STEM for Preschoolers | ThinkPlay STEM Jr. Review

Introducing little ones to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts early on is important to our family. STEM is our kids’ future, and making it, well, child’s play, is the way to get them thinking with a STEM-y mindset.

And I want that for them.

 

 

I love finding new toys, games, curriculum, and projects that help foster that love in them, and if the ‘A’ is thrown in there, making it STEAM (Art), all the better! We were given the chance to partner with Timberdoodle this year, and try out some of their great products and curriculum if we think it’ll be a great fit for our family or yours, and I was thrilled.

We’re always looking new building toys, and are completely in love with the ThinkPlay STEM Junior set that can be found individually or in their PreK or Kindergarten curriculum sets. The ThinkPlay STEM Junior collection is an award winning construction system that encourages creativity, scaffolding kiddos through bunches and bunches of projects in the included book of ideas.

 

 

Once the kids are comfortable with the unique interlocking pieces, they’ll be building 3D models from their imagination – art and engineering rolled into one!

This set includes 400 pieces that are durable so they stand up to daily and long term use – which comes in handy as my six-year-old has had this set out every single day since we received it. My favorite part is the 60-page spiral bound book. Projects start by having kids lay pieces overtop the pictures in the book, then become increasingly more abstract and difficult to build as kids progress through the projects.

 

 

 

The pieces are large, durable, and brightly colored. And, they’re so enticing that I’m seriously thinking about getting another set because every time I have them out, all the kids crowd around. While we originally got them with the six-year-old in mind, our three-year-old loves them, and so do the two bigger kiddos.

We’ve had a few friends visit and ask me to write down the name of the set for their moms to purchase.

 

 

The ThinkPlay STEM Junior set is a great investment for a homeschooling mama because it helps kiddos develop a couple of different skills – all in a play-based way. Kids develop fine-motor skills, hand-eye coordination, convergent/divergent thinking, creativity, problem solving, and visual-spatial skills. Any toy that hits all of those skills is a huge win in my book.

 

 

I know that this set will be a favorite for many, many years. I’m sure we’ll be adding another one to the house soon to expand the build possibilities.