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.

Yes, we had the divided segment boxes - think they were binned.

If he really likes sorting he could make a start on the 8 underbed stores plus 10 blue ikea plastic boxes worth of mixed lego......

Wow! Flog the lot and pay off the mortgage!!

I wish we had the space time and energy to sort it all - we have one box full of all the instruction booklets - some immaculate and some a bit of a mess and a few of the boxes in the loft but we soon got fed up with that. We have the entire set of all the city cranes etc, star wars stuff, pirate ships, police station, police trucks, fire station, train set, ferry, houses, town things......we have the Mindstorms too and a mindstorms style programmable R2D2. ........all of it is all mixed in together :(

oh and Lord of the Rings...

That does sound intimidating! But amazing...

If you have any Harry Potter that's going for a fortune on ebay at the mo. So cross they discontinued it just as my DC were growing into it...

Weirdly I don't think we have although DSs were both into HP. Thinking maybe it was starting to get rarer as they reached the age for it too - currently 15 and 14, DS1 started reading the books at 7 but we didn't let them watch the films until they'd read the book and after the first 3 at age 7 we felt the books shifted up a gear so we stopped them reading them for a couple of years.

Shame. 14 and 15 year olds are perfect age to help though. Get them to sort by colour and size, then they/you should be able to reconstruct the sets from the instructions without much bother. Ach, can you tell I'm a programmer?! There is no hope for my DCs.

Or sell the job lot to an ebay lego trader and pay off half the mortgage!

Sounds easy when you put it like that but it's become the elephant in the 4 room (s) :o

We both work full time, have no public transport for school, boys are midst DofE as well as their normal activities and eldest has his prelim exams in a few weeks......and I have a spare room that resembles the fiery pits of hell (without the actual fire) and we have 3, yes 3 scout camps coming up in the next month including this weekend which is a selection camp for a bigger camp in the summer, then we have Christmas.....etc etc.

I'm making it sound like it's just occurred to me to start sorting it, but this saga has been going for at least 2 years now and we just don't get round to it. We reckon they have some rare characters so the best bet would be to sort it and sell the sets and the characters and then maybe flog the remnants or those with scabby instructions or bits missing just as a job lot by the kilo.

We also thought of doing a boot sale and selling it by the plastic cup like they do in the lego store.

I'd definitely like to keep some for possible future grandchildren though. And then there is the whole ownership question. Some was bought shared, some is DS2s but being fair, probably most of it is DS1s but if you sell it as a job lot how do you divide the cash? You can see why it's been easier to ignore it :)

I think flogging the Fischertechnik would be a easier start though.

Mortgage should be paid of in next few months anyway, so yes, probably is enough to pay it off!

Oh goodness I was only being flippant, I didn't mean to hassle you!

This place is bad enough already, I dread to think what it'll be like after 5 more years of birthdays and christmases

My house I mean, not MN:)

Oh not hassled at all - it's just brought back another job that really needs doing - I want the whole house decorated next year so it has to happen. My two requested lego for every birthday and christmas for years on end so that's why we have so much and it's just such a great thing for them. i didn't subscribe to the "build the set and put it away in the box" rule - they had so much more fun mixing it all up afterwards and making their own things and making little movies of it all - I know it's now a headache but they had such a good time at the time. lego is like children, sometimes it can be a pain but you never ever regret having it :o

I wish DS would mix up sets! He won't even substitute a dark grey piece for light grey, he prefers to abandon the whole build if it's not exactly as per instructions. I worry about him, it can't be normal at 6!

Ds1 is borderline aspergers and doesn't like contrasting colours but he had enough lego that he usually didn't need to or could use something acceptable to his eye.

Myother that is really interesting. Not sure I'm prepared to buy vast quantities of lego just in case it helps.

Maybe that's part of why DS prefers K'nex. Hardly any special pieces, colour always consistent for a given shape. Much easier to sort out :)

All this Lego talk reminds me of the Lego Crazy Action Contraptions book, which is vg, and reasonably priced.

We have the contraptions book. Would also recommend it.
Off to google fishertechnic

I have a growing collection of Lego... I'm sure it will stage a creeping house takeover over the years.

Off the back of the JL Christmas advert, is anyone considering getting a telescope? I quite fancy one for me!