10 Best STEM Toys for Kids & Toddlers Reviewed in 2019

Design

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. Your child 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.

Ease of Use

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.

Physical Development

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.

Design

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.

Ease of Use

Easy to use as they click together and apart, these are a great toy for anyone over 5.

Physical Development

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. 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.

Design

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.

Ease of Use

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.

Physical Development

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.

Design

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. Rush Hour Junior was awarded the Parents Choice Gold Award and NAPPA Award and is most suitable for children ages five and up.

Ease of Use

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.

Physical Development

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.

Design

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.

Ease of Use

The eBook features 12 different designs that are all achievable with solely the pieces in this set.

Physical Development

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!

Design

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!

Ease of Use

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.

Physical Development

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.

Design

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.

Ease of Use

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.

Physical Development

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.

Design

With two T-Rex, two Brontosaurus, and two Triceratops dinosaurs, the options for reconstruction are vast. Hours of entertainment and learning come from this small package.

Ease of Use

Colorful, interchangeable, and easy to use make this an excellent gift for children ages 3 and up!

Physical Development

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!

Design

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.

Ease of Use

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.

Physical Development

As your child builds, they will stimulate their cognitive development and increase their fine-motor skills.

Design

Thirty-three LEGO pieces, six plastic balls, paper ramps, string, and other components are all included in this set. Children ages 8 and up can enjoy taking ordinary LEGOs and turning them into a machine that tosses gum wrappers or rings a bell.

Ease of Use

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. 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.

Physical Development

Each machine constructed is sure to foster a love of engineering in your child. Your child’s confidence will increase as they master each machine.