Cabin fever relievers that help kids learn
Kids stuck indoors for what seems like a never-ending rainy day need exciting and engaging learn-and-play opportunities to stimulate minds, spark imaginations, spur creativity, and soothe stress and anxiety. Check out these hardworking edutainment kits.
Pint-size Picassos
Cupixel Sketch ($69.99) turns any child into an artist with a fully stocked art kit, and in four simple steps. Install an app that uses augmented reality technology and comes with online assistance from real-life artists. Upload a favorite image or photo. Sketch it on a canvas. Grab a brush and some paint tubes and go to town.
The kit has everything a budding artist needs to create a masterpiece in about two hours, including a dozen acrylic paints and mini canvases, sketching tools, paint brushes and sponges, tiny paint pots and an aluminum metal frame to create that gallery finish. Also in the kit is a stand for propping an electronics device and a painting pad to keep the canvas firmly in place and provide a comfortable surface so emerging Picassos can sketch with confidence and accuracy.
See details on the Cupixel website. (cupixel.com)
Lights, motors, switches, more
Remote-learning math class just got a lot more fun. For the 8-plus crowd, E-Blox offers Circuit Blox 115 ($32.99), containing 40 pieces for building more than 100 different projects. Young engineers learn all about electricity, current and voltage, and discover how lots of moving parts work — lights, alarms, motors, switches and more — all while constructing fun projects.
Each of the light, wire, battery and switch blocks in Circuit Blox has a job to do, and each type is color-coded for easy identification. Put Ohm’s Law (electric current is proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance) to the test. Create a Morse code typing simulator, flashing alarm lights and flickering candles. Construct a circuit that plays music and another that erupts with space battle sounds. An included instruction manual guides kids through the various projects, connecting each to the particular field of study.
This set is compatible with other E-Blox building brick sets so kids can keep expanding their collections, hands-on experiences and learning opportunities. (myeblox.com)
One shape, endless possibilities
That’s what Plus-Plus Learn to Build sets ($24.99) are all about. Parents may latch onto the hours-of-fun promise; kids will see the endless possibilities the set’s hundreds of color mix and neon mix pieces represent. An included guidebook gives step-by step instructions, and a baseplate provides the perfect landscape for imaginative building.
From flat mosaics and puzzles to 3-D animals, people, vehicles and more, the Learn to Build set, geared to kids ages 5 to 12, is an activity- and learning-inspiring STEM toy that stimulates fine motor skills and creativity, not to mention focus and patience. And it’s BPA- and phthalate-free. (www.plus-plus.us)
Have gnome will roam
Don’t let the utter adorableness of the My Gnome on the Roam adventure suitcase
($29.97) fool you into thinking it isn’t packed full of teachable moments. Created by busy working mom and middle school teacher Anne Armstrong, this captivating kit inspires active learning through the awardwinning My Gnome on the Roam storybook; a journal for recording memories and experiences and magical pen; an app that suggests things to do on the daily, like making crafts and playing games as a family; and a ready-tobe-painted gnome that is destined to show up in countless selfies.
Armstrong created the kit for kids ages 3 to 12 and included lots of prompts for imaginative, family-fun play: taking the gnome out to explore the world beyond their own backyard, recording their story and then sharing it with the “gnome community” through the app and social sites, engaging family reading time.
A customizable Traveling
Adventure Gnome with Home ($9.97), which includes the gnome and his cardboard house, is also available. Both items may be purchased on Amazon. The My Gnome on the Roam app is $1.99. (mygnomeontheroam.com)
Kids can set up and crew their own construction site with the Road Work Construction Set ($39.99) by iPlay iLearn. It includes everything exasperated drivers routinely see closing down lanes and causing traffic jams — cranes, bulldozers, forklifts and assorted other construction vehicles, plus safety cones and barricades — but it’s all pure fun when kids re-create these scenes and others on the family room floor.
The set’s 50-plus pieces, geared to ages 3 to 10, inspire hours of creative play while sneaking in lots of early educational skill-building, including spatial relationships, mechanical interactions, hand-eye coordination and cognitive processes. Pieces are made from sturdy and high quality ABS, and the trucks and roadwork accessories feature realistic detailing. The set comes with a handy storage box that can be converted into an interlocking play mat. (www.iplayilearntoys.com)