Female programmer here. Some of my favorite toys were Legos. My little brother used to get all the Lego presents growing up (because he was a boy) so I would u

Female programmer here. Some of my favorite toys were Legos. My little brother used to get all the Lego presents growing up (because he was a boy) so I would use my allowance to buy my own. When she's old enough, try out the Lego Technic series or the Mindstorms. I had the entire first-gen of Bionicles (this is where my allowance went for a year), a Mindstorms R2D2, and the RCX 2 Mindstorms kit by the time I entered middle school. I don't think you'll get a lot of mileage with the prepackaged science/engineering kits. I used to get those all the time for presents. Barely used them. They're just not that fun and don't have a ton of reuse. You also get seriously railroaded. You want to explore at that age, not follow a set of instructions. Same goes for telescopes. The kind that parents are willing to buy are the kind that will probably get used only a couple times (unless your kid is REALLY into space). Also applies to the star-projector things. Set, the card game. What a great game. Equations is a competitive math game for 3rd-5th graders. You can scale it for lower grades by taking the exponents and square roots out. It's best played amongst peers. Get the rules off the internet, not from the boxed instructions. I was pretty good at it back in the day--my team placed 3rd at regionals. I volunteered with my old elementary school's Equations club a few years back and whooped those kids (still got it, baby). ;) I think early access and training in hardware tools can really open up the possibilities for any kid that likes building things. I was always building things as a kid. EDIT: Punctation and details.