Gifts For Your Tech Loving Kids of All Ages (And Even Adults)

Years ago I never would have written a post like this, because I was all into never spending any money, ever, on anything, unless it was absolutely necessary. Fortunately, I realized how unsustainable that was, and how it can even be damaging to your mental health and your family's mental health as well. I used to only gift homemade or dumster dived or revamped gifts but now nearly never will do that unless I know that the person who is being gifted to will actually enjoy it. And to be able to afford these things, I cut back on other things that I don't care about- that is my current motto on what frugality is.

Therefore, I changed my tactic in gift giving to limit the people to whom I gift, but then I spend money on what they'd actually enjoy, and typically stick to only one gift per person, but one meaningful and well appreciated gift.  And for that, you have to know what the giftee would actually enjoy. There are different types of interests that people have. Some people love photography so anything related to that is enjoyed. Others are very into nature and hiking so things in that category would be appreciated. This post is dedicated to those of you with tech loving kids. Though I work online, I'm pretty much scared of tech, so I asked my tech loving teenaged son for ideas for this post.

Gifts For Your Tech Loving Kids of All Ages (And Even Adults)

When my kids were littler they were obsessed with robotic things and things with controllers. If your kiddo loves remote controlled things and robotics, they may enjoy gifts from Sgile Toys which are available on Amazon, reasonably priced, and good quality. For kids who are obsessed with cars or racing, there is a RC racing car or a RC stunt car. If they like robotics, you can get them a RC robot, or even a fighting RC dinosaur or a cute robot dog. 

For slightly older or responsible kids that love tech, a great gift would be something like a phone, computer, or tablet if they don't already have one. If they do have all of these, they might really appreciate wireless speakers to go with them. Or a portable phone charger.

For kids that like techie stuff and are big fans of music, they might enjoy cool speakers, like waterproof speakers to go in the shower. Or they might like speakers that double as portable chargers as well. 

Along the lines of the music, but more complex than that, is a home assistant. Google makes them as well as Amazon, and these home assistants are officailly called smart speakers but they do so much more than that. They can search the internet for you and get you information, be used to make calls between devices, answer questions, but we like to use them to play music and have dance parties. It's not actually artificial intelligence, but it makes us think that it is, and its cool. If you already have a home assistant, getting a smart plug will allow these home assistant to turn on or off various devices to make your room a "smart room".

Some kids really love watching how technology advances and they think things that are techie and futuristic are super cool. These types of kids might really appreciate a virtual reality headset, but since those are expensive, they might like Google Cardboard, which turns your phone into an ad hoc virtual reality headset. Or they might really like a drone- good ones are expensive, but you can get a decent one for not too much money.

For tech people who like to keep track of various health related goals, a heart rate monitor might be a perfect gift. Alternatively you can get a fitness tracker that syncs with a phone. Or a smart watch that also tracks someone's sleeping and movement but also allows them to make calls. Swimmer techies might really appreciate bone conduction water proof headphones to listen to while swimming.

And for those that are exceptionally fascinated by technology and want to try their hand at creating it themselves, there are some options for build it yourself tech. For the youngest, something like Snap Circuits, where they build various simple electronic machines. More complicated, things that I know nothing about, my son tells me is something along the lines of an Arduino board (though they're the originals, there are many knock off similar ones) where you essentially build your own computer hardware that you're able to program. And lastly, there's something called Raspberry Pi where you literally build your own mini computer.

Sometimes, thinking of a gift for a loved one can be really hard, especially if they're interested in things that aren't necessarily up your alley. But if you have ae loved one who loves tech, hopefully this list will be very useful and you'll be able to find them some great things.

If you're a tech person or your kids love tech, or you're just familiar with this area, what tech stuff would you recommend be added to this list?