Recommendations for STEM toys

[ThomasRichard]

I thought we could share ideas for good STEM toys :)

I've got DS (5) an ozobot, which works by following lines drawn on a piece of paper or a tablet, doing different movements depending on the colour of the line.

DD (2) is getting Playmags, which follow the same concept as Magna Tiles.

I've also been recommended this electronics kit, which looks fab.

Fab thread. Do you think ds 2 is too young for a marble run?

Wine it's your judgement of whether your child can play safely with marbles without risk of swallowing. Nothing with pieces small enough to swallow will ever be marked as suitable for under 3s. Personally I wouldn't be in any rush, they have years ahead for marble runs and there are plenty of safer toys for 2 year olds. But your call.

My brother swallowed coins, ball bearings and other bits way past his 5th birthday - we were regulars at A&E. This may be colouring my view!

I have 2 minecraft addicts too, dc2 builds some amazing things using pictures from the Internet. They both still love their lego though. Knex have some good new sets out including a new roller coaster and some gun type things that shoot. Lego and maccano both do robot kits but they are close to £300 each (great for older kids ).

Thank you. Had a look at the recommendations and I'm definitely going to get Rush Hour Junior and possibly the microscope. Just need to sneakily check they don't already have one!

If you are considering a marble run, have a look at Quadrilla. Not at all cheap, but we have had years of fun with it me included!

Apart from safety aspects, consider the fine motor control of little hands: my younger boys found it frustrating when they were just not dexterous enough to set marbles on the run without knocking something over that their big brothers had built. I'd say for building fun, wait until they are about 5ish?

Thanks I will follow advice and wait, I think I just want it for meeeee

For slightly younger children ours have had lots of fun with Kapla blocks, or rather the Aldi cheaper versions. I think that they were released last Thurs so may still be in the shops.

DS sounds like your ds Bimbly . He has just started reading MM and is enjoying it but tends to dip in and dip out. It is inspiring him to do some more interesting maths. Has he tried dragon box? Ds enjoys that.

Wondering about getting molymod molecules for dd (10) but not sure if it will be used. She likes chemistry but dh hates the idea of chemicals in the house and bicarb soda only goes so far!

Thanks Shouldwe,I haven't heard of dragon box or kapla blocks or molymod molecules! Off to google.

Dragonbox is an app to teach algebraic thinking skills to primary age (or even younger) children. Sounds the height of pushy parenting but actually pretty great.

A lot of this stuff is so expensive though! So frustrating. My 2 are too old for the kapla blocks, quadrilla or magnatiles but tbh we never had that much £££ to spend. We use jenga blocks for building!

Other ideas for constructionheads are zoobs and mobilo. Mobilo is also expensive, is largely about building vehicles, and was v popular in my DCs' nursery. Zoobs are a bit more complicated, prob age 5+ at least, but they are very appealing visually and the adults all wanted to play with them! You can do lots of different joints with them, moving or fixed.

But fundamentally DS only wants to follow instructions and that really limits what he gets out of such toys.

Don't actually get the original kapla blocks, go to Aldi and get their creative blocks which are a fraction of the price. Ideally get two boxes so they have 200 to play with. A very simple idea but ours have had hours of use.

Again for dragon box get the 12+ one as the 5+ is just a slimmer version of the 12+. DS sometimes asks me now to do a paper dragon box question for him.

Ours do use jenga blocks too but the Kapla style ones are thinner but longer and they prefer them for bigger projects. On days like today though they have used the jenga, dominoes and kapla. The Aldi ones are £9 for 100 so at 9p a block it's not too bad considering that we have had them for 2 years and they are played with 2-3 days a week, more in holidays. Wondering whether the robotic arm up thread could be programmed to put them all away!

Love it! The ultimate kids' engineering project: a putting away machine.

Are Playmags comparable to Magna Tiles?? Or just a nasty knock-off?
Also, what age group are they best suited to?
I am looking for something for DS4 who is 5, almost 6 by Christmas

Loving this thread and all the suggestions - thank you!

PacificDogwood I don't have Magnatiles to compare them to but I got a set of Playmags for my 3yo DD and they've been a hit with her and her 5yo brother (6 in Feb). I think they're good quality and definitely suitable for a 5-6yo child.

love this thread, any further tips for a 9 & 12 year old?

www.thetoyshop.com/games-jigsaws/travel-games/Rubiks-Signature-Edition-Snake-Puzzle/p/524458?gclid=Cj0KEQiAsNyxBRDBuKrMhsbt3vwBEiQAdRgPsozVz9T-3_HrDKTBILZ9PXpdLbv6xV_W3Sqm8taMSY8aAjlM8P8HAQ

Those looking for younger kids, I'm getting another rubik snake. You can make different shapes with it etc. Ours fight over my old one.

I think Playmags are just as good as Magnatiles from what I have read - they get played with by all ages in our house, my younger DD got into them once she was three, the 'perfect' age would be 4-9 probably.

Playmags and magnatiles are indistinguishable. We have some of both and really can't tell the difference

If your child enjoyed marble runs but is now a little older, then this Roller Rail could be good, I am part way through building it with my 8 year old. He does not have the best fine motor skills but I suspect a more dextrous 9 year old would manage most of it with a little help
www.amazon.co.uk/Perpetual-Marble-Roller-Coaster-Construction/dp/B00RZX95A6/ref=sr_1_1?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1446715174&sr=1-1&keywords=roller+rail

Anyone with DC into lego and construction sets should look at Fischertechnik. Absolutely brilliant sets and quite challenging in a different way from Lego - a lot more engineering type knowledge gained for the working parts.

Also those with older DC into Lego technic might want to look into a book called "Badass lego guns" my now teen DS loved this.

Myother I had no idea Fischertechnik was still going!

I have a massive crate of Fischertechnik in the house with instruction manuals - might try and flog it off now but I couldn't guarantee that every piece was there - hopefully enough cross over in the 5 or so sets in there to make it not matter.

I'll send DS over, he loves counting pieces!

I remember a divided box so you could keep each type of component separate, and beautiful silver metal rods.