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Hands Down, the Best STEM Toy to Give This Holiday Season…
- EI Editor Posted On Nov 25, 2020 | Learning Through Play
Okay, okay…we couldn’t pick one – we chose nine! Yup, nine of our best-selling, award-winning STEM toys perfect for sparking curiosity, encouraging exploration and discovery, and building your kiddo’s brain, all while keeping them busy, busy, busy this holiday break. Even the smallest smarties can get in on the STEM learning and fun with our favorite STEM toys and tools, like:
STEM Favorites for Ages 3+
Design & Drill® Bolt Buddies are two toys in one! Kids use a real, working, kid-safe drill to build a rocket, race car, or recycling truck, then drop the included Bolt Buddy characters into the driver’s seat and shift into pretend play fun! Sounds like fun and games, but little kids get hands-on experience with simple construction and engineering as they build and play.
A literal take on STEM learning, Design & Drill® STEM Garden combines creative play and construction! Kids place the stems, select and stack the petals, and use a kid-friendly drill to bolt them in. Then they watch as the petals (and your kid’s STEM skills) magically bloom before their very eyes.
Santa’s got something for the littlest STEM scientists on your list! Built just for preschoolers, the GeoSafari® Jr. My First Microscope features two extra-large eyepieces and a chunky, kid-sized focusing knob to magnify found objects up to 8x larger. Examine everything from a coin or stamp to a slice of pizza. It’s the perfect introduction to the wide world of science!
STEM Favorites for Ages 4+
In addition to exploring oceans, continents, countries, and cities around the world, the GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Globe exposes kids to nature and animals in different ecosystems! Simply press the smart stylus pen to the globe to activate more than 1,000 fun facts (that’s more than 10 hours!) spoken by Wildlife Warrior Bindi Irwin.
Your spacey STEM smarty can look, listen, and learn all about outer space, with the GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Telescope! Featuring 240 fun facts and quiz questions voiced by Emily Calandrelli, star of Netflix’s Emily’s Wonder Lab, the Talking Telescope includes 24 incredible NASA images your kids can view from the comfort of your cozy living room.
Or head out back and check out the winter sky with the GeoSafari® Jr. My First Telescope! From the star on top of your tree to the sparkly ones outside, kids can take a closer look at distant objects, magnified 9x larger. My First Telescope provides a frustration-free first telescopic experience, featuring two extra-large eyepieces with comfy goggles and nose-cut-out for perfect eye placement as well as focus-free viewing perfect for preschoolers.
Wildlife Warrior Bindi Irwin will get your kids excited about science! With 60 full-color images, two modes of play – Fact and Quiz – and more than 100 recorded facts and questions, the GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Microscope is a great way to encourage interest and early interest in botany and biology through hands-on science play.
The little animal lovers on your list will love the GeoSafari® Jr. Talking Wildlife Camera! Featuring 130 built-in images taken by Wildlife Warrior Robert Irwin and more than 200 fun facts and quiz questions spoken in Irwin’s charming Australian lilt, the Talking Wildlife Camera will take your kiddos on a STEM photo safari this Christmas!
STEM Favorites for Ages 5+
Introduce your elfen engineers to the basics of circuit building and engineering with this hands-on, 3-D build-and-play set! Circuit Explorer Mission – Lights includes everything kids need to build a Rocket with a light-up nose cone and rocket nozzles, Space Rover with light-up headlines, and Landing Pad with color-changing lights. Kids simply follow the symbols to connect the spaceship’s circuits, creating light-up pieces perfect for pretend play with the included play figures. Build on your basic Circuit Explorers set with Circuit Explorer Mission – Motion! This STEM-gineering set enables kids to connect circuited pieces and create a Communication Station with a rotating Radar Dish, Power Station with Rover Charger, and a Powered Space Rover and free-wheeling Space Rover, both with light-up headlights. Pop the included play figures into the cockpit and blast off on a circuit-building space mission! Or go REALLY big, with the Circuit Explorer Deluxe Base Station Mission – Motion, Mission Lights, Motion & Sound set! This set includes everything kids need to build a Deluxe Base Station with Towers, Spinning Diner Sign, Planetarium with color-changing dome light, Voice Synthesizer Station with 10 space sounds, Communication Station with rotating Radar Dish, a Powered Space Rover and a freewheeling Space Rover both with light-up headlights. Build their STEM skills – and their imaginations – with hours of wired playtime!
Stay Connected…to Fun!
Sometimes these days can feel like all work and no play… for you AND your kids! Help your kids escape the screens and stress of at-home learning and get back to the business of play with these awesome, hands-on, activity ideas perfect for after-school playtime!Hands-On Fun for Big KidsThere’s a reason recess is built into the school day – big kids’ brains need a break! Hands-on play improves behavior, develops imagination and creativity, helps kids express their emotions, and so much more.Busy builders can blast into hands-on, building play fun (with a circuit-building STEM twist!) with EI’s brand-new Circuit Explorer sets! Kids follow the arrows to connect the pieces, at the same time connecting circuits that activate lights, sounds, and moving pieces. Get started with the Rocket set, complete with light-up nose cone and nozzles, Space Rover with light-up headlights, and Landing Pad with color-changing lights. Progress to the Rover set and build a Communications Station with a rotating Radar Dish, Power Station with Rover Charger, Powered Space Rover and Freewheeling Space Rover, both with light-up headlights. Then surprise your 3-D, circuit-building sweetie with the Deluxe Base Station, a Deluxe Base Station with circuit-powered Towers, Spinning Diner Sign, Planetarium with color-changing dome light, Voice Synthesizer Station with 10 space sounds, Communication Station with rotating Radar Dish, a Powered Space Rover and a freewheeling Space Rover both with light-up headlights. The perfect holiday gifts, the pieces in each set work with the others for a totally interconnected circuit system, and each set includes pretend play figures perfect for imaginative play. The only circuit-building set with buildable, 3-D pieces, Circuit Explorers are available exclusively on Amazon.com.Puppet shows are another great way to light up your kids’ imaginations! Put those cardboard delivery boxes to use and create a homemade puppet theater following the simple instructions at AskaGranny. Let your big kid decorate the theater using paints and markers, then pull out your puppet collection – or make your own sock puppets or tube puppets - and act out your kiddo’s favorite book or let them freestyle with a story of their own making. Also, for the ultimate time-saving way to have fun, check out this super simple creative video featuring ways to make puppets out of regular household items and foods! They'll never look at their orange the same way again!Hands-On Fun for PreschoolersUnplugged, hands-on playtime is a must in every preschooler’s day. Hands-on play engages all of a preschooler’s senses, building critical fine motor skills, and exercising problem-solving skills.Design & Drill® Bolt Buddies™ are perfect for hands-on preschool playtime! Kids use snap-together pieces to build the bodies of a Rocket, Racecar, or Recycling Truck, then use a real, working, kid-friendly drill to bolt them together. When the hands-on construction fun is done, use the included driver and pal figurines to play out various pretend play scenarios, encouraging creativity and imagination, too!
Slime is also a great hands-on activity for preschoolers! Perfect for sensory stimulation, slime is calming, promotes mindfulness and focus, encourages independent play, and helps build fine motor skills. Find all kinds of easy slime recipes, including MomDot.com’s edible slime, sand slime, rainbow explosion slime, and more, on our Easy SlimeTime Pinterest Board! Or create a homemade batch of party slime to give as an adorable birthday gift or party favor! Add glitter, Playfoam, pool noodles or whatever you fancy to make your batch colorful and textured!
Photo credit: MomDot.comHands-On Fun for ToddlersEven though they’re not in school, toddlers are clocking more screen time than ever during this unusual year at home. Hands-on play is a great way to practice basic concepts including shapes, colors, letters, and numbers, develop language skills, and introduce early math concepts like bigger and smaller, shorter and taller, counting, sorting, and matching.The hands-on fun really stacks up with EI’s Bright Basics Nest & Stack Cubes! Kids as young as two can build a 3-foot tall tower by stacking 10 cubes featuring animals, shapes, numerals, quantities, and sweet starry scenes. When they’re done stacking, toddlers can nest each cube inside the next, building visual discrimination, spatial reasoning, fine motor, and early math skills as they play.
Sidewalk chalk is a highly-satisfying, hands-on activity perfect for toddlers. Let them choose the colors, then go to town designing their own outdoor works of art. You can join in the fun, drawing everything from rainbows to hopscotch courts, cats, and clouds. Sidewalk paint is a slippery twist on sidewalk chalk and you can make your own! See how at our Home's Cool video tutorial. READ MORE
