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szopenhauer · 4 years ago

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Have you ever kissed the last person you texted? yes

Are you in a good mood right now? r u serious?...

Is there anyone who you think you deserve an apology from? I won’t get any

Are you talking to anyone right now? my gf online and my mom irl

Did you buy anything today? I didn’t

Were you happy when you woke up this morning? I wasn’t

When was the last time you cried really hard? today, it wasn’t the hardest tho

When did you last hug someone? Who was it? this day as well, parent

How’s life going for you? no comment

Has something someone said today annoyed you? that’s normal Can you hear the crickets chirping at night? sadly not Do you like listening to new music, or just sticking to your favorites? depends on the new song - if it’s good then I like it as much as my old favs

When was the last time you were bitten by a bug? this summer has the worst mosquitos ever Do you have a pair of sunglasses that are worth over $200? I'm not rich, mine aren’t more expensive than 25 PLN Are you brave when it comes to trying new foods? ... When was the last time you saw your significant other? weeks ago, not counting video chatting Are you ashamed of your singing voice? I’m aware I have no talent so... Have you ever had a dream where you could understand a foreign language? also animal languages and been talking to plants etc. Do you have anything important to do tomorrow? hospital Are you a fan of retro things? prefer vintage, antiques, shabby - retro is fake but at times there are some good enough pieces as well Would you be considered to be knowledgeable about World War 2? I mistake WWI for WWII and vice versa If you’re with someone right now, do you think it will last? don’t feed my paranoia Have you heard of the Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers? oooh that’s the one Do you have something to do, that you would rather not do? tomorrow Are you, in any way, feeling hopeless right now? absolutely Do you know who you’re planning to ask to your prom? I wanted to ask my current gf back in the day but my mom didn’t let me and I didn’t go because only me and K. didn’t have a date so we preffered to stay home When was the last time you went shopping? yesterday What’s the limit on how much you would pay for a shirt? 60 PLN but I cry when I pay 30 PLN, luckily I have like 3 shirts that are about 30 PLN Do you like making funny faces in pictures? better to be funny than ugly, right? Is there something you look back on and go “I can’t believe I did that”? regrets Are you good at offering advice? but not following them What was the last thing to confuse you? confused is my second name Are you a fan of Keira Knightley? she’s not that good Have you ever resorted to alcohol to make you feel better? it doesn’t make anything better Have you heard about Mel Gibson’s rant/freakout? he was such a good actor, such a shame he’s not a good person Do you wish your bedroom was bigger? I wish I had my own apartment Have you ever felt like a “new person”? I had my moments that were ruined right after Do you own any expensive jewelry? I sold the only necklace that was worth something Has there been someone in your life that just wouldn’t leave you alone? stalkers Do you hate to use public bathrooms? there are way worse things than public bathrooms, even when they’re covered in blood, poop, pee and vomit (but puke is least bearable from all four)

Are there any writing utensils close to you? I packed bunch of them

What was the last thing that shocked you? brain, remind me what was last... How many other rooms can you currently see into? hall Do you need to take the trash out? done Do you need to clean your room right now? soon Do you need to clean out a litter box right now? my cat’s gone Are these questions reminding you of things you put off to do this survey? there’s washing my head on my list for this evening - nothing more How many days have you been wearing those clothes? gimme a break!

Can you move your nose? yasss

Have you ever done a craft that you found on Pinterest? sew teddy and a cat from socks for example but I’m not fond of DIY in general Are you content with mystery, or do you wish you knew everything? knowledge is power

What’s one thing that makes your stomach hurt? what doesn’t?... Ever had a living nightmare? my life is a nightmare

Do you think successful people always come with a pack of haters? successful or not - haters are everywhere Do you wish you could be a world traveler? travelling ain’t my hobby Do you wish you could live in another city for a year? Ełk If you had kids, would you take them to Disney World? if I had money and they wanted to go and it wasn’t that far away from home and they were angels and they were old enough... Have you ever stood in line to get a Disney character’s autograph? wouldn’t bother, pics are better How long does it usually take your hair to dry? so short yet dry slowly Is your Pinterest page cluttered? it’s neat Did you used to name your Barbies? of course Is your life boring? ppl say it is but for me it’s not enough boring if you know what I mean Do you usually feel better around people or alone? alone Is there a broken relationship in your life that you want to fix? tried to fix friendships but it didn’t work out Do you ever think about Heaven? yup Are you ready for Heaven yet? I will go to hell but I don’t mind dying now if it’s a quick death as I prefer to be gone that an ill burden to myself and others Are you afraid of where you’re going to go? I don’t deserve heaven, I think it would be unfair for me to go wherever, I have love-hate relationship with God Do you feel better now than you did last night? noooo Does your body have any problems with it? my body is 99,99% a problem, it’s made of problems like jigsaw puzzle game Have you taken any huge risks lately? my life is 24/7 at risk - does that count?... Silence or songs? depends Do you ignore rude people or do you call them out? try to ignore them if possible What color socks do you have on? purple stripes, looks a bit like asexual flag - this realization :o Are you under a blanket right now? am not

How much was your prom dress? What’s the most you’d spend?: I wouldn’t buy anything expensive, dress from a second hand under 30 PLN Are most of your friends single or taken?: my friends were basically always single When you’re taking a survey that has a “Which of your friends is… the nicest? The prettiest? The smartest? Etc.” do you skip over it?: as I have no friends anymore to be honest What salon do you go to for getting your hair done?: I cut them on my own or ask mom for help Do you believe in luck?: I’m unlucky Would you marry someone of a different religion?: that would be hard Would you convert for them?: nope Worst part about your job?: I don’t have a job and the worst part about it is lack of money and regular UP visits Ever took something out of the lost and found that wasn’t yours?: they tempt me I took some lost/trashed stuff from the street tho Do you delete friends from Facebook if they never talk to you?: that’s me! Do you know anyone who smokes cigars?: my uncle did Ugliest fashion trend at the moment?: according to this - shorts suit, cut outs, sheer/transparent, raffia not a fan of most of vests blue isn’t my fav color but it’s a seasonal thing but shirts shouldn’t be such a huge part of summer in my opinion Do you like glittery nail polishes?: why not

Are you wearing a pink shirt? it’s white with black letters

If you had a baby, would you want to have it at home or in a hospital? hospital I believe

Have you ever had a bad experience with anti-depressants? If so, what? don’t even let me begin this subject...

What makes your room unique? trinkets

Does your past bother you? consequences of it

Do you take risks or play it safe? play it safe and yet...

Are you afraid of running into a certain person in public? more than one person, more than one reason

Do you live in the USA? Poland

Who do you want to meet in Heaven? from those who already died? my brother

Is it raining? slightly

Is your life stressful and exhausting? to me it is too stressful and exhausting

What is your favorite time of the day? when I sleep, if I sleep that is

Have you ever known anyone that’s gone missing? nope Do you put your foundation on with a sponge or your hand? I don’t use foundation, yuk Do you have to pee often? ppl told me that I pee often Do you live near a pet store? they closed pet store in my town

Who was the last person other than family to tell you that they love you? my gf How many people have you kissed in the last month? 1 Do you know anyone who writes really well? my gf writes well Does it bug you when people spell color “colour”? not spell but write, it sounds good in British accent but looks horrible on paper

What is the best fanfic you have ever read (lmao) only fanfic I remember reading was that one E.W. and K.K. sent me about Draco and Harry (yaoi)

If you could direct your own TV show/movie, what would it be like? it would be based on my book

One thing you’ve always wished you could do / be good at? be healthy

Post a picture of the weirdest/funniest text conversation you’ve ever had! can’t choose only one, also, sadly, I don’t have screenies of some of them

Is there a stranger you would like to meet again? for example - I’d like to see all those ppl that I thought have amazing fashion sense and ask them if I can take photos then I would make a blog about it

Does your school take sports too seriously? all schools do, that’s unfair What does the sound you currently hear remind you of? it’s quiet

Did you eat out anywhere today? nah Where is your purse? my purses are in various places around my room

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caveartfair · 6 years ago

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Amid Controversy, the Whitney Biennial Plays It Safe

John Edmonds, The Villain, 2018. Courtesy of the artist; Company, New York; and the Whitney Biennial.

Lambrequin and Peplum, , 2017. Diane Simpson Whitney Museum of American Art

Maybe it’s not fair to expect an exhibition as popular and overly scrutinized as the Whitney Biennial to take huge risks—especially not after the last edition dissolved into a still-simmering debate over race and identity politics. And yet, there’s something undeniably flat about the 2019 show, co-curated by Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley and opening to the public on May 17th.

There isn’t much here to quicken the pulse, with even the politically inflected works coming across as too polite for our current moment. And if one possible function of the biennial is to act as a kind of cross-section of American artistic practice, this exhibition makes some puzzling choices. An alien visitor to the biennial would be forgiven for thinking that most current painting is of the mildly inept, figurative variety, and that found-object assemblage is the way most humans choose to creatively communicate with each other.

The General,, 2018. Nicole Eisenman Whitney Museum of American Art

But let’s start on a positive note: all the way up on the Whitney’s 6th-floor outdoor patio, lashed by wind and cold rain during Monday’s press preview. Here you’ll find one of the Whitney Biennial’s only true showstoppers, an epic sculpture by Nicole Eisenman called Procession (2019). A parade of migratory humanoids is caught mid-journey, possibly in the process of transporting a series of modernist-looking metal sculptures on plinths.

Every element of this sprawling piece is a delight, from the lovingly sculpted cartoonish genitals to the puffs of steam randomly emitted from unexpected orifices. Procession recalls a heroic journey from millennia past, but idiosyncratic Easter eggs abound: a Kryptonite bike lock here, a pair of New York Giants socks there. The funny, complicated sculpture is comfortable juggling sophomoric fart humor with reflections on power, bondage, servitude, and the pomposity of religion—and art, for that matter. A bumper sticker on the back of the cart reads “How’s My Sculpting? Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT.” Procession’s very placement is a stroke of genius: just outside of the museum proper, as if the procession wasn’t quite able to make it to the halls of culture.

Inside, it’s warmer and drier, but also a little predictable. The ghost of Robert Rauschenberg hangs heavy over work by Eric Mack, Troy Michie, and Tomashi Jackson: photo transfers, quilt-like collages of material, and evocative detritus (other artist’s press releases, political buttons, deconstructed bits of clothing).

Installation view of Nicole Eisenman, Procession, 2019.

Across the board, there’s too much found-object assemblage. Wangechi Mutu’s Poems by my great grandmother I (2017)—a construction of wood and cow horn and a dangling pencil that rotates, drawing a circle on its metal base��could be a small-scale homage to Bruce Nauman’s Carousel (Stainless steel version)(1988). Robert Bittenbender’s unwieldy wall sculptures, cages stuffed to bursting with metal cords and junk, seem like hyperbolic parodies of the magpie aesthetic. There are interesting things about some of these works—including large-scale sculptures by Joe Minter—but the sheer volume of them gives the impression that contemporary artists are basically collectors and curators of things they have bought or found.

One big exception here are inventive sculptures by Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos, who makes magic with palm tree trunks, beads, coconuts, soil, and other poetic objects. As with the best of Nari Ward, a sense of symmetry and gravity give these sculptures a sense of ritual importance, despite their secular materials.

Eric N. Mack, (Easter) The Spring / The Holy Ground, 2018. Courtesy of the artist; Morán Morán, Los Angeles; Simon Lee, London; and the Whitney Biennial.

Sentinel I, 2018. Wangechi Mutu Whitney Museum of American Art

Painting fares the worst of all in the Biennial, which seems to be asserting that the medium isn’t dead, just uninteresting. Kyle Thurman’s figurative depictions of men are a weak stab in the direction of Leon Golub; Eddie Arroyo’s paintings of shabby building facades in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami may be conceptually interesting, but they’re imminently forgettable as images. Calvin Marcus’s massive canvases are betting on the fact that size is what matters, even when the subject matter—an Ed Ruscha-esque view through a car windshield; a circle of donkeys; an upside down snowman—seems arbitrary at best.

There are a few bright spots to be found, including Janiva Ellis, a stand-out of the last New Museum Triennial. And Keegan Monaghan’s thickly painted renderings of boring things—a rotary telephone, a bit of wood fencing—have the funky, borderline kitschy feel of Red Grooms. Three works by Marlon Mullen are charming and unexpected—all based on the covers of popular trade magazines like Art in America, abstracted into color, pattern, and the text of marquee names, from Grant Wood to Elizabeth Murray.

5825 NE 2nd Ave., Miami, FL 33137, 2017. Eddie Arroyo Whitney Museum of American Art

An emphasis on photography at the Biennial enlivens things a bit, including a small room’s worth of work by Paul Mpagi Sepuya and his peers and collaborators—who are often credited with authoring certain images, eliciting a confusion that’s ultimately about how porous and fluid creative communities can be. The on-the-rise John Edmonds gets two side hallways for his sensual, elegant portraits of black men and women posing with African masks and sculptures. Curran Hatleberg, who has the third-floor gallery space essentially to himself, was a welcome discovery for this critic; his evocative, empathetic portraits and landscapes fall somewhere between Alec Soth and Gregory Crewdson.

Other highlights include Meriem Bennani’s series of videos, housed here in a series of offbeat pavilions outdoors on the fifth floor balcony. Like much of her work, the new installation begins with a documentary subject—Moroccan teenagers, caught laughing, hanging out, and complaining about how Instagram won’t verify their accounts—but also detours into comedic special-effects absurdity. We see local architecture in Morocco’s capital city swaying and crooning R&B lyrics like “I’m a sexy house in Rabat.”

In the ground floor lobby gallery, the always incredible Chicago-based artist Diane Simpson has a series of sculptures that could be storefront displays or altars. Their forms, made with painted fiberboard, lurk on the edge of familiarity—is that a coffee grinder, a length of armor, a trio of folding chairs?—but never fully resemble any one thing. Olga Balema’s sculptures, meanwhile, have a somewhat similar approach to DIY abstraction, albeit messier; who knew one could cover so much ground with little more than carved styrofoam and tape? And Brian Belott’s installation of freezer units holding ephemeral frozen sculptures show a similar knack for funky, handmade invention, even if not every visitor was impressed. “Marc Quinn,” a jaded woman next to me said, referring to the British artist famous for making a bust of his head with his own frozen blood. “That’s the problem with ice—it’s been done!”

Incoming, 2016-2017. Keegan Monaghan Whitney Museum of American Art

If there’s one area where the 2019 Whitney Biennial really stumbles, it’s with the outwardly political. Surely, part of the curatorial conversation must have involved the elephant in the room: Either engage with the oppressive shadow of Trumpism, or treat the show as a respite from the news cycle. This exhibition merely makes half-hearted gestures toward the topical. There’s a goofy series of wall-mounted photo sculptures by Josh Kline, which depict scenes, including the reception desk of Twitter, being slowly covered by rising water. Marcus Fischer presents a reel-to-reel machine playing the recorded thoughts of fellow artists prior to the 2017 inauguration, probing their “fears and reservations about the Trump presidency.” The results are a beat poem (“civil rights…discrimination…polar bears…fracking”) that’s only revelatory if you’ve been sleeping for the past few years.

Alexandra Bell’s biennial contribution is more substantive—annotated articles from the New York Daily News covering the overblown and racist rhetoric surrounding the wrongly accused “Central Park Five.” One piece includes a full-page newspaper ad, written and paid for by one Donald Trump, which calls for a return to the death penalty and no-holds-barred policing. Bell uses a yellow highlighter to isolate especially egregious language, and replaces all the photographs with black boxes. It’s an interesting exercise, but not as compelling as Bell’s better known series, which reworked pages of the New York Times to address racial bias surrounding the killing of Michael Brown. Meanwhile, Kota Ezawa’s film National Anthem (2018)—which animates the artist’s watercolors of NFL players taking a knee—is a political artwork that absolutely no one visiting the Whitney would be likely to be troubled by. It’s as well-meaning as it is toothless.

More successful are a set of drawings by Christine Sun Kim, which remind us that the personal is always political. The artist, who is deaf, weighs in on various sources of her “deaf rage,” experienced in various settings (“while traveling,” or “in the art world”). The quasi-scientific diagrams pinpoint all the many ways in which a differently abled artist can be pushed to the brink. Kim isolates two instances of what she categorizes as merely “cute rage”: “Being offered a wheelchair at the arrival gate…and the braille menu at restaurants.”

Christine Sun Kim, Degrees of My Deaf Rage in The Art World, 2018. Courtesy of the artist; White Space, Beijing; and the Whitney Biennial.

But there is a single instance of hypertopical critique that hits its target, and hard. The most thrilling and dangerous work in the otherwise tame Biennial comes courtesy of Forensic Architecture. The hard-to-define, multidisciplinary collective chose to call out Whitney board vice chairman and Safariland CEO Warren Kanders for the sources of his wealth—namely tear-gas canisters used against migrants at our southern border, and bullets fired by the Israeli military.

While it’s not mentioned directly in the video, Kanders’s presence on the board has caused a swell of protest in the lead-up to the Whitney Biennial, mainly spearheaded by the collective Decolonize This Place. Fellow biennial artist Michael Rakowitz actually pulled out of the show in solidarity with this movement, but Forensic Architecture has done something more effective: remain, and bite the tear gas-grenade-wielding hand that feeds them. Their film manages a nice balance between the didactic and the poppy, concisely explaining a broader initiative to use machine-learning and artificial intelligence to identify online images of a specific teargas product made by Kanders’s company.

“While my company and the museum have distinct missions,” Kanders was quoted saying in a letter to Whitney staffers, “both are important contributors to our society.” Watch a few minutes of Forensic Architecture’s effective, rapidfire footage and you’ll likely disagree. Kudos to the curators for putting the film, Triple Chaser (2019), in the center of the sixth floor galleries, rather than relegating it to a less prominent corner of the museum. But what does it say about this Whitney Biennial that its most relevant moment is one that seems to call the whole enterprise into question?

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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wellpersonsblog · 5 years ago

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Indoor Activities for Kids

Here are 35+ Indoor Activities for Kids that are perfect for helping preschoolers and kids in elementary school keep their bodies and minds active indoors when it’s too hot, cold or rainy to go outside.

Hi friends!

A few years ago, I shared these Indoor Activities For Toddlers and Cheap Toddler Activities and they were a big hit! Now that my kids are older and in preschool, I’ve been meaning to compile a list of indoor activities for slightly older kids! Now that many of us will be spending a lot more time at home thanks to COVID19, it seemed like the perfect time to put it together. So here are some simple ideas to help keep your kids entertained and maybe even give you a little time to yourself! These should be good for preschoolers and younger elementary school-aged kids. (PS- If you have good weather, here are some Scavenger Hunt Ideas For Kids!)

Indoor Activities for Kids

Get Cooking – Let them help you cook or bake. As they gain the confidence they can do more and more themselves. Check out these Kitchen Tasks for Toddlers.

Dot Simon �� Make a few colored dots and spread them around the room. Make a home base. Call out one color and have the child run to it and then back to base. Next call the first color + another color. The child runs to color 1 and then color 2. Continue adding a color each time until the child can no longer remember the order once they start.

Recycling Robot – Turn the kids loose on the recycling bin. Give them some tape or help them use a hot glue gun to build a robot or any creation they can imagine!

Make Your Own Puzzles – Draw a picture, cut it into puzzle piece shapes and mix them up. Let them put it back together.

Build an Obstacle Course – Make them as hard or easy as you want, get out a timer and let the kids go through as quickly as they can.

Make Your Own Workout – Let the kids make up their own workout and then do it with them!

Scavenger Hunt – Tape words, letters, numbers etc around the house and send the kids to look for them. You can write all the words you hide on a piece of paper and give them the list on a clipboard so they can cross them off as they find them. Bonus points if you let them do all or some of the writing. Or take it up a notch and write a bunch of clues so that they have to figure out each clue in order to find where the next one is hidden and leave them a prize at the end.

Guess It Box – Put 3-4 small objects in a box. Cut a hole and let the child stick their hand in and try to guess the objects just by feel.

Homemade Playdough – Let them whip up a batch of homemade playdough

Play Cards – Teach them games like go fish, crazy eights, rummy, war, solitaire etc

Paper Airplanes or Origami – Find some instructions online and challenge them to create a paper airplane or an origami animal

Tongs – Challenge them to do anything with tongs! Cut a slot in a box and let them use tongs to put the magnatiles through the slot, spread pom poms on the floor and have them put them into a cup, etc

Build a City – Connect multiple kinds of toys -Make structures and roads with magnatiles/blocks, make schools for people, a farm for animals, garages for cars, etc

Take an Adventure – Use the Nugget or some couch cushions, or even painters tape, on the floor to make a boat or plane or train and go on an adventure

And Scene! – Make a stage and let them film their own show or movie

Make Your Own Game – Play some board games for inspiration and then let them create a game of their own, make the rules, design the pieces etc.

Free the Dinosaurs – Freeze mini dinosaurs in ice cube trays. Let them melt the ice cubes with hot water and a syringe

Toy Wash – Dump some animals or cars in a bin with dish soap and water. Give them a toothbrush and towel and let them go to down. Bonus points if you go rub the toys in some sand or dirt first to make it more fun. Worried about a mess? Let them sit in the bathtub.

Cosmic Kids Yoga – You can find it on youtube or Amazon Prime for free!

Make A Collage – Grab some magazines/newspapers/junk mail catalogs/grocery store ads etc and let them make a collage

Make Puppets – Use old socks or some paper lunch sacks and make puppets!

DIY Things – Give them a theme and let them use stuff around the house to make their own musical instruments, superhero masks, stuffed animals etc!

Find the Treasure – Draw a treasure map for various rooms around the house and see how quickly they can find the treasure.

Bowling – Set up some cans and go bowling with a tennis ball.

Toss It – Set up paper plates or tape circles on the ground and practice tossing a small toy onto certain ones

Play Restaurant – Let them write a menu, write down your order, pretend to (or actually make) the food etc

Build it – Practice fine motor skills by making paperclip chains, building structures with toothpicks and mini marshmallows/grapes etc

Cut it – Let them practice their scissor skills!

Writing practice – Give them things to tracing or write, make dot to dots and mazes

Go Camping – Have an indoor campout with a tent (real if you have one or make a fort with blankets), sleeping bags, a flashlight or lantern etc

Pillow Fight – No explanation needed.

Painters Tape – Endless things to do with it! Make shapes and have them do different activities to each shape (ie run to the circle, hop to the triangle, crabwalk to the square), put a couple lines on the floor in a row and have them jump/hop/backwards/run and jump etc from a starting point to see which line they can reach each time….

Draw Your Own Story – Roll out a long piece of paper or staple a few folded pieces of paper together, let them make up their own story and illustrate it! (You can help!)

Hot Balloon – See how long they can keep the balloon off the ground with their hand, a spatula, a fly swatter etc

Go Skating – Put some paper plates on the floor (or wear some empty kleenex boxes to skate around the floor.

Match the Paint – Have some old paint chips lying around? Challenge them to find things in the house that match the colors.

Active Puzzle – Grab a toddler puzzle with 6-8 pieces and spread them around the room. Have them do a movement from each piece to put it in place. Ie wheelbarrow walk, crab walk, hop on one foot etc.

Science Experiments – a quick google search will give you lots of easy ideas, or this book Awesome Science Experiments for Kids is great (aff link)

Drawing Lessons – Check out Art Hub for Kids or search for draw with me videos on YouTube

If you’re looking for more physical activities, check out my Sensory Diet Ideas for Sensory Seekers post.

If you’re looking for a few new toys to purchase like Magnatiles, craft supplies, puzzles and more, I have lots linked in my amazon shop in the KIDS section (all affiliate links).

I’ll continue to add to this post as new ideas come to me!

Enjoy! –Lindsay–

First found here: Indoor Activities for Kids

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tortuga-aak · 7 years ago

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The best tech toys you can buy

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

The Insider Pick:

In a world where kids are constantly exposed to electronics, tech toys for kids need to be fun to play, provide a bit of a challenge, encourage problem-solving skills, and do something cool to grab their attention. The Osmo Genius Kit does just that by merging the best features of an iPad with physical game pieces and drawing tools.

If one of your favorite sayings is, “Youth is wasted on the young,” first, it’s time to update your lingo. Even though there’s plenty of truth in that saying, using it means you’re going to be labeled a “get off my lawn” type of person for the rest of your days. Nobody needs that.

Second, we’re willing to cut you some slack based on the context of how you’re using that saying. If you were the kid who received socks, sweaters, and Slinkys for the holidays, you may use that saying because you’re jealous of the cool tech toys the kids receive these days. In other words, kids don’t know how great they have it today. (Ugh, now I’m doing it.)

The best tech toys for kids can do some pretty amazing things. They also have an educational aspect to them, but they’re so much fun to use, kids may not even realize they’re learning. Best of all, you can feel young again by playing with these toys yourself. The best tech toys also entertain adults.

Benefits of tech toys

If you only think of a tech toy as something the child sits and stares at all afternoon, think again, writes Consumer Reports. Tech toys can motivate your kids to learn and develop new skills.

Some tech toys will require your child to follow a specific set of directions to accomplish the finished product. Others will give your child plenty of freedom in how the toy is enjoyed to spark your child’s creativity. Don’t automatically dismiss a tech toy because it fits in one category or the other. Both the ability to follow directions to reach a goal and to explore a problem creatively are important skills to have.

There’s often an educational aspect to kids tech toys as well, according to BBC News. When you’re looking for a tech toy that will enhance the educational experience for children, a couple of buzz-worthy acronyms to know are as follows.

STEM: Tech toy manufacturers often will highlight their toys as promoting STEM skills, which is short for science, technology, engineering, and math.

STEAM: If a toy manufacturer adds an art aspect to a STEM toy, it becomes a STEAM toy.

Ultimately, though, finding a good educational tech toy requires the toy to properly merge the education with fun and entertainment, explains The Genius of Play. Kids have to love the time they’re spending with the educational tech toy, or they’ll just choose to spend their time elsewhere.

Features of tech toys

When looking for a great tech toy, you need to pay attention to a few different features, as WikiHow explains. Sure, you will be tempted to challenge your child as much as possible. But if the tech toy is too challenging, your child will become frustrated and not enjoy the toy.

Age appropriate: Manufacturers tend to give an estimated age of children who will have success with their toys, so pay attention to this recommendation. But also think about your child’s skills, as every kid is different. If your child has shown an aptitude for building kits, he or she may be ready for a kit that’s aimed at slightly older children, for example. On the other hand, if your child becomes frustrated easily, you may want to stick to the recommended age until he or she becomes more confident.

Encouraging movement: If you don’t like the idea of your child sitting still in front of a tech toy’s display screen for hours at a time, look for a tech toy that encourages physical movement along with the high-tech fun.

Lights and sounds: Sometimes, a tech toy will flash with bright lights and use loud noises, and that can be cool for the kid (even if it’s annoying for the parent). Whatever it takes to motivate a child to have an interest in science and technology is well worth it.

Reading level: Some tech toys require a lot of reading to understand the instructions or concepts. If you pick a toy that is beyond your child’s reading level, you’ll probably have to help.

Safety: Many tech toys have small parts or run from electrical or battery power. Be sure your child understands the importance of being careful with these toys. Set up rules regarding where and when the child may use the toy and how the child must clean up after using the toy. For example, if your 9-year-old isn’t careful with the little parts in his or her tech toy kit, his baby brother or sister could choke on a part. Tech toys can also help kids learn about responsibility.

With all that in mind, read on to see which of our tech toy picks is best for your child. We've included several different types of toys to satisfy various age levels and interests.

Although the Osmo Genius Kit is our top pick, for various reasons laid out in the slides below, you should also consider the LeapFrog LeapBand Activity Tracker, the Kano Computer Kit, the Anki Cozmo, and the ThinkFun Circuit Maze Board Game.

The best tech toy for kids overall

Osmo

Why you'll love it: The Osmo Genius Kit brings together the best of virtual gaming and physical play, giving your kids a fun tech toy that involves more than staring at a screen.

You’ll need an iPad to make use of the Osmo Genius Kit, but this tech toy does an excellent job of merging on-screen activities with physical world activities. This tech toy works well for children ages 5 to 12, and the game content is adjustable to the age of the child with three skill level settings.

The Osmo Genius Kit consists of five different games, and it’s easy to set up and use. You can strengthen your kid's math, spelling, visual thinking, problem-solving, and creative drawing skills with the different games. You get the pieces for the Numbers, Words, Tangram, Newton, and Masterpiece games. Osmo also has a number of other game kits you can buy to supplement the kit.

In its review, Pocket Lint says the game collection in this kit provides a clever way of using the iPad. One Amazon customer speaks for many others with the comment that Osmo is perfect for kids who like puzzles because it allows the child to move back and forth between the pieces and the screen.

Tech Advisor says it's an interesting idea to merge physical objects with the on-screen activities to keep kids learning and entertained in a multitude of ways.

Even though you must use an iPad that you already own with this toy, the Osmo Genius kit does a good job of encouraging your kids to use the iPad in an educational way with well-designed games, according to the Digital Trends.

The only downside is the high price tag. One Amazon buyer was disappointed in the overall cost for the kit and said the physical pieces in the kit weren't well made. Most reviewers were happy with the kit's quality and value, though many acknowledge that it's pricey.

Pros: Combines best features of iPad with physical puzzle challenges, clever games and challenges, entertaining and fun for pre-teens, can select from three skill levels for different ages, easy to use

Cons: Price is a little high, only works with Apple iPad

Buy the Osmo Genius Kit on Amazon for $98.99

The best tech toy to promote physical activity

LeapFrog

Why you'll love it: The LeapFrog LeapBand Activity Tracker inspires your kid to stay active with fun animations and a cute interface.

If you own a Fitbit or other type of activity tracker, you know how persistent (and occasionally annoying) these devices can be in trying to encourage you to stand up and move. The LeapFrog LeapBand Activity Tracker extends this encouragement to your kids, but in a fun way.

This cute little fitness tracker has a screen to show encouraging animations and several buttons so your kid can interact with it. It'll inspire your kid to do all kinds of funny exercises by making it all seem like a game.

In its review, Tech Advisor liked the crazy movements the LeapFrog tracker suggests for children, such as spinning like a helicopter or popping like popcorn. Kids can play 10 pre-loaded challenges initially, but another 40 are available to be unlocked. Pop Sugar says the large number of games and activities will keep kids stay entertained and fit for month after month.

It's important to keep in mind that this is for younger kids. Children who are using a Fitbit-type tracker already probably will find the LeapBand too simplistic, according to New Atlas' review. The LeapBand Activity Tracker is aimed at ages 4-7, but younger kids tend to love the activities and animations, according to one Amazon customer.

A few Amazon reviewers were disappointed in the bulky size of the LeapFrog device, especially since it’s aimed at young children with small wrists.

Pros: Fun challenges and animations to keep kids moving, three body colors available, kids who love it will play with it over and over, up to 50 different challenges available to keep kids entertained

Cons: Bulky wristwatch face, mainly for young kids as pre-teens won’t find much to like

Buy the LeapFrog LeapBand Activity Tracker on Amazon for $32.65 to $44.99

The best tech toy building kit

Kano

Why you'll love it: If you miss the days of popping open your computer and performing upgrades, the Kano Computer Kit lets you introduce your kids to DIY computing.

Sure, it’s fun to build a model car or a LEGO set with your kids, but if you want to build some higher level tech, consider the build-it-yourself Kano Computer Kit.

The kit ships with all of the parts you need to complete the tiny computer, which runs on the Raspberry Pi 3 processor. It can be completed by pre-teen children with little to no help from mom and dad. Kano recommends the kit for ages 6 and up. One Amazon reviewer says kids will learn to appreciate the multitude of parts required to make a computer run, something youngsters – and some parents – may take for granted.

The Guardian says kids will love the ability to see inside a computer, and they’ll be fascinated by all of the different parts. The Kano Computer Kit ships with memory, an HDMI port, a speaker, a wireless keyboard, a case, a power cable, and a Raspberry Pi 3 processor. After assembly, you just need to connect the computer to an HDMI-compatible display, such as a large screen television.

In its review, PC & Tech Authority says you shouldn’t expect to spend hours putting the machine together, as it can be assembled in several minutes. It also says the kit is too expensive compared to just buying a Raspberry Pi computer or buying individual parts yourself. However, you get a kid-friendly set with this kit that has instructions, and that's worth something.

When it’s time to do some programming with the Kano Computer Kit, the Raspberry Pi Starter Kits review says the kit and the online resources offer plenty of learning tools and programming ideas for kids. One Amazon buyer says kids won’t become bored with the computer because they can use it for so many different activities after building it.

Pros: Many children will love the ability to see inside a computer, kids will be able to figure out how a computer works while putting together the kit, nice set of programming tools and resources

Cons: More expensive than ordering individual parts yourself, too easy to complete for some kids

Buy the Kano Computer Kit on Amazon for $124.37 (originally $149.99)

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