My Daughter wants her 1st Flashlight

Hi All

My 5 year old daughter keeps pinching my HDS flashlight. I promised her I would get her, her very own flashlight. So what do you recommend? I was thinking of something easy to use and maybe Pink! but I'm struggling to find a light suitable. What have people here purchased to start their children's flashlight addiction?

A Sipik SK68 from dx comes to mind. I don't think it comes in pink, but it does come in red, green, blue, silver and black. It's a fun and easy to use flashlight, takes 1xAA and has 1 mode with zoomable focus. And best of all, it will only cost you between $5 - $10 depending on the model (cheaper if you buy in bulk), so no big deal if she loses or breaks it.

The Fenix E01 comes in colors. Not too bright @ 13 lumens.
Single mode and runs a long time on a single AAA.

Otherwise, I am sure that toysRUs must have some inexpensive "Frozen" or "Disney Princess" LED lights.

L3 Illuminations L8 or L10 twisty? Nice light, but not so nice that you'd lament it getting beaten up or lost. And the twist to change modes may keep her interested in it for a while. Comes in a variety of colors, including pink!

Get a cheap 1xAA light, and stick in a rechargeable NiMH cell. That way, if she leaves it on, there's no danger of reverse-charging a cell and ruining the battery.

Cheers guys I'll take a look at these.

How about a tube


My daughter has her pink one on a safety breakaway lanyard so its not lost that easy................not lost yet anyway :laughing:

ven said:

How about a tube


My daughter has her pink one on a safety breakaway lanyard so its not lost that easy................not lost yet anyway :laughing:

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Hey, I recently bought one of these in black! lol

I keep it on my car keys. Very fun little keychain light IMO.

Ven has the right idea. Either a break-away neck lanyard or one of those scrunchy-like coiled wrist lanyards would be ideal to make sure whatever you get her doesn't get dropped or lost somewhere because it is small and hard to find.

As far as the light itself, I kind of like the Tube idea myself. You can't kill it - when it runs down to the "Daddy! It doesn't work anymore!" point, just recharge it and away she goes. After a couple times she will probably be recharging it on her own. And the infinite adjustment will keep her busy learning about it for a while as well. Otherwise, there is always that old standby, the Maglite Solitaire.

A Nitecore Tube? You really want a 5-year old playing with a light powered by a lithium-ion battery? One good "smash", and she's got a fire on her hands.

Yeah I forgot about these. She prefers a button to a twisty also.

+1 on the Tube. Small light but bright enough for in-house use. Simple UI and easy to charge.

My grandsons were 5 and 7 when I gave them their first lights. The MiniMags with LED upgrades didn't last long before they were disassembled and parts were lost. The Inova X1s I gave them next lasted a little longer, but eventually the tailcaps were lost. The battery in these was almost always dead from running to exhaustion on the floor on in a toy box. I don't know the answer, but the light needs to have two key features; a timed automatic off and require tools to disassemble. PlaySchool made a great light like this, but its more suited to a 2 year old. Maybe a Photon Freedom left in demo mode would work.

Lumintop tool clicky?

If your daughter is a budding Ms Engineer then nothing will stop her, not even tiny screws. I have taken apart things with tiny screws like a Tube with nothing more than a sharp-tipped paring knife. Get her a clear Tube so she can see everything inside, and that will take away a large part of the need to disassemble.

Give her a couple of button lights, clear if possible, along with the lanyard/wrist thingy and see how she treats them. Make the lanyard in her favorite color or glow in the dark. If the button lights survive, move up a step. Get her a Tube in clear or her choice of colors. Tell her if it survives for 'x' amount of time, she can help you pick out the next step up the flashlight ladder. If it doesn't, she's responsible for replacing it and the clock starts over. Don't make the goals too high, and let her see the reward if she succeeds. You two can spend time together researching her next light as she nears her goal - it will help her focus on making it. Accidents happen, and you will have to decide how to handle the situation when/if. Little kids will surprise you with how well they will respond if you challenge them with a goal they can reach, and they know they can trust you to carry through with your part of the deal.

My four year old wants her own too. When we walk the dog she loves waving a flashlight around. I would exercise caution and go for something of limited output. I gave her my Jetbeam PC10 set to low (head loose) although she also loves my Nitecore SENS AA which is great for little hands.

Grad her a Fenix LD02! I don't own one personally but was checking it out at REI, you get 100 lumens on high three brightness modes, a pocket clip and it's a clicky it's looks like.

Xeno E03, my daughter and wife are partial to the red one.

2 years ago I gave my 4 year old son nitecore ec25. Was a mistake. First time we went out in the dark he shouted "hey!", I turned to him and he pointed the light straight into my eyes with 860 lumens. I asked why did you do that when I specificly told NOT to point the light to another human being or animal. He said: "I was afraid because of the darkness and just wanted to see where you are.." My advice: less than 100 lm, more flood than throw, easy to use, and finally: total darkness might be fun for the flashaholic but not for a small child..... :candle:

Timothybil said:

Give her a couple of button lights, clear if possible, along with the lanyard/wrist thingy and see how she treats them. Make the lanyard in her favorite color or glow in the dark. If the button lights survive, move up a step. Get her a Tube in clear or her choice of colors. Tell her if it survives for 'x' amount of time, she can help you pick out the next step up the flashlight ladder. If it doesn't, she's responsible for replacing it and the clock starts over. Don't make the goals too high, and let her see the reward if she succeeds. You two can spend time together researching her next light as she nears her goal - it will help her focus on making it. Accidents happen, and you will have to decide how to handle the situation when/if. Little kids will surprise you with how well they will respond if you challenge them with a goal they can reach, and they know they can trust you to carry through with your part of the deal.

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I think this is excellent.