Technology is ever changing and it’s hard to keep up. While I limit screen time and other devices in my children’s day, I want to encourage skills such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), but let’s face it–standards, reading dry textbooks, and boring lectures aren’t a way to help our kids learn. Being natural scientists, children love hands-on projects and a whole learning approach. Easily implemented at home, the new STEM programs make learning fun. Need fresh ideas?
Lego Duplo
Legos are awesome, and they hold my children’s interests for a long time. Of course, you don’t want to get your early learner small legos since they’re choking hazards, but Lego Duplos are a win! Playing with legos enhances your child’s imagination and creativity through engineering their custom places, spaces, and creations. Legos also build mathematical skills through colors, counting, and patterns.
A Primary Science Kit
As I mentioned above, children are little scientists, and early childhood is all about discovery and learning from the environment. Foster this learning through science without your kids even knowing. Primary science kits include goggles, magnifying glasses, and plastic test tubes. Your little learners can enjoy their backyard while learning about the flowers, bugs, and worms in their habitat.
Talking Telescope
Educational Insights has a great talking telescope that allows kids to peer through and look at over 200 different slides. As your child looks at the “pictures,” they learn facts about planets, animals, and plants. They can even answer questions about the slides.
Fisher Price Think and Learn Code-a-Pillar
Computers and technology are here to stay. Much like piecing codes together to make a computer work, the Code-a-Pillar allows kids to connect segments of the caterpillar together to make it move left and right or back and forth. Children learn letter recognition, categorization, and object properties, and have fun while building their knowledge.
Green Kids Crafts Subscription Boxes
Everyone loves getting stuff in the mail especially boxes of fun! Green Kids Crafts subscription boxes are geared for ages 4-10. Each box comes with a science theme in which kids can do up to 8 different STEM projects.
Count Along Cash Register
Make believe and pretending are great ways for kids to learn. Money skills are crucial, and while they’re learning how to work the cash register, your early childhood learners will have so much fun pretending to be a cashier, they won’t realize they’re learning how to count money, make change, and understanding core math concepts.
Learning Resources Code and Go Robot Mouse
This cool toy is an excellent way to teach early learners about coding and technology. Kids can engineer a maze, and program a step by step path into their programmable mouse using coding cards. As your child learns sequence, coding, and cause and effect, they will love watching their crazy mouse whip through mazes to find the cheese.
Have you started STEM learning in your home? Christmas is the perfect time to get STEM toys in your home. If you haven’t added these seven best toys for early childhood to your Christmas list, you need to!
For more gift guides for your family this Christmas, make sure to check out iHN, where several bloggers share their absolute favorite guide ideas:
Free Guide
Want to know how to use essential oils and herbs in your home? In this guide, I share my top 10 favorites.
Plus get our latest content and news, including giveaways and freebies.
Would make the Christmas season that much easier if we could win.
I totally understand! Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead. 🙂
Those are some great ideas! I’m gonna get a few for my little nephew, maybe for Christmas.
Simple and actually budgetable too. 🙂 Aunties are fantastic people, BTW. Thanks for stopping by.
We would be able to be together as a family celebrating with home baked goodies & presents under the Christmas tree!
I love this image! What a great blessing that will be. Thanks for visiting.
I’d really love to give this to my children to invest in
Wow, that would be an awesome gift to them. Great choice! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Winning would help me get things for my family. I am a full time student and i never get to spoil my family. That would be the most amazing thing.
Wow, what a great blessing this would be for your family. Congrats to you for being in school full time while taking care of your family. Thanks for visiting.
It would really help with Christmas if we won this money. Kids are expensive!
I was just looking at our Christmas budget earlier. I have a few posts around here on how to afford Christmas on a shoestring budget, if you have some free time. 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
It would be a blessing to win. We returned to the states a year ago, and we know what it’s like to do without. We have been blessed so many times by others and it would be a blessing to be able to bless others a bit more than we are able to right now. This would be a HUGE thing for us if we won! Thank you so much for this!
That’s such a sweet gesture! Where did you return from? My husband is from England, so foreign travel interests me. Thanks so much for visiting.
Winning this giveaway would bless my family by bringing us together. We all live in different states and none of us can afford to travel this year. This win would allow me to travel to someone or bring someone to me! I love and miss my family very much. It’s hard being so far away from them during the holidays.
I understand! I’m about 10 hours away from my family and my husband has an ocean between him and his. 🙁 It’s hard to leave so far away and it’s always fun to get everyone together. Thanks so much for visiting.
this would be such a blessing to win for my parents to help with bills and groceries. they do so much to support my daughter and me and Id love to be able to give something back to them
I love, love, love these stories of those who hope they can bless others who have blessed them. How wonderful. 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting and have a great week ahead. 🙂
We celebrate Chanukkah, so this would truly be a blessing for my family. Thank you!
Hey, Jackie!! So great to see you here. 🙂 You’ll have to share how you celebrate Chanukkah some time. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
Thanks so much for this offer.
Winning this gift would help me to give back to my neighbor who is very sick and their car just broke down. Two years ago we moved in next door to them and they were kind enough to give us their older washer and dryer, because we did not have one.
Peace to all.
I love this kind of story! We’ve been blessed by people when we didn’t have much and now we love to return the favor. Having great neighbors is a real blessing in itself, too.
Stem toys are so very great for kids.. I constantly encourage my sister to get them for her kids. This past May 2nd I lost my precious grandmother, Nana. To say this year has been miserable is an understatement.. but I am trying to keep going. This would be such a blessing as I currently work at two different emergency rooms whilst trying to stay in school for my RN BSN. Money is constantly short, whether its for bills, groceries or books… however, I will make it through because I am determined to make my Nana proud!
Wow, Starla. 🙁 I’m so sorry for your loss. Working while going to school is so difficult and I admire those who are able to do it. I also admire ER staff. That’s a special type of person. <3
We just found out that we have a new Granddaughter. So this would really bless our family in getting the baby supplies that we need for her
Oh wow!!!! Exciting!!!! There’s nothing like a new baby. 🙂 Have a fabulous day, and thanks for stopping by.
What a wonderful giveaway! Like many, winning it would help with extras while living on a tight budget. Thank you for the opportunity to enter.
Thanks for visiting, Lorie. 🙂 Yes sometimes just having a little extra goes a long, long way, eh? Have a blessed day. 🙂
This would help us save for a much-needed family vacation.
I understand that feeling! We were there this August, when my husband told me to find anywhere I could that would accommodate our family. Other times, we’ve opted for a staycation. Either way, not having to worry about budgeting for the vacation is a great blessing in itself. Have a great day, and thanks for visiting. 🙂
Winning this contest would help my family to stay out of debt. This year will be a very thin year for presents. I would love to do more for my grandkids, but money is way too tight this year.
Being able to buy presents without going into debt is a great feeling, isn’t it? Thanks so much for visiting.
Wow, this would totally fund Christmas!
It will definitely be a benefit to just about anyone’s budget, eh? Thanks so much for stopping by!
This money with bless my family with sleep if i won. By that i mean the kids would get their own beds and helpfully a few toys to start out their own rooms. As of right now we are all 4 sharing a king size bed which tends leave mommy sleeping on the couch.
Oh wow! I know a family who had to do this for awhile. It was hard at the time and the neat thing was to hear how the kids look back on that time with positive memories (although they didn’t feel that way then). Thanks for visiting, and you’ll be in my thoughts.
It would help with job transitions.
Job transitions can be stressful. We’ve been there a few times ourselves.
We are trying to declutter, so I am thinking we would use this for family memories!!
Excellent choice! We started doing this a few years ago, opting for experiences rather than more things. 🙂 We don’t regret it one bit. Thanks for stopping by.
This would be such a blessing to win! Thank you! (Help paying off some debt!)
Paying off debt feels soooooo good. 🙂
This would be such a blessing to win!! I would pay some bills and hopefully be able to buy my children some presents!! Thank you for the opportunity!!
Sounds like a great way to use the money, Patsy. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
I would be able to give more to others with this great gift of cash thanks
What a great gesture! Thanks for stopping by.
this would definitely help relieve some of the stress for college tuition!
Oh goodness, yes college tuition can be a real drain on the budget. I’m still paying off my student loans, and hope that my children will be able to graduate debt-free. Have a great week ahead!
Great STEM ideas for early childhood.
Thanks. 🙂 Little children love hands-on toys and projects. 🙂
We have a big list of house repairs to tackle in the New Year, so this giveaway would really help with that. Thanks for the chance to win!
Oh goodness, house repairs add up don’t they? I hope you’re able to get everything together as painlessly as possible. Thanks for stopping by.
My husband is on unpaid medical leave and I am his caregiver. This would allow us to get Christmas gifts for the grandkids.
I’m on maternity leave right now, so any extra money would be beneficial to our family.
This would be a huge blessing. More today then yesterday. I just found out that my mother’s health is failing. I am just learning about this so excuse my crying as I write this. This would be a blessing in that I could afford to buy her a robot vacuum to help her keep the house clean, and we could, as a family go visit her. She lives 5 states away, and we don’t see her often.
This will benefit my family for Christmas because I’m a stay at home mom I could help my husband buy Christmas presents this year
My husband just lost his job. This would be a wonderful bonus since we’ll be missing a few paychecks.
about a year and a half ago, i finally took steps to make my children and i safe in a domestic violence situation. it backfired, and he worked the system, leaving me homeless and without my kids for 10 months. i clawed my way back up, working and hoping and praying, and i was successful! i have my children, i married my best friend, and we are in a nice house in a good neighborhood. but it was costly, financially, mentally, and physically. i currently suffer from ptsd and my health has declined from stress. my husband works two jobs and we still have to beg for help sometimes. i have found a wonderful training school that i can pay in payments for a certification, and i am guaranteed a job after i complete it. the down payment is $500! so the blessing would be huge, it would show me maybe this is meant to be, that i should work on myself to better my future and that of my kids. if i dont win, i will keep trying, but i worry how much further we might fall in taking the risk…i owe it to myself and my kids, though.
It will help my family be able to afford specialty food items for my daughter who has food allergies!
We are a family of 7 and my husband has not been able to find work for the last few months. Winning this prize would be a major blessing to our family. I love all of your blog posts! Thank you for taking your time to post them.
We have zero gifts under our tree. We need a blessing!
I know this giveaway would bless my family for so many ways! My grandson is speech delay & this would help him out & his sister.
Great STEM toy ideas! I will definitely look at getting some of these for my daughter, and look at Lego a little differently (as a STEM tool) instead of land mines to avoid on the floor of her bedroom.
Ha!!! Yeah!! Me too! 🙂