YBMW 2022 Holiday Gift Guide – STEAM Gifts

Kids First: Intro to Gears 
Thames & Kosmos
$34.99
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A great kit for young engineers, the Thames & Kosmos Kids First: Intro to Gears is a must-have this year. This kit allows your child to build 4 amazing geared machines while teaching them the fundamentals of gears, gear ratios, transmissions, power, and torque. Large, durable plastic building pieces make assembly easy for small hands while helping them develop crucial fine motor, visual-spatial, reasoning, and concept skills The easy-to-follow and engaging manual includes detailed step-by-step instructions and questions allowing your child to let their curiosity and imagination run wild. 

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Build your own Solar Light Kit
Mpowerd
$39.95
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Solar is the future. As long as we’ve got sun, we’re going to need generations of new people to figure out the best way to harness its energy. We have been blown away by Mpowerd’s solar lights for years, so we wanted to make sure that we showed you this great new STEM kit that teaches children and adults how to make their own solar lights. What we liked most is that this isn’t just a model kit. The booklet comes with several activities that you can do and there are multiple ways to connect the lights for each different experiment. If you are teaching your child about renewable energy this is one of the best kits we’ve seen to put the power of solar energy right at their fingertips.

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Candy Vending Machine
Thames & Kosmos
$39.99
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The Thames & Kosmos Candy Vending Machine is the most fun, and tasty, STEM project you can buy this holiday season. Young engineers will have a blast constructing their very own 2-foot-tall candy vending machine that dispenses small candies and prizes, sorts coins, and acts as a coin bank too. This machine is highly customizable allowing kids to build and rebuild countless routes coins can take while sliding down ramps, making jumps, and ringing bells. Your child will gain the basics of physics and mechanical engineering by learning about gears, simple machines, gravity, forces, and motion.

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Code+Control Robo Dozr Engineering & Robotics Kit
Thames & Kosmos
$59.95
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The Thames & Kosmos Code+Control Robo Dozr Engineering & Robotics Kit for future robotics engineers is as fun as it is educational. Using a handheld wireless controller along with Code+Control Technology, this robotic bulldozer directly controls in real-time, or you can write and save a sequence of commands for the robot to perform with a push of a button. Your child will learn about the various electrical components found inside a robot, how continuous tracks work, and read about the vehicles and robots that use them. 

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Disect-it STEM Kits
Top Secret Toys
$14.95+
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When we were kids, we had a dissection lab in school. We dissected everything from starfish and frogs to fetal pigs. A lot of schools don’t do that anymore, but it is a really cool and educational learning tool that helps kids get interested in science and medicine as possible career paths. That’s why we love these Disect-It kits. You get a simulated experience of dissecting a frog, piranha, salamander, and even a bat without hurting a single animal. You are cutting through a gel to discover the organs and bones of each animal. This is the perfect gift for any kid over the age of three who wants to start learning about biology and science. It’s even a great gift for parent friends of yours who happen to be homeschooling their kids!

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Andy: The Code & Play Robot | Screen-Free Coding & Robotics Kit for Ages 4+
Thames & Kosmos
$49.95
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Thames & Kosmos introduces the new best friends for aspiring programmers, Andy: The Code & Play Robot. For ages 4 and up, Andy is a bright and colorful little robot that will play music and dance into any preschooler’s heart, while also teaching them basic robotics and coding skills. Andy’s movement can be controlled via the arrow keys on top of his head, allowing up to 30 actions to be saved at a time. He also comes with a series of games and activities to keep your child entertained during their intro to the world of programming.

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Creatto Kits
Thames & Kosmos
$11.95+
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The Thames & Kosmos Creatto Kits allow your imagination to run wild while building countless 3D creations. Using sturdy plastic tiles and connector pieces to weave together beautiful artwork, along with a string of LED lights, you can make amazing displays that show off your personality and creativity. Kits available include the Starlight Kitty & Cutie Crew, Moonlight Elephant Safari, Flashy Fish & Silly Swimmers, Sunshine Sabertooth & Ferocious Friends, Twilight Rocking Horse & The Giddyup Gang, Soaring Dragon & Flying Friends, and many more!

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Osmo Reading Aventure
Osmo
$25.00
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When I first received the Osmo Reading Adventure Level 1 kit, I was a bit concerned that this interactive reading curriculum would be too young for my seven-year-old as she has already moved beyond the basics of learning to read, but I’m pleased to say that I was mistaken. Not only are the books right on par to reinforce her current reading level, but she is also fully obsessed with The Crystal Wand that comes in the set, making this a perfect fit for her.

The Starter Kit contains The Crystal Wand in addition to four books with short stories at the front and interactive puzzles on the remaining pages. The kit contains everything you need to get started once you download the app, and by holding one of the books below the Osmo reflector, the set is automatically added to your library. There appear to be seven current levels of books available through the library is slotted up to 18 levels. 

As with any true adventure, your reader will follow heroes Oliver and Nebula through a series of quests and the app uses voice input to determine if your reader is getting the words correct, in addition to using The Crystal Wand as a pointer. Long holds of the Wand are used to choose words or answers from the book pages, and through a variety of vocal and visual prompts, lead your reader to direct the action on the quest as you track down Dreams and help them find their way home.

For a child who enjoys interactive stories and being part of the action, my daughter absolutely loves this series and I love that she asks to use it even on days when getting her to read is a chore. The gamification is strong enough that to her, she’s simply playing on her tablet. I also love that she’s old enough to move through the books and apps independently. This is a fantastic alternative to workbooks and dry reading curriculum, though seems to be intended for children who are past the “learning to read” stage and already onto the “early reader” stage as they are expected to read both from the app and from the storybooks. All in all, Osmo Reading Adventures is a huge win!

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BYJU’S LEARNING featuring Disney Premium Learning Kit 
Byju
$199.00
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Anytime you can combine Disney with schoolwork, it’s a win in my house, and BYJU Magic Workbooks are no exception. We received the Grade 2 kit, which is unexpectedly large (in a good way) and contains a base, reflector, three special pens and erasers, and eight hardcover workbooks. The instruction sheet walks you through a step-by-step setup and gets you ready to launch your child into this interactive learning journey.

My seven-year-old jumped straight into one of the math workbooks and was walked through how to complete each page. We learned quickly that erasing mistakes was easier said than done, but after a little practice, we were able to clear the marks away pretty thoroughly. I suspect the pens are Frixion pens so require a good bit of friction to erase, and even a solid job does not eliminate them completely. I am not sure how well this would work with multiple students for this reason.

In addition to the workbooks (three reading, two grammar, and three math), there are a variety of videos, activities, and games available through the app. There is not an obvious link between the learning videos and the workbooks, but it’s possible that we are not yet familiar enough with the setup to have noticed one. When bookwork became too daunting for her, my daughter switched to watching videos and playing games within the app, and had a blast! Learning alongside all of her favorite characters is a huge win in our house.

While this is not a complete curriculum, we are looking forward to using it for the remainder of our school year as a fun supplement. This set is great for anyone like us who enjoys mixing up the day-to-day tedium of seat work or adding in something new and fun to your schedule. I love that the books are very sturdy, the paper is nice and heavy, and both the workbooks and app are something my daughter can do independently.

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