Birthday present for an 8 year old boy

[kijip]

Another year has passed and T will be 8 this weekend. 8! Any excellent gift suggestions for science, outdoors and art minded kids? He has nothing that he wants specifically that he is not already saving for. We usually do just 1 b-day present because we throw a big party for him. I am thinking about $40 or so but can go higher for something awesome. Loathe to get more legos because he gets them from a lot of other people and he could build himself a life size cabin more or less from all the legos he has. We just bought him an knife for whittling wood as a end of school and scout year present.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Board games? Apples to Apples Jr., Scribblish, Magic Labyrinth, the Amazing Labyrinth, Payday, Clue, Milles Bournes. We love playing all of those here as well as Forbidden Island, a great cooperative game that you can all have fun playing together.

Does he have a ds? That is the right age to really love Pokemon! Best present we bought ds1 when he turned 8!

Ds is always happy with a nerf or cool water gun but I know not everyone is down with those.

Crayola glow pad is cool (not sure of real name).

Beth

[KrisM]

DS is 7, but really likes his digital recorder (http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ICD-BX800-Memory-Digital-Recorder/dp/B00387E5AS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308791124&sr=8-1). With friends, they make plays and record parts of it as another 'person'. He records books he enjoys, etc. It's basically your modern day tape recorder.

We also moved him up from Snap Circuits, to electric sets with wires. Still by Elenco and still with plenty of directions: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AHR04.

He's also absolutely loving the Klutz potholder kit :). He is a non-arty non-crafty kid and has made 6 potholders in a week!

Don't know if any of that was at all useful!

[crl]

A couple of these art kits?

http://www.dickblick.com/products/artterro-creative-art-kits/

Would he like more grown up art supplies? Maybe some pastels, some charcoals and some quality paper?

Catherine

[kijip]

The Elenco set you linked is awesome. I am thinking about getting one for him for Christmas.

We are planning to do some short backpacking (not car camping) trips with him later this summer so I was thinking about getting him a backpack for that because he could use it over the summer. We would not have him carrying much more than his sleeping bag, some food and his fishing pole and a few books, we would get the heavier stuff ourselves. I see that there are some kids internal frame packs sized for kids 6-10 and 10-16. Provided we adjust it small and don't overload it , I am wondering if we might be able to get away with the larger one so it lasts longer. OTH we have a little boy we could pass the smaller one down to in a few years.

[kijip]

A couple of these art kits?

http://www.dickblick.com/products/artterro-creative-art-kits/

Would he like more grown up art supplies? Maybe some pastels, some charcoals and some quality paper?

Catherine

He would love these!

Maybe the backpack as a practical gift (that we would have bought him anyway, but he will be SO excited, he is thrilled to be planning some backpacking trips with us!) with 1 of these as a fun add on.

[zoestargrove]

Katie, I bought a lightbox at dickblick for my son. http://www.dickblick.com/products/artograph-lightracer-light-box/ and some other art supplies.
His bday is tomorrow. I'll let you know if he likes it.

digital recorder is a fun idea! I also like the backpack idea.

Off to check out some of the games that Beth recommended. thanks.


edited to say that the lightbox was a big hit with him. He's used it all day to trace egyptian images from some of his books.