It’s exciting to see more Science, Tech, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs, initiatives, subscription boxes and other inventive and innovative products and services cropping up and becoming widely available for boys and girls from infancy to college age and beyond.
If the United States is to compete globally, it is important that more children maintain an interest and comfortable familiarity with the hard sciences and math and its awesome that it is being incorporated in many ways, and even through something so traditional as Legos!
I mean, there are companies that are franchising LEGO® bricks, K’Nex and code building skills camps, workshops and classes that also provide hands-on, interactive activities for children ages 1-14.
It makes sense that those building toys are used to integrate fun and learning and especially given that building blocks are also essentials of coding. For this reason, Snapology, for example, which offers birthday parties, courses for Scouts that want that Engineering badge, and Parents’ Night out days, can help make play fun and educational. You cannot beat that!
And STEM and building projects are a natural fit.
When my kids and I went to NASA Space Center‘s annual event for kids a little while back, I noticed that the most popular and best- attended exhibit was the room featuring Lego experiments for the kids to partake in.
The government too recognizes the importance of increasing opportunities for children to get into STEM and therefore has a host of resources and initiatives for schools, educators and colleges and universities to explore on a Department of Education website.
Innovators are maximizing on the push for STEM too. Every other week, I am contacted by a subscription box or toy company promising to develop your 2-year old into the next Mark Zuckerberg. No really! My 15-year old is testing out a box for Creation Crate and has a couple of boxes on the way.
And girls are not being left out either!
From Goldie Blox Odyssey-of-the-Mind building blocks for girls to Amazon.com’s entire STEM for Girls collection of toys, game and kids products manufacturers and innovators are realizing the for too long girls have been left out of the creative and building toy space.
It’s wonderful how parents are being pro-active by creating opportunities for their children to explore STEM projects, and are not waiting for school curricula to be built around the field.
I really love the concept of Snapology, especially the birthday parties they have for kids who love LEGOS. We are always looking for different things to do with winter babies who have to have indoor parties each year, and if you have a franchise near by, you have one more option to the usual trampoline and bouncy house gyms and laser tag parties. Fun!