Gizmos & Gadgets: Top 10 Toys Available Today for Kids to Learn With While Having Fun

June 7, 2019 – Welcome to first-time contributor Joel Syder. He is social worker and writer at Originwritings.com and PhdKingdom.com. Syder enjoys helping people to live their life to the full as well as writing articles on things that excite him for AcademicBrits.com. In this posting he looks at toys and children’s learning. Enjoy the read and as always we welcome your comments.

Toys these days have evolved from simple teddy bears and dolls into something a lot more interesting and educational. There are numerous kits out there that spark a child’s creativity, imagination and also teach him or her a lot about the world.

If you want a child to develop a passion for engineering, mechanics, science or biology, here are my suggestions for the best ten toys to buy for them.

Nanoblock Space Shuttle – Developing Construction Skills

These blocks are Legos, basically, but for kids who like a challenge. The blocks are small and serve to construct amazing creations like the space shuttle, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and many other great things. To build the templated objects the kit comes with instructions. But a child can also build from his or her own imagination and create anything. Wake up the engineer in your child with this toy.

Snap Circuits Sound – Developing Sound-Engineering Skills

This kit is one of the best things for children who are passionate about science and making things. The kit is a great way to introduce sound engineering including understanding the physics and principles of sound. With this toy a child can swap parts to create echo effects, voice changes and other sound features making it a great package for a future scientist or engineer.

Fabric Sun Photo Kit – Developing Drawing and Art Skills

This toy will get your children outside and help them to become more creative and artistic. It includes a plastic sheet, special fabric, and a special pencil. When the plastic sheet is layered over the fabric, an object placed on its surface when exposed to sunlight creates an image. That’s because the fabric is photosensitive. A quiet toy that makes fills a child’s creative muse.

Mag-Building – Developing Geometry Skills

If you want a child to learn more about geometry and how shapes work, then give this toy. It is a bunch of magnetic squares, triangles, and hexagons that form a carnival ride and designed to help a child engineer the building of different things. The pieces can be connected first on a flat surface and then lifted up to form a 3-dimensional object. A hands-on kind of project, it is definitely one of the most interesting toys to consider getting for a child.

Carnivorous Creatures – Developing an Understanding of Biology

“This is a fun biology toy that has meat-eating plants. It’s a terrarium which comes with fly traps and sundew seeds that can grow. You also get a USB power cord, care guide and a disk about germination. Then the fifteen LED lights will give them heat and the light they need to grow,” says Olya Kovic, special education blogger at 1day2write and Nextcoursework.

Ogobild Nexus – Developing General Engineering and Construction Skills

This 90-part kit lets a child build a robot using wings, springs, googly eyes and many other objects. There is a lot of opportunity for creativity in this kit and freedom to build almost anything a child fancies. It fosters engineering, construction, and artistic skills.

Nancy B’s Science Club Aquascope – Developing Biology Research Skills

This underwater toy is perfect for a budding future biology fieldworker. It comes with an aquascope with 5x magnification, thermometer, ruler, an LED flashlight, and underwater wonders and activity journal for recording and drawing discoveries.

Anteater Bug Vac – Developing Biological Observation Skills

This anteater vacuums up bugs through its snout and holds them in a clear container in its belly where the insects can be observed. Children can learn about what they have caught and then release back into the wild. No animals get harmed here.

Bigshot Camera Kit – Developing Engineering, Construction, Electronics, and Photographic Skills 

This is a kit that lets a budding engineer construct a perfectly functional digital camera while learning about electronics, optics, and how the technology works. It comes with 3D mode and 3D glasses.

Littlebits Starter Kit – Developing Electrical Engineering and Robotics Skills

“This is a great kit that includes circuit boards in different colors. These will really inspire your kid and make them more interested in electronics, engineering, and robotics,” says Amanda Hox, a childhood education consultant at Writemyx and Britstudent. It includes electronic components on pre-assembled circuit boards. But it is just the Starter Kit. To do even more you can check out other LittleBits home kits to inspire the budding electrical engineer in your family.

Editor’s Note: I don’t know about you but the nerd in me found this introduction to toys for fun and learning. I had my chemistry set, my fish tanks, my telescope, and a microscope, but I would have loved to have had the opportunity to explore with these wonderful toys introduced to us by Joel Syder. For parents thinking about a child’s next birthday, or next Christmas, start your shopping early.