1. This invention will spark their imagination and keep them engaged (and learning) for hours at a time.
Turn the whole world into a keyboard! It’s a simple Invention Kit for Beginners or Experts doing art, engineering, and everything in between.
How Does it Work?
Alligator Clip two objects to the Makey Makey. For example, you and a banana (or an ice cube, or a kitty cat). When you touch the banana, the computer just thinks a keyboard key is being pressed, so you can type a letter, jump in a video game, take a picture, or play some music.
Kids can make a banana piano, play Mario on a play dough game pad, take a selfie of their pet every time she drinks water. 1000s of Projects & Lesson Plans are available.
Promising Review: This has been the hit of the spring with the kids. We’ve had musical bananas, a sandwich space bar, water balloon instruments and a few other crazy shenanigans. How this will become an instrument for the talent show this year is yet to be determined, but I see it coming – and can’t wait. This is exactly the hands-on, creative and critical thinking kids need. -busymama
Get Makey Makey Kit Here
2. Teens rely on all their devices – help them keep everything charged with this Personal Charging Hub
Promising Review: Exactly what I expected. Love it. Saves space and keeps my apple products clean and elevated while charging. As indicated you need to use apple charging cords and not any after market cords. I tried a couple of my extra after market cords and none worked. I would definitely recommend this product. -Tinika W.
Get The Elago 3 in 1 Charging Hub Here
3. They’ll love this indoor/outdoor bluetooth speaker that looks like a tiki torch, but cooler.
Promising Review: Purchased 5 for my family members. The sound quality is really good, the ambient light is a nice touch, the overall look of the speaker is very nice and it’s easy to sync. Very happy with this purchase and have recommended it to friends. -Liz W.
Get The Tiki Tunes Speaker Here
4. Headed off to college soon? Help them take care of their car (and avoid getting overcharged by the mechanic) with FIXD!
Promising Review: I’m a mechanic, and the only one of my friends who is. I’m always getting calls from my family and friends asking me to help with their cars, and sometimes it gets pretty frustrating. What FIXD has done for me is allow me to give my friends a way to identify and solve problems on their own, and so far the 4 people I’ve gifted these to have all been extremely satisfied with the product, and I’m extremely satisfied with the ease of use that allows my friends to give me an accurate description of issues. This has saved me a lot of time and stress, and while I still have to work on my friends cars a lot of the time, I at least know what I’m getting into. There are other scanners with equal capabilities that are cheaper, but I’m more than happy to pay a higher price when I’m getting a high quality product that’s easy to use and understand.
Get FIXD Car Diagnostic Tool Here
5. Give them the gift of more space for photos/videos on their phone! This backs everything up with just one press of a button!
Promising Review: The PhotoStick mobile works just the way it says it does; very easy to use. I checked it when done, and there were my pictures. There is so much room on the stick that I should be able to use it for years to backup all my pictures and videos. -Linda W.
Get PhotoStick Mobile Here
6. School got them stressed? This Weighted Blanket increases serotonin in the brain to help them feel calm and sleep better.
Promising Review: This blanket is very soothing! It’s very relaxing at the end of the day. I feel like my energy is becoming calmed and contained when I am stressed out. When I am extra stressed I fold the blanket lengthwise, doubling the weight and lay it over me for the first 15 minutes and my muscles begin to release, almost like a massage. -lamplight
Get The ZonLi Weighted Blanket Here
7. Make getting up in the morning to shower for school a way less painful experience with this Bluetooth Shower Speaker!
Promising Review: The VicTsing Shower Speaker connected easily to our iPhone 6s Plus. The volume is great, you can pause, go to the next song and take a phone call on the speaker if you need to. It does not feel or sound cheap. The suction cup is strong and more than this device needs to secure it to the shower wall. I am very happy with the purchase and will enjoy not getting my phone wet to change a song in the shower and having the device a bit louder (than the phone sounds on its own).
Get VicTsing Mini Shower Speaker Here
8. For a generation that will never know the struggle of getting photos developed – a portable mini printer to print out photos from your mobile phone wherever they are!
Promising Review: A fun little product. No ink needed. Easily portable and I love that the photo paper can become stickers. I use this to print pictures off my phone when I’m traveling and put them in my journal. It holds a long charge as well I printed maybe three images in the span of three weeks without needing a top off charge. – Marilyn B.
Get The HP Sprocket Portable Photo Printer Here
9. For the selfie generation – this vanity mirror will make them feel like a glamorous star every single day!
Promising Review: I love my lighted mirror!! Very bright warm and cool lighting!! Arrived fast, bubble wrapped very secure. Nothing was broke. The only thing I miss about my old mirror is having another side that enlarges! Lights up my face very well even in a room with the light off. – Lucy B.
Get Waneway Lighted Vanity Mirror Here
10. This drawing tablet will keep your graphic designer-to-be busy for hours, days, weeks, months, years….
Promising Review: This tablet is AMAZING for the price I paid. I can not believe everything it does. It has three buttons along the side and the can be used to change controls inside the graphics program I’m using. The pen also changes the brushes I’m using with the buttons near the tip. The strokes are smooth, draws gorgeous curves, and it does pressure changes so beautifully. It was truly stunning to see so much come out of such an inexpensive tablet. -RD
Get The Huion Drawing Tablet Board Kit Here
11. No Dead Phones Here….ChargeHubGo+ Can Keep Their Phones and All Their Devices Charged At The Same Time!
Promising Review: I love it so much I bought a second for my daughter. And now thinking about 3rd one for the car. I have small tray area where I put my phone now. But with the wireless charging I can just throw in the cubby hole and have wireless charging in my car. It’s smaller than my Asus charger so I can slip in my pocket with phone. -Dylan T.
Get ChargeHub GO+ Here
12. The Gift Of Self-Discovery: This 23 and Me DNA Kit will show them where they came from and who they are.
Promising Review: If you want a more in depth look at your recent ancestry, this is most definitely the company to go with now. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up my results after some time and noticed they had updated. Not only do they now pinpoint with accuracy my known places/regions of recent ancestral heritage, they also were bold enough to present bits and pieces of my more distant ancestry which Ancestry.Com did not do. I received 9 regions in total with 23&Me, all of which made sense given my known recent ancestry, while Ancestry.Com only presented two broad regions on their recent update (when I used to have 9). Also, the many tools they have, such as the recent timeline feature, and the ancestry painting feature make the process of knowing your ancestry so much more interesting. – Amazon Customer
Get The 23 and Me Kit Here
13. Help your teen step up their photo/video skills with this awesome (and affordable) Aerial Camera Drone!
I gave it five stars because it’s a cheap quadcopter with a camera. It’s fun to operate, and not too hard once you get the hang of it. The camera is not super-high quality and takes grainy video (AVI- huge files) in low light. But it came with a 4GB SD card. I was surprised at that. Also included are 4 spare rotor blades and 4 bumpers, a charging cable, and a small Phillips screwdriver to remove the battery cover on the remote.
-Lunix
Syma X5C Quad Copter w/ Camera Here
14. Support their fitness goals with this smart scale that accurately measures, tracks, and trends their health data over time.
Promising Review: This scale is amazing! First of all the design is so sleek, it looks so nice wherever you put it. The app is so easy to setup, as long as you have bluetooth on, then the app will automatically connect right to the scale and you don’t have to do anything further to set it up. The app is so nice because it displays graphs and thing to let you see the progress you’re making. The scale is also super accurate too, I weighed myself at the doctor’s office and then came home and got the exact same weight on this scale. I also love that the display is an LED, you can weight yourself in the dark, and even if you have the light on, it’s super easy to read! I definitely recommend this scale! – Amanda
Get The FitTrack Smart Scale Here
For the teen fascinated with the idea of collecting records, but still values the music on their phone – this classic-looking turn table has vinyl record and MP3 capabilities.
Promising Review: We had been looking at vintage record players because we wanted to start listening to the vinyls my parents had that I had listened to growing up and sharing that with our kids. It was a better size for our living space than an original stereo player would have been, the price was right, and I like the vintage look that is has. It works perfect for our family’s needs and we’ve even started our own vinyl collection (in addition to my parents’). -DearieFam
Get 1byone Stereo Turntable Here
There’s a reason why these backpacks are so popular with teenagers – they’re dirt- and water – resistant, so keeping it clean isn’t a challenge. Plus the durable material holds all the important stuff!
Promising Review: I saw these backpacks everywhere on a recent trip to Norway. Kids carried them, adults carried them, everyone had one. Intrigued by the bright colors and the two carrying options, I went into a store and checked it out to see if it would hold my laptop. Perfect! Then I looked at the tag and was shocked at the price. I came home and checked Amazon and discovered that the various colors are priced differently and this cheery shade was half the price of the same product in Oslo or Bergen. Sold! Now that I have been using it for a few weeks I can say that it’s the perfect size and weight for everyday use and all those Norwegian kids and adults weren’t wrong! -Moneypitt
Get The Fjallraven Kanken Classic Backpack Here
Do they drive an older car without Bluetooth capabilities? This innovation allows them to make calls while driving safely, listen to music, and even charge their devices!
Promising Review: My kids have a 2006 Accord with radio and CD as the only options. I did my homework, watched the videos and read the reviews. So happy I bought this. Wow!! Highly Recommend!! My teen boys love this and so do I! (no more complaining about not having an Aux chord in their car.) This product works super well and it’s such an amazing price! Looks great too. -asm99
Get The Nulaxy Bluetooth Car FM Transmitter Here
They’ll love decorating their bedroom or dorm room with the cool photos this instant Fuji Film camera takes!
Promising Review: I purchased the Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Camera (Pink) for my daughter’s 10th birthday and it was “the best gift ever!” The camera is much, much nicer looking than the old original Polaroid camera with a sleek modern design and nice colors, but it produces a vintage looking old school classic photo. – A.C.
Get The Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 Instant Camera Here
Does your teen have A LOT of hair? This air towel reduces damage and cuts drying time by 50%!
Promising Review: This towel made a huge difference and I could tell immediately on first using it!
I have long, fine, wavy-ish, straight-ish hair that tangles super easily. Normally I brush it after I get out of the shower, which I know is bad, but if I don’t, it becomes this crazy tangled mess. Aside from the damage that does to my hair, it also makes it poofy and lifeless.
Now, after I get of the shower, I use my Aquis microfiber towel and just scrunch up my hair to dry it and reinforce the curls. I don’t need to brush it because my hair no longer gets tangled! My hair has these soft beachy waves that looks so good and are not frizzy at all! Add in a little sea salt spray and I’m set for the day. This product has truly changed my hair. -lofgreli
Get The Aquas Original Mibrofiber Towel Here
Last but not least… give them the gift of hands free calls, alarms, music, updates on the weather, recipes and more with the Amazon Echo Dot!
Promising Review: The I cannot say enough about this amazon echo dot. It is WONDERFUL. Loud, crisp, and knows my voice so well. I love the size of this one. It is much more convenient and easy to stow away but still be heard with the far field of sound. My guests have absolutely enjoyed asking questions and about the weather and especially using it with my Spotify. I purchased a wall mount too that works very well. Again I would recommend this to anyone who loves to have music around the house being played. Did I mention the price?! Amazing! – Ramona P.