(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

William turned 10 recently, and he had his first Big Friend Party (that is, the party was big: his friends are all standard-issue sizes), and he got a lot of presents he liked. This is the sort of thing that seems like it would make a good resource, since it seems like I am constantly feeling desperate to think of a good gift idea for a child I don’t know—especially when MY child, who is allegedly a friend of the birthday child, shrugs when asked what the birthday child might like.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Toysmith Crystal Mining Kit. This was the biggest hit, I’d say. It was a block of plaster with crystals hidden inside, and William spent several intense sessions working on chipping them out. It was a bit messy, but cleaned up easily. And there were more crystals in his chunk of plaster than were advertised on the box, which was pleasing. And now William’s older brother is saving his allowance to buy his own kit, and William’s younger sister has been saying she hopes she gets it for HER birthday. It’s under $10, so I’m also buying one for the gift shelf for future birthday parties my kids attend. [The kids still remember how fun this was; William still has the crystals in the little bag.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Klutz Create Anything With Clay kit. This picture doesn’t show that the book (1) is spiral-bound, and (2) comes with 8 chunks of Sculpey. Those are pretty major selling points, especially since Sculpey is so expensive: I can’t remember what I’ve paid for it, but my guess is that after subtracting the price of buying that Sculpey separately, the book hardly costs anything. William was a little cheesed that the brown that came with the kit was a different shade than the brown shown in the book. [This started an on-again-off-again Sculpey fad at our house.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Painting on Rocks for Kids kit. I can’t tell if the product I’m linking to is the same as William’s: a customer has added photos of the rest of the kit William received, which includes paints and brushes and rocks and a carrying case in addition to the book, but the product description doesn’t include those items so….? I guess I’d write to Amazon before buying. Or, there’s also a Klutz version.

(photo from Amazon.com)

4M Brush Robot kit. Everyone in our family thought this guy was SUPER CUTE. The kit also requires two AAA batteries and a small Philips screwdriver, so I would tape the batteries to the box if I were giving it as a gift—I guess I wouldn’t go so far as to buy a screwdriver. Reviews are mixed: apparently there is some problem with quality control and making sure everything is in the box. Also, as people mention, the robot is small—perhaps smaller than you’d expect. For scale, the brush is a little larger than a fingernail brush.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Scientific Explorer Magic Science kit. This is one of the first things William opened. It’s a nice blend of chemistry and magic stuff. As with the robot, above, the reviews indicate that there are some problems with making sure everything is in the box—but everything was in ours, and people are more likely to go online to say something was missing than they are to report that everything was there.