Keeping children occupied without sending them off on their own doesn’t need to be hard work. Our suggestions for kids of 7+ can fit in the living room and be as entertaining for adults as for kids. They also present plenty of opportunities to help children get started on an activity or to play with them.
Wii
A Wii bundled with one or two of the new MotionPlus controllers, or simply the new MotionPlus controllers, is an easy choice in the 7+ category. Unlike the rest of the console market, Nintendo targeted the already valuable ‘casual gamers’ market. Games developers seemed unsure about this at first but good quality titles sold well and the Wii now offers the best choice of software for kids under 10.
The addition of a MotionPlus isn’t an essential but it’s likely to become so over the next year as new titles take advantage of the upgrade. Wii Sports Resort and Tiger Woods 10 are the pick of the MotionPlus titles available for now. Unlike the motion devices planned by Microsoft and Sony, the Wii’s controllers are already highly intuitive, or ‘natural’, to use and the new controller makes gameplay all the more natural. Other good reasons for opting for a Wii at the 7+ stage or before include the cost of second hand titles, the cost of the console and the ‘slasher’/ ‘shooter’ focus of PS3 and XBox games.
At 10+ a Wii player is likely to go on to the mild comic violence and heroic plots of titles like Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Fighting Fantasy Chronicles: Crystal Bearers, Okami and next year’s Zelda 2. Taken together these titles should make the Wii a credible RPG platform, which is also cheap to fund and accessible to many types of player.
Snap Circuits
Our second suggestion is only for kids of 8+ and sounds an unlikely winner if you think of it as an ‘electronics kit’. Snap Circuits SC-300 does involve putting together electronic devices such as radios, burglar alarms and intruder alarms using electronic components. But it does not involve a lot of wiring, snipping, soldering or anything like that. The electronics are sealed in self-contained ‘snap circuits’, which simply clip into place. This lets anyone quickly bolt together any of the many gadgets without mess or complications. The official Snap Circuits brand has many sets for different age groups. We had some trouble finding Snap Circuits on Amazon UK but ‘John Adam’s Hot Wires’ offered a very similar if not better starter set.
Nerf Dart Guns
Nerf Dart Tag Hyperfire Deluxe 2 Player Blaster Set
Our final Christmas idea for kids of 7+ is maybe not for homes where everyone spends the holidays sitting round sipping chamomile tea. Hasbro’s Nerf Dart guns are designed not to hurt or damage either kids or homes. However, they are a source of overexcitement and occasional squabbling between adults and kids. Usually because the adults feel it’s their turn to have a go. The range includes several types of dart guns, electronic tag sets for running challenge games and extra ammo. Watch out for battery requirements and check out online sources, as we’ve seen a lot of different prices for different guns. We’ve linked to two of the cheaper sets but you could easily spend a bit more and equip a group of five or six kids for less than the cost of taking them to Laserquest.
NERF N-STRIKE NITE FINDER EX-3 2PK
We can see why Amazon US is ‘shouting’ about this offer. Two for the price of one at the time of viewing and designed to let you play in the dark. The ‘laser accuracy’ claims aren’t quite true and standard darts seem to work better than the glowing ones. Apart from that, quality entertainment!
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