Home10 Best STEM Toys for Kids & Toddlers Reviewed in 2019
10 Best STEM Toys for Kids & Toddlers Reviewed in 2019
STEM Toys are rapidly growing in popularity and with good reason! STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and STEM toys are games, activities, and toys that help foster the skills necessary for studying and careers in those fields. These sorts of activities can range from fun, creative lab kits to sets equipped for remote control robot construction. Perfume and soap making sets also qualify as STEM products! Below, we’ve collected a varied assortment of our ten favorite STEM toys. Jump in on the fun; these can be a blast for adults, too!
This product is an excellent choice for STEM enthusiasts and creative thinkers alike. A great tool for children ages 8 and up, this offers a hands-on opportunity to build a functional model of electrical circuits in over 100 projects. With snap-together parts, the lack of tools makes this a safe way for kids to explore and experiment in a low-risk environment. Accompanied by detailed and easy to follow instructions, your child can make their own projects. Such projects can make things like a musical doorbell or a flying saucer using the included snap wires, slide switches, fuses, and other parts included to inspire their imagination.
BENEFITS
This sort of play is crucial for children because of the exposure it gives them to valuable things like science, technology, engineering, and math. The more exposure to such things that children are given, the more opportunity they have to understand and comprehend the concepts that are shown. These concepts are (often) the building blocks for success, as this sort of knowledge is integral to success in various academic and intellectual pursuits later in life.
Pros
Safe to use
Multiple projects to build
High quality
Clear quality instructions
Cons
Batteries not included
What We Like About It
We love that this is well designed and safe enough for kids to experiment with circuits on their own! The projects are simple but with great reward for kids just starting to want to experiment and understand the inner workings of the world around them.
2
VIAHART Brain Flakes 500 Piece
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SUMMARY
This would be an excellent first STEM toy or just a great addition to the toy collection! A brain workout for all ages, these are great for growing the dexterity of small children, and a challenge of the imagination for older children. Easy to use as they click together and apart, these are a great toy for anyone over 5. Offering a plethora of options, this is for the child who wants to build, sort, and invent unique shapes and designs. Each jar comes with 500 pieces, allowing for all sorts of creativity to unfurl.
BENEFITS
Excellent for practicing spatial reasoning and the development of fine motor skills, this is a great tool for kids. The opportunity to build and sort is so useful at all ages, the opportunity to experiment with shapes, colors, and patterns is vast with this toy. Dually expanding skills in both coordination and dexterity there are many benefits for the body as well as the mind with this toy.
Pros
Easy to use
Durable
Good teaching tool
Painless if stepped on
Cons
Small pieces are easy to lose
What We Like About It
This is an excellent toy for almost all ages. The design makes it intuitive to use, and the colors inviting to sort and arrange in patterns. Building with this is a challenge just as much as a pleasure, and the learning that accompanies it is invaluable.
3
ETI Toys Original 101 Piece
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SUMMARY
This is for the child who always wants to tear things apart and put them back together. An added bonus is that this toy is safe for kids as young as three, which means a head start on the scholastic play! With this 101 piece set, the options are endless and the imagination can run wild in building projects that can move with wheels, stand fixed, or be built tall. Whatever your child’s interest, be it animals, cars, or planes, there are pieces to build it. This even comes with a plastic wrench to keep kids familiar with real tools that they could be used for another project in the not so distant future.
BENEFITS
The eBook features 12 different designs that are all achievable with solely the pieces in this set. This allows your little one to deconstruct and rebuild time and time again, helping to improve their focus, dexterity, motor skills, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, creative thinking, and more. Plus the ability to make their own creations leaves them with endless possibilities for imaginative designs!
Pros
Tools included
Good for ages 3+
Washable
Includes instructional Ebooklet
Nontoxic
Cons
Designed with enough pieces to make one complete project at a time
What We Like About It
We love the options to design according to your child’s interests. Animals, cars, robots and planes galore. Washable pieces make this a great sharable toy that promotes teamwork and social skills.
4
ROCK ON! Geology Game
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SUMMARY
Featuring real rocks of all three classifications (igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary) this is a doubly awesome product, as it serves as both a starter rock collection and a geology game. Including identification guides, this makes sorting and identifying a real treat. Packed with information and fun, this is a great kit for your child to explore, but also to use to explore the world the world around them! This even comes with a carry case to take all rocks and identification guides on the go, making rocks not only a partially outdoor hobby but a social one as well.
BENEFITS
This is a great introduction to not just geology but ecology and plate tectonics, excellent for helping kids understand the environment, past and present. An excellent hands-on activity for the parts of nature that are so common and typically so overlooked. This is a real invitation for sparking an interest in categorizing, organizing, and classifying, and a great tool for the child who needs a little direction for their time indoors or outdoors.
Pros
Educational
Good for older kids
Good quality
Includes carry case
Cons
Some rocks are hard to classify
What We Like About It
This is great for kids of any age so long as they are old enough to not put things in their mouth. Young kids love to see and feel the rocks, older kids like to play the accompanying game and classify the rocks. Excellent as a social or solitary activity, and a good incentive to get outside to grow the collection!
5
ToyVelt Dinosaur Pack of 6
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SUMMARY
Including six dinosaurs and four tools for assembly, this is a great gift for the child who loves dinosaurs or just loves to take things apart and put them back together. With two T-Rex, two Brontosaurus, and two Triceratops dinosaurs, the options for reconstruction are vast. Colorful, interchangeable, and easy to use make this an excellent gift for children ages 3 and up! Hours of entertainment and learning come from this small package. Whether it be the dinosaurs themselves, or the ability to construct and deconstruct, there is something for everyone!
BENEFITS
This is an excellent toy, not only for imaginative play but puzzles and problem-solving as well. As the toys and parts are interchangeable, there is a lot of freedom to experiment with the invention. Also, the use of the tools will develop fine motor skills, along with hand-eye coordination. The fun to be had can be solo or with others, as there is plenty of dinosaurs and tools to share!
Pros
Good for younger and older children alike
Plenty of tools available
Interchangeable parts
Good for use over and over again
Cons
Dinosaurs come assembled and can be hard to loosen screws the first time
What We Like About It
This packaged set is excellent for quality and entertainment and learning. The replay value is wonderful as there is nearly unlimited ways to deconstruct and reconstruct these dinosaurs to make totally new unique species.
6
ThinkFun Gravity Maze Marble Run
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SUMMARY
Put your child’s reasoning skills to the test with the ThinkFun Gravity Maze Marble Run. There are nine building towers, a target tower, three marbles, and a game grid included in this set. Your child is tasked with the challenge of creating a maze that will carry the marble from the starting point to the target tower. There are also 60 challenge cards included in the kit that provide building instructions for mazes varying from beginner to expert skill levels. Children ages 8 and up can enjoy building mazes by themselves or with a friend.
BENEFITS
With 60 different challenges of varying skill levels (ranging from beginner to expert), this set allows for plenty of growth. It’s a logic game that enhances spatial reasoning and planning skills. And since it has so many challenges for different experience levels, your child won’t plateau anytime soon with this toy.
Increases spatial reasoning and critical-thinking skills
Cons
Pieces of the towers cannot be separated
What We Like About It
The objective of the game is simple enough for young children to understand but will also provide them with a fun and challenging experience. Watch their skills progress as they move from the beginner challenge cards to the expert challenge cards.
7
Klutz LEGO Chain Reactions
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SUMMARY
With the Klutz Lego Chain Reaction, your child can build moving machines. Thirty-three LEGO pieces, six plastic balls, paper ramps, string, and other components are all included in this set. Along with the pieces, there is an eight-page instruction manual that will give your child step-by-step building instructions for 10 different machines. Children ages 8 and up can enjoy taking ordinary LEGOs and turning them into a machine that tosses gum wrappers or rings a bell. Each machine constructed is sure to foster a love of engineering in your child.
BENEFITS
Not only are the instructions easy to understand but also each machine is geared toward a different skill level. For instance, your child can start with the Quintopple machine as it is geared toward beginners and work towards building the more advanced machines like the elevator ramps.
Your child’s confidence will increase as they master each machine.
Pros
Instructions are easy to understand
Fosters a love of engineering
Machines vary by skill level
Stimulates your child’s cognitive development
Cons
Many reviewers wish the set included more LEGOs
What We Like About It
Not only will your child have the opportunity to build the machines in the instruction booklet, but they can also use the pieces to develop original creations.
8
IQ BUILDER Top Blocks
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SUMMARY
This is an awesome toy for school or at home, as it is an excellent blend of fun and supplementary to academia. It includes 164 pieces comprised of connector balls and pieces of different lengths, all to link up and form unique projects of your child’s own design. Ebooks are available to offer suggestions or to enhance the experience of replicating a specific design or project. Overall an excellent learning toy for a child or a group, could be used for team bondings, play dates, or just children looking to explore some accessible constructive engineering. This is a great opportunity for girls or boys to get in touch with their creative side and see what they can do!
BENEFITS
The unique nature of this toy with the connector pieces and different angles that can be utilized due to the connector balls make this excellent for growing skills in critical thinking, design or problem-solving. This product has been used in classrooms to teach mathematical concepts, geometry, and even physics. Plus, sticking the pieces together, gauging what will fit, and estimating even lengths all tends to fine motor skills, critical thinking, and hand-eye coordination. Your child’s brain will be getting a work out without them even knowing it! This is why we are confident that it will be a wonderful tool for your child to grow with and explore different concepts, all while enjoying the pleasures of building.
Pros
Multiple ways to use for curriculum or fun
Great for kids or adults
Easy to learn
Vast building opportunities
Cons
Not suitable for children under 3
What We Like About It
We love that this toy offers a totally different way to approach engineering and design. Approachable, accessible, and inviting, this is a great addition to any home or classroom!
9
ThinkFun Rush Hour Junior
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SUMMARY
The original world-famous Rush Hour game has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. This Junior version of the hit logic game includes a traffic grid, 40 challenge cards, fifteen blocking vehicles, an ice cream truck, and a bag to take the game on the go. Clear, quality instructions help little ones to start playing immediately. And with challenges ranging between beginner and expert, this game continues to hone your child’s developmental skills even as they build and progress. Rush Hour Junior was awarded the Parents Choice Gold Award and NAPPA Award and is most suitable for children ages five and up.
BENEFITS
ThinkFun’s Junior Rush Hour is a bit like Tetris. It challenges spatial reasoning, planning skills, and logical thinking. Since children are also physically building the patterns on their challenge cards, it also works dexterity, motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.
Pros
40 challenge cards
Builds and designs for all skill levels
Easy to pack up and carry with you
Comes with its own travel bag
Award-winning STEM game for young children
Cons
Some users found this game to be a little too simple for its age range, and suggest buying the Junior version for ages 4-5, and the adult one for ages 6 and up
What We Like About It
It’s a great little game to hone problem-solving skills. It’s easy to pack up and carry with you, and small enough that it can fit in a to-go bag, backpack, or even mom’s purse. The instructions are simple and the cards give kids lots to keep them occupied so it’s a solid option when you need some entertainment on the road.
10
EMIDO Building Blocks 120 pieces
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SUMMARY
Emido has modernized the building block by turning it into a colorful geometric figure. The 120 blocks included in this set can be combined to create whatever design your child thinks of. Each piece is BPA-free so your child is completely safe to let their imagination run wild. You won’t have to worry about finding these pieces scattered throughout your home. The included storage bag will keep all of the pieces organized in one place.
BENEFITS
As your child builds, they will stimulate their cognitive development and increase their fine-motor skills. Composed of a high-quality polypropylene, these pieces are super-durable and easy to clean. The pieces easily snap together and can be taken apart just as easily, thus your child can enjoy playing with these blocks by themselves.
Pros
Storage bag will keep the pieces organized in one place
Stimulates cognitive development & imagination
Increases fine-motor skills
Pieces are durable and BPA-free
Cons
Requires supervision as they could pose as a choking hazard
What We Like About It
These are like a slightly zanier LEGO. They come in quirky shapes but they fit together easily, offer lots of different creative designs to be made, and they pack up and travel easily. They’re also not quite so sharp or small as LEGOs, making them a better choice for younger users that might leave their fun building toys scattered like landmines across the living room floor.
Criteria Used in Evaluation of the Best STEM Toys for Kids and Toddlers
It is very important for us at Borncute to make sure we have something for everyone, which is why we made sure that the toys selected above would not only teach, but appeal to all children. We made sure to incorporate a variety of products to cover almost any age, interest, or type of activity (individual or group). STEM toys can bring kids together around concepts that are extremely valuable to the world today; the world will need your little expert! A major component of our selection process for the STEM toys above was to make sure that they were multifaceted in what they offered children. We made sure to look for toys that would not only teach STEM concepts, but also grow fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination, give the ability to sort through colors and pieces, and of course offer various kinds of experimentation. We didn’t want any toy to only offer one thing, and if a toy did, it didn’t make this list. That’s because we know that anything that deserves to be in your home or classroom needs to offer more than just what is advertised. The above toys all offer multiple ways to grow kids deliberately and cognitively, that their new knowledge may become tangible tools for their futures.
Another major component of criteria for us is to ensure that these toys offer almost nearly what they do creatively as they do intellectually. Maybe your daughter identifies more as an artist than a scientist or your son a musician more than a mathematician. That’s ok. We wanted toys that unlock the same creativity in them that fuels their art, and funnels it into science because we don’t want your kids to put themselves in a box, and we know you don’t either. Many of the above toys were selected because of their all-ages nature. All-ages toys are our most creative and broad purposed offerings. That’s great for little ones with big ideas who can grow motor skills, but its also great for your much older child needing something durable to practice building a bridge, tower, anything that speaks to them to get them exploring how and why things work as they do.
That’s where STEM interests started for the world’s most brilliant minds…curiosity. And that’s how we found these toys to inspire such curiosity. We know because even we as adults had our interests piqued, just further testifying to the all-ages nature of curiosity and creativity that these toys tapped into. We hope your family will enjoy exploring them just as much as we did.
What kinds of careers are available in STEM fields?
STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It’s used as shorthand to refer to any product or program associated with science and math fields. Specifically, there are lots of STEM initiatives out there geared toward getting children interested in these fields. Sometimes children don’t realize just how fun these fields can be until they’re already preoccupied with other hobbies. STEM toys and programs put an emphasis on getting children interested early, so even if their curriculums don’t quite rise to the challenge of making sciences and maths fun, kids can still see the ways in which these fields are both practical and enjoyable!
With an ever-evolving economy and job market, it’s all too easy to panic that your child won’t find something successful and sustainable. For starters: breathe. They have time to figure out what they’re passionate about and willing to pursue, especially if they’re young. If your children have shown significant interest in STEM fields and are curious about what careers might be accessible to them, the answer is: there are lots of jobs out there! Many of them are going to be too complicated or nuanced to appeal to young children, but there are plenty of careers that they will understand and take interest in, even at a young age. We suggest talking to them about the following STEM jobs: Aircraft Mechanics and Technicians (getting to make and fix airplanes!), Animal Breeders and Scientists, Astronomers, Biologists, Civil Engineers (getting to work on buildings), Computer Engineers (getting to write computer programs, fix computers, and more), Chemists, Psychologists (getting to study people’s behaviors), Dietitians and Nutritionists (studying food sciences), Video Game Designers, Zoologists, and more!
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is STEM?
A: STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math. STEM toys are toys that inspire play that explores those concepts at age-appropriate levels. They are meant to be educational but also meant to be fun.
Q: Will STEM toys be good for my 3-year-old?
A: Yes! Though we’d never expect a 3-year-old to parrot back to us words like inertia or thermodynamics, 3-year-olds absolutely can learn concepts that are central to STEM-related fields like design, balance, sorting, and more! Plus, many of these toys are great for 3-year-olds not only in the concepts they teach but in the practice it gives kids using their hands and eyes.
Q: If my kid doesn’t like STEM fields, is it worth buying STEM toys?
A: We would say absolutely! Kids can seem put off by things that don’t seem inviting or familiar (Brussels sprouts, anyone?). That’s why it’s important to familiarize them with STEM using toys. Let learning be fun and the two of you can be amazed at where your interests lead you!
Q: Aren’t STEM toys really expensive?
A: This is a common misconception. STEM toys can get very expensive, but they really cost in the same range (often cheaper) than any other toys. Plus there are so many educational benefits that just aren’t present with other kinds of toys. If everything costs the same anyway, why not do something that will have long-lasting benefits for the kid in your life?
Q: I don’t know much about science myself, how can I help my kid?
A: STEM toys are great for this! This is something the two of you can learn together. Any toys that require instructions we selected because they are user-friendly. Also, they are for kids, which is another way of saying that you don’t have to be a scientist to have fun and love using them!
Q: Will STEM toys be a good addition to my classroom?
A: Absolutely! I know when people think of STEM toys they often think of some very techy or fragile, but so many toys above are durable and would have a lot to offer many children at once! We encourage these in classroom settings because as they are toys they can take the edge off learning something totally new. Good luck!
