Do you ever wish you could help your child acquire useful skills that could pretty much guarantee him or her a job in the future? STEM is your answer. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Many establishments have identified these educational disciplines as the way to the jobs of the future.
There are some toys that are better than others if you wish to encourage your toddler towards STEM. STEM toys normally force kids to use their imagination and creativity on top of teaching STEM ideas.
There are a great many STEM toys for older kids but not so many for young toddlers. We scoured the net for appropriate STEM toys for toddlers for the purpose of this article and these are what we found.
Here are the best 5 STEM toys for toddlers.
Best STEM Toys for Toddlers
The Grippies Builders Soft Grip Magnetic Building Set is a great way to introduce your toddler to engineering, planning and design concepts. Most proper STEM toys are made up of pieces that are still too small for toddlers to handle but this set is perfect! The pieces are big enough so that they pose less of a choking hazard for young kids that may still want to put toys in their mouths.
This STEM toy consists of soft plastic rods and balls that are magnetized so that they can be joined together to form interesting structures, patterns and models. The set is made up of 30 pieces and has 4 different textures that are great for tactile development. As an added bonus, they are also easy to clean with a damp cloth.
They are admittedly pricier for the amount of pieces that you get but they are also built to be durable and take harsh thumping from toddlers. We love it as a beginning STEM toy for a toddler.
The Ball Drop 2 Sets of Swirl Ball Ramp is a great STEM toy to introduce your toddler to the concepts of gravity, motion and energy transfer. Think of a marble run toy but the balls are big enough so that they can’t be swallowed.
The Ball-Drop-2-Sets-of-Swirl-Ball-Ramp is made up of 10 multi-colored ball ramp layers and 4 spinning balls. The balls also produce sounds when rolled.
Engaging to watch, your toddler will get to experiment with tower height differences and how this changes the speed of the rolling ball.
Blocks are a staple for STEM toys. Blocks are a great way for toddlers to learn about construction, stacking, balancing, planning and design as well as developing their imagination and creativity.
We love the Hape Solid Beech Wood Stacking Blocks because they are sturdy, made of beautiful wood and are safe for toddlers to put in their mouths. As an added bonus, some of these blocks have numbers and letters printed on them too so that you can use them to help get your toddler ready for kindergarten. This set consists of different colored shapes including square blocks, long rectangles, triangles and half circles.
Made from non-toxic materials and finishes, this set is a great investment for your toddler if you want to encourage him or her into STEM.
We love Fat Brain’s stuff as a lot of them are created specifically for STEM in mind. The Spinagain Toy introduces the concept of gravity, friction, corkscrews, spinning and balance. Your toddler will get a chance to practice motor control as he or she fits the discs onto the corkscrew pole.
You can vary the spinning experience by flipping the base to create either a wobbly or sturdy spin or simply varying the order in which the discs are placed on the pole. Pretty and engaging to watch, the different colors of the discs enhance the play. This toy is also a great lead-on to future play with gears (another great STEM toy but for older kids).
If you are in STEM yourself, you probably knew that LEGO Duplo was going to make our list. LEGO Duplo is the larger version of standard LEGO bricks and is, therefore, safer for your toddler.
LEGO has created some interesting Duplo sets and some include creative features such as painted pictures, window shutters that move and trailers with wheels.
However, these extra features can also become a limitation to creativity as your toddler may find it difficult to look past the suggested ways of using the toy.
This is why we suggest that you get your toddler the My First Bricks set. It has mostly standard blocks with only a few features such as painted eyes so that your toddler will truly have to use his or her imagination in building. This particular set comes with 80 pieces so that your toddler will have a decent amount of bricks to create something spectacular.
So there you have it, our best recommendations for STEM toys for toddlers! Time to get shopping, huh?