Mindstorm

My six-year-old loves to build, with anything and just about everywhere. I've been trying to find ways channel those constructive impulses in ways that don't involve any household object he can get his hands on (in addition to his toys). Tinkertoys have proven enduringly popular, and surprisingly versatile, but I've been hoping to find something that will encourage him to create on a slightly smaller scale. So this year I had planned on getting him an enormous 700-piece Lego building set.

After two-and-a-half minutes of research this morning, I made a quick trip to the local Toys R Us to see if the item I wanted was in stock. (I tend to avoid retail stores around this time of year, but this was an excuse to get out of the house on a cold and dreary day.) It wasn't, but I soon found myself distracted by something that was — LEGO Mindstorms NXT, a reasonably simple, easy to build-and-program robotics kit. (I was this close — this close! — to buying the last one on the shelf, but then I noticed that faint first digit on the price label, and realized that the price was actually $200 more.)But the more I've thought about it, the more I'm beginning to see my son build machines, rather than simple structures. He's taken an interest in cause and effect, in making things react and move. He'd enjoy building with Legos, sure, but I'd really like to find something more kinetic.

The Mindstorms kit is far too advanced for him to build successfully by himself (it's recommended for ages 10 and up!), but we could certainly play with it together. I found a book that's designed to be "A Kid-Friendly Guide to Building Animals with the NXT Robotics System," that would offer us several fun projects to build.

(I've found a similar product more suited to his age — Lego's new WeDo Robotics Concept — and while it certainly is more age-appropriate, it seems a bit too simplistic, somehow. And it won't be available 'till the beginning of next year.)

Perhaps this would be too much for many six-year-olds. But I'm thinking of this as a gift that is almost infinitely expandable, in that you can purchase different accessories and modules, and it will become even more fascinating to him as he grows older. (I've found an unopened kit on eBay, which I might be able to pick up at a reasonable discount.)

If you were to ask him the age-old question of what he wants to be when he grows up? He would answer, without a moment's hesitation, "an inventor."