Gift ideas for curious kids: logic, puzzles and jigsaws
Some children take everything apart, ask a thousand questions and love being right. For them, here are gift ideas that get them thinking, sorted by interest rather than price. Our own products are in here, in their place, among others: you will find most of these ideas in any bookshop or toy shop.
For the child who loves puzzles
A puzzle book is still the simplest and longest-lasting gift: it slips into a bag, comes back out months later and can be shared. Choose it by the age on the cover and leaf through it: you want real logic puzzles, not just riddles based on wordplay. Between 7 and 10, gamebooks where you choose your path from page to page are also very popular. A small notebook just for puzzles, where the child writes down the ones they have solved and the ones they invent, goes well with the book.
To find out what grabs your child before you buy, try our 10 little logic puzzles together.
For the one who never gives up on a brain-teaser
Wooden or metal brain-teasers, coloured-face cubes and 3D puzzles keep hands and minds busy, with no batteries and no screen. A tip: choose a level slightly below what you have in mind. A brain-teaser that is too hard ends up at the back of a drawer; one that gets solved makes them want the next.
For playing together
Deduction board games, where you rule out suspects or cards until you find the answer, and cooperative games, where everyone wins or loses together, train logic without seeming to. Cooperative games are precious for brothers and sisters of different ages: the older one helps the younger one instead of flattening them. Check how long a game lasts, as shown on the box: twenty minutes fits in before dinner, an hour needs a proper evening.
In the same spirit, a printable escape game is an experience gift: an evening to prepare and play together. Two of our kits, The Fireflies' Forest (ages 10 and up, 8 and up with an adult) and Professor Volt's Lab (ages 12 and up), cost €12 each. They are files, not boxes: to give one, print the cover, slip it into an envelope with a date for the game, and keep the rest for the big day.
For the child who takes everything apart
Beginner electronics kits, with batteries, small bulbs and switches, show for real what our circuits show on screen: a lamp that only lights when two switches are closed is an AND gate. Follow the age on the box, and have an adult around for the first builds. Screen-free coding games, where you guide a robot or a counter with arrow cards, are another good way into code, from 5 or 6 for some of them.
Our longer logic game, Bit's Journey, has 150 circuits in 12 chapters, free at 3 new circuits a day, all in English, stories and hints included. The Pass (€5) unlocks everything at once, with no subscription: a small gift for a child of 10 or older who already enjoyed the free circuits. For a first taste, start with the 10 free circuits on our home page and our Learn pages.
For jigsaw lovers
A 500- or 1,000-piece jigsaw is a holiday family project, on a corner of the table nobody is allowed to clear. Choose a picture full of colour and detail: a big plain sky is a trap. For younger children, a few hundred pieces is plenty.
Our online jigsaw gallery is free, with no sign-up: a good way to find out whether a child enjoys jigsaws before you buy a big box. The HD wallpaper collection (€4.90), which gives you the pictures as wallpapers, will appeal more to a teenager who likes personalising their phone than to an 8-year-old: to be honest, it is not a present to unwrap.
What really matters
The best gift for a curious child is often time with them: a puzzle shared over dinner, a brain-teaser cracked together. None of these things makes anyone “cleverer”; they simply offer good chances to work things out together.