Reddit mentions: The best kids electronic toys

I love everything people gift because it's stuff from my list! :D Mostly, I'm just surprised then all lovey-dovey and grateful when I see that someone sent me something. I wish I could hug people IRL for their gifts. :)

The claw game /u/LaLocaChristina sent after a contest is easily the most well-worn item I've received. My kids love that thing - someone uses it pretty much every day!

The robot kits have the same motors as from your first OP link.

Of course it depends if you want two motors or four (also 4wd kit). Four won't make it faster, but you get more torque.

If you apply around 6v, e.g. 4 batteries, the motors will go at high speed. If you remove one battery (~4.5v), (brige the gap with a crocodile clamp cable or tinfoil), it'll go slower.

If you really need very precise speed reduction, you could add a potentiometer (even make a voltage divider). But the small potentiometers can not handle high currents.

Yes, if you have the Arduino, the H-Bridge (single or dual?), it will be a pretty good solution as you can control the speed easier.

With a transistor/mosfet/H-Bridge, you can just use analogwrite. You can ad a potentiometer (a small one will do in this case) to set the speed without having to use serial; https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/AnalogWrite - or you just hard-code it (e.g. analogWrite(pin, <0 to 255>); - But as the battery voltage drops after a while, the speed will change.

To get the most reliable speed, a rotary encoder, or even stepper motors, can be a nice (but more complex solution).

This horrible little piano.

I knew it was a little over the head of my 6 month old, but it was $8 at a 2nd hand store. I couldn't pass that up, especially since I know how much he loves to pound on buttons.

But, all he does is press the buttons with the kids on them on top. "Quincy...QuQuiQuinQui...Quincy can play the trumpet!" Of course, since those are the biggest and most colorful buttons on the toy, my son aims right for them. They are also the most annoying buttons.

After that one, is this little music player. I feel like vomiting just thinking of it. I had to listen to hours of it on end over the weekend on a road trip to keep my teething 6 month old from melting down.

On the up-side, it seems to be a "turn of crying" button. On the down-side, I am so sick of hearing the same little clips of admittedly awesome songs over and over. I hope we don't need that toy again for a good long time.

Is it the active pad as seen here? I used to have one just like it, but mine might’ve been a leap pad which looks a little more like your sketch. I remember mine had cartridges with it. These are what came up when I searched “interactive book toy with cartridges”, there’s probably more but that’s what came up , I just did a quick search as I remember this thing too! I can do some more searching if you’d like, this was just a quick search. Good luck finding what you want!

Honestly we go out and walk around if a child can't sit still. It's not developmentally appropriate for most toddlers to sit completely still for an hour. When I only had one we were in a building with stairs from the door up to the foyer and chapel, so we sat in the foyer, and one of us stood by the door, and we let our toddler crawl and walk between the two of us. They can learn to sit easier and faster when they're older. I think trying to fight a screaming fit to force compliance and ruining everyone's Sunday isn't worth it.


You can also consider having special Sunday Toys that they love but only get for Sacrament Meeting.Boogie Boards are a great option (also great for car rides!) and so are sticker books, if you make sure they only put the stickers in the book.


Or you can 'cheat' and give them headphones and a tablet. I would say just silence the tablet, but there's always the danger they turn the music on in the middle of the chapel and really embarrass you! lol. You can color on a tablet and not worry about what you're coloring getting on the pew or losing them etc.


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Minecraft, you will have to help him get started.

Jumpstart online, great free or paid

my son loved this:
http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Fun-2-Learn-Computer-Cool-School/dp/B0015KVW56/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342796646&sr=8-1&keywords=cool+school
variety of software options to go with it.

So today I managed to find a Speak & Spell, Boxed, used but in great shape, at a sale today. Ebay listings have it at around 25-30, but amazon has it 60+. None of the amazon listings state they have the box. HOWEVER, according to camelcamelcamel, the item doesn't appear to have moved/sold.

Should I just throw it on amazon at the higher end of the price ranges and see what happens? The rank seems decent compared to the graphs I've seen, but still trying to fully understand it. Here's the listing and CCC's graph:

http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Spell-Instruments-Classic-Electronic/dp/B003GDEE9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462128956&sr=8-1&keywords=speak+%26+spell

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Speak-Spell-Instruments-Classic-Electronic/product/B003GDEE9G

Not even sure if the ranks and graph indicate I did decently (I got it for dirt cheap so anything is profit really, but asking for clarity's sake).

this is a great one

https://www.amazon.com/VTech-Tote-Go-Laptop-Orange/dp/B00K89KU4Y?th=1&psc=1

it’s lightweight, has the longest battery life one could ask for, comes with a mouse, colourful, and will help you pronounce your letters.

it’s also super cheap and comes in 3 colours !!!

would recommend !!

We got this drum for my one nephew, I just now noticed that it's got great reviews on Amazon.

And Playskool has great stuff for babies.

I plan on getting them the Bilibo next year, when they're a bit older.

Get me out of here!

right now my favorite way to relax is to fold laundry. haha.

gift card? if not I'd love this for my daughter.

The Phonics Word Master is great. Its not to flashy and not to annoying. My son got it and learned his ABCs and how to spell up to 5 letter words. It was a great machine, till the baby puked on it inevitably breaking it.

This seems like a plug and play console, and kind of has the colors you described. Definitely cheap and Chinese-made. Check it out

why don't you buy her a little play computer? they're in toys' rus. then you give the toy computer to her and she can play with that.
like this one
http://www.amazon.com/VTech-Tote-Go-Laptop-Orange/dp/B00K89KU4Y?ie=UTF8&keywords=toy%20computer&qid=1464666103&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

This project is actually pretty realistic for anyone with a bit of basic robotics/animatronics experience. A wearable, wagging tail is pretty easy to design, it really only needs one servo to look convincing. Likewise, we've had consumer grade EEG devices for over a decade now. You can cannibalize one from any of those crappy Jedi mind control toys, and Micheal Reeves was even able to drive a car with it. It's incredibly inaccurate and can't be used to measure moods or anything, but more than adequate for making a fake tail wave around.

And the same Amazon app runs fine on every other legitimate platform. The Sony hardware+bloatware is an unforgivable abomination. It's like complaining the Amazon app doesn't work well on a SpeakNSpell.

This should do nicely. It would only be better if it could turn itself on at 3 AM and start screaming:

https://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-80-10004E-Learning-Drum/dp/B00005BHK9

Boogie Board. Better resolution than the Magna Doodle boards.

https://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-eWriter-Gray-J31020001/dp/B010HWCEFY

There is also a kids' version of the Boogie Board:

www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01FZMOUQM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491697593&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=boogie

Good for you for trying to steer your kids away from hypocrisy. The world can use less douchebags. And while I agree with some of the others that adults are entitled to a different standard than their children, I maintain that standard is an equally precarious line of responsibility for setting the right example. How easily we forget.

Source: Former avid gamer, now parent, who plays now only after kid's asleep, but argues with spouse who confiscated a gifted iXL but eats dinner in front of an iPad.

I can imagine there's a lot of cheap one's out there. Looks like this is the one you have?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003GDEE9G/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1421521883&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40

No Problem.

They're even more expensive when compared to this bad boy

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-W8777-Fun-2-Learn-Smart-Tablet/dp/B005XVCTAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416019296&sr=8-1&keywords=fisher+price+tablet&pebp=1416019313794

start her off with this one.

The VTech V.Smile Cyber Pocket seems to have the most similar form factor to the ds/3ds.

Does she have a leap pad? They have a learning game that's Bubble Guppies related.

I got u homie
https://www.amazon.com/VTech-80-139500-Lil-SmartTop/dp/B00CMNX654/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=laptop+toy&qid=1564508247&s=gateway&sprefix=laptop+toy&sr=8-5

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/toys/detail-page/B0015KVW56-1-lg.jpg
This is what you're looking for?

I don't have friends, I only have subordinates and mortal enemies.

As for the Speak n' Spell, http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Spell-Instruments-Classic-Electronic/dp/B003GDEE9G