The best STEM toys – The Review Studio

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

We’re on the last few weeks of the summer term and on the countdown to summer holidays. Travelling with children can be incredibly stressful so if you can keep then entertained it makes the journey a lot more pleasant for everyone! In the run up to the summer holidays I am always on the lookout for compact games that I can pop in my bag to keep the children entertained, whether they are on a plane, car, hotel room or caravan.

We were recently sent The Genius Star from The Happy Puzzle Company which can be played solo or as a 2 player game. The game is great fun and will not only keep them occupied whilst travelling it is also fun to team up to play together as a family in the evenings.

Inside the box are two plastic star shaped grids, two sets of 11 multi-coloured wooden shapes, two sets of seven blocker pieces (triangles) and seven dice (a mixture of six and eight sided). The game is very easy to play, simply roll all the dice and place a blocker piece into the triangle matching the seven numbers that appear on the dice, then race your opponent to fill every other space on the grid using the 11 shapes. There is also an added twist with the ‘Golden Star’ which allows you to score a double win by solving the puzzle with the ‘Golden Star’ Apparently only 57.4% of the puzzles have a solution that includes the ‘Golden Star’ so this adds to the challenge!

The game is good for STEM learning using skills including problem solving, critical thinking and logic skills to complete the puzzle.

Each game is reasonably quick but with 165,888 possible combinations you do sometimes play a round that takes a little longer to complete, especially if you try to use the ‘Golden Star’ but that just adds to the fun. With so many different combinations this is a game that will keep children (and adults) entertained these holidays.

The Genius Star is suitable for ages 8 to adult and has an RRP of £19.99

Disclaimer: We received these products free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own

It’s not long until the Easter holidays and I have been thinking of ideas to keep my children occupied and to keep them off electronic gadgets. They love construction toys so I was really pleased to receive a couple of sets from Geomag which will certainly keep them out of mischief this Easter. Geomag is a popular construction toy which uses the power of magnets to build amazing structures using metal rods, spheres and plastic panels and it is so easy (and addictive) to do – the only limitation is your imagination!

Geomag is a great toy as the sets not only encourage hand-eye co-ordination and fine motor skills but are a fantastic way to encourage creativity and spark imagination, helping to form a love of science, puzzles and construction.

The E-Motion set has all the parts needed to create a spinner – metal rods, spheres and square, pentagon and triangular shaped panels. The instructions are simple to follow, and it didn’t take long to assemble the spinner. I was quite surprised at how long they spun for and we had great fun seeing whose design would spin for the longest. It was really easy to incorporate our existing Geomag sets with this to create different styles of spinners which really got the boys thinking about design and how to create the ultimate spinner. This is a great STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) toy as it combines harnessing the power of magnets in construction alongside the concept of movement.

RRP £22

For little ones the Magic Cube Shapes Recycled Wheels set is the perfect construction toy. Consisting of magnetic shapes that are easy for little hands to hold, they attach to each other on all six sides. By using the invisible and magical properties of magnetism, children can create amazing models – one day we made dinosaurs, another day it was tractors and tomorrow will be something completely different!

RRP £22.49

The Mechanics Gravity Loops & Turns is for older children and fits numerous STEM elements. The set contains 130 pieces that connect together enabling you to make a circuit for the spheres to be propelled around. The set uses the power of magnetism and gravity to move the spheres around the circuit and helps children learn about science. It took my 10 year old around an hour to build with a little bit of help from Dad and was surprisingly sturdy when finished. There are no batteries which is always a bonus!

There are other circuits in the range so if you have a budding engineer in your midst then I can highly recommend this range.

£34.99

As well as being great toys I also love that everything is made from 100% recycled plastic. It’s great to see a big toy company being environmentally friendly.