of reading anything longer than 140 characters.
Gives him a friend. He looks lonely as fuck with that.
>>51610097
>i unironically defend reading history books
>>51610114
>i don't read
>>51608766
Sounds like he needs friends.
It's very important that he gets friends at this point in his life or else he will become a recluse and end up here.
You don't want to end up here.
>>51610131
>if you don't read history books you don't read
>this is how mentally handicapped fedoratippers who read history books are
>>51610153
what else are you gonna read?
Fiction?
that's degenerate shit
>>51610167
>history is the only form of non-fiction
>>51610190
Yes?
What else can be considered non-fiction?
kid sounds autistic bruh
>>51610214
>if you don't watch the electric jew you are autistic
congrats, you're part of the problem
>>51608766
Coupled with the taking a microwave apart and making a furnace I'd ask him if he is going to make an electric arc furnace, if so learn and teach him high voltage safety and give him some high voltage protection equipment as a gift, it could end up saving his life and or fingers
>old microwave
The magnetrons in microwaves are dangerous, shitlord. Not just because of the high voltage but also because of the x-rays.
>>51610226
He's right though. If you don't get socially placed into being a good little goy for the jew overlords, you're considered mentally aberrant.
>>51608766
A cool clock
>>51608766
>Unlike that Muslim terrorist kid, he could probably make a clock. And I'm certain he could make a bomb.
Was that part necessary? Making a bomb is more about being antisocial and having a strong desire for making something that can hurt people rather than technical prowess. Bombs aren't very high-tech.
Is your relative a psychopath?
>>51609695
Raspberry Pi is not a project at all if you're just going to put on a software stack someone else has assembled. It takes five minutes total connecting cables and copying data to the SD card
>>51610976
Yeah you're right, let's make him program a new OS from scratch instead of using Linux and have him spend a few years before anything funny or interesting comes out of it. That'll be so much better. It's like you're actually reading the minds of 9-year olds and can tell their attention span perfectly. I hope you use your superpowers for good, anon.
>>51608766
Buy him a bigger Rubik's cube
>>51611114
Like a life-size Rubik's cube, or a puzzle with n^3 faces where n > 3?
Buy him an electronics strater kit for kids, i got one when i was little. It had a couple resistors a motor and all that jazz.
When i grew older i started using the carboard box it came in to store small electronics. I guess i still have it somewhere, although there is probably little of the original contents left.
It really sparked my interest in electronic engineering.
Nowadays i touch little raw electronics besides my arduino, but i'm sure some knowledge i have now is carried over from that damn cardboard box.
brb nostalgically looking for an old box.
>>51608766
>letting a kid fuck around with a microwave
Can't you die doing this even if it's unplugged?
>post-tits
Kek
>>51611174
Every cube is life size dipshit
Arduino
>>51608766
Magic Cards
find interesting youtube channels for him, warn him that a lot of shit he will see is dangerous, though...
also, find his reading taste and give him more books of that. non-technical physics books are awesome desu
>>51609924
>I was forced to read novels through middle/hs, it was a complete utter waste of time
everyone is. no one is saying he should only read novels... and you are a retard.
>>51610097
this
>>51608770
>history
>kids today just don't understand!
How is this kid related to you?
>>51610722
>Making a bomb is more about being antisocial
Where to begin.
1) I said he had the knowledge to make one -- and likely in many different ways.
2) Actually, making a bomb can be fun and a good way to learn. Witness numerous YT channels, etc. RussiaFPS is a fav.
>>51609914
He does watch a fair bit of YT -- usually how to build stuff or how things work. His father is also an engineer with a lot of knowledge.
>>51611596
Good tip, thanks.
>>51611876
Yes; his father supervised him to make sure it was fully discharged, etc.
>>51611975
Great idea on getting him to read more. Or that other one... Dominion!
>>51611992
>find interesting youtube channels for him, warn him that a lot of shit he will see is dangerous, though...
Yep, he's there with his parents. Sometimes I see fascinating videos and forward them for him to watch only to learn he's already seen them.
>>51612629
Nephew.
>>51611099
Kek
>>51612848
lego mindstorm ev3 or a ps4/xbone, if you get the ps4/xbone make sure to ask which one his friends have if any
>>51614328
> if you get the ps4/xbone make sure to ask which one his friends have if any
That's not how it works, guy.
You pick the one with the exclusive titles that interest you the most.
Make him install gentoo without the wiki
>>51617144
Is that even possible if you are not linux guru already?
I ques you could theoretically read the man pages but you lack the knowledge that you need to compile the kernel, install bootloader and all the other shit.
>>51608766
give him a robot kit or a raspberry pi
>>51608766
>Take the magnet out of the microwave
>Magnet
Lemme tell ya buddy, a magnet and a magnetron are two different worlds.
If this isn't bait, don't let your 9y old bust the ceramic insulation unless they want to literally die.
Any peripherals worth getting under $100 ?
The gf is getting me 598's so maybe some amp or a soundcard to replace my on board ?
get him a graphing calculator basic is fun as fuck
>>51610114
What's wrong with reading history books?
Kids these days.
M8 get him different kits. There are some that are for circuitry and etc. Buy materials and build something with him and etc.
