The holidays will be here before we know it. There's definitely one thing we can count on... Kids love presents! And they especially love gifts that last longer than a 15-minute play session. Like STEM gifts & STEAM gifts. And that's where this gift guide comes in. There's a creative, fun toy that will be a hit for your special kiddos.
To help you navigate shopping this year, I've pulled together my master shopping list of all the amazing STEM & STEAM Gift Ideas for Kids. I love playing with toys and seeing what’s new, especially in the world of STEM / STEAM. I just know that this MIT mom/engineer and kid-approved list full of STEM toys, books, games, science kits, and more has something for the kiddos in your house. All of them are loaded with science, technology, engineering, art, or math and designed for fun!
Looking for a gift that keeps on giving long after the day they unwrap it... STEAM Explorers is perfect!!! Â Think digital magazine meets online project portal in a safe, kid-friendly environment. (No more worrying about what might be hidden in that YouTube vid!) All engineer, teacher, and mom approved. And most definitely KID APPROVED!
Kids will love doing experiments, building cool things, cooking up some delicious food, and having fun with games and printables. All with real STEAM learning built right in. Inspire your young engineers and scientists to explore!
Introduce the kids to some famous works of art by creative masters with this entertaining spot-the-difference book. Book 1 includes art by Van Gogh, da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and more.
Join Steve the Dung Beetle on a hilarious and educational journey, as Steve teaches all of his friends why he is constantly rolling poo, how it helps each of them, and why his work is so important for the environment.
This book is an inspiring story of Horace Pippin, a self-taught painter from humble beginnings who despite many obstacles, was ultimately able to do what he loved, and be recognized for who he was: an artist.
This bloom-filled book is a filled with gorgeous illustrations that will inspire any curious kids. Budding backyard scientists can start exploring their world with this stunning introduction to these flowery show-stoppers--from seeds to roots to blooms.
Check out this year's edition of our household's favorite fact book. Kids will discover Earth’s strangest animals, natural formations, festivals, ancient wonders, news, and more in this newest addition to the wildly popular Weird But True! family.
Inspire your young engineers with a memoir about William Kamkwamba, a young boy from a small village in Malawi. During hard times, the self-taught youngster built a windmill and brought electricity to his village.
We love this fun take on drawing games! You'll play paranormal investigator and it's your job to sketch the monster culprit based on the witness's description.
This globe logic puzzle is filled with 60 fun challenges that help kids explore math and reasoning.
This classic game never gets old! Learn to guess the secret code. We love it in our house because the kids can challenge the adults, too!
This card drafting strategy game will help kids learn about ancient civilizations and how to build their own.
This card game is a fun way to learn trivia about famous world places.
Explore the Pacific Northwest while you build a harmonious ecosystem for its plants and creatures. Its a great way to learn about biology!
This creative game challenges players to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns.
This fast-start game with easy-to-learn rules ramps up in challenge as you go. Perfect for us impatient gamers.
Family game night meets science, tech, engineering, and math trivia! They'll have too much fun to notice they're learning.
Guide the marble through the maze filled with sliders, wheels, and buttons. Who can do it the fastest?
Learn chess in small steps with a helpful deck of action cards with moves determined by random draws.
The Rubik’s Connected cube is an app-enabled cube that connects to your phone or tablet and helps you learn how to solve it.
Arts & Crafts Kits
You know I'm all for a really good Art Project... Sometimes it's helpful to have a kit to make getting creative easy. These kits are unique and high quality ways to add something crafty to your day.
Crochet is all the rage these days! Help the kids (or you!) learn and make with this kit that includes everything you need, tutorial videos too!
Get their creativity flowing with this starter kit filled with fun supplies like pom poms, craft sticks, googly eyes, and more.
We love Klutz crafting kits and this one has a really fun theme! Future pet parents will love forming mini-animals out of clay.
Give your next drawing session a dose of light with this super fun LED backlit dry-erase board. Perfect for classrooms, too!
The kids will be amazed by this rock carving kit. They get to add features, sand, and polish this adorable turtle.
This kit helps kids learn about proportions and how to shape features to make their self-portrait shine. We love the diverse shades of pencils included, too!
Explore a hot art process with this easy-to-use and colorful kit. We love marbling for the emotional relaxation benefits, too!
This little watermelon is an adorable way to start stitching! Plus cross-stitch is a perfect way to add hidden math into any craft session!
ALL ABOUT ME
QUIZ BRACELETS
This craft kit is a great way to add self-exploration to making. Kids will answers some questions about themselves and then craft the bracelets to showcase what's important to them.
Don't forget music! It's an amazing way to add creativity to the family's day. We love these starter toy instruments that don't break the bank and get kids thinking musically. Plus karaoke is fun for friends and family!
LEGOs are a family favorite every year. Some of our newer favorites for 2022 include the amazing LEGO Ideas Vincent Van Gogh set, LEGO Friends Space Academy, and the incredible 3in1 tiger that becomes a red panda and koi fish too. Other inspiring sets include remote control cars,
Build your own toy vending machine that sorts coins, dispenses candy or other small prizes, and doubles as a coin bank! Plus explore how the coins fall in a Plinko-like game.
Rigagmajig sent us this amazing building kit that will inspire kids to explore physics and their creativity. This high-quality set will challenge young builders and adults alike in a classroom steam station or at home.
Build your very own music machine and let the music play! After assembling the xylophone music machine, kids can insert the included music sheets or create their own musical masterpiece.
Keva Planks never fail to inspire kids to get building. They're perfect toys for encouraging a growth mindset, too. This set comes with challenge cards to get them starte.
Add on to your Magnatiles collection with the newest shape, cubes! These safe, magnetic blocks encourage kids to explore engineering, science, and their imagination.
The makers behind Sphero, one of our fave bots, has introduced Indi, a starter robot for younger kids. Kids can use block coding to program its movement or offline programming using the included guide.
One of the best pieces of tech we've added to our routine this year has been an iPad. From drawing to coding to learning games to straight up fun, it's been way more valuable than simple screen time.
The Apple Pencil takes an iPad up a notch, especially for creativity. We combine it with apps like Procreate which help us make digital watercolors, collages, and more. There are tons of kid-friendly tutorials out there to help them build their skills.
This screen-free coding kit helps kids explore computer science with binary bracelets, ancient encoding devices, pixel paintings, and more.
This is the droid you're looking for! Star Wars and LEGO lovers totally need this kit in their lives. Kids can build three different droids then code their movement with the drag and drop coding app.
SNAP CIRCUITS ARCADESNAP CIRCUITS ARCADE
Snap Circuits are an absolute favorite way of ours to learn about electricity. This arcarde-themed kit makes it even more entertaining.
This electricity and magnetism science kit is filled with a ton of different ways to learn. We love the included voltmeter, carrying box, and activity idea-filled manual.
Inspire your kids to create and build with this brand new book all about bots! It includes 19 fun bots and bot activities perfect for builders of all experience levels. Plus extras make working with electricity easy and educational.
Toybox has been the greatest addition to our home makerspace! We've loved designing toys, printing pre-designed ideas, even making parts for a cardboard building set. I love the kid-friendly safety features, too.
Explore edible plant life cycles with this transparent planter that puts growth right before the kids' eyes. Plus they can eat what they grow!
This kit is filled with a whopping 52+ experiments including an underwater volcano, exploding fire-resistant balloons, sticky molecules, density layers, sticky drops of H20, extinguishing a flame with C02, test PH, and much more!
This mobile science kit is perfect for young kids curious about science. It's filled with labwear and experiment cards. Be sure to try out Ada Twist, Scientist inspired color-changing lemonade, too.
Crystals help kids grow something amazing... their love for science! This kit makes crystal growing easy and successful.
This master spy science kit helps kids learn important detective skills like how to use forensic science to answer questions, gather evidence, and solve problems. Includes a fingerprint kit, disappearing ink, and more.
PAPER BUTTERFLIES SCIENCE KITPAPER BUTTERFLIES SCIENCE KIT
Kids can learn about capillary action as they use physics to create colorful, one-of-a-kind paper butterflies!
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