STEM Toys: The Suggested Toys for Healthy Playtime

During childhood, one of the things we most care about is playtime. Sometimes, it’s not that uncommon for us parents to forget about this, how precious playtime used to be for us and why it’s important to provide our children with it on a day to day basis.

Along with nutrition and sleep toys are an integral part in a child’s development so one can’t simply think from the point of view of fun but educational benefits as well. It’s safe to say toys are the means that help a child acquire skills that are essential in life, including adult life.

While all toys offer advantages, some do more than others, as is the example with engineering toys for kids. Why is this so? As it happens, they are part of the STEM toys, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math. It’s no exaggeration explaining them as the learning multi-purpose instruments every child needs.

Apart from the fact you have vast varieties to choose from, differing in models, materials (e.g. eco-friendly and BPA-free options like wood and silicon), colours, shapes, sizes and prices, you’re also going to love how engaging they can be and even turn out to provide entertainment for the whole family. This means playtime would easily become your enjoyable bonding activity.

Thanks to them you won’t find it difficult to convince kids not to have fear of learning and enjoy it instead. Best of all is there are versatile options of toys suitable for kids of all ages, even as young as three years old and they differ in their complexity so it doesn’t matter if your child doesn’t find building blocks, dinosaurs or vehicles interesting because there are plenty of other alternatives to opt for, such as the countless robots, theme parks and the latest 3D doodling kits.

The Developmental Benefits

For a parent, the child’s developmental process is among the priorities since early age and knowing toys like STEM provide this exactly means shopping for engineering toys for kids as well as the rest of the STEM group should be one of the basic to-dos.

Starting to play with such toys early on allows kids to enhance their hand-eye coordination, one of the basic natural skills, thanks to connecting what they see with what their hands can do when trying to assemble the parts of a kit together. Speaking in a broader term, their fine motor skills are improved as they handle various bits and pieces.

Playing with toys requiring construction further helps with the problem-solving skills that we all need in life, not just school life, and this in turn is essential with the spatial awareness also considering they have to understand the surrounding space and connect the pieces in a way that’s correct and won’t end up in ruins. Yes, it’s worth the mention that through this they get to understand more of patterns and how the whole design process works.

It’s a given you require a great deal of patience to build up toys, piece after piece, so in a way kids enhance their focus too and learn that patience pays off as it results with the reward of a nicely built structure.

What would learning be without creativity? Though some toys are available with manuals, there are those that allow kids to get to the outcome of their liking relying on their imagination which is handy when you want to teach them how to be more resourceful, look on things in a bigger picture and how they could be when you invest some potential in them.

When there’s no manual, there’s the chance to grow confidence by carrying out all sorts of tests, not being afraid of making mistakes and seeing the constructions collapse. Likewise, getting to know about the different engineering toys for kids, their components, shapes, sizes and colours, it’s important to mention it’s the perfect means to build up language skills, expanding the vocabulary through socialising and cooperation.

It’s a given having your child build something with you, siblings, relatives and friends their age, waiting to take turns is the perfect strategy to teach them a little bit of empathy and work on their EQ instead of just focusing on their IQ. This is essential when it comes to avoiding selfish grown-ups who don’t know how to express themselves or lack confidence – yes, nothing that can’t be helped with a bit of playtime with the right toys.

Perhaps what matters to parents most nowadays is the fact these toys provide healthy playtime without any side-effects in the likes of addiction lots of screen time results in, so if you want to raise healthy and strong individuals introduce them to STEM toys instead of finding the easy way out of tantrums with electronics.

Having all this in mind, you’d agree what seems like mere play happens to be a much more complex process and it’s the job of every parent to make sure their child has as much playtime as possible.

Aiden Jones

Aiden Jones is an Australian student and a freelance writer. When not studying, Aiden spends time reading about different industrial equipment, information technology (computers and networking) and sports. With his elegant writing, Aiden enriches readers with his personal perspective and never steers away from the hard truth.