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Gift Ideas for Eager Young Minds

Gifted Resources

*The families and staff members of the Davidson Institute Young Scholars program have contributed these ideas to consider when buying gifts for a profoundly intelligent young person:

Reading Lists

Davidson Gifted Reading List

1000 Good Books List

ALA Notable Books

CTY Johns Hopkins Reading List

Hoagies Gifted Reading List

Reading List

Science Toys

Spaghetti Book Club

Teachers First Reading List

 

Other Books

Books & DVDs by The Mathemagician, Dr. Arthur Benjamin

Books by The Verbivore, Dr. Richard Lederer

Calvin and Hobbes a book by Bill Watterson (bookshop.org)

Mysteries of the Universe Book Set

The Klutz Book of Animation: How to Make Your Own Stop Motion Movies

7 x 9 = Trouble by Claudia Mills

Annika Riz, Math Whiz by Claudia Mills

Anno’s Math Games by Mitsumasa Anno

Fractions = Trouble by Claudia Mills

George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen Hawking and Lucy Hawking

Go Figure!: A Totally Cool Book About Numbers by Johnny Ball

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka

Numericon: The Hidden Lives of Numbers by Marianne Freiberger and Rachel Thomas

One-Hour Mysteries by Mary Ann Carr

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table (and other books in the Sir Cumference series) by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan

The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas

The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why by Arthur Benjamin

The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures by Malba Tahan

The Murderous Maths series by Kjartan Poskitt

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician’s Journey Through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More by Matt Parker

What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

You Can Count on Monsters by Richard Evan Schwartz

 

Magazine Subscriptions

American Girl

Archaeology

Astronomy

Cobblestone Magazine

Cricket Media

DIG

Faces

Highlights

Horrible Histories

Imagine Magazine

Kid’s Discover Magazine

Muse

National Geographic Kids

Popular Science

Ranger Rick

Science News

Scientific American

Smithsonian Magazine

TIME for Kids

ZooBooks

 

Video Games – For Learning & Fun

Age of Empires

Age of Mythology

Chessmaster

Crazy Machines

Crusader Kings

Descartes’ Cove

Drawn to Life

Everett Kaser Software

Hopsotch

Klutz Lego Crazy Action Contraptions

LightBot

Math Blaster Series

Minecraft

Pettsons Inventions

Reading Blaster Series

Rollercoaster Tycoon

Sid Meier’s Civilization

Spore

 

Games

4D Cityscape

7 ATE 9 – Fast and Fun Number Crunch’n

7 Wonders

10 Days in Europe

Apples to Apples

Bananagrams

Blokus

Brain Quest

Carcassonne

Castle Panic

Chess (Zillions of Games)

Citadels

Clue

ColorKu

Cranium Cadoo

Cyclades

Dixit

Dizios

Dominion

Equate

Five Tribes

Flapdoodle

Fluxx

Forbidden Desert

Forbidden Island

Game of Risk

Get 4 & Score

Gravity Maze

Hare & Tortoise

Hink Pink

High Tail It

Indigo

Instructures

IQ-Steps

L-Sixteen

Labyrinth

Laser Maze

Last Letter

Last Word

LineUp

Lost Cities

Machi Koro

Mad Gab

Mastermind

Math Dice

Mine Shift

Munchkin

On the Dot

Pandemic

Pentago

Pente

Perplexus Epic

Prime Climb

Professor Noggin’s History of the United States Card Game

Q-bitz

Quadrillion

Quarto

Quiddler

Quoridor

Qwirkle

Qwitch

Ricochet Robots

Rummikub

Say What You Meme

Scrabble (Editions in multiple languages to expand vocabulary, including SpanishFrenchPolishRussian and more)

Sequence

Set

Settlers of Catan

Slamwich

Small World

Snap Circuits Jr.

Snow Trails

Solitaire Chess

Speed Bump

Splendor

Spot It

Spy Alley

Takenoko

Telestrations

The Chaos Tower

Ticket to Ride

Tsuro

Ultimate Magic Show with Performance Table

Vanished Planet

Wits & Wagers

Xactika

You’ve been sentenced

Puzzles and Single Player Games

Castle Logix

Chocolate Fix

Deducibles

Hoppers

Lab Mice

Perplexors

Rush Hour

Word Winks

Toys

Top 10 Toys for Gifted Children

Ball of Whacks

Block N Roll

Bloco Toys – Dragons and Reptiles

Capsela Construction Kits

Chaos World of Motion

City Square Off

Contraptions

Doc McStuffins Doll

Folkmanis Puppetts

Fractiles

Kapla 200 Blocks Set

K’NEX

Lammily Doll

Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0

Marble Run

Rokenbok Sets

Rubik’s Cube

Visible V8 Engine

Zometools

Zoob Challenge

Miscellaneous

Power Tech Chemistry 120 – Kitchen Chemistry Kit

Art Supplies – Gift Ideas for Young Artists

Boomwhackers

Butterfly Pavilion

Fashion Design Studio

Indoor/Outdoor Trampoline

Lego Stop Animation Video Camera

Loot Crate subscription

Membership to a local museum of interest (Click here for a list of museums throughout the country)

Mini Dino Excavation Kits – Dig It Up

NSI Room Planetarium and Projector

Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker

Rainbow in My Room

Star Theater Pro Home Planetarium

Storytelling Recordings and Performance by Jim Weiss

SunArt Paper Kit

The World of Origami

Thames and Kosmos Science Kits

– Hoagies’ list of smart toys includes lots of games, puzzles, and construction sets among other toy ideas.
– Hoagies’ list of software favorites includes many computer and console games.
– Hoagies’ list of movies featuring gifted kids (and adults) includes both recent and older titles that may make great gifts.
– This About.com article by Carol Bainbridge provides Gift Giving Guides and Ideas.

The Davidson Institute has compiled this list from various sources and does not have a relationship with any of the companies manufacturing these items. We have not tested these products ourselves. If you would like to offer comments about these products, please reply to the topic with your feedback below. If you have information to add to this list, please email info@davidsongifted.org with “Gift Ideas” in the subject line.

*Some links on this page go to Bookshop.org and are affiliate links. While these books are available from many retailers, all links that go to Bookshop.org help support the Davidson Institute’s mission and continuing work to support profoundly gifted students and their families.

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Please note, the Davidson Institute is a non-profit serving families with highly gifted children. We will not post comments that are considered soliciting, mention illicit topics, or share highly personal information.

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