The 10 Best 7 Year Old Boy Gifts
Special Honors
Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing Edition This console easily has the best selection of kid-friendly games on the market, and the title around which this special edition is themed is no exception. The device can be played on a TV at home when set on the included dock, or be taken on the road with a reasonable battery life and a high-quality screen. Just be aware that this gift will necessitate the purchase of all those games, which can add up. nintendo.com
Editor's Notes
December 15, 2020:
A lot of what was great for seven-year-olds on our last list remains great for them today, with classics from reliable brands — like the Lego Boost Creative Toolbox and the Razor A Kick Scooter — as well as toys that are likely to be considered classics in due course, like the updated WowWee Mip Arcade. That said, we did find room for an addition or two, especially since we got rid of the magnetic dart board we'd previously included. I don't care how you slice it, those things are endlessly frustrating; it's always when you think you've released the perfect shot that the magnet decides not to stick.
In place of that dart board we introduced the VTech KidiZoom Creator Cam, which gives them the opportunity to film themselves without having to borrow your phone or your action camera. It's got a lot of admirable features for its size, price point, and demographic, and we were particularly pleased to see that it comes with a green screen and allows kids to easily swap in different backgrounds. It may seem like a downside that it isn't capable of live streaming, but the need to have a parent transfer the files over to the computer will serve as a bulwark against them posting any sensitive or embarrassing materials online.
March 28, 2019:
Trying to find gifts for boys can be difficult. You may spend hours hunting down the perfect toy only to find they have absolutely no interest in it. Luckily, we've got you covered. All of the items on this list have a proven track record of making boys extremely happy, so you should get lots of squeals of excitement when they unwrap any one of them. If you feel like kids don't spend enough time playing outdoors these days, we've got a few options that will motivate them to do just that. The Razor A Kick Scooter, Original Stomp Rocket Ultra, and the Franklin NHL Indoor Sport 2-in-1 are good choices. All three promote plenty of exercise. Plus, the Original Stomp Rocket Ultra can help teach basic physics principles, and the Franklin NHL Indoor Sport 2-in-1 can be used indoors when the weather turns sour. The Vatos Laser Tag Set will also promote plenty of exercise and competitive play, and it is just as suitable for use indoors our outdoors. The Kidwinz Shockproof Binoculars is ideal for the little explorers and burgeoning bird watchers out there. If you want to challenge a child's mind instead of their body, take a look at the Lego Boost Creative Toolbox, Lego Technic Whack!, K’nex 35-Model Set. These toys can help improve problem-solving skills and foster creativity.
Unlucky Number Seven
At the same time, seven isn't quite old enough to be given total autonomy, either.
Seven can be a tough age for children and their parents alike. The boys aren't quite little enough to need constant supervision, and their previously emotional opinions begin to fill out with intellectual understanding and justification. This was the age when my own mother was convinced I'd become a lawyer. Sorry, Ma.
At the same time, seven isn't quite old enough to be given total autonomy, either. Even when autonomy is granted, cell phones for kids that young act as little more than electronic leashes with limited internet access. And kids around seven (as early as six, really) expect that level of technological interaction.
So, at a transitional period between the end of absolute childhood and the beginning of pubescent adolescence, with a cell phone in one hand and a whole lot of opinions in the other, a seven-year-old makes a formidable shopping target. You have to find something that appeals to them on an almost instinctive level, that allows them to revel in the play of youth, but that also has a hint of their impending responsibility to it, a responsibility that, at that age, they may seem impatient to attain.
The toys on our top ten list for seven-year-old boys all incorporate some level of complexity to engage a growing mind, physical movement to activate a growing body, or technological sophistication to prepare a your boy toward an inevitable singularity.
Play For a Personality
One of the reasons I find it difficult to shop for someone is that I'm a sensitive perfectionist. That means that I know a lot about the people for whom I'm shopping, and I get frustrated if I can't find the thing that not only appeals to what I know about them, but that also makes it clear that I know these things. After all, gift giving bears as deep a reflection on the giver as anything else.
If he seems to be in a groove with one of these channels in particular, you'll know what to buy him.
Shopping for a child can prove even more difficult, as they (especially young boys) possess a knack for really letting you know how much they dislike a gift that doesn't fit. To help you narrow down our list toward a few possibilities your boy would love, you simply have to ask yourself a few questions about him.
Is your boy a ball of boundless energy? Some kids can't sit still, and that doesn't always correlate to an ADHD diagnosis. Sometimes it's just a matter of a lightning-fast metabolism, something all of us wish we could go back in time and reacquire. For such a boy, our list contains certain physical toys that demand he step away from the computer and into the sunlight outdoors. Rambunctious boys shouldn't have too much of a problem doing so, and they're likely to love a gift that takes them outside.
Does your kid have a colossal cranium? Well, skull size doesn't necessarily equal intelligence, but metaphorically, should he possess a good brain, there are excellent toys on our list for the expansive mind.
I'm willing to bet that a lot of the boys out there fall into more than one of these categories, which means that the odds of picking a quality gift are in your favor. Check in with your kid for a moment in the next day or two, just to see where he's at and what he's been up to. If he seems to be in a groove with one of these channels in particular, you'll know what to buy him.
We're All Doomed
Every generation says the same thing as it gets older, as the next generation comes of age behind it. It's a cycle of doomsday thinking that's as old as thought, and it believes that each new generation is destined to bring about the end of times, as vapid and reckless as they are.
Rarely is this generational envy and its attendant grief justified, though it was when the industry of children's toys really took off.
One of the more subtle versions of this, which sheds a little light on the envy that the older generations feel toward the newer, is the way we (I'm lumping myself in with the older now) regard the toys of the next generation. We look around at the bevvy of technological marvels and interactive games and devices with much the same awe that parents in the early 1900s viewed children's pants that closed with a zipper.
Rarely is this generational envy and its attendant grief justified, though it was when the industry of children's toys really took off. For ages, children played with simple, homemade dolls more than anything else, and from a young age they were expected to work on farms, or later in factories during the dawn of the industrial revolution.
Eventually, laws prohibited the use of child labor, and the latter days of the industrial revolution produced a growing middle class whose children had more leisure time and more family money. This new market quickly filled with independent toy makers who went on to become the behemoths of the industry today.