When I hear the word ‘engineering’ my mind automatically goes to think of a subject that can be studied in university or a career in road planning or artificial limbs. I never think of kids toys and yet there are so many educational toys out there that encourage learning the basic concepts of engineering from a young age.

Here are some that would suit three and four year olds.

Eduludo Shapes

This is a child’s version of Tangrams.

100 Natural Wooden Blocks

This is a perfect starter set of wooden blocks that will encourage children to start building!

A Wooden Rainbow

Whether it’s for making bridges on your play roads or ramps for the toy cars, a wooden rainbow will add to free play time.

Balance Blocks

These wooden stones are great for learning what can be stacked on what and how to balance things.

Discovery Fort Kit

Design and build your own forts with this 69 piece set.

Ball Track

This ball track can be configured in lots of different ways. The aim of the activity is to build it so that the ball moves from the top to the bottom.

Geosmart Start Set

The Geosmart Start Set is a magnetic construction set, which is perfect for 3 and 4 year olds.

HABA – Arranging Game Animal Squares

Copy the images on the cards to arrange the wooden pieces so they look like the images in this arranging game.

Pegging Game with Shapes

Like the activity above, you need to copy the images on the cards to recreate it using the wooden shapes. This time they are stacked and not laid flat.

I hope that you have found this blog useful. Since it’s STEPS Engineering Week here in Ireland, I hope to write more blogs featuring engineering toys for older children too but in the meantime, here’s the one for 5 and 6 year olds.

xx Suzie