How to fuel my 6-year-old's STEM passion? School's not cutting it. Any cool websites, toys, or advice?

[thestemengineer]

So I am an electrical engineer single dad of a small kid (6) in Oxfordshire who seems to be interested in STEM/Electronics. I have never done this before, how do I make sure he can grow his passion? Schools don't really do anything, do they?
Do you use any websites, resources, or toys?

Please help 😂

Love the bridge post! At 6 my dd told her teacher she wanted to be 'a builder' ...idiot told her girls can't be builders instead of having the nous to ask what she wanted to build. Could have been planes or bridges or rockets or... well, turned out she's a designer and builder of microelectronics.

Bright Minds and the Science Museum shop (online as well as being sold in actual museum shops) are good.

Construction toys ... obviously there's Lego for all sorts of ages but some of the K'nex stuff is awesome.

Kitchen chemistry ... lots of fun to be had with bicarb, vinegar, yeast and balloons etc. we never did the coke and mentos mint thing though...

A few of the suggestions like raspberry pi are perhaps a bit too soon for 6 yo - they don't have to do everything right away!

Re science museums, we were fortunate to be in the north west so had the Manchester museum of science and industry (not sure if they've finished revamping it), but also places like Catalyst, Eureka and the world of glass .... there are all sorts of things around the country.

Snap circuits

We never had subscriptions or kits as such really.

Ds1 got a big click circuits set one Christmas and got a lot of fun with that, and he was doing simple Scratch projects from a (probably Usborne) book the year before they started doing coding in school (probably year 2 ish?).

He was always a Lego fiend and then moved into Technic sets as he got older.

I forgot about Minecraft as well - playing with Redstone & other features is all STEM.

He was no little Einstein, but was always drawn to toys that you could build with and transform, and now is studying majority STEM subjects at Higher level with a particular interest in game development.

amazing suggestions everyone, I have a couple of questions.

1. how long do you keep your subscriptions? short or long term? I am wondering whether my kid might get bored and whether these subscription things are actually worth it.
2. how do you ensure your kids learn? I have some stem background but I am not a genius... you see the problem here?
3. I am also looking for online resources that he can access through his tablet - which he can use only a few hours per week
4. I am looking for outdoors activities too! I would like to promote some wellbeing too...

and the most important question, how much money do you spend on these things usually? Money is a little tight lately, I think I should start budgeting and would like to hear some real opinions to have an idea...

Another general tip... on car journeys DD would demand 'talk to me about something interesting'. DH had a talent for looking around and finding something to spark a wide ranging discussion... I particularly remember one featuring electricity pylons, their insulators, transformers.... Or look at buildings - bridges are obviously interesting, cathedrals can be good different types of arch (including relieving arches) buttresses etc etc.

You don't have to ensure that they learn - their brains are literally built to do that. They're learning through play so just let her have fun at her own pace and be directed by her interests.

Kurzegast is an excellent YouTube channel explaining scientific concepts like black holes etc my kids really loved it and still do

Try the Royal Institution www.rigb.org/ if you go to their website they have past Christmas Lectures online. They also run holiday workshops for different age groups.

Open ended construction - mobilo is amazing. I've had children by age 5 building incredible transformers.

If they're into chemistry do lots of cooking! Cooking will enhance their maths and observational skills. There will be simple recipes they can follow and there are lots of interesting (to children!) Things to cook.

Also, try to get out into the woods as much as you can. Building dens, bridges etc. Could they join scouts ?

These don't sound particularly linked to STEM but are the building blocks for future learning.

We didn't have any subscriptions either.

I think one of the main things is for them to ask questions, if you don't know the answer, discuss possibilities, think with them how you might find out. You don't teach them what to think, you try to teach them how to think like a scientist or engineer. If that's their bent you're pushing on an open door.
STEM isn't a destination, it's a journey!

I forgot the most important one - junk modelling!!!

Click circuits and Lego boost plus museums have done it for my DC at age 6-8. Don't bother showing them your code unless you use drag and drop will probably be far too dull for them. They need quick easy wins to get the point...eg a diode in a circuit only works one way if it's the wrong way the light won't light up.

Stemettes. Mostly for girls, but brothers attend too.

Outdoor activities - get a pair of binoculars and a magnifying glass.

In the evening now it is autumn find somewhere not light polluted and look at the stars.

In the day go bug, leaf or whatever collecting. Use the magnifying glass to look at them closely then put them back in their habitat. Use the binoculars to look at birds or whatever.

If you don't know what you are looking at get the appropriate books.

Mark Rober videos on YouTube are brilliant for engaging and inspiring budding young engineers, for example: s

@LylaLee yes! Communities!

Does anyone know communities for kids interested in science, space or stem? Maybe it can be a way for my kid to also engage with other people and make friends outside of school? that'd be great!

@OggyBunsen mate I'm gonna build that for myself! 😂

Whizz Pop Bang magazine is great for that age. Easy to read with great experiments. We subscribed for a year or so and then found it was repeating a bit. But I've kept all our back catalogue and use them with my cub scouts.

As others have said coding can be great either with scratch on the website or raspberry pi etc. My dd had a kano which is raspberry pi based but feels a little more accessible for small ones. You seem to be able to get them fairly cheap on ebay.

We had an edison coding robot which was great fun. My dc are older now though so I'm sure there are more modern equivalents!

Snap circuits was brilliant too. I've just gone through all our old kits today (for my Cubs... you can see a theme developing!) And we had all sorts, lights and sounds, stuff to build simple arcade games, a remote control rover and bits that made it compatible with lego so you could make circuits to light your lego builds. Brilliant stuff and while some bits have broken over time it is pretty robust.

Gravitrax went down well here too as a more advanced option for marble runs.

We did get various science kits over the years but they never got much use really. I think they end up being too prescriptive.

A USB electronic microscope can be a good investment. Easy to use as no slides to prepare and because it shows up big on the computer screen you can really enjoy it together and point things out.

Family days at science Oxford https://scienceoxford.com/centre/

Xmas presents from bright minds or the science museum.

code sparks or scratch junior on the tablet for coding.

and Lego. Always Lego.

You don't have to do anything expensive to work on STEM (or other areas) skills. Time each other and some toys going down slides at the park and they ask questions "Why did daddy get to the bottom first" and let them think up the answers.

You make observations instead of looking, "what happens when you throw a pebble into a pond - why do you think that is?, test their theory with other pebbles, then "do different size pebbles make different numbers of ripples" etc

There are groups all over, you'll need to look in your local area. Wild life trusts often have children's activities, if you have a university nearby they might also do children's workshops, same for museums.

Also have realistic expectations of what a six year old is likely to know and understand. You mention you are a single dad but if you have him do or the majority of the week I'm sure you are familiar with what goes on at school but if you only see your child at the weekend you are likely to be out of sync of what goes on in schools so a look at the school website for their curriculum plan or a look at the national curriculum will be handy, school may not call it 'science' but perhaps "Materials" or "States of matter", "measuring" etc

This! The best thing for STEM is developing critical thinking and solving problems. It can definitely be fun and built into every day life by asking questions and letting him work through their logic/reasoning.

You could also plan a DIY subscription box thing throughout the year. So January is all about bridges…point them out and talk about different types of bridges, try making a bridge with spaghetti or cardboard, go to Ironbridge or Tower Bridge, watch some documentaries etc. February could be Space month so maybe go to the National Space Centre, star gaze from the garden etc.

Don’t worry about whether they learn or not, what matters is that they love what they do and they are engaged. We have had some subscriptions and they were good, some more expensive than others but you can find them for all sorts of prices.
My DD is now 8 and she’s got a passion for space - seems like your kid. She watches youtube videos, we’ve been stargazing during the summer and been to the science museum in London - they have a whole space section.
Here’s a few resources you can look at

1. https://www.stem.org.uk/resources/elibrary/resource/32596/primary-space-activities - very good resources
2. https://louno.space/ - I follow them on instagram, they do social media outreach. but are a young company that I randomly follow, their website seems interesting
3. https://www.spacecentre.co.uk/ - this is also very good, there’s an astronaut from the European Space Agency, Meganne Christian, ticket is £8, for Friday 17th November
4. https://www.ukastronomy.org/kidsastronomy.shtml - for more astronomy

Happy to share more, we’re in this together bud!

At six mine was playing with Turing’s Tumble (marble powered build your own computer challenges), Gravitrax, and doing Tynker.com coding.

Also for free stuff try using Oak Academy and BBC bitesize but introducing him to the secondary school lectures on physics and chemistry.

Mine really enjoyed being read this CGP book at age 7

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KS3-Science-Study-Guide-Higher/dp/1841462306?pd_rd_w=7V5sJ&content-id=amzn1.sym.38f90169-67d8-49b7-8ef1-61bdff262c06&pf_rd_p=38f90169-67d8-49b7-8ef1-61bdff262c06&pf_rd_r=JHZX4KFC79SCPTEBQ622&pd_rd_wg=G8Ck3&pd_rd_r=34a60f45-61f4-45f2-a628-f755ba64e46c&pd_rd_i=1841462306&psc=1&ref_=pd_basp_m_rpt_ba_s_9_sc