Toys That Encourage Your Kids STEM Abilities

Children can learn so much from the act of playing. You can ensure that your children learn as much as possible from play time by providing them with toys that not only entertain them, but teach them science, technology, engineering and math skills (STEM).

Finding games and toys that inspire learning takes more than hitting your local toy store. Most STEM supporting toys can be found on Amazon or other online outlets.

Let’s look at 4 games that inspire STEM learning in children as young as three.

1) Star Walk Kids

Star Walk Kids is a popular choice. This toy is filled with astronomy facts. Not only is it an awesome choice it comes with the added bonus of being reasonably priced. It is recommended for children 6-8.

The app will let your child gaze up at the star filled sky and literally put the universe at their fingertips. Kids can navigate the star filled night sky with just a swipe, as well as, speed up time to watch the movement stars make as the night goes on. Your child can explore the stars, planets and even the galaxy.

2) Robot Turtles

Robot Turtles is a board game created by a father of twins. Dan Shapiro’s goal was to create a game that taught the fundamentals, and he definitely succeeded.

Robot Turtles is recommended for ages 3 to 8. It provides crucial brain development while providing players with a lot of fun.

Robot Turtles teaches children all of the ins and outs of programming in a way that is super fun.

3) GoldieBlox

GoldieBlox is a stem toy that was created through crowd funding .The game was created to inspire girls to take an interest in engineering.

GoldieBlox comes in a series. The latest in the series is GoldieBlox and the Movie Machine. In this game GoldieBlox discovers the town’s movie projector is broken. She has to find a way to fix the machine or the town’s film festival will be cancelled. GoldieBlox gets her friends together to save the day.

During the game children 6 and up learn to create their own zoetrope and to put their engineering and problem solving skills to the test. Children will have a blast solving problems and creating their own movies.

4) Magna-Tiles

Children of all ages love to play with bright, geometric shapes. Magna-Tiles are colored magnet tiles that offer children the learning opportunity to explore geometric shapes as well as build their own creations.

These brightly colored tiles are super durable for even the smallest of hands. Children can create both 2D and 3D creations. The Magna-Tiles help children get a basic understanding of engineering, as well as, lead to an understanding of science, and math skills. Magna-tiles will get your children’s creativity flowing.

These are just a handful of the incredible toys available today that will encourage your child’s STEM development in ways that are so fun that they won’t even realize that they are learning!

Picture by Carla

By Shondell Varcianna

January 29, 2016