At Getting Creative With Carolyn, we celebrate curiosity and aim for creativity that also fosters an innovative, imaginative mindset. We celebrate not giving up when it gets hard.
STEM activities can get hard, but that is exactly what your child needs so they can build perseverance and resilience. Work isn’t always easy and engaging. This is where our work ethic kicks in, and we push through these difficult days.
In my opinion, STEM activities will help to cultivate that resilience and perseverance that your child needs. STEM learning has been very important to our family over the past eight years. We have had monthly STEM subscriptions to KiwiCo with their Tinker Crate and Eureka Crate.
In this post, I only want to share STEM toys that I purchased from Amazon for my son that he absolutely loved! I don’t know about you, but I can get really overwhelmed at times trying to find that perfect gift. So what makes that perfect gift for kids who enjoy science and math? I believe that the toy has to have educational value that nurtures your child’s imagination, problem solving skills, and creativity.
With so many choices and gift guides, I wanted to include a few of our favorite STEM activities in case you want to try out any of these at your home.
Not Giving Up in the Problem Solving Process
Sometimes kids may not know how to use educational toys so sit down and show them. Also, there can be frustration in the building process. Let your child work through their frustration with building and problem solving. Sit with them and watch them play. Guide them gently toward the solution by saying something like, “Why don’t we think about how this piece can be used?” or “That’s a really creative way to do that. I would not have thought of that.” or “Let’s look at this step. What is it telling us do here? or “Let’s take a break for a few minutes then go back to that piece.” Following directions, taking breaks, solving problems, and figuring out how things are put together will help your child continue to grow in their critical thinking skills. Give them clues and help them along the way when they put something together wrong. My husband has done a phenomenal job with these toys with our son. I am so grateful for his gentle and loving leadership with these STEM toys. He has really nurtured my son’s curiosity with this STEM play time.
The Rewards of Problem Solving
While I have spent almost twenty years teaching reading and writing skills, I am so grateful for STEM toys that help to foster these important life skills. These skills are extremely important to learn because in the real world, we must consistently adapt and try to come up with other solutions that we don’t always see. Life moves so quickly, and as soon as we figure one thing out, it changes! Let your children work through these frustrations and learn to solve problems. At the end of their build or experiment, they will squeal with delight in what they accomplished with your help! This will help to build their confidence as they grow in their STEM skills. Also, they won’t give up as easily. We have found that even if it takes an hour or so to figure something out, my son will continue at it. This is great because we want to teach our kids to not give up when it gets hard.
Stay tuned since I will continue to add to this post as time goes on. Enjoy!
K’NEX Education ‒ STEM Explorations: Roller Coaster Building Set
K’NEX Rollercoaster
K'NEX is a wonderful toy that we enjoyed as children, and it has so much educational value. Enjoy building this rollercoaster with your children this holiday and watching it go while teaching physics!
Logic Roots Pet Me Multiplication and Division Game
Logic Roots Pet Me Multiplication and Division Game
Math moves very quickly in the elementary school years. It seems like as soon as they get subtraction down, they are already moving on to multiplication and division. Sometimes, this can get very confusing to our kids. They end up subtracting what needs to be multiplied and so forth. Lets slow down here and play games each week that help them with these growing math skills. We have used a lot of Logic Roots Games, and my son asks to play them. Why not have game night and learn at the same time?! So grateful for this company.
There are so many mysteries and wonders in our world that we sometimes forget about. Let your child experience the wonders of exploring a tree branch, a leaf, a rock, or a blade of grass under this microscope. My son really enjoys this microscope since the screen displays the object well.
What is more fun than digging and digging to unveil something shiny and sparkly? This educational toy allows your child to learn about various gems while having fun digging for gems!
Our kids always act like they know everything, right?! Yet, they have no idea where they are in the world. Build more of an awareness in your child of the world around them with this interactive talking globe. We have enjoyed this learning toy on many long car rides. There are more than five hours too of BBC learning videos. The quiz questions are fun too!
Fat Brain Toys Vitascope – PuzzleGears: Movie Projector
Movie Projector
Your child will be challenged with their engineering skills with these 183 pieces of laser cut wood that make a movie projector and actually projects film! Way to help children increase their concentration and problem solving skills. Wow, this one was a difficult one that my son found so much delight in building. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. It even sparked his imagination to write down more ideas in his invention book.
Thanks to my parents gifting us with this creative fort kit, we have had hours and hours of imaginative play with this strong, durable fort kit. It has been set up in our basement, outside, our playroom, and even running down our hallway. This enjoyable activity will encourage and promote imaginative thinking as they figure out how they want to put their fort together. Gift it to friends and then have a fort party where everyone connects their forts!
We have had many of the Thames and Kosmos STEM toys. This was one that my son really enjoyed since you can build seven different robotic models with this kit. He was able to learn about air pressure and suction while having some fun learning about physics!
This puzzle game will help your child continue to develop their problem solving skills. Give them a Kanoodle instead of a screen while you are waiting for your food to come at the restaurant. This is also a perfect car toy since it is pocket sized and portable.
