Robots, Microscopes, and Other Fun Ways to Help Kids Learn

Kids 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).

To 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.

Perhaps 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.

Lego 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.

Binoculars 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.

There'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.

Education 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).

Every 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.

When 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.

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).