I'll be honest with you. I had great intentions and pinned so many activities and we only got to 6, which was my goal. I like to do these summer challenges because it gives the kids and I kind of a direction to head as we decide what we are going to do on our stay home days. We are serious homebodies during the summer and when we aren't traveling, we hide out in our home and do our thing. It's pretty great. So, I loved this little opportunity to challenge myself as well as my kiddos.
Some of you may be wondering, what the heck is STEM anyway? Well, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. All of those things. . . not so much my strong point (I am more of a sentence diagramming, book reading, in the kitchen baking kind of gal. But, it really wasn't that hard to throw this activities together for my kids (and sometimes their friends!). The reality is all 4 of those subjects are really fun to study and most often than not, our kids are doing it on their own, so why not provide them an opportunity to expand their horizons and explore their curiosity a little.
Here are the 6 projects and the links to get to their post pages with all the how to's and what not's that I wrote regarding each activity.
I think that one of my favorite things about this project was not only watching the excitement in my kids eyes when they did something amazing or saw something magical, but also watching my friends have their own fun doing STEM.
If you are curious about adding some more STEM into your kids play time, some of my favorite STEM tools (some might call them toys, but really, they are tools to aid in your child's imagination. You never know what they might discover or build) are right here:
Legos - start with a box of classic pieces and let your child just build with no directions. It's amazing what they come up with. This book is also really cool! Both my boys have it and the things they've been able to make are really neat!
Magnatiles - These are just the coolest! Sometimes they get made into structures that house their hot wheel cars or even race tracks. Other times they just make magnificent buildings or monuments.
Snap Circuits - My nephews introduced us to these and they keep my kids so busy. We even bought them for another nephew and he just thought they were the coolest! Each kit comes with directions for a bunch of different ways to place circuits and make them do different things, like light a light bulb or make a fan spin.
TEGU blocks - I've had my eye on these for awhile, but they rarely go on sale (super sad face!). Weston got to play with them on our vacation trip and we fell in love! They are fun colored wooden blocks in different sizes that are magnetic.
KEVA blocks - These blocks are just simple, thin wooden blocks that are all the same size. They have a lot of different challenges to build things out of them.
And really, letting your kids just be kids and allowing them to explore their curiosity is the key. We don't really give them much time for this is our super structured lives and it is so much fun just letting them discover this really amazing world we live in on their own. I listed just a few of my favorites and their a lot of other products out there. Maybe you have a favorite. . . I'd love to hear from you! Who knows, maybe your idea will end up under the Christmas tree this year!
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!
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