Did you know that Jen, Miranda, and I all homeschool our children? We love it when education and fun collide. So we’ve put together this gift guide featuring the best educational gifts for kids!
The Best Educational Gifts for Kids
RIVAL 5 Educational Number Strategy Game
Looking for a gift that will encourage some brain power? Look no further! RIVAL 5 is a brain-training game of skill and chance. Geared for ages 9-99, however, we play with our 6 and 8 year old too. As a STEM tool, it is the ideal game for the classroom and at home. This game is very fun and educational at the same time. If someone is having difficulty with math, this is the perfect game. It really puts your mind to work, while also letting you having a good time.
RIVAL 5 was designed in the summer of 2015 by an adult education teacher in a state prison near Philadelphia. The teacher prayed that God would show her how to develop a game that would help students learn basic computational skills in oblivion. All the while having fun. She began tossing two polyhedral dice, then added a third. And with an array of numbers and a few basic rules, a game was designed. College level inmates began playing competitively with the students and quickly became addicted to the game. Because RIVAL 5 is a game of strategy, skill, and chance. Even low-level learners can win against college students, which increases the challenge. And RIVAL 5 was published in 2017 and is enjoyed by children and adults.
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: It’s a Beautiful Day Collection on DVD
It’s the year of Mister Rogers; both parents and children can share their love of everyone’s favorite neighbor by celebrating this holiday season with “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: It’s a Beautiful Day Collection,” a special set of 32 memorable episodes and over 15 hours of content. In the DVD, Mister Rogers helps children learn the importance of being kind to others, appreciating what makes everyone unique, recycling and taking care of our planet, and much more in the classic series. The new release also includes a very special bonus episode – the series premiere, in original black-and-white! “MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD: IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY COLLECTION” has a run time of 928 minutes.
Rock Hound’s Backpack Kit
Do you have a “rock hound” who’s always asking you questions? “Why are rocks different colors? Why are there different kinds of rocks in different places? What are rocks made of?” They can discover these answers and more with this unique rock collecting starter kit! The Rock Hound’s Backpack Kit comes with real tools for rock collecting, testing, and identifying. Strap on this sturdy backpack filled with everything you need to explore the surprising world of rocks and minerals. The Rock Hound’s Backpack Kit is the perfect, ready-to-go rock collecting starter kit to begin or advance your geologic adventure.
Ooze Labs Chemistry Station
Grab your beakers and test tubes and step up to your special laboratory station for some exciting chemistry experiments.This cool laboratory setup has lots of different vessels and pieces of lab equipment so kids can play the role of chemist while doing real, safe experiments. All of the experiments use non-hazardous chemicals.This playful introduction to the basics of chemistry includes approximately 20 experiments. The experiments are presented on printed cards that can be clipped onto the lab station for easy reference. Experiments include glowing slime, color-changing slime, fizzing reactions, oozing bubbles, rainbow in a test tube, chromatography, cabbage juice pH tests, solutions, filtering, crystals, fire extinguisher, and underwater volcano.
Robotics Smart Machine: Rovers & Vehicles
Robotics is a vast, thrilling, and sometimes overwhelming interdisciplinary field involving physics, engineering, and computer science. This kit gives kids a simple, fun, and customizable introduction to robotics that lets them build eight motorized machines controlled by programs and an ultrasound sensor. Kids code the programs using an easy, visual programming app on a tablet or smartphone, which connects to the robot models via a wireless Bluetooth connection.
Pepper Mint: Pepper Mint in the Great Treehouse Engineering Adventure
In this story-based STEM kit, Pepper Mint visits her aunt who is a scientist researching primates. She lives in a treehouse in the rainforest on the island of Borneo. The treehouse is not connected to the electrical power grid. But Pepper Mint and her aunt devise mechanical inventions to accomplish various tasks. They equip the treehouse with mechanical equipment using pulleys, winches, and gears, and learn lessons in physics. Projects include a rope ladder, a pulley to lift heavy objects into the treehouse, a rubber-band-powered lift, a rotating palm leaf umbrella, a zipline, a catapult, and a trap door.
At the end of the story, Pepper Mint wires up a string of LED lanterns using conductive thread and a battery holder to light up the treehouse in the dark jungle night. While doing this, she learns about electric circuits. The kit includes materials to build the treehouse and do the projects, a full-color illustrated storybook and step-by-step instruction manual, as well as a scale Pepper Mint figurine
Orboot
The educational, Augmented Reality globe always amazes the curious little minds. Fun and interactive, this adventurous ride helps your child to absorb endless knowledge at the tap of a finger. The 10” STEAM integrated smart globe comes with a passport, stamps, flags and will help your child learn about countries, cultures, wildlife and more!
Kids First Coding & Robotics
Meet Sammy. This cute little peanut butter and jelly sandwich is actually a robot that teaches coding principles and skills to children in grades K-2. You don’t need a tablet, smartphone, or computer to program this robot; programs are created by simply laying down a sequence of physical code cards. As the robot drives over the code cards, an OID optical scanner on the bottom of the robot reads the code cards one by one and loads the program. Next, place the robot on a grid made of map cards, and the robot runs the program. You can program the robot to move in different directions, activate its output gear, light up its LED, play sounds, and respond to different function cards. The integrated output gear makes it possible to build simple robotic creations with arms or other moving parts that respond according to the program’s instructions.
Sensor’s Alive
The core of this science kit is an app-based video game in which you use real-world sensor data that you collect from your environment to generate a diverse array of creatures. Create, collect, play with, and take care of your creatures in the app. In a pretend bioengineering lab inside the game, kids play the role of scientists who use readings taken from three physical sensor pods outside the game. Continue to use the sensors to capture data that lets you care for your creatures, feed them, play with them, create habitats for them, and generate more creatures – all the while developing an intuitive sense of the different measurements you are taking with the sensors.
You will gain experience in measuring light levels, volumes, and temperatures with the three sensor pods, and learn about the physics behind light, sound, and heat. Physics comes alive as you see the tangible results of your sensor experiments.
I could see so many of these working for my grandchildren who love science and stem activities. Some choice that I haven’t seen before so great for my list.
This the second site suggesting the Orboot globe. I may need to look into it, but honestly am worried my son will end up trying to throw it as I resembles a ball.
My nephews and nieces would love all the gifts in this post.
These are all great ideas. Sensor’s Alive looks like a lot of fun!
These are great educational gifts. I like the Great Treehouse Engineering Adventure!
These are fantastic ideas for educational gifts, thank you so much for sharing! I homeschool my kids, so I love when I can find toys/games that they can have fun with while learning. I really want to get them a globe and this one sounds perfect!
Educational gifts are so important! I wish more parents would consider giving educational gifts to children.