What do nine year olds play with

It has a foot range, and an obstacle-avoiding module that uses infrared sensors to avoid running into things. Outdoor fun made simple. Look, you know your kid wants a tablet. So get him or her a tablet that takes a beating, and is loaded with kids' programming as well as stellar parental controls. Best of all, kids get access to the digital store but with parental controls, so they can request apps, while parents approve purchases and downloads. This time, the browser comes with built-in controls as well.

It has 12 hours of battery life. The Rubik's cube remains ever-popular, but it's something that you used to only be able to play on your own. Not anymore. It has 60 hours of play time on a single charge. This little robot responds to your kid's voice, and he'll actually talk back. Kids learn to program him to do stuff, like tell them a joke or spin or dance. Plus, he'll record a 10 second message and play it back. And naturally, because farting never loses its humor value, this robot goes into gross mode and you can figure out the rest.

Young creators build a robot that walks on a tightrope, using a motorized gyroscope unit. In doing so, they learn about orientation and angular velocity, and the science behind gyroscopic forces. It sounds complex. But this set makes it accessible. And fun. A plane kids can control from your phone! It connects to your phone, and has a range of up to feet. Plus, the heavy duty carbon fiber body will survive serious turbulence, and the plane has a built-in launch assist and wind stabilizer.

These walkie talkies don't look like toys. Which is a win-win for this age group. The walkies have 22 channels, and up to 23 hours of battery life. There's a built-in flashlight and the sound clarity is fantastic. Kids can use them when they're hiking, biking, or during sleepovers. Roger that. One of the standouts at this year's Toy Fair, this toy is fun. And honestly, sometimes that's good enough. It's an all-surface vehicle that flips, rips, and roam all over your home, using any surface available.

This expandable charging controller fits most phones. It charges them while your kid plays Minecraft or Roblox or Animal Crossing.

Because let's face it: Just about every kid this age would rather be gaming. Swatch watches are about as classic as you can get. But they're also cool. And they teach kids how to tell time, and help them with transitions. They're Swiss-made, shock-resistant, and machine-washable. Once your kid outgrows the scooter, this is a great next step. It's a cruiser-style skateboard, so it's easier to balance on it, and the 62mm x 51mm poured urethane wheels and ABEC 5-speed bearings provide a smooth ride.

The weight limit is pounds, so it should last your kid a few years, if not longer. It's a dodgeball card game. Of course it is. The goal here is to collect matching sets of cards faster than your opponents while also not getting hit by three-foot tall inflatable burritos.

The kit, which won a Good Housekeeping Toy Award, comes with all supplies needed, plus an instruction book to guide your 9-year-old through the crafts. She'll feel accomplished once she can wear her own jewelry!

To think that you can now put your daughter on the same detective series you loved as a child — this starter set contains classic favorites that'll entertain aspiring detectives and longtime fans alike. This Good Housekeeping Toy Award Winner comes with all the art supplies you need in the box, and no batteries are required. Whether she wants to play with the family or challenge herself with solo play, this memory card game exercises her brain for a sharper mind.

The portable size of this set makes it easy for play on-the-go. A pup has committed a crime! Your 9-year-old can use the clues on the challenge cards to figure out which of the canine suspects did it. Playing the game helps sharpen those logic and reasoning skills while playing detective. If she's more of a cat person, there's also Cat Crimes. Looking for an unusual gift that's sure to be a hit? American Girl fans will love this pinball machine, inspired by '70s doll Julie.

The groovy mini pinball machine operates just like a real one : It has a plunger to launch the metal ball, buttons to control the flipper arms and keeps score. This adorable electric guitar comes with three strings, which is perfect for beginners to play and learn. It features perfect intonation and low string action for quality sound.

The guitar's fully assembled and ready to play right out the box. With this Kano kit, your 9-year-old can learn to code programs that translate into super cool, on-screen Hogwarts-inspired spells, like making feathers fly across the screen.

It also comes with an easy-to-follow manual in case she's a coding beginner. If she's into DIY projects, now she can create her own art materials to go with it and make her own color blends. This set comes with enough materials to come with 16 markers and even design her own label. This is a cross between a surprise collectible and a fidget toy. Each Oh! My GIF does a small action — like a green pug pops out of a pickle jar with a sign that says, "Dill with it. Your 9-year-old will use gears, connectors, rods and an instruction guide to construct a fully functional swing ride , a boom ride, a Ferris wheel, and any other structure she'd like.

Switch who? The popular console you might remember from childhood has been brought back with modern features for the new generation. But you can show them how you can still remember all the secrets from Super Mario Bros. It comes pre-loaded with 30 games and a controller that can be used on the Wii or Wii U. In this super-cute edition of Monopoly, players buy, sell and swap other players' dolls, with the goal to collect all the rare dolls. Players will come across a ton of exciting surprises when they unwrap the mystery tokens they pick up on the way.

With this game, each card contains a one-word characteristic like "smelly" or "excellent". The object of the game is to impress the judge with a Green Apple card the adjectives that cleverly complements the judge's Red Apple card the noun. The winner of the game is the one with the most Red Apple cards at the end. When you have just a little bit of time, you can break out this board game — it's designed to be played in 20 minutes or less. Players take on the role of villagers fighting against sci-fi bad guys like space aliens and sentient plants, and they have to work together to free the scientists and save the planet before the clock runs out.

If you're shopping for a 9-year-old this holiday season, or they have an upcoming birthday, but you're not sure where to start shopping for unique and cool gifts, we're here to help. This age can be hard because they are precariously straddling the line between kid and tween. That's why we've rounded up our favorite toys and presents for both girls and boys to help them feel more grown up, without quite the toy world completely behind.

From cute reading lights to outdoor play toys and even choices that are more educational and will get them excited to learn, here are our favorite fun and practical picks for 9-year-olds.

Take a look. Find the best gifts for the babies, toddlers, and kids in your life with our gift guides, including for infants , 1-year-olds , 2-year-olds , 3-year-olds , 4-year-olds , 5-year-olds , 6-year-olds , 7-year-olds , 8-year olds , tweens , and teens.

Our Family newsletter is a little parenting cheat sheet, delivered to your inbox daily. With such social and attention skills in mind, we homed in on the following conversation card games, catapult-building STEM kits, and 25 or so other gift ideas, which we surfaced with the help of professionals like Sachs, along with many other discerning parents and tween whisperers.

But this is a favorite of Strategist tech columnist and dad David Pogue. No loose grains … No mess … Nothing left behind on your hands! Kind of amazing.

Though you may still have to ask them to play it outside until they can be vaccinated. With instructions on how to build a catapult, a crane, a ladder, scales, and swings, this STEM kit is a great entry point to learning about physics. The challenge in this celebrated logic and puzzle game is in using spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills to visualize, build, then run marbles through a maze of towers to a specific target.

Ruka Curate, founder of the Tiny Treasures Nanny Agency , recommends this as a great exercise for the 9-year-old brain. This STEM coding kit includes all the components and guides needed to build a very special motion sensor — when connected to an app on their tablet, it allows kids to perform their own tricks and actions that get translated to the screen. Since the kit is Star Wars —themed, those tricks and actions involve familiar faces like Baby Yoda. The Toy Guy.

He recommends this virtual reality magic set because it teaches magic in a totally immersive way and helps kids master the performative part of magic tricks, something he says is very empowering for them, especially at this age.

The kit comes with a deck of cards, cups and balls, fake thumb and hanky, ropes, a magic wand and hat and more. It also includes lessons for 34 classic step-by-step magic tricks brought to life via VR performances and an instruction book that comes to life. Download the app, place your phone in the included VR goggles and get ready to play. And the fretboard not only lights up to teach you chords but also full songs from the titles in its library.

The classic world globe — that glossy, spinnable centerpiece of geography class and random shut-your-eyes-and-see-where-the-finger-lands games — has been upgraded here. Switch on an LED light to illuminate 88 constellations, stars, and navigational lines.