Robots, Microscopes, and Other Fun Ways to Help Kids Learn
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You think you have kids. But what you really have are little curiosity machines roving around your life, peeking, peering, prodding at the world, wondering how it works, how they fit into it, and what it might mean.
Education is fundamentally about nurturing the natural curiosity of tiny humans, and helping them make sense of their world, something that often gets overlooked or lost in our current goal-oriented education culture. To help restore some balance, and encourage your children to explore their world in new ways, we've rounded up some of our favorite learning tools.
You can call them what you want: extracurricular activities, learning tools, teaching aids for the home. Your kids will just call them fun.
Be sure to check out our related pieces on gear for schooling from home, great educational games for kids, how to make remote learning work, and the growing digital divide in schooling.
Updated August 2021: We've added some new things for the back to school season, including the Kindle Kids Edition, some binoculars, and a reminder that many great things can be had for free at your local library.
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- Photograph: Amazon
Make Learning a Game
Sushi GoWhen I want to showcase how kids can learn in all kinds of unexpected ways, I send people to GameSchool Academy. The website is primarily a guide to using board and card games for homeschooling, but whether or not you homeschool isn't the point. The point is that learning is a never-ending process that's all around us all the time, even when you're "just playing a game."
GameSchool Academy has countless board and card game suggestions based on what your kids want to learn—math, reading, science, strategy. Lately, Sushi Go (a great game for improving math skills in younger kids) has been the most popular game in our home.
- Photograph: Amazon
Explore Tiny Worlds
Amscope Kids Beginner MicroscopeScience education is a great way to encourage curiosity and creativity. This very nice beginner compound microscope will open up new worlds for your kids without overwhelming them with complexity. The scope is also surprisingly cheap for the quality of images you can get from it. That said, this model is best suited to younger kids just getting started.
- If you want something for older kids, or kids more experienced with microscopes, the My First Lab Duo-Scope Microscope ($75) is a better choice.
- If you want to go really fancy, Celestron also has a nice 1080p digital microscope ($68).
- This classic Belomo 12x hand loupe magnifier ($39) is also worth having around. George David Haskell's book The Forest Unseen is a powerful testimony to the way a simple hand lens can expand your view of the world.
- Photograph: Amazon
Get Their Hands Dirty
Polymer ClayKids need to feel the world, dig in the dirt, build with mud. If you've got access to a green space or park, get out in it and let them explore. If you don't live near greenery, you can bring some of that same spirit of exploration inside with polymer clay.
This is the mold and bake clay you might have used growing up, it just has a fancy new name. The things your kids create might not always hold up, but that too is a learning process—after her doll's table fell apart several times, my daughter asked if I could reinforce the legs with wire.
Other fun sculpting options include kinetic sand ($12), modeling clay ($13), and good old-fashioned Play-Doh ($21).
- Photograph: Celestron
Watch the Stars
Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 102To balance out the microscope, try a telescope. Thanks to the companion app that comes with this Celestron, you can auto-locate major stars and nebulae with just a few taps on a smartphone. Unlike many cumbersome motorized telescope-app setups, Celestron keeps its rig affordable with a wonderfully low-tech solution: a mirror. A mount sticks off to the side of the telescope, holds your phone in place, points the phone's camera into a mirror to figure out where the scope is pointed, and directs you to move it accordingly. It's nice to point your kids to worlds beyond ours.
Photograph: Ridofranz/Getty ImagesVisit Your Local Library
Your Public LibraryPerhaps I am naive, but I still find it amazing that in our town, there is a building full of books and all those books are all free. These days, though, the library lends out much more than just books. Most libraries offer access to ebooks through services like Libby (part of OverDrive) or Hoopla, along with subscriptions to World Book, Creative Bug, and Flipster. The list goes on—and varies by library, so check out what your local branch offers. While going to the library remains a family outing in our house, my kids also do their selecting themselves. They download ebooks, listen to audio books, read kids magazines, and search and reserve books for pickup at the library. Many libraries also offer added services like seed libraries, if you want to grow plants with your kids. They often also issue free or discounted museum passes and state park passes.
- Photograph: Lego
Build a Robot
Lego Spike Prime RobotLego Education's Spike Prime building set is a complete DIY robot-building classroom in a box. Literally. Prior to the abrupt rise in distance learning in 2020, Lego marketed this kit primarily to schools. It comes with its own lesson plans, but don't let the seriousness fool you—my kids love this set and went from never having used it to programming their own robots (using the drag-and-drop Scratch programming language) in a couple of afternoons. After the Nugget couch below, this is the most popular thing in our house.
- Photograph: Nikon
Wildlife Close-Ups
Nikon 8x25 Trailblazer BinocularsBinoculars are a recent addition to our homeschooling toolkit, brought on by a pandemic-era birdhouse building project. If you're going to build bird houses, your kids are probably going to want to see the birds that move in. Enter these Nikon binoculars which strike a good balance between price, magnification, and beginner friendliness. They have enough magnification that children 8 and up should be able to see things clearly, but they're not so powerful that it's hard to locate the bird when you put them to your eyes (something that does take a little practice, even with these).
If you have younger kids (or just want to save some money) these Bespin binoculars ($25, Amazon) are a good match for smaller hands.
- Photograph: Amazon
Listen to Kids' Podcasts
Tribit StormboxThere's a reason we tell kids stories; children learn through stories. Telling stories is probably about as old as fire, and storytelling podcasts for kids are just the latest version of that tradition. Check out our guide to kids' podcasts for some ideas, and then grab this cheap but still impressive sounding 7-inch speaker. The battery lasts 20-ish hours, and it has an IPX7 waterproof rating, meaning it will stand up to the occasional dunk in the river.
There's also the JBL Clip 2 ($60), which features an auxiliary input—handy if you have to repurpose an old iPod or other device that doesn't support Bluetooth.
- Photograph: Amazon
Get Physical
Jump RopeEducation isn't just for the mind; young bodies need to move as they grow. Study after study demonstrates that getting outside has benefits that go far beyond the obvious. Head to a nearby park or open space if they're available. If you're lucky enough to have a yard, use it. This jump rope will keep your kids entertained outdoors and help them get some exercise.
If you've got the space, I've heard many parents rave about how much their kids love these slack line sets ($80). Want a whole obstacle course in a box? Yup, that's a thing ($166).
- Scott Gilbertson via Curiosity Stream
Educational Television
CuriosityStreamEvery parent knows there are times when you just need to keep the kids occupied for a few minutes. Whether you think screens are evil or amazing, your kids are going to use them. Plan ahead and find constructive ways for them to make the most of that screen time. CuriosityStream is a great place to start. It's a subscription-based documentary video streaming service. Which is to say, it's entertaining, but educational too. CuriosityStream has more than 3,000 nonfiction documentaries on subjects ranging from ecology to history to ecological history. In addition to original content, it also licenses films made by production companies all over the world.
CuriosityStream is $20 per year for HD streaming, $70 per year if you want 4K. It's available as an app on both iOS and Android devices, as well as on Roku, SlingTV, and other services. It also has a kids mode that allows parents to filter out inappropriate content.
- Photograph: Nugget
A Nugget for the Little Nuggets
Nugget Play CouchWhen my wife first said we should get a play couch, I thought it was a silly idea. Can't the kids just play on the couch we have? Well, yes they can, and that's just one reason why you should get a play couch.
Not only are kid-friendly couches like the Nugget more fun for kids (and no one gets upset when they flip the thing upside down), they have the fringe benefit of reserving your current couch as, well, a couch. In our house I can now sit on the couch and write this article while the kids turn the Nugget couch into a fort, a human catapult, a runaway truck ramp, and countless other things. Everyone wins.
- Photograph: Amazon
A Kindle
Amazon Kindle Kids Edition (2019, 10th Generation)I've deliberately Limited this guide primarily to tactile, real-world stuff, but there is one digital device that opens a lot of worlds and is probably worth the price: the Kindle. In our family paper books still rule the roost, and as I mentioned, we make regular trips to the library. But the Kindle Kids edition (7/10 WIRED Review) has its place too. Unlike on tablets and other devices, there are no games, ads, or voice assistants to get in the way of the reading experience. The Kids edition includes a case, two-year guaranteed replacement, and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
Amazon Kids+ has a large library of kid-friendly books, and parents can use the dashboard to white-list any additional titles you want (like library books and other content mentioned above).
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