Mom to Mom

[candyagain]

I've had good luck with the Young Explorers website (just google for the web address) for my young grandkids. Good variety, sorted by age and no problems with products and shipping. Some great toys! For boys and girls.

Magic Cabin is another dependable site for very creative toys. Another favorite of my grandkids.

Hope these ideas help.

[Love my grandkids]

And don't forget Play-Do and accessories to foster creativity!!

[Ibby114]

The VTECH toy line was instrumental in developing my sons love of mathmetics! He had a steering wheel toy that taught him numbers so early on- it was amazing to see his development. He loved the challenge of transformers, too- but he needed more complex ones pretty fast.

VEX kits were the best to encourage interest in Robotics- and were actually used by his HS robotics team.  

Each toy line has items  for different genders and ages- my daughter had pink VTECH items! That was 25+ years ago, I'm sure there are many more  options now.

[CalminHeart]

---

@ninjawife wrote:

I would look for interesting construction type toys where they can use their imagination to build and create.  Whatever you decide to buy, please avoid buying electronic toys espeicially those with a screen.  Young children do not benefit from too much screen time even if it is from a so called educational toy. 

---

That was my first thought.  Then I thought about the kids.  

The 4 yr old girl twin can do the rubics cube. She can look at a picture and put build it in legos etc. She can do some math, loves science experiments, play the guitar, and loves figuring out how things work.

The boy twin knows every Army jet made and what they do (daddy is a Major in the Army).  He can also tell you about dinosaurs, how to put all kinds of things together, some math, and speak some Spanish.

They can add, do letters, spell a few words, write their letters, etc.  

The 2 yr old is doing transformers made for 5-6-7 yr olds. He easily keeps up with his olders siblings on most things.

[Still Raining]

Sounds like their parents are well on the way!  Lots of care there.

I would like to add books.  Special interest, further exploration of interests, but also free reading and stories.

[libbyannE]

LEGO is a classic, reasonable priced stem toy. 

[brockner]

Forget about Stem and go stright to Play Dough.  It is fun ,cheap, and you can make all kinds of  things.  Last week my grandson made a diorama of dinos with a shoe box and playdough dinos.  He also made a storm scene on a cookie sheet.  My 4 year old granddaughter made bakery items which we pretened to buy.  Cookie cutters, playdough, shoe boxes and crayons.  

[CritterKeeper]

Mindware<dot>com (affiliate of Oriental Trading) has really neat educational toys.

[RedTop]

Play-Doh is fun and quite entertaining, my daughters loved it, but I hated my SIL for gifting it to them.   I would never gift this without parental permission.   

[clemintine]

"Blocks and stuff like that" are the quintessential first stem toys ever...before that term existed!