This article reviews the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM education is growing increasingly popular and as a result STEM toys are becoming more popular, too.
The best STEM toys for 2-year-olds are designed to help your child develop faster and better and fun and engaging ways. There are many STEM toys available, and choosing the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds can be challenging.
To help you filter through the available options, this article reviews some of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
- Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds: Reviews
- Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds Buyer’s Guide
- Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds FAQ
- 1. Why are STEM Toys Good?
- 2. What Makes a Toy STEM?
- 3. What Exactly is STEM?
- 4. What is the Difference Between a STEM Toy and a Basic Educational Toy?
- 5. Are There Different Types of STEM Toys?
- 6. Are STEM Toys Safe for My Child to Use?
- 7. How Long Will My Child Use a STEM Toy?
- 8. Are STEM Toys Worth the Money?
- Conclusion
Comparison Chart
LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express 45025, Fun STEM Educational Toy, Introduction to Steam Learning for Girls & Boys Ages 2 & Up (234Piece )
Rainbow Counting Bears With Matching Sorting Cups (67 Pcs Set) + FREE Storage Bag | STEM Educational Gift For Toddler | Montessori Sorting And Counting Toy | Pre-School Color Learning Toy For Children
ANGSTEEP Wooden Puzzles for Toddlers Baby Age 2 3 4 Year Old Learning Color Perception Stacking Wood Blocks,Boy and Girl Birthday Gifts(4 Pack)
PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks Tiles Construction Toy Set Learning Playset STEM Toy Set Educational Kit Child Branin Development Preschool Kindergarten Toy
Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds: Reviews
LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express makes our list of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express is fun and educational for girls and boys ages 2 years and older. It is an excellent way to introduce young children to STEM education through meaningful play.
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express is an Amazon’s Choice product and averages nearly 5 stars.
Review best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express gives your 2-year-old a unique opportunity to learn how to build STEM projects that combine the physical world with digital tools.
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express comes with 234 LEGO DUPLO bricks that your kids can use to create classic train set scenes. You can also use the free app to write code that controls the action bricks and switches that control the train and tracks. For instance, you can easily create software programs that make your train pause, stop, change direction, honk its horn, and more!
Kids using the app learn to create programs with core coding concepts, like sequencing, looping, and conditional statements. The coding express teacher guide has 8 online lessons teach how to build with the LEGO DUPLO bricks and how to use the digital app. The lessons are based on the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express gently introduces young kids to core STEM topics, like building hardware, writing software, and combining the two in simple and clever ways to achieve certain results.
The LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express teaches children in a fun and engaging way the critical thinking skills, fine motors skills, patience, collaboration, and other life skills that will make them a better adolescent and adult.
One of the genius things about the LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express Taking is that it combines the familiarity of a train set with new and challenging concepts, like building with a purpose and writing programs. By combining the familiar with the new, early learners can challenge themselves in comfortable ways that facilitates progress.
How the app for the LEGO Education DUPLO Coding Express works is that it has what are called action bricks. Each action brick is associated with a specific action. You can change how the bricks behave by selecting from the 4 different themed activities. By changing themes, you change how the action bricks impact what the train does.
Your children can design and test different ways to use the action bricks and themes to get different results.
Pros best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Unique toy for 2-year-olds
- Kids can grow with it for several years
- Combines multiple STEM topics through hardware and softwre
- Free instructions and app includeded
- Ideal for practicing fine motor skills, problem solving, and critical thinking
- Safe and durable components
- Trusted brand
Cons best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
Challenge for a 2-year-old to use the software without help
Rainbow Counting Bears
Rainbow Counting Bears makes our list of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
This is a STEM toy designed for children from 2-5 years old. It’s a straightforward counting and color sorting game. On a side note, this STEM toy is also very affordable and budget-friendly.
Review best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
Although this may seem like a straightforward educational toy, it has several benefits. You get here small bears which come in red, green, orange, purple, blue, and yellow. There are cups of corresponding colors.
The objective is to sort the bears into the cups of the corresponding colors. Therefore, one of the main benefits is that your child will learn the various colors.
In addition, this game also concerns counting and can teach your child about numbers, colors, and sorting capabilities. For example, there are four bears of each of the six colors; the objective is to sort them into their corresponding color cups.
It teaches children how to solve problems and distinguish between colors, and introduces different color patterns. In addition, moving the bears around and sorting them helps develop manual dexterity, problem-solving, and hand-eye coordination.
Although these bears are relatively small, they won’t pose a choking hazard. Moreover, all components have no sharp edges and are made with safe materials. As a result, this toy should be perfectly safe for your 2-year-old child to play with. Finally, all parts are small and lightweight enough to be very portable.
In addition, it comes in a simple carrying case. So, you can keep all the pieces in one place without losing them. Moreover, this also helps make everything much more portable for people on the go.
Overall, this is an excellent STEM toy for children. It helps teach essential skills such as counting, colors, and problem-solving. In addition, it helps with dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Finally, it is very affordable and comes with a simple carrying case.
Pros best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Portable
- Lightweight
- Ideal for learning colors and numbers
- Teaches patterns and sorting skills
- Ideal for practicing coordination and dexterity
- Safe components
- Fairly durable
Cons best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
Those little bears are easy to lose
ANGSTEEP Wooden Puzzles for Toddlers
ANGSTEEP Wooden Puzzles for Toddlers makes our list of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
The ANGSTEEP Wooden Puzzles for Toddlers is for children ages 1 to 7 years old and we think your kids will enjoy it.
Review best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
Although these puzzles may look simple, they have several different functions. First, four different puzzles come in the package; you get a dinosaur puzzle, a marine life puzzle, a land animals puzzle, and a livestock puzzle. Therefore, this toy will help teach your children about different animals.
Second, the animals come in a variety of colors. Not only is this visually appealing for children to play with, but it also teaches them about colors.
These are puzzles, which means that they need to be put together. However, they can be assembled in several ways. First, you can stack them inside the frame that they come with. The frame has small outlines where each animal is supposed to go.
The animals can also be put together outside the frame, making it more complicated. Kids can even use this as a memory puzzle. What is also cool is that these animals can be stacked vertically, thus adding a whole new level of difficulty to the challenge.
Therefore, this toy can teach your child not only about animals and colors but much more. It’s ideal for memory, cognition, problem-solving skills, and manual dexterity. It also helps train hand-eye coordination, especially the vertical stacking mode.
The various pieces are large enough to ensure that a child cannot swallow them. Moreover, there are no very sharp edges. All components are made with child-friendly and safe materials.
All of the blocks are very easy to grasp and have no sharp edges, and they’re also painted with safe water-based paint. On a side note, all of the components here are also made out of sustainable pinewood, durable, and long-lasting. Finally, the puzzles are relatively small, ideal for travel and portability.
Overall, if you’re looking for an excellent, affordable STEM toy that will educate your child on animals, colors, and more, then the ANGSTEEP Wooden Puzzles is a perfect choice.
Pros best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Teaches animals and colors
- Ideal for hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, and manual dexterity
- Child safe components
- Quite durable
- Lightweight and portable
- Low price
Cons best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Paint wears off after a while
- Some of the pieces are easy to lose
TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set
TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set makes our list of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set is another simple, affordable, and basic STEM toy that teaches your children various skills. TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set might look straightforward, but it don’t let is simplicity fool you. It is a very educational, very much so in fact. It has over 1,400 Amazon reviews and averages 5 stars.
Review best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set is a set of 12 eggs. The eggs break in half revealing various shapes and colors inside. The aim is to match the two halves based on shape and color.
Half the eggs feature a protruding shape and the others have a corresponding indention to its other half. Therefore, the two halves will only fit together if your child chooses the right shape and color. This will teach your child about the various shapes in addition to colors.
Of course, TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set is ideal for teaching problem-solving skills. Your kids have to use trial and error to determine which halves of the eggs fit together. TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set therefore develops manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and basic sorting skills.
All of the TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set eggs are too large for a young child to swallow. They also do not have any sharp edges that could cause injury.
TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set is one of the safest toys for young children and is made with child-friendly nontoxic, durable materials.
Basic plastic like this is durable enough to resist the punishment that young children will put it through. For storage and organization, this set also has a plastic egg carton.
In addition, TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set is pretty small and lightweight, which makes it easy to store and very portable. It even comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee if you are unhappy with it.
Overall, the TomatoFish Color Shape Matching Egg Set is an excellent way to introduce your child to basic concepts like colors, shapes, and problem-solving. It’s also a great value for the price.
Pros best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Child-safe
- Very durable
- Lightweight and portable
- Teaches sorting skills, hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity
- Teaches shapes and colors
- Low price
Cons best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
The pieces are pretty easy to lose
PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks
PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks makes our list of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is a highly interactive educational toy for children ages 2 to 6. If you have a child who likes to build things, this is one of the best toys.
Review best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is a building game in its most basic form. It comes with 120 separate pieces in various 3D forms, including rectangles, pyramids, squares, small circles, and more. Each of these shapes or components has a bristle design which allows your child to easily attach and detach the blocks or shapes from one another.
You might think of PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks as an educational-type building blocks for young children. The sky is the limit as to what your child can build. They can use their imagination to create virtually any shape or building.
Your child can quickly build a variety of shapes and structures because the blocks can be easily attached and pulled apart. Although the basic package comes with 120 pieces, you can scale this and add another set so your child can build bigger things.
IPicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is also ideal for teaching basic construction skills because these shapes need to be attached and pulled apart. PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is also ideal for developing hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, and more. Simple building games like PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks are often best for teaching these skills to children.
In addition, PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is made of child-friendly materials. All pieces are too big for kids to swallowed and the blocks do not have any sharp edges. Everything is 100% nontoxic. The only slight downside here is that PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is not easy to transport around.
Overall, PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks is an affordable, highly interactive, and educational toy for young children. It helps teach basic construction skills while also promoting imaginative play. With its child-friendly design and materials, it is also a safe option.
Pros best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Totally safe
- Very durable plastic construction
- Nearly endless things that can be built
- Helps teach colors and shapes
- Develops dexterity, coordination, creativity, and problem solving
- Affordable price
Cons best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
Not very portable
BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game
BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game makes our list of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game is a children’s developmental STEM toy for kids ages 2 to 5. If you want your child to develop precision, speed, motor skills, and manual dexterity, consider the BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game.
Although BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game might seem like a basic arcade game, it has many benefits for young kids.
Review best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game is a fun and engaging game featuring seven little moles that light up when they are supposed to be hit. The aim is to whack a mole that lights up before the light goes out. You can see how this can help a child develop speed, precision, and quick decision-making.
Hitting a mole square on the head helps develop hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity.
You can buy BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game for a 2-year-old child and have it at the lowest speed. Then, as your child gets older, better, and faster, you can turn the difficulty up.
BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game features four speed settings, along with nine levels per speed. It has 36 difficulties that you can use to gradually increase the challenge, which is an excellent way to progressively develop your child’s motor skills.
The BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game also features colorful and bright designs that children are bound to love. Moreover,BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game is 100% safe for kids. It is made of safe materials that have no sharp corners either. Furthermore, the plastic does not contain any BPA.
The plastic is durable enough so it will not split or crack. The BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game can definitely take a pounding, pun totally intended.
Moreover, the BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game has two soft mallets. This a fantastic game because kids can compete with each other, so it can to a certain degree help develop your child’s social skills and dealing with pressure and competition.
Overall, the BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game is an affordable, yet excellent developmental toy for kids. BAODLON Interactive Pound a Mole Game is perfect for those aged 2 to 5 and can help with developing motor skills, hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, and even social skills.
Pros best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
- Child safe
- Quite durable and cost-effective
- Trains speed, hand-eye coordination, and dexterity
- Fun and colorful design
- Ideal for multiple kids
Cons best STEM toys for 2-year-olds
Requires batteries
Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds Buyer’s Guide
Let’s look at the most important considerations to keep in mind when choosing the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
The Types of Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds
Finding the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds is fun but not always easy because of the sheer number of options online. It is helpful to keep in mind when shopping for STEM toys that many different types of STEM toys are on the market and not all are meant for the same purposes. For example, there are those that train coordination, speed, math, reading, building, fine motor skills, manual dexterity, problem-solving, cognition, social skills, and more.
As you shop, think about what you want your child to gain from play with the toy. What kind of skills do you want your kids to practice and develop. Consider buying a toys that develop a variety of skills to help make your kids well-rounded.
The best STEM toys for 2-year-olds develop basic educational concepts like letters, numbers, shapes, colors, animals, sounds, and similar. They also develop fine-motor skills, critical thinking, and cause-and-effect-type thinking. Pay attention to which aspect of a child’s development the toy is meant to enhance and you are sure to find the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds.
Child Safety
Another thing to determine is how safe the toy is for your child. Generally speaking, you want no sharp corners; everything should be rounded. Moreover, there shouldn’t be any small components that pose a choking hazard. Finally, the materials should be 100% nontoxic.
Overall Durability
Children are known for being rough with their belongings. So, you want to invest in something that is built to last. These toys are generally made of plastic, but there are differences in quality.
The Appearance
You may want to consider the appearance of the toy. Many developmental toys are designed more for training and education than for fun. Of course, these toys are usually not as attractive to kids as things like TV and video games. It should be bright, colorful, and have a child-friendly design.
Best STEM Toys for 2-Year-Olds FAQ
1. Why are STEM Toys Good?
The best STEM toys for 2-year-olds help children develop a variety of skills. These include mainly fine motor skills, problem-solving, decision-making, sorting, color and number identification, memory, and more.
2. What Makes a Toy STEM?
The best STEM toys for 2-year-olds have to feature an educational component, mainly focused on developing cognitive and motor skills.
3. What Exactly is STEM?
STEM is an educational system that specifically focuses on four main concepts: science, technology, engineering, and math.
4. What is the Difference Between a STEM Toy and a Basic Educational Toy?
The main difference is that basic educational toys only focus on teaching children the basics. STEM toys, on the other hand, additionally help with developing problem-solving, critical thinking, and motor skills.
5. Are There Different Types of STEM Toys?
Yes, there are many different types of STEM toys. The best STEM toys for 2-year-olds include robotics, construction sets, chemistry sets, math games, and more.
6. Are STEM Toys Safe for My Child to Use?
Yes, the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds are safety tested and child-safe. However, you should still check the toy for any small parts that may pose a choking hazard.
7. How Long Will My Child Use a STEM Toy?
It really depends on the child. Some children may lose interest in a STEM toy after a few months, while others may continue to use it for years to come. It really just depends on the individual child’s interests and development.
8. Are STEM Toys Worth the Money?
Yes, the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds are definitely worth the money. They are designed to last longer and enhance your child’s development in a variety of ways. Plus, they can be used by multiple children, so they are a great investment.
Conclusion
If you are looking for the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds, we recommend the LEGO Education Duplo Coding Express because it is a unique opportunity for 2-year-olds to become comfortable with building STEM projects that combine the physical and digital words in a playful way. Plus, kids can grow with the toy for several years and then transition to similar toys for older kids.
We also recommend the PicassoTiles PTB120 120pcs Bristle Shape 3D Building Blocks because it stimulates creativity in addition to developing motor skills. In addition, the bright colors make it an attractive toy for children.
Thank you for reading our review of the best STEM toys for 2-year-olds. Check out our other reviews of the best STEM toys for kids of a variety of ages. Also try Scratch coding for kids. Have fun learning and building!