Geomag is excellent stuff. It's one of my favourite construction STEM toys, it's been around for ages and now it's even better - in 100% recycled plastic. Construction toys have always been popular in my house, as as science, and Geomag fits into both of those categories. Their magnetic construction system is strictly suitable for children aged 5 and over, and there's still plenty of fun to be had if you are a little older than that...

We've been sent the 52 piece Geomag Super Color Panels Magnetic Construction Set for review. 

I was incredibly impressed as soon as I saw the box. It does clip shut for future use, there's no tape, no single use plastic. Best of, and pure genius - 2 small storage boxes are included to keep your magnets safe. There is also a resealable plastic bag for the other pieces. 

The packaging is 61% recycled, and the plastic is 100% recycled. It's awesome. I'm so impressed. This is the future - the sustainable future for our children. 

Anyone who has ever read my blog knows that I'm a huge fan of STEM toys. I love toys which inspire children to learn more about their world. How does it work? Why does it do that? How can I change it? Can I make it better?

These are questions our Scientists, Technology Experts, Engineers and Mathematicians of the future need to be allowed to ask, and as they find out their answers, your children will be learning skills which will last them a lifetime.


Brainstorm Toys are a household favourite and we've been buying them for our children since they were small. We've also reviewed loads over the past few years, and the links are all at the bottom of this post. They've sent us a selection of toys which I'll be putting away to give to my boys for Christmas.

On Friday 6th December at 6pm, Brainstorm are hosting a Twitter Party where they'll be giving away lots of fun educational toys. I'll be there, and if you have any questions then this is your chance to ask the professionals - and the bloggers and other parents.


STEM Toys make excellent gifts because you are giving the child much more than 'a toy'. You will be helping them to grow, and you may be introducing them to a passion they'll have forever.

We're working with ARTdiscount and they've sent my boys one of the products from their recently expanded own brand collection for review. The 69 piece Multi-Media Art Set is a great introduction to more 'grown up' painting, sketching and drawing, with charcoals, acrylic paints and lots more.


This is an impressive set and the sort of thing that any amateur artist would be delighted with. Big, bright and colourful, and when you look inside, it's also lovely quality. I know ARTdiscount are very excited about their new products, and with over 40 years experience, they know their stuff.


The box is a mix of card and plastic. My boys choose to keep large sets like this 'in the box' when they can, as it looks so impressive and keeps it together, but ultimately it'll be nice to see more card used in future, as most people will just throw it out. The delivery packaging scores full marks for Earth-friendly - reused cardboard and paper tape - nice one.

Included in the set are:
12 x 12ml Acryclic Colours
12 Coloured Pencils
5 Drawing Pencils
12 Soft Pastels
3 Brushes
3 Charcoal Pencils
3 Charcoal Sticks
2 Blending Stumps
12 Sheets of Paper
Sand Paper
Plastic Palette
Metal Sharpener
Kneadable Eraser
White Eraser

We've really enjoyed being Bandai STEM Ambassadors over the last 6 months, and the final tasks they've sent have been perfect for the Summer holidays. We've been sent National Geographic Gemstone and Shark Tooth Dig Kits and Ultimate Play Sand - a miniature sand pit with 2kg of colourful sand that never dries out and comes complete with 4 mini sand moulds...


The Bandai National Geographic STEM Kits are complete kits for children aged around 8+, and they contain everything you need, including tools. Each kit contains a Learning Guide, which is a short booklet full of images and information about the items you'll discover in the kit. They're brilliant, concise and always teach me something new.


The Dig Kits come complete with a double ended excavation tool, small brush, magnifying glass, instructions and a learning guide.


Dig Kits are packaged in a cardboard box, with a cardboard tray insert which can be used as a work surface. They keep all of the mess fairly well contained and can be recycled after use. Your fossils and gems are hidden in a decorative plaster block.


The Gemstone Dig Kit contains 3 real gemstones - Tiger's Eye, Quartz and Amethyst - and they're very pretty. They're also nicely varied, so children can tell instantly which is which. Once excavated you can clean them off by rinsing under water (put the plug in first), and then they catch the light really well. Or, as in our case, you can proudly show off just how carefully you exposed them!


The Shark Tooth Dig Kit contains 3 real fossilised shark teeth - Crow Shark, Otodus Shark and Sand Tiger. There's a fascination in our house with exceedingly long-lived animal species, so it's particularly interesting to us that although our Sand Tiger Shark tooth might be 100,000,000,000 years old (one hundred million), Sand Tiger Sharks still exist today.


My boys are 9 1/2 and almost 11, so I've been really pleasantly surprised at the amount of use the Ultimate Play Sand has received. This is a really neat little sandbox kit which works very well to keep everything tidy and safe.


The tray in the Ultimate Play Sand kit is plastic, but it is also your miniature sandbox, so it's definitely not single-use. Also included are 2lbs of play sand which never dries out, never makes dust and leaves your hands clean, plus 6 clever little sand 'castle' moulds.


These aren't just any old sandcastle, the moulds are actually 6 historical buildings, something my older boys really latched on to. All week ancient civilisations have been battling it out in my living room...


The sand is kinetic sand. Brightly coloured and fascinating to watch trickle out of your hand, it only sticks to the other sand. Very easy to scoop or sweep up and shouldn't ruin your carpet. It's actually quite mesmerising and incredibly relaxing to play with - whatever your age...










No entries are mandatory, but each action performed earns you extra entries into the random draw. The giveaway will end at midnight Sunday 29th September, full terms and conditions are at the bottom of the Gleam form. For a link to help if Gleam is new to you, or to see my other UK giveaways, see my Giveaways Page...

National Geographic Gemstone Dig Kit Giveaway (age 8+)

Robots are amazing tools that can teach your children a range of skills. The Q-Scout from Robobloq is a metal 65 piece remote control robot which you build yourself and programme using your phone or tablet. It can line follow, obstacle avoid and play music, and with 2 levels of coding built on open source Arduino, it should have the longevity to keep your child's interest for several years.

Robobloq have sent us the basic Q-Scout set to review...


The packaging is a nice sturdy box and easy to open with a lovely magnetic closure. Everything is neatly packaged in 3 layers and it's a gorgeous set to unveil.

Learning Resources might not have the snappiest name in the business, but they have some of the most interesting toys. Designed, as you'd expect, to stimulate your child's brain while they play, the hardwearing and long-lasting toys and games from Learning Resources are not only used at home, they're also popular in schools and nurseries.


They've sent us the Botley The Coding Robot Activity Set to review. This is aimed at children aged 5-9. My youngest child is 8 and he's reviewed with a 9 year old friend.


Opening the box is exciting because it has a little window on the front and is full of colour. You will need 5 x AAA batteries (3 for Botley and 2 for the Remote Control) and a tiny Phillips screwdriver, otherwise it's ready to go straight out of the box. Minimal packaging, nothing to undo and a useful storage box for afterwards. Christmas morning-friendly as long as you've got those batteries.

I first fell in love with Engino at BlogOn Conference. Brand new to the UK, this construction system was developed by Costas Sisamos, a Teacher from Cyprus. He has degrees in Education and Engineering, and wanted to make a system of modular connectors that could be used to build quickly and easily, creating fully functional technological models.


The aim of Engino is to inspire children to become better problem solvers and future innovators, a message I wholeheartedly agree with... Teach your children to build and programme robots, not be one.


The Greenhouse itself arrives in a surprisingly small box and there is minimal packaging. You can open and start building immediately, so this one is definitely Christmas morning-friendly.

Although Magformers are suitable for children aged 3+, they are such an easy to use construction system, with so much scope, that they can still offer a challenge to my 8 and 10 year old boys. We've been sent the  Special Edition Magformers Sky Track Adventure Set to review. This is a gorgeous and massive 64 piece set which contains lots of special components and a powered Sky Shuttle...


Opening this box is a pure joy. It's beautiful. There's so much colour and the layout is so exciting. Any child would be delighted with this on Christmas morning. You'll need 2 x AAA batteries for the Sky Shuttle and an incredibly tiny screwdriver.


Magformers are a series of geometric shaped frames which have rotating neodymium magnets safely encased in each side. Because the magnets aren't fixed, whichever way you try and connect, two or more of the shapes will attract and stay together.

We had a great time exploring at The Digital Kids Show last weekend and one of the most exciting things we found in the STEM Zone was The Curiosity Box. I've heard of their boxes before and been impressed at the quality and range of activities at very fair prices. It was lovely to meet the people behind the project and bring home a box for my boys to try out themselves.


The Curiosity Box have a massive range of different Science and Engineering Boxes for children aged 7-11, and a new CuriosiTots Box for younger children aged 4-6. We were given a Jumbo Curiosity Box: Atomic for children aged 7-11. My 10 year old was ecstatic!

To see as we do, our brain takes the information it receives from both eyes, puts it together and makes sense of it. Your eyes can't take in everything all at once non-stop, so our brain fills in any missing information. Sometimes it gets it a little bit wrong...

EQUIPMENT:
Yourself
Paper - scrap paper is fine
A pen or something to draw with
Optional - A photograph

Back in the old days, before plastic and huge toy companies filled our toy boxes, children had to make their own toys at home. Here's one we can all make which can also help us understand colours...


EQUIPMENT:
Large cardboard pieces - cereal box or pizza box is great. If you have no card then stiff paper works too.
A small plate - the cardboard must be at least as big as the plate.
Scissors
Pencil
Colouring pens or pencils
Ruler or a straight edge
A small book
A teaspoon with a plain handle
Sticky tack

Playing with water is great fun, but always make sure you are safe. Never lean your body over water more than 5cm deep without a safety harness or a responsible grown up, in case you fall in. You actually only need a sink half full of water to test your boat, but safety first...


EQUIPMENT:
A4 Paper - it will not survive it's bath, so scrap paper is perfect.
Wax Crayons

Hopefully you've made a paper boat before, and if not then it's definitely time. Paper isn't generally a very floaty material, but our boat can float for 5 minutes or more...

Here's something for the engineers of the future to get their teeth into. You can make a hole in more than one way, and if you do it carefully, you can even walk through a hole in a postcard...

This activity is quite hard because it requires concentration and careful cutting. Younger scientists may need older assistance, and there is always sticky tape!


EQUIPMENT:
A postcard sized piece of thin cardboard. A postcard is perfect, cereal box is great.
Scissors
A light coloured, thin felt tip or a pencil or wax crayon
A thick marker or felt tip in a dark colour.

I've drafted a few 5 minute simple STEM activity posts and I'll share them with you over the next few weeks of the Summer holiday. These 5 minute activities are designed to make your children think and learn about what makes up their world. None of them require anything complicated or any scientific qualifications, and if you want to learn more - you have the Internet and the entire knowledge of the world, right there in front of you...



You don't need any equipment other than yourself and a flat wall. A closed door works perfectly.

The people behind popular board game Accentuate have a new game release which brings together English and science and a bit of maths in a quite unique and different way. FReNeTIC is a word game based on the Periodic Table. Two or more players create words using the letters which represent elements and then score depending on the atomic number... and there's a copy for one of my readers too!


In the box are the board itself, pencils and notepads, an egg timer, instructions and the playing tiles, which are stored in a drawstring cloth bag. This is a plastic free box and the only thing to discard is the outer plastic wrapping.

Interplay have an awesome range of children's My Living World sets created in conjunction with Nick Baker, the Really Wild Show presenter and naturalist. The sets help children get up close and personal with nature, supporting science and building STEM skills, as well as teaching about caring for living creatures. We've been given Ant World to review.


There is a backstory as I actually requested this review for my 9 year old. He came home from school one day, incredibly excited about the idea that people can keep ants as pets and see into their usually hidden world. I'd previously been offered this set, so I went back to Interplay and asked if we could still review.

The new Jurassic Kingdom movie is out and so are some brand new Dinosaur toys! On Thursday 14th June BrainStorm will be having a Twitter party with several fantastic giveaways, and they've sent us some of their newest dinosaur toys to take a look beforehand...


Brainstorm bring us a lot of really excellent STEM supporting toys for curious kids and future scientists. They help children explore their world - and beyond! We last worked with them on a project involving Brainstorm's Space Toys. This one is based a little further back in prehistoric times...

Our latest review for Spinmaster is a fantastic Meccano model set - the Motorised Rally Racer Car. This set is from the 10-in-1 range and there are instructions for 10 model vehicles that you can create from just the elements included here, as well as an infinite number of your own creations.


Inside the box is everything you'd expect. The Meccano elements, metal nuts and bolts, instructions and the all-important tiny tools. In 120 years Meccano hasn't really changed in principal, and using small version of genuine tools and fixings is very appealing and long-lived. Batteries are not included, you'll need 3 x AA.