Best STEM Toys for Kids & Toddlers Reviewed in 2018

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 make 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

• Batteries not included

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

• Small pieces are easy to lose

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 plastic wrench to keep kids familiar with real tools that they could be using for another project in the not so distant future.

BENEFITS

The open ended possibilities mean that working independently and problem solving are huge lessons that can be learned with this toy. An excellent opportunity to gain hand eye coordination with this small manipulative toy, emphasizing the use of the fingers and hands make it (and your child) a winner!

Pros

• Tools included
• Good for ages 3+
• Washable
• Includes instructional Ebooklet
• Non toxic

• Designed with enough pieces to make one complete project at a time

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

• Some rocks are hard to classify

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 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

• Dinosaurs come assembled and can be hard to loosen screws first time

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 8t and up can enjoy building mazes by themselves or with a friend.

BENEFITS

As your child works their way through the different challenges, they will increase their spatial reasoning and critical-thinking skills. By grasping the marbles and the towers, they will improve their hand-eye coordination and fine-motor skills.

Pros

• Improves fine-motor skills & hand-eye coordination
• Includes challenges for various skills levels
• Objective is easy to understand
• Increases spatial reasoning and critical-thinking skills

• Pieces of the towers cannot be separated

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

• Many reviewers wish the set included more LEGOs

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

• Not suitable for children under 3

The Zoob BuilderZ challenge set provides your child with 175 Zoob pieces to use to construct wacky creations. Each creation is built with the goal to solve a challenge. For instance, if your child draws a challenge card that says something like “Build a device that will make the ball land in the target after bouncing one time,” your child will then use the pieces to create a device to solve the challenge. Along with the Zoob pieces, there are wheels, rubber bands, foam play pads, and a ball included in the set for your child to use. The kit and the durability of the pieces provide your child with an endless amount of building opportunities.

BENEFITS

There are five different types of Zoob pieces, thus allowing them to snap together in a variety of different ways. Once snapped together, the pieces have the ability to rotate, extend, spin, etc. The pieces will stimulate your child’s imagination and encourage them to apply science, technology, engineering, and math principles. The brightly colored pieces will stimulate your child’s sensory development.

Pros

• Stimulates the imagination
• Encourages the application of science, technology, engineering, and math
• Pieces allow the creations to move
• A fun game for the entire family

• Instruction manual could be easier to understand

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

• Requires supervision as they could pose as a choking hazard