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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

We've found that watercolour pencils are great in helping them with detailed art that might be beyond some children straight painting at that age.

Not books or games, and not sure where your child is at with her drawing, but my kids (similar age) have enjoyed following along with this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@artforkidshub

Creative games that we have and like:

  https://www.thinkfun.com/products/gravity-maze/
  https://www.thinkfun.com/products/sweet-logic/
  https://www.thinkfun.com/products/rush-hour/

Clip Circuit: https://www.amazon.com.au/Advanced-Lab-Electronic-Clip-Circu...

We have a lot of GraviTrax also: https://www.ravensburger.us/discover/gravitrax/gravitrax-sta...

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For what it's worth, we had much better response from our kids with Gravitrax the Game (https://www.ravensburger.co.uk/en-GB/products/gravitrax/expe...) than the regular one. The material is basically the same (and thus could also work at extending a starter set), but there are cards with puzzle included, difficulty ramps up nicely, and the kids got more involved than with the "freeform" approach.

Turing Tumble has also been a big hit at our place, but it's clearly more for older kids (https://upperstory.com/turingtumble/)

UpperStory also has a new game (Spintronics) which looks awesome, but I haven't had the opportunity to test it.

Wasn't aware of the game. I'll investigate - thanks!

We've had months where Gravitrax has dominated the house and been very popular. Dedicated table for it in the living room. At one point, my 10yo son and I would make a very elaborate set of tracks every night. We'd start with a three way splitter at the high point and take one run each, and leave the third for one of his sisters. But after a while, unless I have time to play it with him, his interest fades and he does crosswords or reads instead.

Many years ago, I set up something like the tumble game for them. Not computing anything, but more like a maze. Tilted the coffee table slightly and let them stick Lego pieces to the surface and attach rubber bands, then roll marbles down. That was popular for a bit.

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