With the long summer school break best children’s gadgets underway, you may need a little help keeping the kids entertained. From walkie-talkies and cameras to tablets, robotic toys and fitness trackers, here are some of the best kid-friendly tech to keep the little ones (and not-so-little ones) busy.

Many tech toys are fads, but my longtime favorite has stood the test of time as a modern update on remote control fun. Sphero is a ball you control using a smartphone or tablet, and it has hidden depths, with games and educational elements also available.

The Sphero mini ball is great fun to drive and small enough that overly lush indoor excursions won’t result in broken furniture and scratched paint.

Kids or big kids can learn to code, follow examples, make the robot do all sorts of things, or go deeper and write JavaScript code. Higher-end versions, like the £190 BOLT, also take the educational elements to the next level.

If you’d rather not lend your precious fragile phone or iPad to your little ones, Amazon’s virtually indestructible Kids Edition tablets.

It does all the standard tablet children’s gadgets stuff like movies, apps, games, a web browser if you want, and parental controls to lock it down, set time limits, and age filters. There’s even an option that restricts access to kid-safe sites and videos, but you don’t have access to the Google Play store, only the Amazon app store.

The Kids edition comes with a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ (£3 to £7 a month thereafter), which is a curated collection of children’s text and audio books, movies, TV shows and educational apps.

If you want something bigger, or Amazon’s new Kids Pro tablets start at £100 with extra features aimed at kids at school age.