Learning Toys and STEM Toys We Love

Updated Dec 10, 2022

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We don’t think there’s a right or wrong way for kids to play. For this kid-oriented gift guide, we focused on learning toys—open-ended games, kits, toys and crafts that promote lifelong skills like critical thinking, problem solving, logic, and even coding. To choose from the hundreds of toys available, we spent more than 30 hours trying 35 recommendations from experts, educators, and parents, including a reporting trip to the Katherine Delmar Burke School’s tinkering and technology lab in San Francisco, California.

Rush Hour

A logic traffic jam

Navigating a car through different traffic jam challenges requires breaking down problems into discrete parts in this one-person game.

Three Little Piggies Deluxe

A geometry puzzle

A single-player or team game that uses geometry, pattern recognition, and puzzle solving.

Robot Turtles Game

Teaches coding skills

A simple card-based board game for 2 to 5 players that stealthily teaches basic principles of programming.

MagFormers

Shapes and structures

Colorful magnetic triangles, squares, and pentagons create 3D structures and clean up easily.

Magna-Tiles (100-Piece Set)

More shapes and sizes

Magna-Tiles are also great building toys with strong magnetic edges and great colors and shapes.

Zoobs

Curves, joints and bends

Kids can build things that bend, curve, and move with these colorful, jointed pieces.

Gears! Gears! Gears!

Mechanical gears

Kids connect colored gears to build complex horizontal and vertical structures—and to see if they can keep the gears turning.

LittleBits Rule Your Room Kit

Ready-to-go circuits

Magnetic, color-coded, ready-to-go circuit blocks can form the electronic guts of any number of projects and let kids learn how to connect power sources with inputs and outputs.

SnapCircuits Electronics Discovery Kit

Experiment with real circuits

Color-coded snap-in components let kids design real circuits and create projects like radios, alarms, and doorbells.

Kano Computer Kit

A build-your-own computer

Kids put the Kano computer together on their own and then have fun learning coding and playing games using the unique OS.

Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit

Drive a car, plane, and submarine with cardboard contraptions

One part craft kit, one part STEM toy, and one part video game, Labo and its brilliant instructions help you turn pieces of (not very durable) cardboard into interactive games.

Dash Robot

A little robot with a big personality

The cute, one-eyed robot rolls, dances, and talks, teaching programming to kids from kindergarten through upper elementary.

Lego Boost

A bigger, expandable robot kit

The Boost kit is a joy to put together and easy to program, and because it’s based on Lego, there’s lots of possibility for creative expansion.

Hape Foxy Tote Sewing Kit

Animal sewing projects

These animal-shaped sewing projects with precut pieces and seam holes help young kids learn about patterning, shapes, and materials.

Seedling Create Your Own Designer Dolly Kit

Make your own doll

A simple cloth doll is a blank canvas for kids to experiment with stitching, cutting, and clothing design.