We mentioned in our earlier post that for most parents and caregivers, it is a daily challenge to find STEAM-based activities for kids and toddlers.
STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. We believe that our kids should be educated and encouraged into these disciplines as many jobs of the future are predicted to move in this direction. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we should force them to be a Scientist if their passion is dance but they should at least be given the opportunity to excel in these subjects.
We decided to undertake a #365daychallenge to find activities that are STEAM-related for kids and toddlers.
Below are our next 21-40 list of suggested STEAM-based kids activities.
If you want to see our previous list of activities, you can check them out here:
1-20 list of STEAM activities.
We hope these ideas below will inspire you to embark on your own #365daychallenge to introduce STEAM activities to your kids!
21. Shoe Store
We went to visit a shoe store and the boots were all neatly arranged. Our toddler obviously wanted to start trying them on. If you have the heart to allow it, go ahead. We were not in the mood for that so we merely allowed her to look at the patterns and colors, point out her favorites and to guess which would be our favorites.
22. Court
While visiting a small town, we were lucky to find this small mock court. It’s worth it to take a visit to your local courthouse with your kid. You can use the opportunity to talk about laws and introduce them to the concept of justice (or lack of it).
23. Horseshoe
We were so lucky to find a cute shop selling horseshoes. I explained to our toddler that horseshoes were like “shoes for the horse”. Toddlers are easily fascinated with animals.
24. English Tea
We believe in exposing our kids to different cuisines. Food plays a big part in defining a culture and by trying foods from all over the world, we get a better understanding of other cultures. Our toddler got to try a typical English afternoon tea with scones and jam and she loved it! And so did we!
25. GPS
I challenged my toddler to tell me whether I should go right or left when driving with my GPS and she actually noticed when I went a different way from the GPS and told me I was going the wrong way! 😂 These toddlers are often smarter than we realize.
26. Indian Cuisine
Making Indian ‘roti’ (bread) is a great activity for kids. Ingredients- flour, water, salt. Grill it in a pan with a sprinkle of oil. Voila! We ate it hot.
27. Ball Run
We made a ball (or marble run) out of simple materials; toilet rolls, magnets and cello tape. You can move them around and change the run path as you like because they stick to the fridge. Making this required patience and many test runs but it was good for my toddler to watch me persevere through multiple failures (it felt like a 107 test runs). Plus, once it worked, it was huge fun.
28. Wipes
Our toddler loves pulling out wipes and cleaning furniture with them. Guess how much we love to encourage this activity?
29. LEGO Duplo Extras
We found out that if we include a few ‘extras’ to our LEGO Duplo set, we could do a lot more. Here, we added a few rubber bands to create a tire swing and suspension bridge.
30. Piggy Bank Decor
Never too early to start your toddler on their financial journey. As toddlers are very visual, use a piggy bank. Let them choose their own piggy bank and decorate it as they wish. They will love the idea of putting things into the bank, even if it’s just for play.
31. Pesticides Removal
Teach your kids about pesticides on food. We soak fruits in baking soda & water for 15mins & rinse them before we eat.
32. Caterpillars
So exciting waiting for these tiny hungry caterpillars to become butterflies! What a magical experience for kids.
33. Finding Dory
Looking for Dory. Aquariums can be pretty mesmerizing for kids.
34. LEGO Duplo Counting
Montessori has some great tools for teaching toddlers counting. These LEGO Duplo bricks were also perfect!
35. Boxes
If you can tolerate junk, cardboard boxes like these can be especially fun for toddlers and kids to play with, paint and build with.
36. Rubber bands
Colored rubber bands are useful for teaching math, counting, color, sequencing and STEAM. Cheap and handy to have around the house too.
37. Cafe Counting
Get your toddler to count these with you while you wait in a cafe.
38. Sticks & Stones
My toddler’s latest hobby. Collecting the neighborhood’s sticks and rocks. Unfortunately, she then abandons them on our porch for me to clear.
39. Looking for Shapes
Get your toddler to look for things in art around you. For example, how many shapes can you see in this?
40. Flowers
There is something magical about flowers. We learned different flower names, their colors and smells etc.
MORE STEM KID ACTIVITY IDEAS
Hungry for more? Get some more STEM-inspired kid activity ideas here.
1-20 list of STEAM kid activities.
41-60 list of STEAM kid activities.
61-80 list of STEAM kid activities.
81-100 list of STEAM kid activities.
101-120 list of STEAM kid activities.
121- 140 list of STEAM kid activities.
