Gift Ideas for 13 Year Old Boys

Constructive Gifts

• Teenage boys enjoy building projects with moving parts and motors. This is a step up from the typical building block projects they built when they were younger. Many modern construction kits come with race car or roller coaster tracks, battery-powered cars, and remote-control construction trucks.

  You can provide a 13-year-old with three times the fun when you give construction kits that can be assembled into three or four designs. For example, knex.com says its amusement park kit builds a roller coaster that also can be turned into a swing ride or ferris wheel. Architecture kits inspire kids to design blueprints for creating log cabins, A-frame houses and ranch homes.

Video Games and Consoles

• A popular gift for teen boys is a video game console. With so many options, you may not know offhand which one to buy. A good tip is to choose game consoles based on how active your teen is (or how active you would like him to be). Some consoles, especially ones created for sports, are more physically interactive than others and can double as a fitness routine in addition to an entertainment device.

  If you opt to give your 13-year-old a video game console, choose games for him that are based on an "E" (Everyone) or "T" (Teen) rating. According to esrb.org, video games rated for everyone contain little or no violence, minimal suggestive themes and only a slight amount of foul language, if any. Games rated for teens, on the other hand, can contain mild bloody violence, a heavier dose of foul language, crude humor, and stronger but non-explicit suggestive themes.

Interactive Battle Gifts

• If your teen boy likes to play war with his friends, but you would rather he not use BB guns, purchase him the gift of a paintball gun and paintball mask instead. Since paintball masks must be worn during play, the likelihood of getting an eye or ear shot out is incredibly slim in relation to a BB gun.

  Paintball.com experts still stress the importance of paintball safety, however. They recommend always wearing a mask, using barrel plugs or covers whenever the gun is not in use, and keeping the speed of the paintball gun under 300 feet per second.

Novelty Energy Drinks

• Choose from a wide array of novelty energy drinks, which may contain ginseng, taurine, and double shots of caffeine. One bottle of an energy drink can last all day long and is a rare treat for a teenage boy who does not drink energy sodas ordinarily. Although some energy drinks are more costly, this is still an affordable gift for any teen boy.

  The warnings on the back of energy drink bottles recommend not drinking more than one serving at a time. Encourage your teen recipient to drink only half the bottle in one sitting.