Shopping for the best STEM toys for 3-year-olds can be exhausting.
Your toddler’s interests expand as they discover and learn daily, but playtime is still the priority. With all the available educational toys, parents find it challenging to choose the most fun AND the best STEM toy for their toddler.
That’s why we did the legwork for you. We’ve spent hours researching the top STEM gifts for toddlers and chose our favorite 5. Are we experts? Well, it depends if you think anyone can be an expert on the likes and dislikes of a 3-year-old.
However, we did select STEM toys that help promote your toddler’s stages of development and included STEM toys focusing on various STEM skills. So, is your kiddo a budding scientist, interested in the basics of engineering, loves building kits, enjoys craft projects, or does it all? Then check out our list. We’ve also included subscription boxes for parents’ convenience and endless stimulation for 3-year-olds.
Great STEM Toys For 3 Years Old Kid Compared
Best STEM Toys For 3-Year-Olds Reviewed
Editor’s Pick, The Best STEM Toy For 3-Year Old: Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toys
The Brickyard Building Blocks STEM toys are our editor’s choice and, overall, the best STEM toy for any 3-year-old child. It’s the ultimate STEM toy for kids to promote science, technology, engineering, and math skills with lots of creativity and fun.
Various shapes and sizes make these wooden blocks different from most other building block sets. The STEM toy gives your child access to infinite possibilities that won’t hamper your kid’s imagination. If they can create it in their imagination, they can build it with their hands. And who cares if the project fails because it’s not actually a failure; it’s what makes the learning process engaging. Children love to start over or go with the flow and see what type of structure the shapes and size form; it’s not just stacking towers but way more fun.
For kids who need guidance, the helpful instruction manual features 42 designs ranging from ideas for beginners to intermediate and advanced levels. So whether it’s your child’s first building structure or they’ve constructed many, there is an idea in the manual that will inspire their creativity and desire to make something special.
The educational toy design is for preschoolers and budding engineers who love constructing things. It helps them learn problem-solving skills, teaches them about teamwork, and engages their creativity. In addition, these building blocks and parts have no shape edges that could harm your toddler.
The building blocks kit includes lots of building blocks, wheels, nuts, and bolts – everything kids need to construct masterpieces. The kit also has a screwdriver and wrench that tightens parts that click into place with a slight twist of the tool.
This STEM toy has all the boxes checked for endless fun and STEM skill stimulation; the ideal toy for birthday gifts for boys and girls.
Pros of Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toys for 3-year-olds
- Best gift and most versatile STEM toy for 3-year-olds
- Enough pieces and blocks for multiple kids to play together
- Great educational STEM toy that boosts teamwork, problem-solving skills, creative skills, and social skills
- The 42 design ideas provide hands-on experience for beginners to advanced budding engineers
- Building blocks are child-safe with no sharp edges and are easy to clean
Cons of Brickyard Building Blocks STEM Toy for kids
- Although the STEM toy offers infinite possibilities, some reviewers would’ve preferred more wheels in the kit to build multiple vehicles simultaneously.
Top Gift Subscription Kits For 3-Year-Old Craft Projects: KiwiCo Koala Crates
The KiwiCo Koala Crates are great gifts for kids who love DIY craft projects. The STEM kits introduce children ages 2 to 4 to the basic concepts of STEM subjects, creating interest at a very early age.
Each month your child receives a new themed crate for hands-on activities, interactive learning, and endless hours of fun. Your three-year-old can expect three DIY projects related to the current month’s theme with a helpful instruction manual that guides and shows your kid how to complete each task. Also included is the awesome Imagine magazine, entertaining kids with STEM games, more activity ideas, and challenging puzzles.
There is enough content to keep a preschooler occupied and engaged for the entire month; parents don’t have to go shopping for more crafts or STEM toys to keep their little ones busy.
The kits are fun and the perfect gift toys for 3-year-old boys and girls with curious minds who love making crafts. Besides, while they enjoy themselves, your toddler is developing and strengthening important skills and abilities for their developmental age, including fine motor skills, creative thinking, hand-eye coordination, tactile skills, and problem-solving skills.
Pros Of Kiwico Koala Crates For 3-Year-Olds
- Great subscription boxes for science and craft projects
- It saves parents the effort of shopping for STEM toys that promote their child’s developmental stages
- Inspires preschoolers to experience the satisfaction of playing with their completed DIY projects
- Strengthens fine motor skills, creativity, hand-eye coordination, problem-solving skills
- Inexpensive, educational, interactive projects parents can do with their kids
Cons Of Kiwico Koala Crates For 3-Year-Olds
- These STEM subscription boxes aren’t designed for durability but for engaging in hands-on activities.
Best STEM Toys For 3-Year-Olds Imaginative Pretend-Play: Learning Resources Pretend & Play Calculator Cash Register
The Learning Resources Pretend & Play Calculator Cash Register is any toddler’s dream who likes playing shop, business, a budding mathematician, or any kid who enjoys hearing the cha-ching when opening the cash drawer. It’s the best STEM toy for 3-year-olds, teaching them entertainingly the basics of working with money and math skills.
Your toddler will find 40 plastic coins, 30 pretend money bills and a play credit card inside the cash drawer. Pretend-play games with money is an excellent way to teach your child outstanding stewardship and money responsibility. It’s also a great way to learn basic math and number recognition. Large buttons make it easy for toddlers to operate the cash register and introduce math symbols to little ones. Kids learn the basics of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication by counting the money, giving out change, and using the math symbols on the cash register.
Brightly colored, the cute cash register toy is the ideal STEM learning toy for boys and girls 3-5 years old. Playing with the pretend credit card and money teaches children basic math skills, and operating the buttons and opening the cash drawer strengthens fine motor skills.
Pros Of Pretend-Play Calculator Cash Register
- Innovative STEM toy with pretend bills, coins, and credit card promotes imaginative play, math skills, and money principals
- Opening cash drawer and large buttons with math symbols designed for little hands
- Cute with bright colors that young children love with learning experiences during endless hours of play
- Boys and girls love the cha-ching sound when opening the cash drawer
Cons Of Pretend-Play Calculator Cash Register
- To make the lovely noise that inspires preschoolers to open the cash register drawer, some reviewers mentioned the intensity of the drawer opening initially frightened their toddlers.
Best STEM Toys For 3-Year-Old Budding Scientists: Science Kit Chemistry Set For Kids
With over 30 experiments to choose from, this Science Kit is everything your budding scientist would want and an innovative way of introducing children to science concepts and experiment principles.
The colorful designs of the chemical experiment materials in this educational science kit toy should inspire any child to explore the world of science. With each experiment, kids discover something new, from candles absorbing water to a rainbow Ferris wheel, volcanic eruption, and milk animation.
Ingredients and packaging are child-safe and include eight bottles of chemical materials, seven measuring cups, five measuring spoons, four large test tubes with scales, six balloons, three droppers, goggles, and everything else required for these fun science experiments.
There’s no shortage of science fun with 15 colorful instruction cards detailing 30 experiments. In addition, the science kit introduces children to chemistry principles, and with hands-on activities, they learn first-hand.
The STEM toy promotes science, and children develop critical thinking skills; they learn to focus and pay attention to details and, of course, have lots of fun while impressing peers and parents.
Pros Of Owning This Science Kit
- Over 30 terrific science experiments for budding scientists and a fun way to introduce children to science
- Child-safe chemical ingredients and safe packaging of materials
- Science experiment instruction cards introduce scientific principles to children increasing their science knowledge and step-by-step instructions kids can easily follow
- Best STEM toy for 3-year-olds inspiring a love of science with engaging hands-on activities and developing critical thinking skills
Cons Of This Science Kit
- Many ingredients are everyday household items you could’ve put together yourself if not concerned with saving time and effort.
- Some reviews mentioned spelling mistakes on the instruction cards.
Best Versatile STEM Toys For 3-Year-Olds: Lovevery The Storyteller Play Kit
The Storyteller Play Kit by Lovevery is the ideal gift and subscription box for toddlers with different interests from 40 to 42 months old. The Play Kit is designed to appeal to all your toddler’s needs at this development stage.
With STEM toys, picture books, and challenging puzzles to solve, young children, stay engaged, strengthening critical thinking skills, imagination, and fine motor skills. In addition, each kit includes a pre-literacy book on a relevant, age-appropriate topic to promote reading skills.
This Storyteller Play Kit addresses a wide range of STEM skills for 3-year-olds, with each toy promoting STEM skills on deeper levels. The fort kit, for example, is a great hideaway and also a puppet theater for a live puppet show. However, before your kid reaches the stage of building a structure for a puppet show, they will string pieces together. Then, as they grasp basic engineering principles, their start building skills improve until they create functional structures.
With the child guide illustrations, your kid can follow the steps to create various structures. It strengthens their confidence level until they are ready to embark on their unique building adventures.
Pros of The Storyteller Play Kit
- The subscription box addresses various STEM skills that interest toddlers
- The toys, activities, and picture book are age-appropriate and designed for 40-42 months kids
- This kit is part of a subscription series for toddlers that saves parents time and effort to find the perfect STEM toy for their child
- Durable, child-safe materials that will last for years
- Open-ended STEM toys that inspire kids to find new innovative ways to play with the toys
Cons Of Lovery’s Storyteller Play Kit
- Although the kit is value for money with durable toys that last longer than the indicated age, it may be expensive for some.
What To Look For In A Great STEM Toy For 3-Year-Olds?
A great STEM toy is an educational toy that captures a child’s imagination. Fun to play with, STEM learning toys teach children fundamental concepts – science, technology, engineering, and math. Standard features and characteristics help parents select the best STEM toys for their 3-year-old toddlers.
Recommended Ages
STEM toys are for different age groups and developmental stages; it helps parents pick the perfect STEM toy for their 3-year-old. Child development experts often provide input in the design of a great toy. In addition, manufacturers stipulate age recommendations and skill levels, making it easier for parents shopping for a toy.
The best toys are open-ended play toys that grow with your child. It may be recommended for a three-year-old, but kids find new and innovative ways to enjoy their STEM toys. And as their skills develop, kids discover new uses for an old toy.
Child’s Interest
If the new STEM toy doesn’t excite your child’s imagination, then your 3-year-old probably won’t play with the toy. A great STEM toy delivers never-ending fun, fascinates your 3-year-old, and promotes interactive, hands-on learning experiences. The STEM toy is so engaging that your child doesn’t even realize they are learning STEM concepts during play.
STEM Skills
STEM toys are designed to develop STEM skills from an early developmental stage. Great STEM toys promote STEM subjects by stimulating brain development and motor skills. Kids playing with STEM toys build and strengthen their critical thinking skills, investigative learning abilities, hand-eye coordination, math skills, creativity, and problem-solving skills, to mention a few.
Durability
Child-safe STEM toys have no sharp edges and are made from non-toxic materials with smooth finishes. Toddlers are energetic, and their toys take a lot of abuse. So make sure the toys are made from durable materials that will withstand your toddler’s handling and are sturdy to enjoy for a while.
Adult Supervision
Adult supervision is always recommended for young kids, even youngsters who play independently. Some STEM toys may require adult assistance, but often kids figure out the toys by themselves as a learning experience.
