The STEM category is only about 20 years old, but educational toys are nothing new. One of the first STEM toys — the acronym stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — has to be the wooden-block play set designed in the 1840s by German educator Friedrich Fröbel, the inventor of the kindergarten. A few decades later, board-game manufacturer Milton Bradley brought the idea to the U.S. and began producing educational wooden blocks for the masses. While they’re still a popular choice, we’ve come a long way; now, there are app-connected coding robots, logic games that involve lasers, and subscription project kits for kids of all ages.
“You’re looking for toys that are going to teach about concepts like numbers, mathematical thinking, and physics and that nurture visual-spatial capacity, talk about cause and effect, and encourage creativity,” says Dr. Laura Phillips, a pediatric neuropsychologist and senior director of the Learning and Development Center at the Child Mind Institute. She also recommends toys that are open-ended, relate to the real world, encourage trial-and-error exploration, and are replayable.
As there are seemingly endless cool options to choose from, we reached out to several experts in education and play. Along with Dr. Phillips, we consulted Dr. Carla Johnson, a professor of science education at North Carolina State University and president of STEM Innovations, and Yesim Kunter, a play expert and futurist who has had stints at LEGO and Hasbro. We also spoke with Allison Wilson, senior director of curriculum and innovation at Stratford Schools, a part of Spring Education Group; Barbara Neitlich, therapist and nationally recognized child play consultant; Gigi Schweikert, parenting and education expert and CEO of Lightbridge Academy, which includes STREAM programming; and Margo Williams, owner of Enerdyne, a science-and-nature store in Suttons Bay, Michigan, that’s been around for more than 40 years. Together, these experts provided their top recommendations for STEM toys that spark curiosity and make learning a hands-on adventure.
Update on December 13, 2024: Added products; updated prices and checked stock for all other products.
For babies and toddlers
The ideal first STEM toy for babies is one they can hold, bite, and drool all over. Inspired by the wonders of molecular science, this multi-sensory clutch rattle will keep babies occupied with its bold colors, unique shape, and soft teething features. “It supports the development of fine and gross motor skills such as grasping and reaching, and it encourages sensory exploration, visual engagement, hand-eye coordination, and early cognitive skills,” says Neitlich.
“The best toys at this age to introduce STEM are also some of the most traditional,” says Schweikert. “Hammering of pegs, playing with gears, and toy sets that have families dropping balls into chutes all promote learning based on science, technology, engineering, and math concepts.” This animal-inspired activity cube does all that and more, keeping toddlers engaged with a beaded adventure land, shape sorter, rotating element, queue station, and tap-to-the-bottom activity, making it perfect for developing coordination and perseverance in toddlers.
Wooden-block toys are the original STEM toy for a reason: “A toy that’s more open-ended, requires a lot of creativity, and can be used in different ways just has more staying power,” says Phillips, and seasoned parents will agree that there’s nothing more practical or useful to have in the home. While she didn’t recommend a particular set, I like the one from Lovevery, which has more opportunities for creative play than most sets do because it includes wheels, a bead threader, a rolling ramp, and a shape sorter. (For a set without these extras, the Melissa & Doug 100-piece colored-block set is a popular option.) As children grow, they’ll find new ways to engage with the blocks and be introduced to more complex concepts along the way.
“Music and STEM learning are intricately woven together,” says Wilson. “As children engage with instruments, they begin to differentiate between various sounds and tones, laying the groundwork for language development.” Stoie’s adorable owl-shaped drum set is perfectly sized for little hands, and this all-in-one kit includes tambourines, drumsticks, a cymbal, and a wood tone block — everything a budding musician needs to explore rhythm and sound. Every shake and strike also introduces kids to math concepts like counting, patterning, and sequencing, along with the basics of cause and effect.
This interactive chair is filled with fun features like a light-up remote, flipbook, and lift-up cushion that hides secret surprises. “It stands out because it utilizes active learning through cause and effect while fostering fine motor skills and early cognitive development,” says Neitlich, who also likes that it grows with the child through various learning stages. The chair senses when kids sit or stand, responding with playful songs and phrases, and with over 120 tunes and three learning levels, it keeps kids giggling while they explore basic concepts like colors, shapes, numbers, and more.
For preschoolers
Like wooden blocks, Magna-Tiles are an open-ended toy beloved by many developmental experts as well as families, and anyone who has played with them knows the satisfying click made by two magnetic tiles connecting. They’re not new to the STEM scene by any means but are a solid gift option because having more tiles lets kids go bigger with their creations. “Magna-Tiles are the best toddler toys ever,” says Kunter. “They’re simple, with different colors, different transparencies, and different shapes, and kids learn how things come together to make something.” The tiles connect to build flat or three-dimensional shapes, and they help develop fine-motor skills, concentration, and focus. Magna-Tiles are still one of the most used toys by my 5-year-old, who creates patterns, structures, and imaginative creatures, and from a parent’s perspective, they’re durable and easy to clean up.
Alternative sets can do the same things (most work well enough together regardless of the brand), like this 60-piece PicassoTiles set. Its magnets aren’t quite as strong, so structures are slightly more prone to falling. But hey, that’s all part of building frustration tolerance.
The Plip Kit is an early-years construction set that uses a variety of unique shapes and designs to encourage building. “It is a great set to teach patterns and pattern relationships,” says Kunter. The open-ended nature of the set allows builders to experiment with different configurations and test their foundations of logic and sequencing. The simplicity of the kit makes it accessible, but it offers endless possibilities for imaginative play.
According to Wilson, sensory bins are a fantastic way to explore scientific concepts like gravity, volume, and measurement. While you can DIY one at home, this wooden set comes with a tray and nine wooden tools, making it both beautiful and practical. “Through activities like pouring, scooping, and mixing, children enhance sensory awareness and develop fine motor skills,” says Wilson. “This type of play also supports vocabulary growth and observational learning as kids describe their experiences.” For added fun, Wilson suggests incorporating figurines, like the adorable SpiritnSprout Wooden Forest Set, to create opportunities for imaginative storytelling and encourage social interaction as kids collaborate and share their creative ideas.
Recommended by multiple experts, these retro wooden logs never seem to go out of style. Invented more than 100 years ago by John Lloyd Wright, the son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, “Lincoln Logs spark creativity and teach basic engineering principles,” says Schweikert. “Kids can build their own structures while also enhancing their fine motor skills and spatial awareness.” This set comes with 111 real-wood pieces so kids can craft cabins, porches, and even bonfires with the interlocking logs.
One of the best STEM toys for preschoolers is the Hape Monster Math Scale, says Phillips. “It’s a brilliant way to show number concepts. And it’s fun! My 4-year-old daughter has been playing with it nonstop.” Kids can practice skills like identifying numbers, counting, sorting, and comparing. The scale has three difficulty levels that challenge children to use monster weights of different sizes and textures to balance the scales and learn basic mathematics like addition and subtraction. “It helps kids understand in a very concrete way the concepts of equality and quantity in terms of greater than and less than, and how numbers can equal bigger numbers when you put them together and smaller numbers when you pull them apart.”
Kailan Carr’s book supplies instructions for more than 100 fun and engaging activities that also happen to teach STEM skills and concepts. Projects include making slime, playdough, a lava lamp, a foam fountain, and a sticky-flower wall — all from materials already lying around your home. Carr helpfully lists the amount of time each activity takes as well as a messiness rating so you have a sense of what you’re getting yourself into.
Phillips uses the book all the time. “There’s a sensory component because you feel how the materials combine to form something different and new,” she says. “It involves following directions, which helps support language comprehension and executive functioning because you do things in a step-by-step way. So you really need to be careful and thoughtful about how you sequence the directions appropriately.”
There’s probably no better way for a kid to learn about the wonders of metamorphosis than to see it happen up close. Phillips has used this kit to teach kids about cause and effect and the stages of life, and she says it also teaches patience: “A lot of toys have instant gratification, but it takes days to a week or two for the caterpillar to turn into a butterfly.” While your kids are using the growing kit, Phillips recommends reading along with Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a complementary way to bring in language and vocabulary.
Air Toobz brings science to life for preschoolers by launching foam balls through a customizable network of flexible, air-powered tubes. Powered by a safe, kid-friendly turbine, it encourages hands-on experimentation as children arrange the tubes in different ways, teaching basic physics principles. Not only does it help develop spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills, Air Toobz can last up to three hours of play on a single charge.
The kit makes screen time for preschoolers both fun and educational. “The interactive games introduce concepts like letters, shapes, and storytelling, making it a perfect blend of play-based learning and hands-on exploration,” says Neitlich, noting that the kit’s four games help kids learn letters and phonics, practice early drawing, recognize social-emotional cues, be creative, and build problem-solving skills, all through play. The set comes with everything needed, including the Osmo base, and it works without Wi-Fi, so kids can use it anywhere.
“Marble runs encourage problem-solving and experimentation with gravity and physics as they design pathways and test how their creations work,” says Schweikert. She didn’t recommend a specific one, but Gecko Run tops Kunter’s wishlist this year. What sets this one apart is that it builds vertically on walls thanks to flexible tracks that require no support structures. Adhesive nano-pads hold the tracks securely on any smooth surface, allowing kids to create bigger runs with fewer pieces. They can easily be repositioned for endless configurations, and with open-ended opportunities and expansion sets, each play time yields a new creation.
For another Thames & Kosmos kit that younger kids can play with, Williams recommends this robot-building set. The brand is a favorite at her store because it offers replayability: “Most kits involve multiple projects for continuous fun.”
Rigamajig Junior is a scaled-down version for home use of the Basic Builder Kit, a classroom favorite of Schweikert’s for introducing STEM principles to children. “Rigamajig promotes imagination, discovery, collaboration, and problem-solving skills through hands-on, experiential, and open-ended play,” she says. “With no directions, children can use their imagination and figure out how to make their next creation.” Kids can build large crawl-in structures or small tabletop designs, making it ideal for various play spaces, from the living room to the backyard.
The Junior building kit also pairs with Rigamajig’s Spinning Tops, a smaller building set that lets kids combine different pieces on a single-bolt axis to create spinning tops that make interesting patterns, sounds, and optical illusions.
For grade-schoolers
“This kit provides an introduction to basic circuitry and electronics through hands-on projects,” says Neitlich, encouraging analytical thinking, creativity, innovation, and an early understanding of electrical circuits. With over 100 possible builds, kids can create dozens of electronic gadgets without any tools or soldering. From a flying-saucer launcher to a light-up fan and even a sound-activated switch, each project encourages kids to think like inventors, making electronics interactive, rewarding, and endlessly entertaining.
“When we talk about coding, it doesn’t always have to have technology,” says Kunter. “What’s important is that you learn the sequencing and patterns and how to create a language because, at the end of the day, coding is a language.” Kunter recommends the screen-free Botley Coding Robot because of its simplicity and how it fosters abstract thinking. “Kids create a circuit and then this small robot moves around and you give it different orders,” she explains. Children can create coding sequences of up to 150 steps, and Botley can play music and put on a light show and has interactive coding games and a few “secret” features that are fun to discover.
Brain-teaser toys are great for laying the foundations of STEM, says Kunter, and ThinkFun’s Laser Maze is one of her favorites for building skills like problem-solving and critical thinking. “It’s a very simple, smart logic game with a cause-and-effect solution,” she says, adding that she likes how it doesn’t rely on technology to play: Kids draw a card and use their reasoning skills to arrange beam splitters, mirrors, and other game pieces to solve the sequence and direct a laser to light up targets. With 60 challenge cards increasing in difficulty, there’s a lot of opportunity for repeat play. “Toys that lend themselves to having children communicate about what they are doing can also work to build vocabulary,” says Johnson. And once your child completes the sequence, they can walk through their decision-making process.
In Double Shutter, players roll the dice, add up the dots, and figure out the best combination of numbered tiles to flip down. It’s a fun way for kids to practice logical reasoning because it requires thinking ahead, analyzing outcomes, and making calculated choices. “This is a great strategy and math game that can be enjoyed by older children and adults together,” says Williams. Designed for up to four players, it can be played solo, cooperatively, or competitively, making it a hit for game nights.
Thames & Kosmos makes a number of age-based STEM sets, but Kunter recommends the Water Power Kit in particular because “there’s humor, there’s fun, and there’s a lot of learning.” It gives kids hands-on engineering experience as they build different water- and air-powered models like a self-propelled car, a jet-powered boat, and a lawn sprinkler.
There’s something Rube Goldberg–like in how delightful and satisfying it is for a kid to build and feed marbles into a good marble run. Kunter is a big fan of Gravitrax because it’s one of the most interactive, beautifully constructed tracks. Kids can flex their creativity, spatial awareness, and problem-solving skills while experimenting with gravity, magnetism, and kinetics. “Gravitrax is cool because you are setting up the whole system and it’s always changing,” says Kunter. “There is cause and effect but in a very playful way. You create a ball maze, and every time, there’s a different kind of solution.”
“Any type of construction toy gives kids a lot of information,” says Kunter, but one of her favorites for STEM learning is the Archi-Tech Smart House. Children learn the basics of electric circuitry, building a structure, and using wired-up sensors to set off lights, alarms, trapdoors, elevators, garage doors, and drawbridges.
Arckit offers a creative and realistic introduction to the world of architecture for older children. “Each set is designed with sophistication similar to real architecture models,” says Kunter, making it ideal for detail-oriented kids with a knack for precision. There are a variety of model-building kits — from a sports stadium to home designs for different lifestyles and terrains — that allow kids to explore design principles, test their creativity, and grasp the fundamentals of structural engineering. It’s a fantastic way for young minds to gain hands-on experience, setting the stage for future interest in architectural design while developing problem-solving and spatial skills.
“3-D puzzles are great for mental stimulation and motor skills,” says Williams, who’s a fan of Robotime’s wooden options because they transform into stunning display pieces with functional touches, like music boxes or marble runs. A particular favorite is this Magic Piano puzzle, a build-it-yourself music box that blends beautiful design with clever mechanics. With intricate details on the outside and hidden gears inside, this piano actually “plays” when you wind it up — making some keys move and delicate flowers spin along with the music.
The Sphero BOLT is an interactive coding companion that comes to life. Packed with features like a gyroscope and programmable sensors, “it’s an excellent investment for teaching coding, logical thinking, and computational skills to older children,” says Neitlich. Kids can customize games, complete hands-on activities, and share their creations with others. BOLT encourages kids to drive, code, and explore its colorful LED matrix and versatile sensors by programming it through drawing, drag-and-drop blocks, or JavaScript, making coding both accessible and fun.
This pinball-machine-making kit comes recommended by Kunter: “What’s great is how it keeps learning relevant to children’s play while keeping the focus on fun,” she says. As children build and interact with the set, they engage with physics concepts like momentum, force, and angles in a way that feels more like a game than a lesson. The result is a working arcade game they can play at home.
“Metal Earth metal figure puzzle kits range in complexity and number of pieces,” says Williams. “They make awesome gifts for older children and adults interested in building and assembling activities.” The figures range from architectural landmarks to animals like the Silver Dragon, along with popular themes like Harry Potter and Star Wars. Williams also likes that once completed, they create impressive art pieces, allowing kids to put their craftsmanship on display.
“Recently, AR-enhanced toys like the Merge Cube have gained popularity because they bring a more immersive, experiential learning approach to STEM concepts, bridging the gap between physical and digital play,” says Neitlich. And it’s truly impressive what some augmented-reality toys can do: This small foam block allows kids to touch and interact with digital 3-D objects in the palm of their hand — giving them access to everything from rocks and minerals to dinosaurs, engines, the human anatomy, and space. It also lets users track weather patterns and view historical data. It’s a fantastic tool for curious kids, making complex subjects a little less intimidating and a lot more approachable.
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