Finding the right STEM toy for your children

Do you want to get your child a STEM (STEAM) toy, but you are not sure where to start? Read this before you head to your store (or favourite website).

I am the father of two girls ages 9 and 14 (also, a computer science professor). I am constantly looking for the right STEM toy that my daughters are going to love and learn from. I want to be clear that nobody is paying me to write this, so I do not get anything out of recommending these products. I’ll be focusing on the toys I have gotten for my youngest daughter in recent years.

What to avoid

First, what to avoid. For many years, I stayed away from LEGO because of the price. Instead, I would buy STEM toys in the CAD $30 – CAD $65 range. All these toys ended up being useless. I won’t name names, but I will describe one of them.

Solar & Hydraulic 12-in-1 Construction Kit

What they offered:?A LEGO-like set that allows you to build 12 different things including a T-Rex (my youngest is really into dinosaurs). There is also a little solar-powered motor that comes with the box. The box says ages 8 and up.

What you get:?A very complex instruction manual that is not meant for young children. The drawings are confusing, and I think this creates frustration rather than excitement. We never got the little motor to work. We ended up with a T-Rex that couldn’t move. My daughter was then eight years old (close to nine), and she was not able to do this by herself. I ended up doing about 90% of the work.

Anyway… this is just one example of the toys I got over the years and ended up not really working or required an adult to build them.

The best toy

The best toy I ever got was from the LEGO Group and yes, kind of expensive: CAD $200. It is LEGO BOOST.

LEGO BOOST

What they offered:?The website says that the product offers children 7 and older to learn the basics of coding, engineering, and robotics. You get over 840 LEGO pieces, a motorized hub, and additional motor plus a color and distance sensor. They have instructions to build five projects including a robot and an electric guitar.

What you get:?You get everything they say and more. This is the best toy I have ever given my youngest daughter. She got it for her ninth birthday, and she was able to follow the instructions by herself (made a couple of mistakes and was able to trace back where she got it wrong). I started helping her but then I saw she did not need me and, better yet, her big sister wanted to join. The girls built the robot by themselves. I only helped with the batteries (it does need fresh batteries, or it won’t work).

Why can my nine-year-old follow the instructions by herself? Well, here is where the expensive toy gets a little more expensive: you need an iPad so that you can download the LEGO BOOST app. The app offers the instructions, and they are awesome. You can zoom in, easily go back, see all the colours. So yes, you do need an iPad (I’m guessing you can use your phone as well).

If you have the money, I strongly recommend you get this toy. My daughters were able to build this by themselves. They created a lot of challenges for their robot and became so confident about building the remaining projects. Also, the robot farts. LEGO gets kids.

If you do not have the budget

If you do not have CAD $200, I still have some suggestions: books.

Dino Dana Dino Field Guide

As I said, my daughter loves dinosaurs and I got her the Dino Dana Dino Field Guide (volumes 1 and 2). My daughter is a fan of the series, and the books have lots of information about dinosaurs.

Code your own games!

Full disclosure: I did not buy this book by Max Wainewright. Instead, I got it from the public library. We have been using?Scratch?at home to learn to code. However, I could see my daughter was getting frustrated because she was only building very simple projects. But this is what we did: when we got this book from the library, she followed the instructions to create a game and then, once the game was working as expected, she started making changes: adding more treasures, changing the colour of the ship, creating an additional challenge, adding noises. This is the most fun way to learn. Start with something already built and then improve it.?

I know this is a very short list, but I hope some of you find it useful. If you have a toy recommendation, please share it here. I haven’t done my Holiday shopping yet.