Choosing an Educational Gift for a Teen Aged 12 to 17

It’s already time to think about the gifts you’d like to offer your loved ones and you’re especially wondering what to give your teen? Finding something that will pique their interest is never easy. Still, there are educational and fun games out there, even for teenagers between 12 and 17 years old, that will help them learn!

Areas of Learning for Teens Aged 12 to 17

At school, teenagers between 12 and 17 are introduced to different areas of learning. Did you know that much of what they learn can be enhanced with educational and fun games? Areas of learning are a great starting point to help you find an interesting and educational gift for your teen.

• Languages: Developing reading, writing and oral communication skills, and learning about the culture surrounding languages;
• Mathematics, science and technology: Working on reasoning skills, among others;
• Social sciences: Understanding the world and global issues;
• Arts: Developing creativity and forming opinions;
• Personal development: Developing “all the different dimensions of human experience, i.e. the motor, affective, social and intellectual dimensions as well as the moral, spiritual or religious dimension.”¹;
• Professional development: Discovering different careers that could be a good fit.

Ideas of Educational Games to Promote Learning in 12- to 17-Year-Olds

Educational gifts don’t have to be boring. There’s actually a wide variety of educational games that are very fun for teens and help them work on some of the things they learn in school.

For mathematics, a great game is Les créatures énigmatiques by Placote: the goal is to solve math problems, which helps teens develop logical thinking. The game Opération sauvetage is also a good option for practising multiplication and division.

Books always make great educational gifts to work on the area of languages. Are you worried your teen might find your pick boring? You can draw inspiration from the many book recommendations for teens of À GO, on lit! Some games are also designed to help develop oral communication skills, such as TalkItOut and Act it out! by Placote. These games are great because they encourage teens to communicate orally while developing their social skills.

To help teenagers broaden their horizons and discover the world and global issues—i.e., learn from social sciences—a subscription to a magazine like Curium is an excellent idea.

As for arts, there’s plenty of choices for teens: show tickets, all kinds of craft and DIY kits (jewelry or soap making, knitting, etc.), an instant camera, a kit for learning how to draw, and so on.

Electronic Games and Teenagers

Technology is very appealing to teenagers between 12 and 17 years old. They love using it for games and entertainment or to go on social media.

Many educational electronic games help children work on the various areas of learning of the secondary curriculum, such as Construis ta cité romaine for learning about history or Espace des sciences which has games explaining certain scientific phenomena. Using electronic games can help motivate teens, as they won’t feel like they’re working but playing. So don’t completely exclude them from your gift ideas for your teen.

However, it’s important to give teens access to a variety of activities so they can develop other skills that couldn’t be acquired with electronic games. Parents should also pay close attention when their children are using technology; a plethora of content, games and apps are available online, and they’re often not suited to young kids or even teenagers. That’s why it can be a good idea to set parental controls for downloading games and apps and, more importantly, to have a talk with your teen.

The RESP as an Educational Gift Idea for the Future

To support your teen’s professional development, the RESP is a great option for providing financial support and motivation to pursue post-secondary education. Don’t forget to introduce your child to the new free podcast “Futur proche” that helps teens between 13 and 18 years old explore career options, broaden their horizons and discover a slew of interesting jobs!

Even if your child is graduating high school soon, it’s not too late to open an RESP²—it’s absolutely worth it! You can even catch up on grants from past years under certain conditions. With grants supplementing your contributions, you’re giving your teen quite an amazing gift! Plus, the RESP is an eco-friendly gift since 100% of Kaleido’s assets are invested responsibly, taking into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. Ask our team for more information today!

Also looking for gift ideas for younger children? Discover our gift ideas for kids aged 3 to 5 and our gift ideas for kids aged 6 to 11. You’ll certainly find inspiration to get them games that are both fun and educational!