The best "toys" I had as a kid were not toys at all. I think kids are often frustrated by toy versions of real things. Kudos to the author for suggesting a real laptop instead of the cheeseball alternatives.<p>When I was young, instead of toy version of real tools, my father managed to find me kid sized versions of real things. Instead of a plastic pretend hammer and screwdriver, I had real metal 1/2 sized versions of these tools that could actually make things.<p>I had a small soldering iron by the time I was 8 or 9 and after a disappointing experience with a pre-made "1001 electronic projects" kits, my dad just started bringing me bags of surplus transistors,caps,resistors,and ICs which I would solder together into little lumps of partially functioning goodness.<p>I did these things because no one ever told me that 9 year olds shouldn't be doing this. This is the message I'm afraid that these toy versions of things convey. The kid world should be impotent and pretend because the real world is not for children.