
Ask HN: Know of any non-digital toys/games that teach, for 6-10 year olds? - vijayr
Teach anything - math, literature, problem solving etc. As long as it isn&#x27;t digital. Something like card games, board games, simple DIY toys etc?
======
ramphastidae
I think the best gift for kids is still Legos. I spent hours building
miniature cities, vehicles, homes, train systems, etc. as a kid. My children
love them too. It's a great way to develop imagination and motor skills. I
would personally avoid the branded sets, although that may just be my bias.

~~~
Waterluvian
Lego taught me many things including how and why to plan ahead. Every child
who grew up with Lego has experienced an off by one brick error. :)

~~~
therein
Growing up, I wished I could design my lego projects ahead of time with an
interface as simple as what Google SketchUp has ended up coming up with. I
wanted to be able to model it and order the required parts with a single
click. I think they might have something like that now but they didn't have it
back then.

~~~
mintplant
Yep, LDraw/LeoCAD.

[http://www.leocad.org/](http://www.leocad.org/)

[http://www.ldraw.org/](http://www.ldraw.org/)

~~~
icebraining
There's also an official software (not necessarily better, of course):
[http://ldd.lego.com/](http://ldd.lego.com/)

------
Inityx
I'm a big fan of K'NEX [http://www.knex.com/knex-
education](http://www.knex.com/knex-education)

~~~
aphextron
+1 for K'NEX. Legos always seemed so limited to me as a kid. K'NEX is much
more oriented towards actually _building_ things rather than just making neat
things to look at.

~~~
mdonahoe
Both are fun. Knex are better for things that move, Legos are better for
pretending.

I transitioned from Lego to Knex once I got the Big Ball Factory at 11

------
__s
I commend you for wanting to teach children alternatives to digital. While
binary & hexadecimal are popular, especially if you want to get them into the
nuts & bolts of computers, I'd be interested to hear any reflections on
duodecimal. I'm not too big a fan of this counting method:
[https://mihaslekovec.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/duodecimal-...](https://mihaslekovec.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/duodecimal-
hand.png) as it comes off as a bit too digitcentric for my tastes

Balanced ternary could be a real fun starting point-- getting negative numbers
involved asap surely has some great benefits. I think if balanced ternary was
exposed to children more often at an early age we'd have a lot of these new
fangled type level numbers being balanced ternary. I was playing around with
implementing such in Rust:
[https://github.com/serprex/lambdaski/blob/master/src/typenum...](https://github.com/serprex/lambdaski/blob/master/src/typenum3.rs)

Binary comes off as particularly weak when type systems are still resolving
lambda terms / prolog logic as associative maps & trees.
[http://repository.readscheme.org/ftp/papers/topps/D-456.pdf](http://repository.readscheme.org/ftp/papers/topps/D-456.pdf)
benchmarks 5 as being an ideal radix perfwise, but that does seem
implementation dependent

My father wrote a song reflecting on our digital world:
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw-
au4sqKD2gWVJqOGFzSEVoakx...](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw-
au4sqKD2gWVJqOGFzSEVoakxPcGpoRTFQYVBqWWw2SlNv/view) Stay strong & good luck

~~~
tarboreus
I'm amused with how much you've amused yourself here.

------
Z1515M8147
It's an obvious one, but I think there's something to be said for a simple
three-in-one chess, draughts and backgammon set. The upfront cost is small but
the long term benefits are vast.

------
heymijo
Math Games

1) Prime Climb [https://www.amazon.com/Math-for-Love-Prime-
Climb/dp/B00PG959...](https://www.amazon.com/Math-for-Love-Prime-
Climb/dp/B00PG9590G/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502047067&sr=8-2&keywords=tiny+polka+dot+math+game)

2) Tiny Polka Dots [https://www.amazon.com/Math-For-Love-Tiny-
Polka/dp/B01N1UUHP...](https://www.amazon.com/Math-For-Love-Tiny-
Polka/dp/B01N1UUHP4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502047067&sr=8-1&keywords=tiny+polka+dot+math+game)

\- Tiny Polka Dots might seem too basic, but counting is this complex topic
that we forget because, well, we know how to count. Lots of downstream
advantages of having the kind of secure understanding a kid can get from
understanding counting inside and out. Tiny Polka Dots can help.

~~~
alimw
More Maths Games

We have Qwirkle and City of Zombies in the classroom. I hate them :) mainly
because I am rubbish at them.

------
Yetanfou
Give them a bunch of tools - hammer, saw, screwdriver, ruler, pencil, hand-
powered drill, pair of pliers - and some scrap material (left-over planks,
some thin sheet material, some small nails and screws, etc) to work on. Add a
bottle of wood glue and some paint, preferably left-overs from other paint
jobs to make them feel more at ease at wasting some and appreciate the fact
that things don't have to be brand-spanking new to be useful. Help them along
a bit but don't get in the way. They might make swords, bows, arrows, cars,
horse stables, houses, whatever fits their fancy. The results might not be
perfect but they're the work of their own hands and minds.

Yes, a 6yo can learn to use a saw, just make sure it is sized accordingly and
has small teeth - both because they are easier to use as well as less likely
to cause injury.

~~~
Xoros
Even younger :)

We had some aerated concrete brick left after rebuilding our bathroom and my
son (4yo at the time) "crafted" them with tools like saw or nails and screws.
He really enjoyed that.

It stressed a lot his grandfather, to see his grandson with sharp tools, but
the boy was very proud of his work.

------
ajarmst
A kickstarted I supported is Turing Tumble, a simple Turing-complete
mechanical computer. [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/871405126/turing-
tumble...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/871405126/turing-tumble-
gaming-on-a-mechanical-computer)

------
jlg23
Math: Skat[1] is an awesome card game with rules that fit on the back of a
single card (basic version) and that trains addition and multiplication. AFAIK
it is/was accepted as a teaching tool in Thuringia's schools. (usually for 3
players, a 2 player variation is described in the WP-article).

Literature: A membership in the local library was enough for me.

Problem Solving: Chess and related board games; any kind of puzzles - I loved
metal puzzles where I had to separate/join pieces (e.g. those found here[2] -
not endorsing the shop, just the first hit on DDG).

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skat_(card_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skat_\(card_game\))

[2] [http://www.zoompuzzles.com/Metal-
Puzzles_c_15-2.html](http://www.zoompuzzles.com/Metal-Puzzles_c_15-2.html)

------
avip

      Tanagram
      Frisbee
      Bike
      Prism
      Magnifying glass

~~~
Normal_gaussian
Reading this list as one item is incredibly confusing.

Tangrams are amazing, I would recommend presenting the silhouettes in varying
sizes and at the other end of a room - makes it more fiendish.

------
michielk
A musical instrument. I would suggest not teaching them the traditional way,
but in a more natural way. Check out the approach of Victor Wooten [0]. If you
want things a little more structured, try Improvise for Real [1]. Both will
teach creativity, self expression and more. Plus its fun!

[0] [https://youtu.be/2zvjW9arAZ0](https://youtu.be/2zvjW9arAZ0) [1]
www.improviseforreal.com

------
lostmsu
I had this:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=metal+constructor&tbm=isch&t...](https://www.google.com/search?q=metal+constructor&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBqI6PpcPVAhWIA8AKHY2pBhYQ7AkIVQ&biw=1216&bih=1316#imgrc=JMxJ4S2oEIxRCM):

~~~
asadjb
So did I! I'm not quite sure because it was a long time ago, but it was
probably a Meccano set: [http://www.meccano.com/](http://www.meccano.com/)

------
Jtsummers
Board games like scrabble and boggle are great for spelling and vocabulary
development. Try to get them to say the definitions for the words (at least a
brief one) rather than accept that they know them. Play with a dictionary at
hand. Also ask them the meaning of the words you play so it seems that getting
at the definitions isn't meant to just criticize/challenge their plays (which
it isn't, the purpose is to develop their understanding).

Card games like Rook, Spades, Cribbage (mentioned elsewhere), Casino are great
for math and pattern matching, planning ahead. These just require a standard
deck of playing cards, maybe two (habit from playing Bridge, have one deck in
play and one shuffled and ready for the next hand).

24 Game was a good one for arithmetic (4 numbers, put any of +, -, *, /
between them and try to get the result to be 24).

Mastermind is another good strategy, logic type game. It can also be played
with pencil and paper which makes it a very fun one to teach kids so they can
play it anywhere.

Dots and Boxes is a nice abstract strategy game to play on paper, which can
serve as a good gateway to other abstract strategy games.

Guess Who was a good game of logical deduction. Shades of 20 Questions where
you ask for features of the person and mark off people who don't qualify.
Clue, of course, is strictly a game of logical deduction if you can get past
the movement mechanics and all (always frustrated me to get low dice rolls and
not have a chance to win even when I knew or was very close to the answer).
From Clue, books of logic puzzles that practice deductive reasoning from a set
of facts (along the lines of Einstein's puzzle).

Others mentioned RPGs, these can be good with kids. Particularly if you focus
the emphasis on teamwork (discourage showboating and hogging the limelight),
storytelling (goes back to vocabulary, but also thinking about complex
situations), planning and strategy. You can incorporate lots of puzzles into
the game that emphasize wordplay (riddles and such) or math (numeric puzzles)
or logic (colors, connecting their actions with specific effects) or just
general problem solving.

------
tmaly
there was a book getting started in electronics that use to be sold at radio
shack. They had all sorts of basic projects from a battery using a potato to a
transistor radio to an amplifier. I think it is still available online. I use
to love making those projects when I was younger.

~~~
jeffwass
this one, which I assume you are referring to, is a classic. The one I had
from the 80's had a green cover.
[http://www.forrestmims.com](http://www.forrestmims.com)

~~~
tmaly
I still have the green cover one, I am planning on letting my child have at it
when she is old enough. Right now we are just doing the snap electronics.

------
gglitch
Pencil & paper role playing games. If you view them as collaborative,
improvised, slightly-structured, in-person storytelling, there's nothing like
them for developing skills related to imagination, narration, language arts,
cooperation, politics (seriously!), empathy, problem solving, and
communication. They don't require exotic or expensive technology, can be
played almost anywhere, help build meaningful social relationships, can be
played by almost anyone, can be a lifelong hobby, and encourage learning about
an enormous range of real world histories, ideas, technologies, literatures,
skills, etc.

------
ajarmst
Both my kids enjoyed Mastermind
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_(board_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_\(board_game\)))
from a young age. Deductive logic game.

------
andy_adams
I don't know if you'd count this as "not digital" (it's mostly analog) but my
kids have a blast with
[http://www.snapcircuits.net/](http://www.snapcircuits.net/)

------
j_s
"Robot Turtles. This game teaches kids 4+ the ins and outs of programming in a
fun, tactile game."

[https://amzn.com/B00HN2BXUY](https://amzn.com/B00HN2BXUY) $21.89

(originally a Kickstarter)

------
usegolang
Most board games can be great educational tools. Eg Guess Who teaches logical
thinking skills since kids have to think of a strategy to use and a question
that will support that strategy. Clue is similar but possibly a higher age
range.

Same goes for puzzle games - Sudoku, or even those little golf tee + peg board
games you see at like cracker barrel. Simple but educational and they exercise
the brain.

As others have said, Legos and similar toys teach spatial reasoning and
similar skills as well.

If you are looking for toys that teach a specific skill (eg algebra) that is
likely trickier to find.

------
jamesdmiller
Meta-Forms teaches problem solving. You have to guess the arrangement of
objects in a 3 by 3 grid based on clues such as two circles are next to each
other, and no red objects are next to each other.
[https://smile.amazon.com/FoxMind-5512646-Metaforms-
Games/dp/...](https://smile.amazon.com/FoxMind-5512646-Metaforms-
Games/dp/B0015MC2TO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502058102&sr=8-1&keywords=metaforms)

------
hluska
When I was 6 or 7, my Grandma taught me how to play cribbage. At first, it was
a little tough, so my Grandma helped me decide which cards to put into my crib
and with counting out my hand. But as my ability to add and spot patterns
increased, I stopped needing her help so much.

Cribbage is a nice blend of strategy, applied math and pattern matching. I
plan to teach my 17 month old daughter cribbage as soon as I can.

------
marttt
For DIY toys, check out Arvind Gupta's toys from trash:
[http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/toys.html](http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/toys.html)

A compelling way to introduce children to laws of nature. You can see him
sharing his philosophy here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOllmFfELT8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOllmFfELT8)

------
a-saleh
I would really recommend MERCUR, I am just not sure where would you be able to
get it. Where I come from (i.e. Czech Republic), it is this legendary
engineering toy kit, and you could build almost anything with it :)

As kids we loved it, and then, even in college we still used it in our
robotics projects :)

[http://eshop.merkurtoys.cz/](http://eshop.merkurtoys.cz/)

------
murkle
For problem solving / strategy (and fun of course!) Marble run, Geomag,
Monopoly, Canasta (2 or 4 player)

Also the games by thinkfun.com (Rush Hour etc) are very good

------
bikamonki
Books?

~~~
thex10
I was also going to say books. You could get books that aren't novels. For
example, a book on how to do magic tricks, or a book about how the world works
(e.g. earth science), or a book about different type of bridges, etc etc.

~~~
zulln
Not to discard novels either though. If they can encourage book reading they
also fill a purpose!

------
saluki
magnatiles (amazon have seen at target) one of our kids favorites, great for 6
year old but they will play with them for years.
[https://www.amazon.com/Magna-Tiles-Clear-
Colors-100-Piece/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Magna-Tiles-Clear-
Colors-100-Piece/dp/B000CBSNRY/)

Kapla Blocks (building) [https://www.amazon.com/CitiBlocs-200-Piece-Natural-
Colored-B...](https://www.amazon.com/CitiBlocs-200-Piece-Natural-Colored-
Building-Blocks/dp/B003BWVJ72)

Dominos for Toppling (lots of tutorials online to do amazing runs)
[https://bulkdominoes.com/collections/all](https://bulkdominoes.com/collections/all)

Wooden Blocks [https://www.amazon.com/ECR4Kids-Hardwood-Building-
Storage-48...](https://www.amazon.com/ECR4Kids-Hardwood-Building-
Storage-48-Piece/dp/B00777UEL4/)

If you don't have a hard smooth floor pick up a sheet of plexiglass for
dominos and kapala blocks.

Legos, get a variety of sets, encourage mixing and building your own
creations.

Board Games

\---------------------

Catan Junior Settlers of Catan

Ticket to Ride

Blockus

Scrabble (deluxe with plastic grid)

Chess

Stratego (Original General is 1)

Uno Card Game.

\----------------------------

Snap Circuits (Electricity Projects)

\----------------------------

Do science night where parents use a white board to teach how things work, let
them ask questions/explain things they know.

\----------------------------

Lego Mindstorms is good too, but they would need to be on a screen some for
this.

------
lprubin
My parents used Brain Quest cards with me and I loved them. Kept me happy on
road trips and at restaurants.

------
larrydag
Boardgames are a great way to teach. There are so many to choose from now.
Also there is nothing better than spending time with your kids.
[https://boardgamegeek.com/](https://boardgamegeek.com/)

~~~
drcode
Some people may not realize that boardgamegeek has ridiculously granular
search capabilities- For instance, here are all recommended board games with a
minimum recommended age of 6 sorted by rating:
[https://boardgamegeek.com/search/boardgame?sort=rank&advsear...](https://boardgamegeek.com/search/boardgame?sort=rank&advsearch=1&q=&include%5Bdesignerid%5D=&include%5Bpublisherid%5D=&geekitemname=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Byearpublished%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bminage%5D%5Bmax%5D=6&range%5Bnumvoters%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bnumweights%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bminplayers%5D%5Bmax%5D=&range%5Bmaxplayers%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bleastplaytime%5D%5Bmin%5D=&range%5Bplaytime%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgrating%5D%5Bmax%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmin%5D=&floatrange%5Bavgweight%5D%5Bmax%5D=&colfiltertype=&searchuser=&playerrangetype=normal&B1=Submit)

------
hackpert
There is this brilliant card game Set
([https://www.setgame.com/set](https://www.setgame.com/set)), which is a load
of fun and also teaches visual reasoning skills.

~~~
mathgeek
The one thing I've never personally enjoyed about Set is that it's a "how fast
can you do it" game that promotes quick thinking over other skills. My wife
loves it, though, and I do agree it's a great game to teach patterns and set
matching.

~~~
hood_syntax
I totally understand where you're coming from with it emphasizing quick
thinking. Unfortunately, that's part of the game and it can't be taken away.
Even so, I love that game, I credit it with helping to stoke my interest in
patterns and logic at an early age (love you mom!). Not necessarily related
but Tangrams is another (math related imo) activity, a tiling puzzle that
exercises spatial thinking.

------
LarryMade2
Model Rockets (designing, working out altitude, etc.)

Ship in a bottle

Woodworking projects (especially involving measuring, proportion, etc.)

Journaling

I Hate Mathematics Book by Marilyn Burns

Stolen Sharpie Revolution by Alex Wrekk (and other books on creating Zines)

Problem solving/lateral thinking books.

~~~
LarryMade2
Also books about the way things work - maybe also books on inventions.

I would have suggested Make Magazine but its a lot of digital now.
Instructables book is good though.

Old (70s and earlier) popular mechanics popular sciene and science and
mechanics magazines. Older Scientific American magazines too

------
DanBC
Math rods / Cuisenaire rods: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viga-Wooden-Maths-Rods-
Cuisenaire/d...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Viga-Wooden-Maths-Rods-
Cuisenaire/dp/B014J0RJVE/)

A Pound of dice: [https://www.amazon.com/Wiz-Dice-Pack-Random-
Polyhedral/dp/B0...](https://www.amazon.com/Wiz-Dice-Pack-Random-
Polyhedral/dp/B01KN7REWQ/) (I'd be keen to know if there's dice at a similar
price in the UK)

You can then play something like Button Men (which could easily be rethemed to
"Pokemon battle")
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_Men](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_Men)

------
noamhacker
Scrabble is great for vocabulary, although as you get better you'll learn
strategic words and probably disregard their meaning (for example, I
frequently use qi, qat, suq, qua but I can't define them)

~~~
pcmaffey
House rules: if you don't know what a word means you can't use it.

------
Rabidgremlin
RPG? Something like Herokids
[http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/106605](http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/106605)

------
sgs1370
Not sure if it will fit your age range but this company has a lot of good
teaching toys/things:

[http://www.melissaanddoug.com/](http://www.melissaanddoug.com/)

~~~
cdolan
I listened to a podcast from these founders. I don't have kids to buy their
products but I would buy from them based on the 1 hour show I listened to

------
ams6110
Have them try sports. Don't force them, but try a few and see if any stick.
It's a huge social advantage for the rest of their lives both as something to
do and something to talk about.

------
ams6110
Lego, erector set, chess, backgammon, othello/reversi, card games are all
things I remeber from my pre-technology childhood.

Reading of course.

------
hprotagonist
bicycles teach you a great deal.

------
MachineMan
Lego, Magic the Gathering, European board games, and playing a musical
instrument

------
juancn
chemistry set, microscope, bicycles, roller skates, balls, play doh, legos,
books, magnifying glass, compass, etc.

Pretty much anything you throw at them will teach them something.

The question is, what do you want them to learn?

------
josephorjoe
Poker for probability and a little bit of psychology.

------
skocznymroczny
Standard cards deck. Solitaire, card tricks.

------
mgallezot
Kapla (wood blocks)

------
Ace17
Rubik's cubes?

------
Kenji
MECCANO ( [http://www.meccano.com/](http://www.meccano.com/) )

6 might be a bit on the younger side for it, but 10 definitely not. You learn
to use a screwdriver and screws and basic mechanics. You can go all the way to
elaborate designs.

It's a timeless toy, my father already played with it (looked like this back
then:
[http://www.dalefield.com/nzfmm/slap/RoyalMeccano.JPG](http://www.dalefield.com/nzfmm/slap/RoyalMeccano.JPG)
) and so did I. Heck, even an adult can use these, I once made a distillery
platform with height-adjustable burner with these. Really nice to slap
together sturdy prototypes.

EDIT: Now that I'm looking at modern MECCANO, I feel like they have diverted
too much from the original path. I'd rather have the basic old metal kit in
the second image than a fancy MECCANO car consisting of oddly shaped plastic
pieces.

~~~
Normal_gaussian
My parents got me some MECCANO over a decade ago and were most annoyed that it
didn't have enough 'normal' pieces for me to build other things with it. As
such I built the car and thats that.

------
HammadB
No suggestions unfortunately, but I'm curious to know the motivation behind
trying to find non-digital toys. Is there something we could do to bring the
benefits of non-digital toys into digital ones or are the differences
fundamentally irreconcilable?

~~~
cdolan
Fundamentally irreconcilable. Staring at a screen is only so helpful when
you're under the age of 15

