Middle school age children can sometimes be hard to buy for. Those early teen and preteen years can be a challenging change. This age group is too old for “toys,” but they are still willing to play and explore. If you want some ideas for gifts to buy a middle school aged child, keep reading!
Here is a list of educational gift ideas for children aged 11 to 14 years old. This list includes some fun ideas that you might not think of, but these children will love!
1.STEM Kits
Students in middle school LOVE STEM projects. There are so many STEM kits available for children. Usually, STEM kits comes with everything you need to make something fun. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Usually STEM kits are geared towards engineering and kids love building and creating!
One of my favorite STEM kits is this kit from Giggleway. This is the Electric Motor Robotic Science Kit. Included in the kit is three different robots for your child to build. Once the robot is built, children can play with the robot in different ways. All robots are motorized and teach children about electric circuits. Everything you need, including the screwdriver, is included in the kit. This kit is for ages 8 and up, but it definitely a little challenging so it is best for older children.
If you want to learn more about this STEM kit, visit our post on this kit here.
Another great gift idea is a STEM subscription box. This will send a box every month to your child with a fun STEM project. This is like a gift that keeps giving! This STEM Discovery Box is a monthly subscription that is for ages 7 to teen. Each monthly box includes 3 STEM projects.
2. Experiences
Another great gift idea is to give the gift of an experience. Purchase tickets to a museum or a fun activity. When giving the gift, you could present it on a piece of paper that states when you will go! Here are a list of some of my favorite educational experiences for middle school aged children!
Science Museum
If your child loves science, a science museum is a great place to go. Science museums usually offer great learning experiences through play and self discovery. I love COSI located in Columbus, Ohio. It is a fun “museum” that kids can play and discover all kinds of science topics. There are also other great science museums just like COSI all over the United States. Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is another great option.
History Reenactment or Play
If your child loves history, take them to a history museum. Other great activities include historical reenactments or even plays or movies on historical topics. Another great option that is a lot of fun is to just explore historical areas where you live. It gives children a different perceptive on their hometown. A fun idea for teens is to include some of their friends and make a day of sightseeing in their hometown!
Art Center or Make Arts
If your child loves the arts, take them to an art museum to walk around and view art. Art Centers or Museums sometimes have fun activities for kids or even art classes that you can sign your child up for! Another fun activity is finding a place to make art. I have been to pottery making places where kids can pick a piece of pottery and paint it themselves and come back and pick it up when it’s ready!
3. Board Games
Board games are great for children to learn many different skills. Math skills and reading skills are used for just about any board game. A lot of kids don’t play board games, but it is a great skill to have. Also, the strategizing and using logic are other great skills kids need. Any board game is great! Some board games are more geared towards math skills, but even classic board games are great! Teens may also enjoy having a board game night with friends. Make it fun with snacks and maybe even a challenge to see who will win the most games!
I love classic board games like Monopoly, Clue, Battleship, and Scrabble. Below are a few of my favorite board games that are more educational or you might not have heard of.
Dabble is a fun game that is more educational. This game focuses on being able to spell words. It is also fun and competitive.
Prime Club is another fun game that is more educational and focuses on math. This game uses strategy and luck along with multiplication and division practice. This game is for ages 10 and up.
Blokus is a fun strategy game. This game includes moving pieces to touch the same color but only at the corner. It is a fun game to work on strategy to use your pieces and block your opponents that kids will love.
4. Makeblock mBot Robot Kit
This gift idea is a super fun DIY robot kit. This kit includes everything to make your own real robot. Kids learn all about mechanical building and then they can code and program their robot and control it from a smartphone. It really is a great gift that this age group will love. There are four different robots you can choose from. The one below is the basic one, but the robot gets more challenging for older children.
5. Smart Circuits
This is another great game for the middle school aged child. This Smart Circuits game comes with 50 different projects all based around building circuits. Children will learn all about electricity. This can be used for ages 8 to 15.
6. Books (Difficult Riddles For Smart Kids)
Books is a great gift for middle school aged children. They might be into a certain series of books and then you could buy them they set. They may also like certain genres. Personally, I love Science Fiction. I have also found that a lot of other children in this age group love the Science Fiction as well. I also included some other books for more reluctant readers or if you aren’t sure what the child may like.
The City of Ember
This is one of my favorite series for this age group. It follows two friends as they are trying to save their dying city. As the story unfolds, the students start to make observations that this doesn’t sound like a place on “Earth.” These people are actually living underground, but they don’t know any different. It is always fun to see students start to make connections and then predictions on why they are living underground. This book is part of a book series!
The Giver
This is one of my favorite books! This book is about Jonas who lives in a community where everyone is the same. He becomes the Receiver of Memory and starts to learn about the diverse world that is hidden from his community. I really enjoy this book and my students enjoy learning about this different world and relating it to the world we live in. This book is also part of a four book series that will keep children reading!
Difficult Riddles for Smart Kids
This book is fun for any age child, but especially this age group. This book includes 300 riddles and brainteasers. It will teach children to think differently and stretch their minds. This is also fun for children to use the riddles to stump their friends and adults!
7. Kanoodle
Kanode is a fun game for children of all ages and even adults. This game is a 3D puzzle with 200 challenging puzzle cards. This is perfect for enhancing problem-solving, critical thinking, and strategic thinking skills. The game is a brainteaser, but one that children will love.
8. Engino Discovering STEM Structures Constructions & Bridges
This is an awesome STEM activity. This kit includes everything to build different types of bridges. This is perfect for children who love building and engineering. I really like these types of gifts, since children can build so many different things from one kit. If your child isn’t into bridges, this company also has kits on aircraft, an amusement park, cars, and gears, just to name a few!
9. Art Kits
If your middle schooler is more into the arts, think about getting them an art kit. I love kits that come with various drawing pencils or sketch books. Whether they love to draw or paint, there is an art kit available. Check out some of these kits!
10. Heromask Virtual Reality Headset for Children
Children love video games, so let them play video games that are educational! This is a really cool virtual reality headset that has educational video games. One kit comes with video games to play to learn another language. The languages that a child can learn include Spanish, French, German, English and Chinese. The other kit comes with math video games to learn multiplication tables, subtraction, addition, and division. You can also use the virtual reality headset included for any other virtual reality video game.
I hope you enjoyed this list of great educational gifts for middle school aged children!
If you are looking for educational gifts for toddlers, check out our post here!
If you are looking for educational gifts for elementary age children, click here!
If you are looking for teacher gift ideas, click here!
Thank you for Continually Learning with us!
Kyle and Sarah
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