Accelerate your child’s development with our list of the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds. STEM is an acronym that stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. STEM toys focus on combining fun and entertaining activities with building STEM skills.
When your child plays with best STEM toys for 4-year-olds, therefore, they are not only enjoying themselves through play, but the play is meaningful play because it has a purpose beyond just entertainment. The purpose being to develop real-world STEM skills.
If you are looking for the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds to supplement your child’s schoolwork with meaningful play, you are in the right place. Meaningful play continues the learning outside of the classroom.
Give your kid a STEM toy to play with to continue their development.
Countless examples of different types and options exist for the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds. This article reviews some of the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds and will go over various features you should look for when shopping.
Comparison Chart
Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set, The Original Magnetic Building Tiles For Creative Open-Ended Play, Educational Toys For Children Ages 3 Years +
SNAEN Science Kit with 30 Science Lab Experiments,DIY STEM Educational Learning Scientific Tools for 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Years Old Boys Girls Kids Toys Gift
STEM Toys for 3 5 7 Year Old Boys Kids, 232 Pcs Kids Drill Set Building Blocks, DIY Educational Construction Engineering Toys, Creative Mosaic Electric Drill Set Gift for Kids Boys Girls Age 3-8 Years Old
Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toys – Educational Building Toys for Kids Ages 4-8 with 163 Pieces, Tools, Design Guide and Toy Storage Box for Kids
Osmo – Little Genius Starter Kit for Fire Tablet – 4 Educational Learning Games – Preschool Ages – Problem Solving, & Creativity – STEM Toy (Osmo Fire Tablet Base Included – Amazon Exclusive)
Best STEM Toys for 4-Year-Olds: Reviews
Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set
The Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set makes our list of the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds.
Said to be the original magnetic building tiles for creative open-ended play, the Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set is one of the most highly reviewed educational toys for children ages 3 years and older.
The Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set averages 5 stars on Amazon based on nearly 10,000 reviews. Magna-Tiles are a fun and educational STEM activity that brings family and friends together for meaning play and amazing memories.
Review best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
With 5 stars and thousands of reviews, the Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set is one of the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds because of its proven track record over decades of play.
The Magna-Tiles have everything. They are easy and fun to play with, the product is colorful and durable, and the play is meaningful. Children enjoy themselves and feel accomplished after playing with Magna-Tiles. Plus, the adults oftentimes find themselves making their own creations, too!
Each Magna-Tile contains magnets that enable you to connect tiles together to form 2D and 3D structures. A perfect toy for boys and girls, your children will play with them for hours. Children of all ages enjoy Magna-Tiles, so your kids will play with them for years and year to come.
Express your creativity by making castles, buildings, houses, boats, or whatever your imagination dreams of. The magnets are on the edges of the tiles and easily attract other tiles. Although Magna-Tiles are generally a STEM toy for kids, adults find themselves playing with them too!
Kids and parents alike love Magna-Tiles because it gives opportunities for open-ended play that fosters creativity in addition to hands-on spatial and tactile skills that develops problem-solving, fine motor skills, math skills, critical thinking, and more important educational lessons.
The Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set comes with 100 translucent, colorful shapes. It includes including 4 large squares, 50 small squares, 20 equilateral triangles, 11 right triangles, and 15 Isosceles triangles. Magna-Tiles are safe, durable, and appropriately sized for kids 3 years and older.
Magna-Tiles have been a staple in households for decades and is one of the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds.
Pros best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Great for kids 3+
- 100 colorful and durable tiles
- Fosters creativity
- Requires hands-on spatial and tactile skills
- Develops problem-solving, fine motor skills, math skills, and critical thinking
- Easy to store
- Hours and hours of fun
- Kids use them for years
Cons best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
Could use more pieces
SNAEN Science Kit STEM Toy
If you’ve got a budding young scientist, this science experiment kit might be right for them. It comes with many scientific experiments. It’s also reasonably priced.
Review best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
The SNAEN Science Kit STEM Toy has 30 different experiments for your children. Science experiments can teach your child about various chemicals and their reactions. If you have a future chemist, then this is an excellent toy to consider.
In addition, children love seeing the reactions in all of these scientific experiments. Everything is very colorful and thus visually appealing.
The SNAEN Science Kit STEM Toy comes with 15 cards with all relevant instructions for each experiment. The cards are double-sided, with each card having two experiments on it.
The SNAEN Science Kit STEM Toy teaches children how to read and follow instructions. In addition, it’s an excellent option for teaching logical thought and deduction.
Moreover, because there is measuring involved, this toy also develops hand-eye coordination. This toy teaches various skills for physical development and scientific learning.
Everything in this kit is well organized. It’s easy to find the various components for the specific experiments, and it’s also easy to store in a small space without making a mess.
The chemicals used for these experiments come in resealable bottles. This means that each of the experiments can be performed multiple times.
However, your child must be old enough to know not to eat any contained substances. Therefore, although this kit is relatively child-friendly, eating and swallowing any of the included chemicals is not recommended.
Overall, the SNAEN Science Kit STEM Toy is a great scientific experiment kit for children. It’s well-made, easy to use, and perfect for budding young scientists.
Pros best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Great for young scientists
- 30 different experiments
- Clear instructions
- Well organized
- Easy to store
- Hours and hours of fun
- Very visually appealing
- Reasonable price
Cons best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
Measurements and instructions are not overly clear
Aotipol Drill Set Building Blocks
The Aotipol Drill Set Building Blocks is a toy to consider if you have a potential architect or construction engineer. This toy is all about building, construction, tools, shapes, and more. It’s suitable for developing manual dexterity, logical thought, and more.
Review best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
The Aotipol Drill Set Building Blocks toy is designed for ages 4 and up. It is a 232-piece building toy set with various building blocks, nuts, bolts, and an electric drill; there’s also a screwdriver and wrench.
Your child will learn about tools and basic construction principles. In addition, the small power drill works with batteries and has two interchangeable bits.
The Aotipol Drill Set Building Blocks building set then has a base to which the components can be attached. Your child can build one-two-and three-dimensional buildings. Then, they can use the parts to build whatever they can imagine – robots, animals, cars, houses, and more.
Should your child not know what to build, 42 different patterns and challenges are included in the set. There are very simple builds for young children and more complex builds for older kids. Some of the more elaborate buildings are pretty challenging to complete.
The Aotipol Drill Set Building Blocks toy targets various developmental skills. For instance, building these things uses visualization and planning skills, stimulates logical thinking and problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, and other essential cognitive skills. In addition, this toy also excels in developing manual dexterity and fine motor skills.
The base acts as a small suitcase or storage case. There’s a handle on it, thus making it very portable.
The pieces are made with ABS plastic that is entirely free of toxic chemicals; it is a child-safe toy. In addition, this is a toy that multiple children can play with at once. It’s also colorful and visually appealing.
Overall, the Aotipol Drill Set Building Blocks is an excellent STEM toy. It teaches essential skills while being fun and entertaining. Your child will have hours of enjoyable play with this set.
Pros best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Visually appealing
- Child-friendly materials
- Great for all aspects of development
- Building base acts as portable storage
- Ideal for many ages
- Great price
Cons best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Many small components that are easy to lose
- Drill needs batteries
Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy
The Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy is a slightly simpler and more basic version of the above building toy designed for ages 3 and up. It comes with 163 pieces that can be assembled in many ways.
Review best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
The Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy building set comes with 163 pieces. All components are durable ABS plastic, durable enough to withstand heavy use and some serious punishment. Moreover, the plastic is totally nontoxic, and there are no sharp corners. All in all, this building kit is child-safe, even for young kids.
The Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy comprises blocks, wheels, nuts, bolts, and wrenches. The blocks are assembled using various nuts and bolts, teaching your child basic construction principles.
Using tools also helps to train logical thought as well as manual dexterity. In addition, building develops spatial awareness and planning skills.
The Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy set includes instructions for 42 different designs, including cars, robots, chairs, and other objects. All components come in a plastic tub with a lid, making organization and storage quite simple. It’s not the most portable toy, but it’s great fun at home.
In addition, up to six kids can play at once, making it very interactive and building social skills.
Overall, the Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy is an excellent choice for parents who want to give their kids a head start in life. It’s well-made, safe, and perfect for interactive play. Plus, it helps develop essential skills like logic, planning, and manual dexterity.
Pros best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Great price
- For multiples kids at once
- Ideal for many developmental aspects
- Great for motor skills, coordination, spatial awareness, planning, and more
- Child-friendly materials
- Tub for easy organization
- 42 different designs to build
Cons best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
Some of the pieces don’t quite fit right
Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit for Fire Tablet
The Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit for Fire Tablet is an educational game designed to be played on a tablet – to be specific, you need the Amazon Fire Tablet, which is not included with your purchase. However, you get a small base to stand the tablet on, making it easier for your child to play the educational game without holding the tablet.
Review best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
Kids like their video games. So to make education a bit more fun, the Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit for Fire Tablet is technology-based. Kids can use the tablet to play, so it feels like an actual video game.
The Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit for Fire Tablet comes with four different games, including ABCs, Costume Party, Squiggle Magic, and Stories, which help develop various cognitive skills for your children. It is an interactive game that isn’t played only on the tablet; there are a variety of physical components. For example, when learning the ABCs, various included shapes form letters.
Your child will use these shapes to create the letters they see on the tablet.
The skills targeted include verbal proficiency, imagination, critical thinking, empathy, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and more. This game also develops your child’s memory, literacy, emotional cognition, social engagement, attention to detail, fine motor skills, and more.
The Osmo Little Genius Starter Kit for Fire Tablet is designed for portability. All you need are the few included components as well as the tablet. The pieces are neatly organized inside small carrying containers.
Although small parts can be lost, they are easily stored in their designated containers. All components are also made with child-friendly materials.
Overall, this is an excellent educational game for your child that comes with several benefits.
Pros best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Child-friendly components
- Teaches technological literally
- Ideal for virtually all aspects of development
- Portable
- Ideal for many ages
- Has a manual element too
- 4 games included
Cons best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Requires the Amazon Fire tablet
- Some very small components
Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad
The Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad is another technology-based educational game. However, whereas the previous toy was for the Fire tablet, this one is for an iPad (the iPad is not included with your purchase; however, the base is).
Review best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
The Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad is designed to teach your kids how to code. There are a variety of command blocks with this game, and each of the commands will result in the character on the screen doing something different.
These commands will begin to teach your child how to code on a computer. Of course, it is very basic in nature, but it is a good introduction.
The Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad comes with a number of activities and puzzles for your child to complete. They have to solve puzzles, traverse mazes, learn patterns, make their own melodies and beats, and more. Everything is done using the included command blocks.
For one, this helps train memory. Your child has to remember what each of the command blocks will make the character on the screen do. Of course, problem-solving and logical thought are also targeted with various puzzles.
The Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad involves music creation and pattern recognition, creative problem solving, solving coding puzzles, teamwork, observation, programming, and more. Of course, this game is designed for kids who love technology. If you have a young coder on your hands, this is undoubtedly a great set to try.
Technically speaking, the Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad is designed for ages 5 and up. That said, a relatively smart 4-year-old can handle it. There are many games included, and they vary in difficulty.
All components are made with child-friendly materials. Moreover, they can be stored in the included box; the small pieces are pretty easy to lose, so you will want to keep track of them.
Overall, the Osmo – Coding Starter Kit for iPad is a great starter coding kit that teaches kids the basics of how to code. It is designed for children who love technology and offers a variety of activities for your child to complete. You should also note that this game is compatible with other Osmo sets, so if you have other games, your child can use them with this one.
Pros best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
- Introduces technology
- A great introduction to coding
- Teaches coding, pattern recognition, problem-solving and more
- Child-friendly components
- Small storage box included
- Highly educational in nature
Cons best STEM toys for 4-year-olds
Requires an iPad
Best STEM Toys For 4-Year-Olds Buyer’s Guide
Here are some factors to consider before shopping for the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds.
Manual vs. Tech-Based
As you can see from our reviews, some of the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds are manual in nature, whereas others are technological. In other words, do you want something that will train your child’s hands more than the brain, or vice versa?
For example, manual building games also target cognition but focus more on manual dexterity. On the other hand, technology-based games are more oriented towards cognitive thought.
The Type of Learning
Related to the above point, what do you want these games to teach your children? Some deal with letters, numbers, colors, and shapes; some are for building, coding, and more. You want to focus on the game’s design to help your child develop.
Safety
Also, pay attention to safety aspects, especially with manual building games. Finally, ensure that all components are made of child-friendly materials. This means that they should be nontoxic and preferably not have sharp edges.
The Age Range
This article reviewed the best STEM toys for 4-year-olds. However, every child is different. For example, you might have a brilliant 3-year-old or a slightly slower 5-year-old. The point is that you have to judge which games are best for your child based on their level of development.
Durability
If you get a manual game with various physical components, make sure they are durable. Children are usually not that careful with their belongings. Durability is therefore essential.
Best STEM Toys For 4-Year-Olds FAQ
How Old Does a Child Have to Be to Play a STEM game?
These educational toys and games are designed for children as young as one-year-old. You just have to get the appropriate game based on your child’s age.
What Skills Do STEM Games Help Develop?
The best STEM toys for 4-year-olds are ideal for developing various skills, including basic cognition, memory, problem-solving, logical thought, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and more.
Do All STEM Games Require Computer Skills?
No. However, some games, such as coding games, do require basic computer skills. If your child is not familiar with a computer, you can start teaching them these basics at an early age.
Are The Best STEM Toys For 4-Year-Olds Good for Both Boys and Girls?
Yes. While boys and girls may have different preferences in toys, there is no scientific evidence that suggests that one type of toy is better for a particular gender.
What’s the Best Way to Teach My Child With These Games?
The best way to teach your child is to let them play. That said, you can also join in and play with them to help them understand the game better. You can also use these games as a bonding experience between you and your child.
Conclusion
We think the best STEM toy for 4-year-olds are the Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set and the SNAEN Science Kit STEM Toy.
The Magna-Tiles 100-Piece Clear Colors Set is a classic. You can build endlessly and the tiles last for years. Kids love them and the adults always find themselves building their own creations right along with their kids. Not only are Magna-Tiles fun and educational, they bring family and friends together around an activity.
As for the SNAEN Science Kit Toy, this might be a personal bias, but do you remember how much fun you had playing with science kits as a child? That said, all five of the educational STEM toys reviewed today are ideal in their own ways.
Thank you for reading our review of the best STEM toys for 4-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!
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