Suitable gifts for a 10 year old's birthday

A skipping rope? A jigsaw puzzle? An encyclopedia?

The world has moved on. Abby wanted an iPod Touch. We didn't want her to have an iPod Touch because few of her friends will have an iPod Touch, they're expensive, they're highly loseable and stealable and they suffer from Apple's walled garden approach when it comes to exercising any kind of parental control. And I have no doubt that, in a year or two, we'll be buying her a phone - which will be some kind of smartphone, duplicating much of what she could do with it.

So, we disappointed her by buying something that's generally more versatile, reasonably priced, more controllable and not Apply in any shape or form.

The Google Nexus 7 has surprised me with both it's capability and its pricing. The press are generally pretty impressed with it as well. And now that Abby is getting over the initial 'it's not an iPod Touch' reaction, it's beginning to impress her too. Our ability to control what she can do with it and at what time is impressively functional: I think it's critically important that children are able to ease gently into the connected world we now exist in - but, at 10, need to be shielded from stumbling over the many aspects that they aren't ready for or becoming too screen addicted. Funamo helps us do exactly that and allows us to help her understanding mature without nasty surprises.

Apple are imminently expected to release a 7" tablet, despite what Steve Jobs always said about them. - because they clearly do have a place. I'm quite happy for the house to step away from the Apple ecosystem just a little: There's more to life than fruit.