I had a $200 Dohm that did jack squat against the dude above me in my old building, then grabbed a $25 one off Amazon and it worked way better. The cheap one had this adjustable tone dial so I could tune it to hit the lower rumble instead of just making white noise. Your neighbor's fancy machine probably has preset sounds that don't match the bass freq you're dealing with. Price tags on these things are mostly about fancy apps and sleep tracking junk, not the actual sound. You can also try putting it on a wood surface or against the wall, that made a big difference for me since it vibrates through better.

Would starting them on the kids version of Ticket to Ride first help them get the route thing?

Had a guy in Beaverton swear up and down his chimney was clean cause he burned those fake wax logs. Pulled the cap off and the whole thing was coated in this glossy junk that looked like black glass. Took me two hours with a scraper just to get through the first layer. He kept saying his father in law told him those things burn clean. I just handed him a flashlight and let him look up the flue himself. Sometimes you don't gotta say a word, the chimney talks for you.