The Best Educational Toys Kids Love as Much as Their Parents Do (2024)

Keeping kids stimulated without using electronics or technology can be challenging, but having a reliable replacement activity on hand can definitely be helpful.

The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff was curated by Popular Mechanics editors and combines a variety of activities, pranks, strange facts and experiments that will always have your children entertained.

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This iPad-compatible learning tool for preschoolers comes with four introductory games that develop skills in phonics, drawing abilities, creativity, and problem solving skills.

The set comes with an iPad base and reflector, which allows the device to interact with objects that kids can actually hold in their hands. These include pretend play costume pieces, silicone shapes, and more, making it far more interactive—and educational—than your average digital game.

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If your child likes puzzles, they'll love this three-dimensional traffic jam logic game. The set comes with a deck of 40 cards that display various traffic configurations. Their first challenge is to set the board up as it appears in the picture—a great starting place for younger learners. Next, they'll slide the pieces within their lanes to make way for the red car to escape the traffic jam.

A perfect example of a game that grows with your child, the cards offer three levels of increasing difficulty. Though it's advertised as ideal for children eight and up, kids as young as four can begin puzzling with parents. Plus, this educational toy gives them a glimpse of what adulthood is like.

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With the rise of digital clocks, many kids—and even teens—now struggle to read analog clocks with ease. By starting them early on this color-sorting clock, telling time will be second nature for your little learner.

This educational toy comes with 12 removable, numbered blocks in a range of shapes. They'll enjoy sorting the brightly colored blocks while learning to read the clock with your help.

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If you’re looking to encourage an interest in our country’s geography, look no further than this interactive smart map of the U.S.

At the press of a button, it gives kids a whirlwind lesson in each state’s location, capital, and most fascinating facts. Once they’ve learned some crucial knowledge of our country, they can take fun quizzes on 500 pieces of state trivia.

Thinking more globally? There’s also a world map for tiny travelers and other aspiring geographers.

Key Specs

This simple tangram toy is perfect for kids who love puzzles and enjoy an added challenge. The set comes with a wooden board and 15 colorful geometric pieces which can be configured in over 60 arrangements.

A manual of instructions and solutions offers five levels of difficulty for your logic-loving kid. Simply set up the board as it appears in each picture, then use the remaining pieces to fill the gaps until the board is full.

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If your child is learning to read and spell, mastering their “CVC” words—three-letter words consisting of a consonant, vowel, and second consonant—can give them a major leg up.

This educational toy set comes with five spelling boards—one for each vowel—plus 58 removable consonant blocks to build words that correspond with images on cards. They can experiment with building words and sounding them out, growing their reading and writing skills at the preschool and kindergarten level.

Key Specs

This wooden geoboard has a simple design: a rounded square board with an 8-by-8 grid of metal pegs on its surface.

The toy's simplicity allows kids to focus on the challenge at hand: making various shapes out of colored rubber bands, either from their own imagination or from any of 30 pattern cards. They’ll love experimenting with different designs, which can include pictures, letters, and more.

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If your child loves building with blocks or Magna-Tiles, this set of colorful, interlocking shapes offers a new twist on an old favorite. Molded into flower-like discs, the pieces snap together to make an organic look that other building sets lack. Reviewers say this tends to inspire a different sort of creative vision from more traditional geometric shapes.

Though the product is listed as safe for children aged three and up, reviewers say that tiny hands sometimes struggle to snap the pieces together. Kids ages five and up seem to enjoy this set most.

Key Specs

Building with tools utilizes a range of STEM skills, but your own tool set is likely off-limits to your child. These construction building blocks let them design and build their own contraptions, using miniature plastic wrenches and their very own kid-safe electric drill.

With no shortage of design possibilities, they'll stretch their imagination to build robots, animals, vehicles, and more. In the process, they'll make major educational gains in problem solving, hand-eye coordination, and engineering skills. Make it a group project to foster some social-emotional skills as well.

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Like Magna-Tiles and the flower discs mentioned above, Goobi magnetic building sticks similarly challenge kids to get creative with geometric modeling and spatial reasoning.

These rainbow hued rods come with magnetic balls and plastic tripods, which help sturdy their various designs for a frustration-free user experience. They'll love getting creative with this open-ended construction toy—all while developing their fine motor skills.

Key Specs

This toy set comes with four games in one. It features 26 colorful alphabet acorns, which will help them learn letter identification. The acorn bottoms feature a letter, and the top have colors that match the letter, so children will enjoy the matching and sorting game as well.

The set also includes 42 plastic letter-shaped cookies, 45 double-sided cards, two spinners, a plastic storage jar, and an activity guide with multiple games.

Reviewers say their “perceptive” kids who do “not care much for structure” love this freewheeling set where you can either set the game or let kids play their own.

These magnetic, flat, and colorful tiles are comprised of squares and triangles of different sides. It sounds simple, and that’s the beauty of it. The beautiful tiles can be put together to create an impressive array of structures by snapping the sides together.

Kids will spend hours exploring geometry, cause and effect and boosting their fine motor and planning skills, all while creating and destroying castles, towers and more. The tiles are made from BPA and phthalate-free plastic.

One reviewer confesses that they've become a tile fanatic themselves, accruing five boxes in total for the whole family. Others praise how easy they are to store, saying they are “sturdy, safe” and boost “mechanical dexterity and resiliency in rebuilding things that fail.”

Key Spec

• Age Group: 6+

This addictively fun, silly and interactive board game will be a hit with kids and their caregivers. It essentially entails flicking penguins around a school in a bid for fish, which is patently ridiculous, but also involves learning how to weigh risks and rewards and engaging in experimental play. Throughout the game, a hall monitor (everyone takes a turn), tries to stop the penguins from winning a fish.

Reviewers say this educational game is “extremely fun,” “high quality” and “unique.” Others note that it is not for “serious gamers.”

Key Spec

• Age Group: 8+

This kit will have kids ages 8 and up learning how to connect power sources with inputs and outputs. The kit is color-coded, and comes with circuit blocks that can be used for a variety of projects. The modular circuits snap together, with colors identifying their types (blue means power, pink means inputs, green means outputs, and orange is for wires).

Kids will be able to follow the clear step-by-step instructions for eight inventions, and from there, have the basics to create their own. One AAA battery is required, and it comes with the kit.

Reviewers call tis kit “wonderful” and “well-designed,” with clear rules.

Key Spec

• Age Group: 3 to 6

Car lovers and building enthusiasts will love this DIY construction vehicle. Kids will love to take apart, build, and operate this bulldozer. They will acquire mechanical, engineering, and fine-motor skills while also working on hand-eye coordination and honing shape recognition.

The kit comes with a manual and power drill. Batteries (two AA) for the power drill are not included. The entire bulldozer also requires an extra three AA batteries, which must be purchased independently.

Reviewers “love” the truck, especially the bright colors and sounds.

Key Spec

• Age Group: 3+

This GeoSafari Jr. microscope will inspire a generation of future scientists. It is designed to be completely user-friendly for preschoolers, with a big focusing knob for little fingers and a large eyepiece.

The set comes with up-close quality images and the voice of Wildlife Warrior Bindi Irwin, who walks them through facts on animals and plants in a fun and engaging way. To add onto the educational aspect, this microscope also features a fact or quiz mode for kids who want to review what they just learned. Three AAA batteries are required and must be purchased separately.

Reviewers say that this “cool” microscope helps their kids “connect lessons from STEM” classes at school.

Key Spec

• Age Group: 9 months to 3 years

This interactive learning walker comes equipped with a removable play panel with a number of different games and sounds, including spinning colors, shape sorters, light up buttons, and more than 70 sing-along songs and phrases.

This toy will also help babies who have low tone and are having trouble pulling themselves up, and will appeal to any baby who loves to move, dance, and play with sound. Two AA batteries are required and included.

Reviewers love how the walker “grows with the baby” because the front part can be removed, and the wheels can be locked to slow the baby down.

Key Spec

• Age Group: 4 to 13

This board game was designed with the goal of developing critical skills. Players will learn key programming principles, through a card and board game that teaches kids how to write programs through play.

Programming expert Dan Shapiro designed the game, and the easy-to-follow instructions are a boon for those who don’t speak in code.

Reviewers love “the concept and learning objectives,” but some note it is “best for young kids” as it is very “simple.”