problem solving toys for 7 year olds

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The 30 Best Toys for 7-Year-Olds to Encourage and Support Their Growth

These toys foster growth during the many changes of middle childhood

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

Verywell Family / Amelia Manley

Seven-year-old kiddos are in a bit of a limbo state —some days, they may still love to dress up for imaginative play, while on other days, they may act like tweens. By age 7, children are marking important developmental milestones , like showing more independence and wanting to play with friends. Regardless of what stage they’re in, there’s a wide range of toys for 7-year-olds that meet them in the middle of their development. 

To select the best toys for 7-year-olds, we spoke with a pediatrician about what to look for in toys at this age, and we reviewed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on developmental milestones for 7-year-olds. We also surveyed 875 parents , asking them what toys their children love to play with and why. Moreover, we wanted to know how kids played with their toys and why parents loved them just as much. When reviewing products, we carefully considered milestones, interests, age recommendations, entertainment, educational value, and family budgets .

• How We Selected and Tested
• What to Look For

Why Trust Verywell Family

Elmer’s squishies kids’ activity kit, diy glow in the dark.

The Elmer’s Squishies are one of the latest popular toys for kids because they’re a fun activity and they glow in the dark . One of our writers received a free sample of the Elmer’s Squishies Glow in the Dark Activity Kit and created one of the squishy toys with the included tools and ingredients. In the kit, kids receive stir sticks, glue pens, mixing cups, secret solutions, mystery character molds, and one UV light . 

Squish the Secret Solution A for 15 seconds before opening it to pour it into one of the mixing cups and repeat with Secret Solution B. Add glue and mix the ingredients before pouring the concoction into one of the reusable molds.  Unlock the mold one hour later , and kids have a new squishy toy that’s not only fun to squeeze and play with, but it glows in the dark with the included UV light. 

Our writer says she had so much fun creating the first squishy that she gifted the second one to her 7-year-old niece, who loved it just as much (and asked for more).

UNO! This fast-paced card game is great for a crowd and is a classic family game for good reason. Portable, with quick gameplay, UNO requires no reading (other than color and number recognition). If your kid is familiar with classic UNO, check out some of the themed card decks for a fun spin on the favorite, like UNO Super Mario or UNO Dare . There's also the UNO Harry Potter theme , which is a favorite of parents we surveyed (their kids are big fans, too, because the game includes a special rule and it's fun to play).

LEGO Friends Stephanie’s Sailing Adventure

Join Stephanie and her crew as they embark on a sea-faring adventure aboard the ship Hope. This brightly-colored kit has all kinds of fun accessories to get little ones’ imaginations going, including a tablet, walkie-talkies, binoculars, a drone , and, of course, three life vests to keep the LEGO Friends safe. In addition to the LEGO blocks, pieces include a flexible sail and a turnable wheel for interactive play.

Kid Made Modern Enchanting Craft Kit

Courtesy of Amazon

Perfect for a rainy day or quiet crafting moment, this kit is stocked with more than 250 pieces . From felt to sequins to pom poms, kids will have everything they need to craft an entire village of enchanting characters . Your kiddo will unlock their creative side as they craft fairies, ghouls, and other magical creatures that they can imagine.

VTech Kidizoom DUO Camera

The VTech Kidizoom Duo Selfie Camera earned a top spot on our list because this real digital camera allows children to take photos, play games, and create photo collages . The kid-friendly design means that it’s sturdy and durable , so it will hold up to the inevitable drops and bumps. It uses four AA batteries, and photos can be downloaded to a computer via the included mini USB cord.

TeeTurtle Reversible Octopus Plushie

Basically two plushies in one, this viral TikTok toy will be an instant hit with your kiddo. On one side, the plushie is happy , but with a quick flip, the plushie is a different color and may be featuring a smile, frown, or something in between . Adorable and a fun fidget toy, this plushie will be their favorite thing.

Doodle Hog Alpaca Squishies Paint Kit

Combine squishy toys and an art project, and you’ll get this innovative kit. Kids will love painting their very own alpaca, cactus, and smiling sun squishy . Along with the blank squishies, the set includes four colors of paint, two brushes, and decorating accessories .

Blingle DIY Gem Friendship Bracelet

Remember making friendship bracelets with your besties? Well, this gem-filled DIY kit is just like those vintage bracelets but way better. Each pod is filled with five fun bracelets to get your mini designer started.

The best part is that each kit comes with three surprise designs to help your little one create the perfect bracelet. Packaged in a handy kit, the pod can be used as storage for the gemstones and is a convenient carrying case to take the set to the next sleepover .

Splat Planet Color-In Superhero T-Shirt

Kids can customize their own clothes with this cool T-shirt, which allows them to color in a superhero scene with the included non-toxic markers. The best part? When the shirt is washed, the color rinses out, so kids can enjoy coloring it over and over again .

Schleich Sunny Day Farm Stand

Inspire imaginative play with this high-quality set of farm stand characters. Fun alone or with other sets, this farm stand includes 21 realistic pieces, including two humans, a horse, some food, and lots of other items.

Huggaroo Weighted Plushie

For chilling at home, traveling, calming down in the classroom, or anywhere else, Huggaroos are weighted stuffed animals that relax and soothe your kiddo. The machine-washable stuffed animal, which weighs 3.6 pounds , provides gentle pressure and stimulation that are fantastic for soothing kids’ sensory needs .

PLUS PLUS Travel Case and Blocks

The joy of PLUS PLUS blocks is that they empower kids to explore while building fine motor skills , creativity, imagination, and STEM thinking . This set includes 100 pieces , a base plate, and, to the joy of parents, a convenient case that holds up to 500 blocks. Kids can choose to create a 3D masterpiece or a flat design with the same set of pieces.

Courtesy of Maisonette

Little football fans will cheer for this personalized book that puts them at the center of the story. Choose from a number of popular college football teams, pick a skin tone that matches your child , and add your kiddo’s name for a custom book that’s truly one of a kind.

ThinkFun Zingo! Sight Words Game

Just like bingo, Zingo Sight Words is perfect for early readers , using the Bingo game format to reinforce the importance of sight words . To play, kids will use the zinger to deal tokens with sight words printed on them, then race each other to match the tokens to the words on their boards. Easy, fun, and fast-paced , most 7-year-olds will be able to play without the help of an adult.

Stomp Rocket Ultra Rocket

 Courtesy of Walmart

Head outside and start stomping! This kid-powered toy is simple and super fun. The set comes with a stomp launcher and four foam-topped rockets . Great for year-round fun, these rockets will get kids outside.

Klee Naturals Play Makeup

Courtesy of Klee Naturals

Feel good about makeup with this nontoxic collection from a mom-made company. Crafted in the USA, the butterfly fairy set includes two lip shimmers, blush, and eye shadow . The makeup is gentle and safe for young kids.

Melissa & Doug African Safari 100 Piece Puzzle

Just challenging enough for kids to do alone or with a friend, this jumbo floor puzzle has 100 pieces and is over four feet long when it’s built . Sturdy pieces mean it’s long-lasting, and kids will love spotting their favorite safari animals once the puzzle is complete.

Retevis RT628 Walkie-Talkies

Real, working walkie-talkies encourage kids to communicate with each other while exploring the world around them. This affordable model is kid-friendly but made by a company that manufactures walkie-talkies and radios for grown-up outdoor enthusiasts and professionals. Kids can communicate using one of 22 available channels at a range of up to 1 mile (depending on the terrain). It also features a non-slip handle, a belt clip, a backlit LCD display, a low battery indicator, and superb sound quality .

Melissa & Doug Chef Dress Up Costume

Many 7-year-olds still relish creative play, making Melissa & Doug’s well-made costumes an imaginative addition to any dress-up closet or corner. This costume will inspire make-believe meals that little chefs can serve to parents, siblings, or even pets. Bonus: The chef’s hat and coat are machine washable .

Sport Squad Portable Soccer Goal Net Set

Whether your little one wants to practice their skills from their youth sports league or just likes to run around, soccer nets are a great way for 7-year-olds to get outside and stay active . These soccer nets are collapsible, so they can easily be stowed in the trunk for trips to the park, though they’re also small enough to fit in the backyard. The nets come with a carrying bag and stakes and rods for anchoring them to the ground.

Destroy This Book in the Name of Science!

Seven-year-olds will love “destroying” this hands-on STEM book , which features pages they can rip out, cut, glue, and draw on . In a fun, age-appropriate way, they’ll learn about scientific concepts like the Hermann grid illusion, color in an Albert Einstein bobblehead, and so much more.

Moose Toys Magic Mixies Magical Misting Crystal Ball

Kids will love this whimsical toy, which lets them cast a creation spell, flourish a wand, and watch as a Magic Mixie plushie rises out of the crystal ball in a cloud of mist. The fun doesn’t stop there, though: Kiddos can also ask their new friend questions in fortune-telling mode, enter game mode to interact with the plushie, and use the crystal ball as a night light that glows for 30 minutes before automatically shutting off.

For extended fun, the Magical Mist Refill Pack can be purchased separately.

3Doodler Start+ Essentials 3D Printing Pen Set

Young artists can bring their doodles to life with this 3D pen, which lets out flexible PCL plastic that kids can shape into clever creations. The pen not only helps 7-year-olds express themselves, but they’ll learn useful STEM concepts along the way. Included with the pen are several colors of plastic filaments and a transparent mat for getting started.

Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever!

At age 7, many young readers are ready to try out chapter books . These classic stories are a great introduction to chapter books and Junie B. Jones is sure to entertain with her sassy antics . The set of four covers topics like the first day of school, becoming a big sibling, making mistakes, and more.

Klutz Make Your Own Soap Kit

Make bathtime fun with this soap-making kit from Klutz, which helps 7-year-olds melt and mold 10 soaps from scratch. The soap molds come in fun shapes like stars, cats, and cupcakes, and kids can add glitter, coconut papaya scent, stickers, and colors to customize their creations.

Meland Indoor Mini Basketball Hoop Set for Kids

With this indoor basketball hoop set , young hoopsters can practice shooting from the comfort of their own room. The set includes a steel-rim basket , net, backboard, air pump, four colorful rubber basketballs, and all necessary mounting hardware .

Lulu Jr. My Comic Book Making Kit

Kids become authors with this clever kit, which includes everything they need to make their own 18-page, professionally printed comic book . The thorough guidebook leads the young author through creating characters, settings, and artwork on the included template. When they’re done, send the pages to the company, and your 7-year-old will receive a physical copy of their comic book.

Exploding Kittens Throw Throw Burrito Game

Seven-year-olds will dodge and throw squishy burrito toys as they try to match cards without getting hit . Designed for two to six players , the game includes two foam burritos, 120 game cards, and stickers. (Note to grown-ups: Make sure there are no fragile items in the line of fire!)

Original Stationery Fluffy Slime Kit

Slime is all the rage with elementary school kids, and this ice cream-themed kit is sure to take your 7-year-old’s slime game to the next level. Kiddos can make fluffy, brightly-colored slime with the included ingredients, then pop their slime into a plastic ice cream cone and top it with sprinkles and a cherry.

Chalk of the Town Short Sleeve T-Shirt

Creative kids will love decorating their very own t-shirts with the included chalk markers . Once they've had enough of one look, they can simply erase the design and make something new . You'll appreciate the machine-washable chalk markers that won’t bleed in the laundry . Choose from five sizes for a perfect fit.

How We Selected and Tested Toys for 7-Year-Olds

• Expert Input: We spoke with David Hill, MD, FAAP , a pediatrician in North Carolina, about what to look for in toys for 7-year-olds, such as developmental milestones and entertainment value. We also reviewed guidance from the CDC on developmental milestones for children in middle childhood (ages 6 to 8 years).
• Parent Survey: We surveyed 875 parents about their children’s favorite toys. We asked parents to note what toys their children liked most and if they played with them as they were supposed to or if kids found unique ways to play. Moreover, we asked parents to detail why they (as parents) loved the toys for their children. 
• Design and Features Research: After reviewing guidance from Dr. Hill, the CDC, and parents, we studied the design and features of over 50 toys for 7-year-olds on the market. Moreover, we researched the pros and cons of each product and whether they’re easy for kids to use independently. 
• Safety and Convenience Assessment: We considered age recommendations, interests, ease of use, developmental milestones, and value when reviewing products.

What to Look for in Toys for 7-Year-Olds

By the time a kid is 7 years old, they are likely in a transition period where their interests are becoming more mature. They may be less interested in imaginative play and, instead, be drawn to games with strategy and critical thinking or video/online games. 

This transition can be tricky to navigate, so if you’re in doubt, opt for a toy that may be slightly more advanced for a 7-year-old rather than something that they’ll grow out of quickly (or scoff at as "too babyish"). Just like with clothes, buying a toy that they can grow into extends the life of the product, which makes it a better investment.

Part of the reason a 7-year-old’s interests are tough to pin down is because of their developmental stage. Dr. Hill explains that developmental milestones in the first five years of life are very well mapped, but “they tend to cluster from ages 5 and 10.” Outside factors play a big part in that progression, such as where they are academically and their social circle.

Kids are still meeting expected and identifiable milestones at this time, but pacing varies more than it did when they were younger. At this age, kids are working on skills like those listed below and may enjoy toys that support this growth.

• Strategic Thinking : The Plus Plus Travel block set is a great activity for 7-year-olds as they become more curious and enjoy more complex challenges.
• Social Skills : By 7 years old, friendships and teamwork become increasingly more important to kids, and the Retevis RT628 Walkie Talkies offer an excellent opportunity to play with friends and go on “missions” as a group.
• Math Skills : Most 7-year-olds have either mastered basic math or are well on their way to doing so, and games that involve simple math skills, like UNO , are fun while offering some addition and subtraction practice.

Entertainment Value

Much like their interests and general development, there is no one way to be sure a toy will be entertaining for a 7-year-old because of the period of change they are in. However, you can get a clue by looking at where they are academically. Books, games, and puzzles will grow in complexity as kids develop reading skills, Dr. Hill says, adding that the same is true as math and motor skills strengthen.

Frequently Asked Questions

While your 7-year-old may suggest otherwise, there’s no minimum number of toys they need for cognitive development, entertainment, or life satisfaction. In fact, promising research on toddlers suggests that fewer toys actually lead to longer periods of play per toy, greater focus, and more creative play—a perfectly good argument to share with an older child who has a bottomless wish list.

Toys can provide new opportunities for children to practice skills like problem-solving, imaginative play, and critical thinking, all depending on the toy. That said, it’s often play that fosters all of these skills, not toys themselves. So rest assured that your child’s toy collection won’t make or break their academic, social, or emotional success.

When purchasing a toy for a 7-year-old child, a good place to begin is to ask them what toys they wish they had at home. They may seek inspiration from commercials or playdates where they’ve played with friends' toys. If you’d prefer to surprise them, consider your child’s interests and choose a toy that speaks to them and is age-appropriate.

Maya Polton is a former marketing manager and current freelance writer who covers food, home, and parenting. She's also the mom of a 10-year-old son, a 7-year-old son, and a 3-year-old daughter. Her kids are super active, so she's always looking for toys that get them outside and playing for as long as possible. She's found that chalk, scooters, and stomp rockets are perfect for one-size-fits-all fun.

Phoebe Sklansky is Verywell Family’s Associate Commerce Editor. She particularly loves craft kits for their sensory and creative benefits. Plus, there’s nothing better than watching a little one proudly display what they’ve made!

Additional reporting by Ashley Ziegler

More Toys and Gifts for Kids

When it comes to toys and gifts for kids, our team has you covered. The Verywell Family team of editors (who are parents or have nieces and nephews of their own) have tested, gifted, and personally recommend every item we feature. Find more of our top gift and toy picks for every age and stage here:

• The Best Christmas Gifts for Kids
• The Best Newborn Baby Gifts
• The Best Unique Baby Gifts
• The Best Baby Gifts
• The Best Gifts for Baby Girls
• The Best Baby Boy Gifts
• The Best Infant Toys
• The Best Gifts for 2-Month-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 3-Month Olds
• The Best Toys for 4-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 5-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 6-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 7-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 8-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 10-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 12-Month-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 1-Year-Olds
• The Best Toys for 15-Month-Olds
• The Best Toys for 18-Month-Olds
• The Best Educational Toys for 2-Year-Olds
• The Best Toys for 2-Year-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 3-Year-Old Girls
• The Best Toys for 3-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Gifts for 4-Year-Old Girls
• The Best Toys for 4-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Educational Toys for 4-Year-Olds
• The Best Toys for 5-Year-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 5-Year-Old Girls
• The Best Gifts for 5-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Toys for 6-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Gifts for 6-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Toys for 6-Year-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 7-Year-Old Girls
• The Best Toys for 7-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Toys for 8-Year-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 8-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Toys for 9-Year-Olds
• The Best Toys for 10-year-Olds
• The Best Gifts for 10-Year-Old Girls
• The Best Gifts for 10-Year-Old Boys
• The Best Gifts for 12-year-old Boys
• The Best Gifts for Teens
• The Best Gifts for 14-Year-Old Boys
• The Black-Owned Gift Guide

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Middle childhood (6-8 years of age).

Dauch C, Imwalle M, Ocasio B, Metz AE. The influence of the number of toys in the environment on toddlers’ play .  Infant Beh Dev . 2018;50:78-87. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2017.11.005

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• Gifts for babies and kids

The 28 Best Gifts for 7-Year-Olds

By Ellen Lee and Wirecutter Staff

As 7-year-olds transition from being little kids to grade-schoolers, they start showing off their ability to engage in complex thinking. Some may be ready for toys and games that require longer-term planning, strategizing, and decision-making, so it’s a great time to incorporate board games that encourage problem-solving, said Brian Mayer , a gaming, learning, and library specialist in New York. “You want something that’s challenging for them and pushes them a little bit.”

Seven-year-olds are also developing more spatial awareness, so look for toys and kits that inspire them to think about how pieces fit together, said Hilary Conklin , professor at DePaul University’s College of Education. Challenging puzzles “foster a sense of accomplishment [when things go right], and resilience when things go wrong,” Conklin said. Kids this age may also be ready for toys that introduce them to the basics of coding, especially those that help them explore fundamental programming concepts in a tangible way. There’s also space for one-and-done craft or project kits, which can be launching pads to new hobbies and interests.

We relied on advice from Mayer, Conklin, and other toy and child-development experts—as well as on the collective experience of parents and caregivers on our staff—for gift ideas that will not only get 7-year-olds thinking but also engage them over and over again. If you’re looking for more kids gift ideas, check out our guides to the best gifts for 1-year-olds , 2-year-olds , 3-year-olds , 4-year-olds , 5-year-olds , 6-year-olds , 8-year-olds , 9-year-olds , and 10-year-olds , as well as delightful stocking stuffers for kids. We also have guides to gifts for tweens and teens . (Just keep in mind that kids develop at different rates, so all age recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt.) And be sure to share your own best ideas in the comments below.

A 3D brain puzzler

Educational Insights Kanoodle Gravity

This 3D puzzle challenges kids to fit all 10 shapes into the grid in multiple configurations.

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Think of Kanoodle Gravity as a tactile, three-dimensional game of Tetris. Ten colorful pieces in an assortment of shapes must fit into a grid. Although you can take turns with a friend, my daughter relished the challenge of working her way through a booklet of 40 increasingly difficult puzzles on her own. Lightweight and compact, this game is also easy to pack for travel. Kanoodle Gravity (which was named a top engineering toy by Inspire , a research institute in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University) is part of a series of Kanoodle brain teasers that also includes Kanoodle , Kanoodle Extreme , and Kanoodle Genius .

Roll with it

Klutz Mini Sushi Bar Activity Kit

This craft kit includes all the air-dry clay, tools, and decorations to make a bento box’s worth of tiny, adorable sushi, sashimi, and more.

There’s something innately delightful about molding tiny foods out of clay. The Klutz Mini Sushi Bar Activity Kit comes with all the materials you need for a few hours of fun: different colors of air-dry clay (for the main ingredients and sushi rice), decorative beads and bobs (for finishing touches like salmon roe and eyeballs), and a double-sided plastic tool (for cutting and shaping). When the creations are complete, they can be displayed using the included chopsticks, a small bowl, and a cardboard bento box. (For those who aren’t familiar with Japanese fare, there’s also information provided on the various dishes.)

My daughters, ages 8 and 6 at the time, ended up making a bento box filled with onigiri (rice balls), mochi balls, and an impossibly tiny portion of miso soup, garnished with slivers of green onion, cubes of tofu, and, of course, winsome eyes and smiles. The straightforward instructions—written for around a third-grade reading level—have step-by-step illustrations, with helpful visuals demonstrating the exact amount of clay to pinch off for each project. My daughters needed a hand with a few of the tasks that required more dexterity, like carefully gluing the edges of the cardboard milk container together. Once the projects had air-dried overnight, the kids treated their American Girl dolls to lunch.

A first diary

Wee Society’s Me: A Compendium

This colorful journal is full of open-ended questions, illustrations, and drawing prompts to get a kid’s creative juices flowing.

Each page of Me: A Compendium encourages a young journaler to share what they’re thinking by drawing and writing down details based on prompts accompanied by lively illustrations: “These are the things in my brain,” “This is what my hair looks like,” “If I had a robot, I’d program it to ... .” We started out doing a page a night, and my son had a ball filling in his thoughts and making the book all about, well, him. Similarly, Me: A Kid’s Diary is a digital journaling app that lets kids map out their feelings, experiences, passions, and personal connections using different media and modes of expression (we recommend it in our guide to our favorite learning apps ). In some ways, the experience is akin to using social media (kids upload photos, make videos, write reflections, and map their families and personal connections), but in an entirely closed, safe environment. There’s no actual communication or sharing within the app.

Rainbow message

Scratch Art Rainbow Mini Notes

Kids can scratch a rainbow-hued message or drawing on these small sheets of black paper.

I’m big on leaving surprise affirmations in my kids’ lunch boxes. I used to write them on Post-it notes but recently discovered something better: Scratch Art Rainbow Mini Notes , a pack of 125 blank cards and a wooden stylus. I like the added creative umph of offering them loving words in rainbow letters with a black matte background. And since my littles have foundational writing skills, they can leave me notes, too. This pack of blank note cards has so much potential: Kids can have fun writing notes to their friends, loved ones, or even to themselves on this paper. They also have potentially practical uses, like reminders, contact info, and brief memos. I may or may not have even used them to write a few words of encouragement to myself.

Monster truck

Lego Technic Monster Jam Megalodon 42134

This 260-piece Lego truck can be built two ways and, once finished, becomes a sharp-toothed car that you can pull back and let go.

My son has been obsessed with dinosaurs and Jurassic Park , which introduced him to the fearsome megalodon . The Lego Technic Monster Jam Megalodon is not connected to the franchise (it’s actually a partnership with Monster Jam), but this half-dinosaur, half-truck is nonetheless toothy, ferocious, and satisfying. One of our favorite Lego sets for kids , it can be built as either a monster truck or a lowrider car. The finished product can be pulled back and raced on its own and is tough enough to crash without losing a piece.

Outlook good

Mattel Games Magic 8 Ball Toy

Ask this fortune-telling ball a yes-or-no question and see what your future has in store.

When my kids pepper me with questions, I’m grateful for this throwback fortune-telling toy. Turn it upside down, and the Magic 8 Ball , which has been around since 1946 , prognosticates with one of 20 possible outcomes: “Without a doubt,” “Cannot predict now,” “My reply is no.” Both of my kids enjoy holding the powerful orb and predicting the future. Will my son’s favorite football team make it to the playoffs? Will my daughter’s teacher choose her to be the class superstar tomorrow? I don’t have all the answers, but the Magic 8 Ball can at least help with some of them.

Out-of-the-box animal puzzles

Mudpuppy Little Park Ranger National Parks Map of the U.S.A. Geography Puzzle

This eye-catching 70-piece puzzle can prompt conversation about geography, animals, and, maybe, future family travels.

Mudpuppy Music Festival 500 Piece Search & Find Family Puzzle

Once this more-challenging puzzle is assembled, you can also hunt down 45 hidden objects in its dynamic music festival scene.

Doing a puzzle made by Mudpuppy is a deeply satisfying experience. The colors are vibrant, the designs are stimulating and beautiful, and the pieces are thick and sturdy, with chunky, clean edges that fit together just as they should. My kids and I have recently been enjoying two animal-themed puzzles, each with its own special twist. The Little Park Ranger National Parks Map of the U.S.A. highlights national parks like Yosemite and Acadia; 18 of those pieces are in the shapes of critters that live in the parks, including an armadillo, a pelican, and a buffalo. The Music Festival 500 Piece Search & Find Family Puzzle , meanwhile, serves as an activity twofer. First, you put together the 500 pieces—this will likely be a family affair, given the size—to reveal a bunch of cartoon beasts (innocently) rocking out at a music festival. Then, for the encore, you try to find 45 items embedded in the scene, à la Where’s Waldo?

Rocks to paint and share

Creativity for Kids Hide & Seek Rock Painting Kit

With this craft kit, kids can decorate 10 rocks—and then tuck them somewhere for others to find.

You save $7 (58%)

Painting rocks and depositing them outdoors is a fun way to spread some joy. The Creativity for Kids Kit comes with 10 smooth little stones, eight paint colors, and a bunch of transfer designs. Once decorated, the rocks are meant to be released into the wild, tucked away to await discovery in a park or an outdoor space. A tracking sticker offers a hashtag, so those who come across a rock can post their find on social media. The shapes of the stones can inform each creation, and there’s something comforting about getting a kid’s hands on a piece of nature. This kit is also available in several themes, including Halloween , glow-in-the-dark , and holiday .

A puzzle with pizzazz

Studio Roof Big Unicorn 3-D Puzzle

This cardboard puzzle turns into an aesthetic, colorful figurine.

Keewa Nurullah, owner of the children’s shop Kido Chicago , discovered Studio Roof, the Dutch design company behind this 3D unicorn puzzle (and other pieces like decorative masks) on Instagram. “They have very bright, vibrant, impeccably designed items,” said Nurullah. What stood out most about the unicorn puzzle? Its 3D element. “As opposed to a flat puzzle,” explained Nurullah, “it really gets kids’ brains thinking about engineering and STEM in terms of how the pieces fit together.” The recycled-cardboard pieces stand about a foot tall when assembled. Once the puzzle has evolved from a set of 13 flat pieces into a colorful unicorn, it can be a prop for play in a fantastical imaginary world. There are other styles, too, including a stegosaurus and a catamaran .

Origin stories

Kid Athletes: True Tales of Childhood From Sports Legends

From Gabby Douglas to Lionel Messie, readers learn about the early lives of historical and contemporary pro athletes through 16 inspiring stories.

I can’t count the number of times my son and I have read about NBA legend Yao Ming’s challenging upbringing as one of the tallest kids in China, or NFL star Peyton Manning’s teenage brush with ballroom dancing. Written by David Stabler and illustrated by Doogie Horner, Kid Athletes: True Tales of Childhood from Sports Legends shares stories from the early lives of 16 pro athletes, past and present, such as baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson, tennis great Billie Jean King, and Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas. My sports-fanatic son has devoured quirky tidbits about each of their childhoods. Resilience is a major theme, such as the time when Hawaiian sumo wrestler Jesse Kuhaulua (now known as Takamiyama Daigoro) was hit by a pineapple truck in the second grade. Both his legs were broken, and he had to spend six months in the hospital, but he recovered and prevailed. That relatable, “Wow! Famous folks were kids too once!” message can also be found in seven other books in the Kid Legends series, including Kid Presidents , Kid Authors , and Kid Innovators .

Spinning penguins

In this action-packed board game, players race to collect fish by making the penguin figurines spin, dive, and jump through an obstacle course.

If you think board games are boring, Ice Cool 2 may surprise you. The kooky, fast-paced game—a favorite in our guide to the best board games for kids —has you flicking, spinning, and shooting penguins through a multiroom game course that’s cleverly constructed from nesting cardboard boxes. Like marbles, pinball, and pool, Ice Cool is a “dexterity game,” and the challenge lies in figuring out the right angles, speed, and force to get the penguins to move the way you want. Christoph Schlewinski, a jury member for the Kinderspiel des Jahres prize (which chose the original Ice Cool as a best children’s game), said this game is fun for both kids and adults. But kids often have an advantage: “The game play itself is very intuitive for kids,” Schlewinski said. “[Kids] are often better than adults, because they don’t overthink it.”

A durable fort-building kit

Tote-a-Fort The Original Kit

This fort-building set comes with three blankets, weights, Velcro, and straps to build indoor or outdoor hideaways.

May be out of stock

My mom never complained when she had to pick up and put away almost all of the blankets in the house after my sisters and I made a fort in the dining room. It was only once my own children started building forts in our living room that I understood how annoying this task can be. But who am I to take away that rite of passage? Tote-A-Fort is my solution. It comes with three durable blankets in different colors (yellow, blue, and red), with Velcro and straps that attach the blankets together and to the furniture. Anchor weights keep them from sinking down, and a cinch sack stores it all. A 5-year-old kid, a 15-pound dog, and I all fit comfortably under the finished product, and the colorful material reminds me of the parachute game from physical education class in elementary school.

Thames & Kosmos Gummy Candy Lab

This candy-making set can create gummy bears in two sweet flavors.

Thames & Kosmos is known for making fun science kits that also explain the science behind the experiment. The Gummy Candy Lab (with variations for making gummy worms and gummy unicorns ) comes with all the ingredients and molds you need to concoct your own fruit-flavored, multicolored gummy bears, and the instructions walk you through the chemistry of candy-making. Kids will likely need adult assistance, especially for the experiments that require the microwave and stove.

Target practice

Fungenix Magnetic Dart Board

In this safer version of the classic game, the 16 magnetic darts stick to a two-sided felt board.

Flying objects pose a real risk in our home. Stuffies, balls, shoes—my kids love tossing anything they can get their hands on. The Fungenix Magnetic Dart Board has helped contain their target practice. Slightly larger than a wall calendar, the 18-by-15-inch felt board is attached to a string loop, and it’s portable and light enough that you can hang it from a small nail, tack, hook, or doorknob without making a permanent decor commitment. (Just keep in mind that the darts are magnetic and therefore have some heft to them, so you might not want to pick a spot close to any windows.) When it’s not in use, the board rolls up and stores easily. And it’s reversible, with a different target on each side—one with numbered rings and segments, like a traditional dart board, and the other with concentric circles. The 16 magnetic darts are short and snub-nosed; they attract to the board surprisingly well, without being too heavy to hold or throw, and they have yet to make any dents in our walls. I appreciate that my 7-year-old son can play with this independently, by trying to beat his own score, or compete against a family member or friend.

A classic Swatch

Swatch Flik Flak Watch

These retro kids watches continue to delight with an array of vibrant colors and playful designs.

I wouldn’t have imagined that a ton of kids would want an analog wristwatch these days, but it turned out that my nephews, then ages 7 and 9, really did. And I remembered how much I loved the Swatch Flik Flak watch that my own aunt and uncle got me when I was my nephews’ ages. I wore it for years. Lo and behold, Swatch still makes Flik Flak kids watches, and they’re still tough, cute, affordable, and available in a million colors and patterns . My nephews each got one in their favorite color—one in blue with sharks and submarines, the other in red with dinosaurs—and they were holding up fine after a couple of years.

A grab bag of geodes

National Geographic Break Open 15 Geodes

Smashing regular-looking rocks reveals wondrous, sparkly geodes in this hands-on science kit.

Even for a kid who has everything, this box of geodes makes an impressive gift. On the outside, these break-open geodes look like boring round rocks. But after you smash them with a hammer (or, for better results, cut them with a tile saw, if you have one), their sparkly, gem-hued, crystal insides are revealed. The open geodes look impressively like pirate-chest treasure, as my son referred to his collection. After taking stock of the treasure, your child can read about geodes in an included booklet, learning how they form and how to identify the different colors and types of crystals inside. And let’s be honest: For many kids (mine included), getting to smash and bash things with a hammer is a gift in and of itself. Safety goggles are included.

A heroic cast of characters

Roblox Action Collection Heroes of Robloxia Playset

This playset lets Roblox fans mix and match parts to build their own characters.

Roblox is an online platform where kids can navigate and interact their way through a variety of different games in numerous genres. Do your kids love animals and want to help them escape from a pet store? There’s a Roblox game for that. Are they into underwater adventures and longing to dive for treasure? There’s a Roblox game for that, too. My son’s personal favorite is Heroes of Robloxia, which lets kids be heroes, fight a villain, and save the day. The Roblox Action Collection Heroes of Robloxia Playset takes heroic missions offline and into kids’ hands. The action from the video game comes to life when my son uses the mix-and-match character pieces to create his hero and launches some villainous schemes for them to crack. The bonus: Screen time is traded for playtime.

Cows in space

Think Fun Invasion of the Cow Snatchers

This zany single-player logic game features 60 increasingly difficult challenges.

In this solo puzzle game, the player is a UFO beaming up cows. A clear piece of plastic separates the spaceship from the pasture, where five cows (represented by red, blue, orange, pink, and yellow coins) are grazing—until they’re zapped up with a satisfying magnetic clink , that is. The game comes with 60 cards that show you how to set up the pasture and where to place the cows, and the puzzles become increasingly difficult as you advance. STEM education expert Elizabeth Gajdzik included Invasion of the Cow Snatchers on a Purdue University list of the best engineering toys for kids, after student testers named it a favorite. Gajdzik also liked that it exercises kids’ spatial reasoning skills.

A totable hub for creativity

Kid Made Modern Rainbow Craft Kit

This well-organized box is chock-full of colorful pom-poms, pipe cleaners, string, and more.

Googly eyes, pom-poms, beads, glitter, paper tubes, pipe cleaners in a range of colors—the Kid Made Modern Rainbow Craft Kit is a portable craft studio housed in a case made for carrying. “That’s the beauty of the box,” said Debbie Imperatore, manager of and buyer at Funky Monkey Toys . “It’s family-friendly. Put it in front of any kid and they can use their imagination to turn a piece of construction paper into a three-dimensional item.” The box is reusable, and the more than 300 pieces inside are organized by item type and color group. (If you need a larger craft stash, we recommend a 1,000-piece kit, also by Kid Made Modern, in our guide to gifts for 8-year-olds .) “It’s so happy-looking that when you put it on the table and kids open it up, they’re wowed,” said Imperatore. (When she gave it to a neighbor, the girl’s mom reported that her daughter was speechless.)

A monthly highlight

Highlights Magazine Subscription

This kids magazine is a fun monthly read, full of puzzles, stories, recipes, and art projects.

My kids look forward to the latest issue of Highlights , the same children’s magazine that I read as a kid. Highlights still includes classics like Goofus and Gallant , the two polar-opposite boys who are always doing something naughty yet good. But the 74-year-old magazine has also been updated with a modern and diverse cast of characters. Every month, its 40 pages are packed with puzzles, games, short stories, recipes, art projects, and an advice column. I gave my daughter a subscription three years ago. Our house now has stacks of Highlights, because my kids refuse to let go of the back issues, and they reread them regularly.

A hardy hoop

Canyon Hoops Kids Hoop

This weighted hula hoop stands out in a field of flimsy competitors—and is easier to keep spinning and use to perform tricks.

My husband and I were amused when our son gave a demonstration of his recently acquired hooping skills as a part of his third-grade parent-teacher conference. After seeing our kid’s enthusiasm, we set out to find a quality Hula-Hoop for him to practice with at home. We called on the expertise of an old friend, Amy Goldstein, who directed the 2014 documentary The Hooping Life , which explores the subculture of serious hoopers. The durable polyethylene hoop Goldstein recommended (from Oregon-based Canyon Hoops ) is a splurge. But I know that thinner, flimsier hoops tend to kink out of service within months. And I liked the idea of getting a quality tool to help our not-into-sports kid perhaps excel at an unexpected new pastime. The versions made by Canyon Hoops come in lots of fun, striped designs, as well as in different weights, for beginners or more-advanced hoopers interested in performing all-body tricks. The 32-inch version is a good choice for kids between about 6 and 13, according to the company.

A new friend

Our Generation Deluxe Doll

This line of 18-inch dolls has a wide array of skin tones, hair types, interests, and outfits.

When it comes to toys, a doll is as classic as they come. Those by Our Generation are among our favorites . They’re lifelike and offer an alternative to the ever-popular—though much more expensive—American Girl dolls. (We recommend those in our guide to gifts for 8-year-olds .) Each of the Our Generation dolls (there are 45 to choose from in the Deluxe line) comes with different outfit options and a few accessories, and most include a chapter book that tells a short story in which the doll is a character. These dolls have a diverse range of skin tones, backstories, and brushable hairstyles, offering plenty of options for your child to find a match.

Creative coding

Educational Insights Artie 3000 The Coding Robot

Kids can program this cute robot to draw all sorts of shapes and designs onto paper.

Robots and other physical toys and games can offer a whimsical and tactile way for kids to learn basic principles of coding. Artie 3000 is an adorable robot that can hold a marker to draw different shapes and designs—like a square—on a piece of paper. The robot pairs with an app or website that kids use to program Artie to create their works of art, advancing from simple, visual drag-and-drop instructions to coding in Python, a popular programming language. Once kids get the hang of it, they can let their imaginations run wild, said STEM education expert Elizabeth Gajdzik, who recommends Artie for kids ages 7 and older. Artie 3000 comes with four washable markers, but it can accommodate any skinny pen. (A downside is that Artie runs on AA batteries, instead of being rechargeable.)

A lap harp that will get play

Music Maker Lap Harp

This instrument produces lovely sound and comes with intuitive sheet music that makes it a breeze to learn 12 songs—no music-reading knowledge required.

Weary from hearing my child’s toy piano, plastic trumpet, and yoga block–turned–drum, a few years ago I replaced them with the soothing Music Maker Lap Harp . The harp comes fully assembled with 12 different song sheets that slip under the strings and show kids where to pluck; each string corresponds with a printed note. Although this may sound complicated, the setup is surprisingly intuitive, and kids don’t need to know how to read music to play the harp (which I wish had been made clearer in the product description). The harp also arrives pre-tuned—not all do—and it comes with a pick and a replacement wire. In short order, my then-7-year-old was strumming the melody of a few familiar “baby songs” (“Baa Baa Black Sheep,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”), and he soon built up enough confidence to work his way through a Bach minuet. Want to make it more of a shared activity? You can buy a second harp and a set of harmonic sheets for duets.

Kitchen tools of their very own

GIR Mini Tool Set in Sprinkles

These kid-sized silicone kitchen tools are fully functional, with a rainbow sprinkle design that adds whimsical flair.

A budding baker or curious cook may love this cheery mini kitchen tools set , which includes slightly smaller versions of some GIR favorites: a spatula, a “spoonula,” a flipper, and a whisk, plus a little squishy measuring cup to hold it all together. (We also recommend the GIR Mini Spatula and GIR Mini Stainless Steel Whisk in our guide to the best tools for cooking with kids , and we highlight many of the company’s full-size workhorses in our guide to spatulas .) If your kid is starting to learn some independent tasks in the kitchen (making pancakes or eggs, whisking together a salad dressing), having their own tools can build their confidence and inspire ownership over the tasks. The sprinkles embedded in the silicone really up the fun factor, and GIR’s meticulous approach to design means utensils are comfortable to hold, a joy to use, and likely to last until your kids go off to college. Fair warning: The adults in the household could grow attached to these, too!

A calming canoe

Hugging Peapod with Pump

This inflatable canoe-shaped seat can help kids feel calm and secure.

Like all kids, my littles occasionally need support managing big feelings. I hold them tight through hard moments, but my daughter also uses this canoe-shaped Hugging Peapod . She snuggles into its cushy walls during rough moments, which she says “feels like I’m getting a big, big, big hug from mom.” She can also hold two of its four plastic handles to settle in or rock side to side for an emotional reset—you can see the calm spread across her face. The Hugging Peapod, which comes in three sizes and two colors, is also a comfy place to watch TV or read a book. An included electric pump helps inflate it. And compared with other lightweight options, this sturdy seat is made of flocked vinyl with triple-welded seams, so I don’t have to worry about it popping.

At-home spa-day gear

L.L.Bean Kids’ Fleece Robe

This robe is snuggly, durable, and warm. Bonus: The attached belt will never go missing.

Dan&Darci Create Your Own Soap & Bath Bombs Science Lab

Make your own glittery bath bombs, soaps, and scrubs with this kit.

Package up a soft, fleecy bathrobe, a kit to make soap and bath bombs, and maybe some kid-friendly, water-based nail polish, and—voilà!—you’ve got something pretty close to a luxury spa day, first-grader style. Available in five colors (with a monogram option), the L.L.Bean Kids’ Fleece Robe is listed among our favorite pajamas for kids because of its excellent construction, cuddly fabric, and attached belt. The Dan&Darci Create Your Own Soap & Bath Bombs Science Lab lets kids concoct their own soap, fizzy bath bombs, and scrubs. It manages to make the process fun and educational, but it doesn’t create a giant mess (and it’s one of the picks in our guide to the best bath bombs ). Piggy Paint nail polish is designed for kids, and it’s a longtime favorite of my daughters. Unlike other nail polishes they’ve had, Piggy Paint polishes stay on their nails (other kid-friendly nail polishes we’ve tried tend to peel off easily). And these polishes are either odorless or have fun, pleasant fruit scents, instead of a chemical smell. My daughters especially like the glow-in-the-dark “ radioactive ” polish (which really does glow).

Their first watercraft

Lifetime Wave 6-Foot Youth Kayak

This kid-sized kayak is reasonably stable and easy for young paddlers to maneuver.

A few summers ago, my then-7-year-old son got this rugged, brightly colored, sit-on-top kayak as a gift from his grandmother. After just two or three warm-up sessions, he was able to effectively propel himself on a route that was a couple of miles long, which was a satisfying, confidence-building achievement. The boats seem popular on our local New England lakes, and my son’s older and younger cousins have enjoyed them as well. The kayak comes with a paddle, and it’s rated to 130 pounds (I checked, and even a little more than that is too heavy). Don’t forget an appropriately sized kid life jacket . I also picked up a simple, carabiner-equipped towline at the local hardware store, so I could give a tired kid a lift when needed.

We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more gift ideas we recommend .

This article was edited by Kalee Thompson.

Meet your guides

Ellen Lee is a senior staff writer covering baby and kid gear for Wirecutter. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, BBC, and Real Simple, and she was previously a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also the author of the (ADJECTIVE) Lunar New Year Mad Libs book. (We’re hoping you filled in the blank with “hilarious.”)

Wirecutter Staff

Mentioned above

• We spent 40-plus hours testing more than 50 recommendations from educators, experts, and parents to find the best educational apps and games for kids. Some of the Best Online Learning Games for Kids  
• Our kid testers (and their parents) loved these Lego sets. The Best Lego Sets for Kids  
• We spent 20 hours researching nearly 50 board games for kids. Read on to find out our favorite games for preschoolers, elementary-school kids, and families. Board Games We Love for Kids and Families  
• For some children, a doll will be the most treasured toy they own. We tested 25 dolls to help you find one that feels just right for the kid in your life. The Best Dolls  
• We’ve tested more than 45 pieces of kitchen gear to find those that are most worth investing in for younger cooks, whether they’re toddlers or teens. The Best Kids Cooking Tools (That You’ll Love Too)  
• To find the best spatula for every scenario, we’ve tested spatulas of all types––from all-purpose fish spatulas to silicone scrapers. The Best Spatulas  

Best STEM Toys for 7-Year-Olds (Top 14 Picks for 2024)

STEM toys fit a wide range of toy types, and the best thing about them is that kids can learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, all while having fun. It hardly feels like learning at that point. Even better, these will keep your 7 year old busy and engaged for hours on end. 

We dug through many STEM toys, but the best overall STEM toy for a 7 year old is the Dot and Dash Robot . It offers a unique combination of learning coding and being creative in freeform, open-ended play. Otherwise, we recommend the Fire 8 Kids Tablet for all-around learning as it offers so many different options to keep your children entertained.

Related post: Best Educational Toys for 7 Year Olds

Best STEM Toys for 7 Year Olds

Best overall — wonder workshop dash robot.

Best Overall

Wonder Workshop Dash Robot

A fun robot that helps making learning to code a fun and inviting experience.

The Dash Robot is our top pick among STEM toys because of just how versatile it is. Your 7 year old will have hundreds of hours of coding and five free mobile apps at their fingertips to get them started.

This robot has been used by children in over 20,000 classrooms and will provide an engaging and fun learning experience of coding basics that help kids get interested in science, technology, and engineering. Kids will be able to do problem solving with their robot to accomplish challenges in free mobile apps. 

Because of how many activities this product boasts, it will be able to grow with your child and their abilities. It can be used for individual play or in groups with games such as Hot Podoto (a cute adaptation of Hot Potato). Kids can even have it their way and make their own games in the app! 

Even better, you can get accessories and add-ons for Dash. It’s even compatible with LEGO bricks!

Best for STEM Learning — Fire HD 10 Kids Pro Tablet

Best for STEM Learning

Fire HD 10 Kids Pro Tablet

This powerful tablet unlocks the amazing world of STEM through over 20,000 educational apps.

The Fire HD 10 Pro Kids Edition Tablet is a great choice for seven year olds particularly interested in STEM because of just how many different STEM topics they will have access to. 

It comes with a free 1-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ service, which allows access to over 20,000 apps, many of which are fun STEM-related games. After that, you can keep using the service at the price of $2.99 per month. There’s also parental control to help you prevent this abundance of apps turning into unnecessary screen time!

This tablet has a 7-hour battery life, which makes it perfect for on the go fun. Since there is such a large amount of apps and games available, your child will be able to choose the STEM topics that interest them the most for entertainment. The Fire HD 10 Kids Tablet is a vector for better learning than a traditional video game. 

To top it off, this product comes with a thick case to help protect it from drops and tumbles. It also comes with a guarantee that if it breaks in the first two years, it will be replaced for free.

Best Budget Option — Klutz LEGO Kit Crazy Action Contraptions Craft Kit

Best Budget Option

Klutz LEGO Crazy Craft Kit

A spectacular kit that allows creative flexibility and many projects for lots of entertainment.

The Klutz LEGO Crazy Craft Kit allows for building 16 high-performance projects with more than 100 LEGO pieces. It can be used to create things such as vehicles, launchers, and games. Because of its versatility, this product is great to add to your list of gift ideas for the younger kids. 

One of the biggest draws to this kit is how it can teach kids about mechanical devices and how they work. In addition to the 16 outlined projects, children can use this kit as a way to let the creative juices flow. 

Best for Experimentalists — UNGLINGA Kids Science Experiment Kit with Lab Coat

Best for Experimentalists

UNGLINGA Kids Science Experiment Kit

This kit really lets kids get into the role of scientist and let them explore fun experiments all while staying budget-friendly.

This Science Experiment Kit comes with everything a kid could need to feel like an all-out scientist. It includes a lab coat, safety goggles, and lots of scientific equipment. The activity cards it comes with have step-by-step instructions to help guide your child. 

This kit will grow with your child; even the lab coat is designed to fit kids up to 11 years old! The test tubes and beakers are designed for easy handling with smaller hands. Additionally, this kit can be used for experiments and even pretend play. Who said this much fun had to be expensive?

A fun addition to this would be tie-dying the lab coat to make it extra special and memorable for your child. This is a great way to introduce your kids to STEM and allow them to make their experience their own. 

Best for Building — Marble Genius Marble Run Super Set

Best for Building

Marble Run Super Set

We’ve all seen marble runs before, but this one stands above the rest with just how much comes in the set, your child will have fun with open-ended play and building.

The Marble Run Super Set comes as an 85 piece kit with 19 different types of pieces. Additionally, there is an app to help kids get started with guides and fun challenges. This toy is particularly great for kids who are interested in engineering and math. It ranks among the best toys for kindergartners. 

There is no one way to build a spectacular run, so your kids can really get creative with this one. It’s all fun and games until the structure topples over! Thankfully this comes with three large bases and five other regular-sized bases to help ensure maximum stability. 

This product is like a more modern version of building blocks. Marble runs help children with problem-solving, motor skills, and building skills while still being fun. Your kid will get to build to their heart’s content. This is a toy your child and their friends can enjoy while working together to create a true masterpiece! 

Best for Gadgets — Osmo Genius Starter Kit 

Best for Gadgets

Osmo Genius Starter Kit

Gives your child a chance to learn digitally with a hands-on experience.

Osmo Genius Starter Kit is a great supplementary item for those who already have an iPad or Fire tablet. It keeps your kid entertained with tangram pieces, number tiles, and word tiles that can all be stored in stackable storage boxes. 

It comes with seven games included, two of which are family-friendly. This kit will have the whole family working together to solve puzzles. It also encourages individual play and learning. It will grow with your child because of how many different levels and games it has. It is designed for kids ranging from ages 6 to over 10.

The Osmo Genius Kit is fun and helps exercise spatial and visual problem-solving skills that are important fun and development! This popular product has a unique combination of classic physical pieces and technology. The best part? It can be enjoyed by the whole family during game night!

Best Science Toy — Great Explorations Glowing 3D Solar System

Best Science Toy

Glowing 3D Solar System

A lifetime’s worth of glowing solar systems and enjoyment.

The 3D Solar System is another classic in STEM toys. It is particularly great for children who are always looking up at the sky. It comes with 9 glow-in-the-dark planets and more than 200 adhesive stars. It even comes with a solar system guide!

Kids will be able to experience the solar system and universe in their very own room. Their creativity can run wild and the universe they create is completely open-ended. Better yet, the fun doesn’t stop when it gets dark outside. Their solar system will add an incentive to bedtime. 

The solar system guide that comes with this kit also will help teach children about the environment on the planets in our solar system, how far they are from the sun and their relative sizes. It puts even more meaning behind this cool toy kit!

Best for Aspiring Botanists — Grow ‘N Glow Terrarium Kit

Best for Aspiring Botanists

Grow ‘N Glow Terrarium Kit

Combining the creativities of art and science into a jar.

The Grow ‘N Glow Terrarium Kit is one of those super fun gift ideas for kids. It allows kids to be creative in how they design their terrarium, learn to responsibly care for something, watch and learn about how plants grow, and have fun while doing it.

The terrarium itself starts growing in 3-4 days and comes with everything necessary to make a gorgeous terrarium. Even better, this toy allows for enjoyment during the day, and at night, with the glowing sand and glow-in-the-dark stickers. 

Best for Electronics — Snap Circuits Beginner Electronics Exploration Kit

Best for Electronics

Snap Circuits Beginner Kit

An introduction to problem solving, following directions, science, technology, engineering, and math.

The Snap Circuits Kit has enough parts to build over 20 different projects. It even has extra safety features for the younger engineers, which makes it perfect for 7 year olds. This kit comes with a colored manual, making following the instructions easier and more straight forward. 

This kit is made to teach children how electrical circuits work in everyday devices (think toasters, coffee makers, etc.). This product encourages experimentation with the circuits so that children can learn how they work. For instance, they will see what happens when they reorient the fan or turn the LED lights around. 

Best for Creative Kids — QIDI Single Extruder 3D Printer 

Best for Creative Kids

QIDI 3D Printer

A piece of technology that your kid will be telling all of their friends about.

This QIDI 3D Printer has a 4.3” touchscreen with easy to use icons to help with ease of operation. It is sturdy, which is perfect for small hands. It also comes with a test print model, so you can get started right out of the box! 

3D printing is all the rage now, and this printer is one of the best. What’s better than getting one toy? Getting something that allows your children to make many toys of their own! The possibilities are endless. And even better than that, it’s a device that will impress mom and dad too.

This device will help your child learn to design their own projects. From figurines to a game board, if they can think of it, they can make it.

Best for Forensic Science — Scientific Explorer Crime Catchers Science Kit

Best for Forensic Science

Crime Catchers Science Kit

A kit to solve mysteries using forensic technologies.

The Crime Catchers Science Kit offers two mysteries with eight different activities. These activities will have children thinking like real forensic scientists. They will be able to match fingerprints, decode messages, and test different powders and liquids to solve the mysteries. 

This kit is one way to teach children about science while keeping them entertained with the mystery behind it. It is a safe and fun kit with an easy to follow instruction book. Kids will think critically about what is in front of them and learn to draw their own conclusions. 

Best for Animal Lovers — Fisca RC Robotic Dog

Best for Animal Lovers

Fisca RC Robotic Dog

A fun alternative to having pets at home, and allows for learning programming skills.

This Fisca RC Robotic Dog  is incredibly interactive. It responds to touch. It also can sing, dance, walk forward and backward, blink, and much more. On top of all of this, children can program it with the actions they want it to do. 

This toy will have the whole family together, playing and laughing with a cute robotic pup. It’s an engaging option that has rechargeable batteries and is made out of high quality materials so it can withstand continued use and play.

This is a wonderful alternative to having live pets in your home, all of the fun and none of the additional clean up! You and your kids will appreciate it.

Best Puzzle Game — Shifu Plugo Link Construction Kit with Puzzles

Best Puzzle Game

Shifu Plugo Link

An app-based gaming kit that will help kids develop their engineering skills and interest in STEM.

The Shifu Plugo Link will grow with your kids and is a way for them to solve real-world problems. It comes with a foldable gamepad, guide, and 15 magnetic building blocks. Even better, the Plugo app is free to download and comes with 5 different games with over 250 levels.

This interactive app allows for solo or group play to solve problems. The front-facing camera of your device reads the location of the blocks and registers it into their app, creating an interactive system that is full of fun! 

There are also different kits from this same brand that will allow your kids to develop their math skills and even learn to play the piano! 

Best for Hands-On Experiments — Learning Resources Beaker Creatures Liquid Reactor

Best for Hands-On Experiments

Beaker Creatures Liquid Reactor

Create a bubbling reaction that reveals surprise creatures.

Beaker Creatures Liquid Reactor is a fun toy that allows for kids to find and collect 35 mysterious Beaker Creatures. Kids will conduct experiments that create a bubbling reaction that will reveal their surprise creature! 

This comes as a 15 piece set to start with, and more creature pods can be bought separately. Each creature comes with its own classification card to understand more about them and the environments that they would live in. This toy makes science more fun than ever before! 

What to Consider When Buying a STEM toy for a 7 Year Old

Some of the toys listed above are recommended to only use under adult supervision. This is to ensure the safety of your child. However, there are others that adult supervision isn’t as necessary. It will be important for you to assess how much time and supervision you will be able to dedicate when your kids are playing with the toy(s) that you choose. 

Different toys will appeal to different interests. Some kids will be more interested in learning about and playing with space concepts; others are more interested in playing with robots and coding, while the rest may be more interested in biology-related toys. What your kid is interested in will ultimately drive your decision on what toy is most suited for kids aged 7 and up. Science, technology, engineering, and math cover a wide range of topics, and you’re sure to find something that will fit your child’s interest.

STEM toys vary widely in their pricing. But it really depends on how much you need to spend on a toy, and how long you want this toy to entertain your children. However, this range of pricing allows for consumers with all kinds of budgets to invest in STEM toys for kids.

7-year-old kids typically don’t have a very long attention span, but they learn quickly, so it is best to look for a toy that will grow with them. The more potential to grow with them, the longer the toy will last, and the more engaged your child will be with this toy. It will also help get the most out of whatever toy you choose. The more engaging the toy, the more use it will get, plus the possible learning that will come out of it. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a stem toy.

A STEM toy is a toy that focuses more on science, technology, engineering, and math. This is different from an educational toy which tends to focus more on fine motor skills, reading, and writing. A STEM toy is a great way to gauge the interests of your children and help them develop STEM skills that will be useful throughout life. 

How do I select the most appropriate STEM toys for kids?

The most appropriate STEM toys for kids will be the ones that are appropriate for their age group and allow them to focus on what they are interested in. By getting a STEM toy that plays in the interest of your kids, you will surely be able to give them hours of entertainment. Even better, they will be learning while having fun!

What are the benefits of STEM toys?

STEM toys teach kids about the world around them. They can help develop math skills, problem-solving, and even building skills. All of these skills will help your children throughout their lives as they continue through school and eventually into adulthood. One way that these toys do that is through keeping kids engaged and willing to learn because they are having so much fun. A good STEM toy might even beat out a great video game for your kids! The best part about STEM toys is just how much they can offer to your child and you as you learn and enjoy together.

Last update on 2024-04-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Brooke Gates is a graduate student studying oncology and development and is passionate about making STEM fields more accessible. She is an avid lover of her dog and outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and paddle boarding.

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Home » Recommendations » Toys » 11 Toys for 7-year-olds

11 Toys for 7-year-olds

1. magna-tiles clear colors 32 piece set – $50.

Image Source: Magna-Tiles

The Magna-Tiles® Clear Colors 32 Piece Set provides hours of creative fun. These mathematical toys for 7-year-olds encourage Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills such as geometry, 3-D shapes, and construction. Magna-Tiles Clear Colors are translucent and brightly colored, like stained glass. The 32 Piece Set is the perfect starter set for any young Magna-Tect. All sets and styles are compatible, so you can add more sets later. Consider using a metal baking tray as a building base. These toys were designed to teach children about shapes through play. Every tile edge has a hidden magnet inside. These tiles have the unique ability to attract even when flipped, so they always connect.

Why We Recommend:

• Activity to support STEM learning
• Teaches about shapes, magnets, and structures
• Great for home or schools
• Open-play for creative learning
• Bright colors
• Made of durable plastic for long-lasting use

2. Just Jump It Stepper – $12

Image Source: Just Jump It

The Stepper by Just Jump It is a colorful, plastic version of the classic “can stepper.” These are excellent active play toys for 7-year-olds. The stepper develops gross motor skills such as balance, agility, and coordination. A flared base and anti-slip top textures makes these steppers stable. The high-quality braided polypropylene is built to be walked on. The stepper’s 5-inch rise provides a whole new view of your entire world.

• Uses gross motor skills
• Improves agility, balance, and coordination
• Encourages active play
• Stable, durable design
• 5-inch rise
• Vibrant, assorted colors

3. Fat Brain Toys Acuity – $20

Image Source: Fat Brain Toy Co.

Acutiy by Fat Brain Toy Co. is a game of sharp vision and keen thought. In this mind-bending, eye-catching tile race players can race against each other or work together to discover hidden patterns in the tile arrangement. To play, set up a grid of 36 durable pattern tiles. Play consists of matching the remaining 34 tiles, but none of the tiles actually match, so players must search, scrutinize, and analyze adjacent sides or corners to discover the matching pattern. Every game is different for a new challenge each time. When no match can be found, the game allows for a quarter turn to make a match.

• Reinforces visual-spatial skills, pattern recognition, and quick mental processing
• Competitive or cooperative play
• 70 durable pattern tiles
• Each game presents a new challenge each time.
• Group activity—family fun or play with friends
• Simple rules with challenging gameplay

4. Klutz LEGO Crazy Action Contraptions – $22

Image Source: Scholastic

This Klutz LEGO Crazy Action Contraptions is a book and LEGO collection from Scholastic. The book provides 50 full-color pages with easy to follow instructions to create fantastic LEGO contraptions. Kids can build a supercharged speedster, a squeezeclaw grabber, and more. Every project in the book can be created using the custom selection of LEGO bricks that come included. All the contraptions spring to action—spinning, stretching, speeding, cracking, or rolling.

• Everything needed to build 16 different contraptions
• Illustrated step-by-step instructions make building easy for kids
• Instruction book with 50 full-color pages
• 87 LEGO pieces, 5 rubber bands, 2 o-rings, and a dish
• All contraptions spring into action
• Encourages fine motor skills, logic, creativity, following instructions, and creativity

5. Toysmith Super Stacking Tops – $8

Image Source: Toysmith

Super Stacking Tops by Toysmith is a new spin on the classic top toy. These 5 tops stack on top of one another for a tower of spinning fun. Use the powerful wind-up handle for long lasting spin action. Stack the different sized whirling tops to create a multi spinning tower. Push the button to release the top. Kids will be mesmerized as all 5 tops spin at once. Stacking and spinning these toys will help develop your 7-year-olds fine motor skills and ability to stack and balance objects.

• Develops fine motor skills
• Wind-up handle for long-lasting spin
• 5 tops in assorted colors
• Multiple options for mixing and stacking

6. Fat Brain Toys Coggy – $15

Coggy by Fat Brain Toy Co. presents a tactile, 3-dimensional puzzle that will get your mental gears turning. These bending, clicking, shape-shifting toys for 7-year-olds promote problem-solving and logical and spacial reasoning. The challenge cards provide a variety of puzzles and it’s up to you to fold this connected collection of 16 colorful gears into the matching image. The card puzzles start out easy and move to harder challenges that promote higher-level thinking. Then flip Coggy over to the black and white side and try the black and white challenge cards. This brainteaser doubles as a fidget toy, too.

• Encourages visual-spatial skills, critical thinking, and logic
• 2 ways to play – color gears or black and white
• 4 levels of difficulty – Easy, Medium, Hard, Extra Hard
• Includes Coggy and 40 challenge cards
• Doubles as a great fidget toy!
• High-quality design and materials for lasting durability

7.Simon by Schylling – $25

Image Source: Schylling

The popular classic 80’s game has an updated design with a sleek new style and LEDs. Increase your memory, test your skill and challenge your friends. Simon is good to play anywhere – the car, doctors office, plane or right at home. Simon offers three different games with one common goal – remember the color and sound sequence.

Game One is the original “Simon Says”. Repeat the ever-increasing sequences of flashing colors and notes. Simon keeps adding colors as long as you repeat them correctly. Game Two adds an intriguing twist. You determine the next color and note. Play solo or with friends and keep adding sequences, just know that you have to repeat them correctly to continue. Ah! You’re starting to feel the heat. Game Three is made for you and your friends – 2, 3 or 4 players. Assign each player a color and they are responsible to press it at the correct time. Simon lights up a pattern and you must follow perfectly. When a color signal is missed, that player is eliminated.

• Develops memory, color recognition, visual tracking
• Play with friends, or solo
• Great for travel
• Promotes memory and attention
• Colors light up with note sounds
• 3 AA batteries included

8. ALEX Toys Craft Fashion Weaving Loom – $31

Image Source: Alex Brand Toys

ALEX Toys Craft Fashion Weaving Loom has everything you need to make your own scarf, purse, belt, and handbag is included – All you need to provide is a strong brain and plenty of creativity. Detailed instructions guide your 7-year-old through setting up the special wooden loom. Then Just thread the needle over and under the loom for an easy weaving experience. As your child gets more adept at using the loom there are more challenging items to create such as straps, frills, pockets, and buttons.The simple instructions and tools make help guide the way.

• Promotes creativity and self-esteem
• Works fine motor skills, dexterity, and logic.
• Create your own scarf, purse, belt, and handbag
• Rainbow and fluffy yarns included
• Includes wooden weaving loom, weaving needle, loom comb, stitching needle, 2 D-Rings, button
• Comes with detailed instructions

9. Toysmith Root Viewer – $13

Kids learn a lot through observation and experimentation. You child as seen the parts of the plant growing above the ground—flower, leaves, stem. What about the roots? The Root Viewer by Toysmith has everything you need for a fun, scientific project studying root growth and structure. Your 7-year-old can watch vegetables grow from sprouting to full harvest. The unique plastic root “toobers” lets your child see right through to the roots in the dirt. The kit comes with growing medium, seeds, and a wooden stand. This hands-on learning science project is a great way to introduce your child to a plant’s root structure.

• Promotes curiosity and scientific observations
• Teaches and understanding of plants and roots structure
• Hands-on, long-term project
• Seeds, growing “toobers,” growing medium, and wooden stand included.
• Comes with radish, carrot, and green onion seeds
• Instructions included

10. Play-Doh Ice Cream Castle – $20

Image Source: Hasbro

Play-Doh Ice Cream Castle promotes creativity and imaginative play as kids make their own Play-Doh ice cream creations. Kids can choose different shapes to press out their own swirly Play-Doh ice cream. The soft-serve machine has an easy-press handle for little hands. This pack even comes with a special sprinkle Play-Doh.

• Promotes creativity, imagination, and dramatic play
• Works fine motor skills and dexterity
• Includes 6 ice cream discs, 5 spoons, 4 dishes, 2 cones, roller
• Comes with 6 cans of Play-Doh Brand Modeling Compound
• Easy-press handle helps squeeze out the make-believe ice cream
• Interchangeable ice cream discs alter the shape and style of the swirls

11. Nerf Super Soaker Hoverflood – $25

The Nerf Super Soaker Hoverflood is an incredible water play experience. This water-powered helicopter hovers in the air while releasing a watery downpour. Attach this water blaster to your garden hose and use the controller to adjust the water flow. This fun water activity encourages kids to go out to play and be active. This cool toy makes a great group water activity for the hot summer months.

• Encourages outdoor, active play
• Individual or group activity
• Hovers in the air and sprays water
• Attaches to a typical garden hose (not included)
• Includes water blaster, controller, and instructions

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Our Ultimate Gift Guide: 28 Educational Toys For 7-Year-Olds (Best For Child Development)

How do you choose educational toys for 7-year-olds? Think of fun things they can do while also learning at home .

Because most kids this age are already in grade school, ideal toys are those that enhance their vocabulary, STEM learning (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and social skills.

What are the milestones of 7-year-olds and the other skills they need to learn or develop? How do you choose the best toys for your children, and what factors must you consider?

Learn more about them below.

What Toys Are Good For Child Development (For 7-Year-Olds )?

Learning toys or interactive games can help develop your child’s cognitive skills. 

Balancing academic-focused toys (e.g., reading activity sets) with fun-filled activities (e.g., building sets or slime-making kits) is a good idea.

Tips For Choosing Learning Toys For 7-Year-Olds

Toy safety for 7-year-olds.

We know you’ll agree that child safety comes before cheap toys. 

Though you aren’t likely to worry that kids ages seven and up will mouth the toys, they can still be harmed if exposed to toxic chemicals or other hazards from unsafe toys via the skin.

Bookmark “ Our Family Health & Safety Philosophy ” to help you check and avoid harmful chemicals in your children’s toys and other essential items.

Interactive & Pretend Toys That Spark Their Imagination

Kids actually learn even if they are using their imagination in pretend play because learning isn’t just about the ABCs and numbers.

They can also enhance their social skills while playing and pretending with other kids. 

The Perfect Gift Based On Their Interests

Each child may have varying interests from their siblings or other kids their age. For example, some kids prefer doing arts and crafts or music, while others prefer working on intricate puzzles or trying out science kits .

You can support your child’s learning by providing age-appropriate toys or tools based on what they like to do. Follow their lead, you can’t go wrong. 

What Are The Best Gifts For A 7-Year-Old Boy ?

Some bestsellers for boys this age:

• LEGO Race Plane
• KEVA Maker Bot Maze Engineering Building Set
• Dan&Darci Light-Up Terrarium Kit for Kids

What Toys Do My Kids Actually Need (Based On Skills & Educational Benefits)?

There isn’t a perfect toy that all kids need because different ones can help develop or enhance different skills.

In choosing your children’s toys, you can consider those that offer diverse educational benefits.

Important skills to consider for 7-year-olds :

• STEM skills 
• STEAM skills (STEM + art)
• Cognitive skills ( critical thinking , IQ, concentration, and problem-solving skills)
• Fine motor skills
• Gross motor skills
• Imagination and pretend play
• Creative skills
• Language skills
• Reading skills
• Hands-on learning & practical skills
• EQ (emotional quotient)
• Social skills

Age-Appropriate Learning Toys Based On Milestones For 7-Year-Olds

You can also choose toys for 7-year-olds based on the milestones for this age: (1)

• Good balance
• Well-developed hand-eye coordination
• Several thousand words in their vocabulary
• More advanced logical thinking and longer attention span than younger kids
• Form words and sentences
• Solve complex problems
• Understand similarities and differences between objects
• Can make decisions
• Knows how to wait for their turn
• Understands what’s right and wrong
• Understands and follows directions

Simple But With Entertainment Value & Useful

Simple, open-ended toys encourage children to develop critical and logical thinking as they find new ways to have fun, be creative, or solve problems.

That’s why building blocks remain ideal for 7-year-olds .

Our Ultimate Gift Guide To The 28 Best Educational Toys & Learning Games For Seven-Year-Olds

Little passports create + play: flight building kit (5-8 years old).

• Pros & Best Features: STEM-based crafting kit
• Product Safety: Designed by professionals and educators; no sharp parts
• Materials: Cardboard and paper
• Age Range: 5-8 years old
• Educational Value: STEM learning, fine motor skills , cognitive development, history, and creativity
• Extra Features: Includes a sticker sheet, trading cards, activity book, and step-by-step guide
• Certification: Not indicated
• Made In: Not indicated
• Product Recall: None
• Cons: Can contain small parts (choking hazards to smaller or younger children)
• Customer Reviews: Not yet

KEVA Maker Bot Maze Engineering Building Set (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Modern building set  
• Product Safety: Meets toy quality and safety standards
• Materials: Wood, feather, and child-safe plastic
• Age Range: 7+ years old
• Educational Value: Early engineering skills, logical thinking, planning, fine and gross motor skills, concentration, and problem-solving skills
• Extra Features: Includes customizable motorized bots
• Certification: CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act), CPSC (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission), and ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials)
• Cons: No instruction guides; some complaints about quality issues (faulty bots)
• Customer Reviews:

“ Very fun toy. You can build your own bot and then create a maze over and over and watch the bot navigate through it. ” – Reviewer on MindWare “ Bots were supposed to be “user-ready”. They never worked, not once, even with their own batteries or with batteries replaced by new. ” – Reviewer on MindWare

KiwiCo Atlas Crate – Subscription Kit (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Travel-themed subscription box with crafts from different world cultures
• Product Safety: Rigorous tests that meet toy safety standards
• Materials: Paper, wood, fabric, and other child-safe materials
• Educational Value: STEAM learning, practical life skills (e.g., cooking favorite child-friendly dishes from places around the world), creativity, planning, and coordination
• Extra Features: Includes an atlas adventure book, step-by-step instruction booklet, and DIY activities
• Certification: Certified by third-party product safety testing labs
• Cons: Company-curated subscription kit, so you can’t choose what you will receive unless you opt for the individual kits instead of subscribing to the service

“ My daughter is excited to be able to cook for us as the recipes require very little adult help. ” – Reviewer on KiwiCo “ My son thought the world crate was super boring. He didn’t even finish it. ” – Reviewer on KiwiCo  

Words, ABCs, Numbers, & Colors 

Learning resources reading rods (word for word game) – phonics word building (7- 11-year-olds ).

• Pros & Best Features: Language and vocabulary-themed game
• Product Safety: Child-safe materials; no sharp parts (on the blocks)
• Materials: Child-safe plastic, paper, and cardboard
• Age Range: 7- 11-year-olds
• Educational Value: Critical thinking , vocabulary, spelling, and reading
• Extra Features: Includes a two-minute timer, score pad, step-by-step instructions, and four pencils
• Cons: Contains small parts (choking risks to younger children); some complaints about the design (e.g., the game is too difficult for kids)

“ Fun way of learning vocabulary!! Highly recommend! ” – Reviewer on Learning Resources “ Horrible game. Makes kids stressed out. I would not suggest this for kids who are learning phonics and learning reading. Very frustrating. ” – Reviewer on Amazon

Educational Insights Sentence Building Dominoes (6-12 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Reading and language-themed domino set
• Product Safety: No sharp parts
• Materials: Child-safe plastic
• Age Range: 6-12 years old
• Educational Value: Planning, vocabulary, reading, and language skills
• Extra Features: Includes a container for storing the dominoes
• Cons: Small parts that can be choking risks for younger or smaller children; doesn’t have instructions on how to use

“ My two children ages 3 and 9 both love to use these sentence building blocks . It really helped my 9 year old with reading and spelling and I will continue to use them! ” – Reviewer on Educational Insights “ …it did not come with instructions. I found this to be confusing as a parent. ” – Reviewer on Educational Insights  

Educational Games & Interactive Smart Toys

Educational insights word on the street jr. game (7+ years old).

• Pros & Best Features: Game for 7-year-olds and the whole family
• Materials: Cardboard and cardstock (thicker than paper but thinner than cardboard)
• Age Range: 7-99 years old
• Educational Value: Language and vocabulary skills
• Extra Features: Includes a 30-second timer, game guide and rule book, and cardholder
• Cons: Contains small parts (choking risks to younger children); can be a lengthy game to play

“ Such a fun game! Easy to follow instructions. A great way to educate kids and keep them enthusiastic about learning! ” – Reviewer on Educational Insights “ One of the down sides I saw was that it can be pretty lengthy causing my girls to get a little restless. ” – Reviewer on Walmart

MindWare Animal Trivia Challenge Board Game (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: STEM-themed trivia game
• Product Safety: Products meet toy safety and quality standards
• Materials: Laminated paper and magnets
• Educational Value: STEM learning, planning, and cognitive development
• Extra Features: Includes a box for keeping the game when not in use
• Certification: CPSIA, ASTM, and CPSC
• Cons: Contains small parts (choking risks to younger children)

“ Excellent game and very educational! Plenty of cards to keep it interesting too. ” – Reviewer on MindWare “ Many of the questions have incorrect answers. Example- a secondary function of the lungs is not to produce blood. ” – Reviewer on MindWare  

**Fun Fact: The secondary functions of the lungs include: body temperature regulation, sense of smell, and voice production. (2)

Osmo Math Wizard Series (Requires Osmo Kit For iPad Or Amazon Fire) (6-8 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Set for hands-on STEM learning
• Product Safety: BPA-free (bisphenol-A, a harmful chemical in plastic manufacturing)
• Materials: Cardboard and plastic
• Age Range: 6-8 years old
• Educational Value: STEM learning, pattern recognition, spatial and visual problem-solving skills, and fine motor skills
• Extra Features: Includes puzzles
• Cons: Requires an Osmo starter kit and a smart device ( iPad or Amazon Fire); some complaints about the game being too complicated to set up

“ The actual games are really fun, according to my son. ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ I ABSOLUTELY LOATH THIS PRODUCT. We cannot get it to work at all. ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

Educational Building Sets & Puzzles

Lego disney the enchanted treehouse play set (7+ years old).

• Pros & Best Features: Disney-themed LEGO set (1,016 pieces)
• Product Safety: Child-safe materials that exceed safety standards; free from harmful chemicals
• Educational Value: Pretend play, early engineering, planning, fine motor skills , hand-eye coordination, and social skills
• Extra Features: Includes mini-doll figures of iconic Disney princesses
• Certification: US, European, and global safety standards for toys
• Made In: Mexico (according to Amazon )
• Cons: Small parts (choking risks to younger children)
• Customer Reviews: None yet

Melissa & Doug Secret Decoder Deluxe Activity Set – On the Go (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Spy-themed deluxe activity set (50+ unique activities)
• Product Safety: Free from lead (a heavy metal) and other toxic materials
• Materials: Paper, cardstock, plastic, and markers
• Educational Value: Cognitive learning, problem-solving skills, and hand-eye coordination
• Extra Features: Includes magic-reveal sticker sheets, secret message activity, and game book
• Certification: Meets US (CPSIA), EU, and other toy safety standards
• Made In: China (according to Amazon )
• Cons: Some complaints about quality or that the product is overpriced

“ My 7 year old son loved this set and played with it for weeks. Perfect for a child interested in spys. ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ Big box of air and plastic packaging for three small workbooks, three markers and a couple of small plastic gadgets. Don’t waste your money! ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

KEVA Brain Builders Deluxe – Building Blocks (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: STEM-based building blocks
• Materials: Wood
• Educational Value: STEM skills (early engineering and physics), strategy and planning, fine motor skills , and hand-eye coordination
• Extra Features: Includes 20 double-sided cards (total of 40 puzzles to complete) and eight design cards
• Certifications: CPSIA, ASTM, and CPSC
• Cons: Some complaints that the product falls easily

“ There is no better brain teaser that engages the imagination on the market. ” – Reviewer on MindWare “ My disappointment lies in how easily they fall. Much easier than the thicker traditional building blocks . ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

Musical Toys

Kako’o music ukulele – sandalwood (5+ years old to adults).

• Pros & Best Features: Playable ukulele
• Product Safety: Durable construction to reduce risks of breakage or splinters
• Materials: Sandalwood and nylon
• Age Range: 5+ years old to adults
• Educational Value: Musical skills and creativity
• Extra Features: Includes guide book, playing strap, carrying case, retro stickers , and digital tuner
• Cons: The digital tuner requires batteries

VTech Kidi Star Karaoke Machine (5-9 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Interactive kid-sized karaoke machine
• Product Safety: Meets US and EU safety standards
• Materials: Child-safe materials
• Age Range: 5-9 years old
• Educational Value: Musical creativity and creativity
• Extra Features: Includes an adjustable stand and built-in recorder, games, and original songs; connects to mobile devices or MP3 players for more songs
• Certification: US (ASTM), EU (EN71), and Canadian Hazardous Products Regulations
• Cons: Requires four AA batteries (first set included with purchase)

“ My granddaughter loves this karaoke machine. The music and lighting make her feel like a superstar! ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ Battery had to be replaced quite quickly. I put in rechargeable to save myself some money. ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

Blues Band Harmonica (6 years old to adults)

• Pros & Best Features: Genuine harmonica
• Product Safety: Child-safe materials
• Materials: Metal
• Age Range: 6 years old to adults
• Extra Features: Includes song sheet
• Certification: ICTI (International Council of Toy Industries) and ASTM
• Made In: China
• Cons: Some complaints about the quality (hard to use)

“ Great sound…grandkids love the harmonica…grandpa even played taps on the harmonica on Memorial Day… ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ The harmonica I received is difficult to play. You have to blow too hard to get the reads to sound. ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

Pretend Play & Creative Toys For 7-Year-Olds

Crayola arctic kit (7+ years old).

• Pros & Best Features: Colorful science kit for kids
• Product Safety: Child-safe materials, but adult supervision is recommended
• Materials: Plastic, silicone, and child-safe chemicals for the experiments
• Educational Value: STEAM learning, creativity, coordination, and planning
• Extra Features: Includes 50 winter science experiments (supplies for 18 experiments + instructions for 32 additional activities)
• Cons: Some complaints about product quality (some of the experiments don’t work)

“ I bought this for my 9-year old grand daughter and she is having a ball with it. ” – Reviewer on Crayola “ I found that some of the experiments didn’t work. also a lot of the experiments required long wait times to complete the experiment. ” – Reviewer on Crayola  

NAILMATIC Bath Bomb Maker DIY Kit (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Science kit for making bath bombs
• Product Safety: Child-safe materials, but use with adult supervision
• Materials: Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and citric acid (best to use gloves while handling the raw materials; though rated as safe, instruct your kids not to touch the raw materials with their bare hands to reduce safety risks)
• Educational Value: STEAM learning, hands-on learning, creativity, and planning
• Extra Features: Includes molds for six shapes
• Made In: France
• Cons: Uses chemicals and requires adult supervision; potential hazard risk to younger children – keep out of their reach

Great Pretenders Little Red Riding Hood Cape (7-8 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Deluxe costume for story-telling and pretend play for the children’s classic story “ The Little Red Riding Hood ”
• Materials: 100% polyester
• Age Range: 7-8 years old (also available in other sizes for different age ranges)
• Educational Value: Pretend play and imagination
• Extra Features: Includes ribbon for adjusting the hood
• Made In: Ontario, Canada
• Cons: No reviews yet from genuine buyers that you can use for comparison
• Customer Reviews: None

Alex Loopies Yarn and Plush Penguin Kids DIY Craft Kit (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Crafting kit for a plushie
• Materials: Chenille yarn, felt, and metal
• Educational Value: Creativity, fine motor skills , planning, cognitive learning, and problem-solving
• Extra Features: Includes pre-cut crafting pieces and a metal crochet hook
• Made In: USA
• Cons: Some complaints that the craft is too difficult to make

“ This was a good buy. Our daughter loved making it. It’s soft threads and everything you need is in the kit. ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ Difficult for a child to get the loops even. She was very frustrated with it. ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

Snifty Some Bunny Loves You Easter Bundle – Pastels (not indicated)

• Pros & Best Features: Food-inspired pen and pencil set
• Materials: Plastic, ink, and wood
• Age Range: Not indicated
• Educational Value: Creativity
• Extra Features: Includes different pencils and pens
• Cons: No reviews you can use for comparison from genuine buyers

IHEARTART Deluxe Wooden Everything Art Case (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: 150-piece art set with different materials
• Product Safety: Premium materials
• Materials: Wood and art supplies
• Age Range: 7+ years old (according to Mastermind Toys)
• Educational Value: Creativity, fine motor skills , and planning
• Extra Features: Includes a wooden carrying case, artist technique guide, sketch pad sheets, and watercolor sheets
• Made In: China (according to Mastermind Toys)
• Cons: Can be pricey

“ Beautiful materials – inspiring for a young artist. ” – Reviewer on Mastermind Toys “ This art set is beautiful! Everything my granddaughter needs to do her artwork! Love it!!!! ” – Reviewer on Mastermind Toys  

Toys For Learning Life Skills

Lego birthday set – with stickers (7+ years old).

• Pros & Best Features: 141-piece birthday cake set 
• Product Safety: Child-safe materials that exceed all toy safety standards; free from harmful chemicals
• Materials: Plastic
• Educational Value: Fine motor skills , early engineering, hand-eye coordination, planning, and social skills
• Extra Features: Includes colorful number stickers and a mini figure as a topper
• Certification: US, EU, and global toy safety standards

“ This was bought for my sons birthday cake to use as a topper plus to play with after! Comes with a figure too including a dog! ” – Reviewer on LEGO “ Con – Wish you were able to change up the colour scheme (ie: different coloured pieces in all of the cake tier sizes). ” – Reviewer on LEGO

Original Stationery Ice Cream Slime Kit (7-12 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Ice cream-themed slime kit
• Product Safety: Child-friendly; 100% hypoallergenic
• Materials: Clay, glue, magic foam soap, activator, and plastic
• Age Range: 7-12 years old
• Educational Value: Creativity, practical learning (decorating ice cream or cupcakes)
• Extra Features: Includes a manual and a box for keeping the materials when not in use

“ I got this Slime kit for my daughter and all she ever does is make slime. ” – Reviewer on Original Stationery “ My kids and I followed the instructions step by step and it didn’t come out as expected. Also the end result turned out really hard instead of stretchy. ” – Reviewer on Amazon

KiwiCo Crystal Ombre Soap Making (7+ years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Science kit for hands-on learning on how to make soap
• Product Safety: Non-toxic, child-safe materials
• Materials: Child-safe chemicals, coloring materials, and plastic
• Educational Value: STEAM learning, creativity, and planning
• Extra Features: Includes step-by-step instructions
• Certification: Passed independent, third-party product safety tests
• Cons: Requires a microwave oven to complete the projects; some complaints that the kit takes a long time to complete

“ I got this kit for my 7 yr old. He and my 9 yr old did it together and had the best time creating their soaps. ” – Reviewer on KiwiCo “ The time needed between steps was frustrating. ” – Reviewer on KiwiCo  

Splat Planet Color In Superhero T-Shirt (7-8 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: DIY t-shirt decoration kit with washable colors
• Product Safety: Non-toxic and washable pens (according to the company, the colors don’t run or bleed to other clothes)
• Materials: 100% cotton and coloring materials
• Age Range: 7-8 years old (also available in different sizes for kids ages 2-3 to adults up to XL)
• Educational Value: Creativity and planning
• Extra Features: Includes washable markers (your child can try new color combinations with each wash)
• Made In: UK
• Cons: Colors aren’t retained during the wash, so your child can lose their favorite color combination; some complaints that the colors bleed to the other side and can stain during washing

“ Ordered for my 2 Grandsons (3 & 7). They have both had great fun with them. ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ The worst thing is that the colors stain a lot and do not go away either from the hands of my grandchildren or from the shirts when washing them. ” – Reviewer on Amazon  

Educational Books & Learning Materials For 7-Year-Olds

Crazy choices for 7-year-olds by mat waugh (7 years old).

• Pros & Best Features: Trivia and activity book for kids
• Product Safety: Not indicated
• Materials: Paper
• Age Range: 7 years old
• Educational Value: vocabulary, STEM learning, and reading skills
• Extra Features: Includes a trivia game
• Cons: No reviews you can use for checking product quality

Kid Athletes (7-10 years old)

• Pros & Best Features: Child-friendly fact book about kid athletes
• Age Range: 7-10 years old
• Educational Value: Reading, cognitive learning, and vocabulary
• Extra Features: Includes full-color cartoon illustrations on all pages
• Made In: None
• Cons: Some complaints about the book’s use of illustrations instead of photos

“ KID ATHLETES is a fun book that illustrates examples of dedication, practice and determination to kids without getting preachy or boring. ” – Reviewer on Amazon “ I did not like the illustrations at all, and I think they are a major distraction. ” – Reviewer on Good Reads

OURSHELVES Diverse Book Bundle (5- 8-year-olds )

• Pros & Best Features: Expert-curated book bundle
• Educational Value: Reading, cognitive learning, and social skills
• Extra Features: Includes diversity and LGBTQ+ themes
• Cons: Can be pricey; items are non-returnable (final sale policy)

“ I absolutely love OurShelves. My daughter has really enjoyed all the books we’ve gotten. ” – Reviewer on Crate Joy “The books are well chosen and high quality, and some of our little one’s favorites! ” – Reviewer on Crate Joy

How Do Educational Toys Affect Child Development?

Learning toys are designed to encourage creativity and critical thinking or develop varied skills that help increase kids’ IQ.

Studies have shown that toys play a major role in child development, allowing your child to improve their cognitive, psychosocial, emotional, motor, and linguistic skills even while having fun at home . (3)

During playtime, children’s brains process new information, interact with the environment, and make mental adjustments that can help them learn and/or master the skills the toy was designed for.

How Many Learning Toys Should My 7-Year-Old Have?

Although kids can learn with toys, they don’t require any. They can even find household items and other common things as interesting objects to play with. So, there isn’t any specific number of toys that they’re supposed to have. (4)

Instead of buying many toys, you can provide them with a few high-quality, open-ended stuff or sets they can mix and match. 

They can use their imagination to create other ways to use this limited number of toys.

Other Gift Ideas & Learning Toys For Different Age Groups

• Best educational toys
• DIY Montessori toys
• Educational toys
• Educational baby toys
• Educational toys for toddlers
• Educational toys for 2-year-olds
• Educational toys for 3-year-olds
• Educational toys for 4-year-olds
• Educational toys for 5-year-olds
• Educational toys for 6-year-olds
• Educational toys for 8- year-olds
• Montessori baby toys
• Montessori climbing toys
• Montessori toys
• Montessori toys for toddlers
• Montessori toys for 1-year-olds
• Montessori toys for 3-year-olds
• Montessori toys for 4-year-olds
• Montessori wooden toys
• Outdoor toys for 1-year-olds
• Toys for 1-year-olds
• Toys for 2-year-olds
• Toys for 6-year-old boys
• Wooden educational toys

Recent Toy Recalls To Monitor

• Rollerblade USA Inline Skates Recall (2023)
• Calico Critters recall (2023)
• Kids Preferred recall (2023)
• Target Toy recall (2022)
• Haba recall (2022)
• Kidoozie Play Tent recall (2022)
• Monti Kids recall (2022)

(1) https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/developmental-milestones-your- 7-year-old -child/

(2) https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~tcolvill/respiratory.htm

(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8430366/

(4) https://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/how-many-toys-do-kids-really-need/

– Motherhood Community is reader supported. When you buy through links on our site we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn More

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11 Best Educational Toys For 7-Year-Olds In 2024

With these educational toys, learning and fun can go hand in hand.

Tom Green is an experienced early years educator and deputy head at a Thailand-based international school. He has 16 years of teaching background in Bangkok and Seoul. He currently guides a team of early years educators, fostering a hands-o... more

Priti Bose is a poet, songwriter and blog writer. She did her masters in English, Public Relations and Advertising from Delhi University. Her creative skills and hunger for details make her do in-dept... more

Poulami is an associate editor at MomJunction. She did her MA in English from Miranda House, University of Delhi and has qualified UGC-NET. She also holds a PG diploma in Editing and Publishing from J... more

Nisha Bharatan is a writer with six years of experience. After completing her engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University, she did content marketing courses to complement her interest in writing... more

MomJunction believes in providing reliable, research-backed information to you. As per our strong editorial policy requirements, we base our health articles on references (citations) taken from authority sites, international journals, and research studies. However, if you find any incongruencies, feel free to write to us .

Image: MomJunction Design Team

The age between six and seven years is when a child learns the most and develops their critical thinking, social, emotional, and language skills. Thus, you should choose the right toys for children of this age group mindfully. You may check out the best educational toys for 7-year-olds listed here and choose an ideal toy.

The toys given to kids of this age should do more than just engage and entertain. Their toys should also focus on developing various skills, boosting the child’s creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and imagination. With a plethora of educational toys available online, it might get difficult to find the right one for your child and the skillsets they need to develop. That’s when our list of some parent-recommended and age-appropriate educational toys for seven-year-olds might help you decide on what to pick for your child.

Best For Developing Multiple Skills: Osmo Genius Starter Kit - iPad Classic

Best for learning about nature: dan&darci light-up terrarium kit, best for developing creativity: tekfun colorful writing tablet, best for developing early math skills: think fun math dice jr, best for problem-solving skills: hlaola magnetic blocks, best for honing spelling skills: liwin spelling game, best stem set: the toy pal engineering building toys set, best for honing engineering skills: marom stem building set, best for teaching basics of circuits: educational insights circuit explorer deluxe base space station, best interactive: kearui robot dog, 11 best educational toys for 7-year-olds, 1. best for developing multiple skills: osmo genius starter kit – ipad classic.

The Osmo Genius Starter Kit comes with 100+ designs in Tangram that you can match to shapes that are on-screen, physics puzzles can be solved in Newton, and creative drawings can be made in Masterpiece. You can add, subtract, and multiply to solve math equations in Numbers, and you can enhance vocabulary and learn spellings by selecting a skill level and looking at on-screen images. These games for kids are for beginners and experts, and you will receive audio and visual feedback while learning through experimentation. You need an iPad to play this toy for seven-year-olds. It comes with an Osmo base and enables you to play a number of educational games that enhance skills like problem-solving, math, reading, and listening skills, to name a few. To understand the nuances of the product in detail, you can check out this review detailing a tester’s experience with using the product.

• Promotes hands-on learning
• Stackable storage
• Reacts to every real-life move
• Stress-free learning
• Some may find the directions difficult to follow
• May glitch at times

Why We Think It's Worth Buying

More than 12,659 independent reviewers on Amazon have acknowledged the product's durability and functionality.

2. Best For Learning About Nature: Dan&Darci Light-Up Terrarium Kit

The miniature garden growing in a container is enthralling for a young child who learns to appreciate the wonders of life, science, and nature. The terrarium jar comes with all the accessories that your child will need to set up and decorate it as they like. This kit comes with vermiculite soil, blue sand, chia seeds, wheatgrass, river rocks, a miniature mushroom and bunny, removable stickers for decoration, a spray bottle , a wooden stick for planting the seeds, and an instruction booklet.  Your child can watch plants grow during the day, and at night they can switch on the included LED light and see it glow magically. This tried-and-tested product is one of the best learning toys for seven-year-olds as it sparks their curiosity and develops a passion for nature. Check out this YouTuber’s review  of this product.

• Easy to set up
• USB-rechargeable battery
• Fast-growing grass
• Suitable gift for kids
• Some may find it difficult to maintain
• May seem small in size

The 14,154 positive customer reviews on Amazon are a testament to its quality and reliability.

3. Best For Developing Creativity: Tekfun Colorful Writing Tablet

Give wings to your child’s creativity with this LCD writing tablet that gives your child space for expressing themselves through drawing and writing. One of the best learning activities for seven-year-olds, the screen works with pressure-sensitive technology and is glare-free, radiation-free, and has no blue light. It features a key lock to prevent accidental erasing, which can only be done when the screen is unlocked. The battery has a life of six months, which enables your child to write or draw 100,000 times before it needs to be replaced . Weighing just 150 grams, it’s made of high-quality plastic, and is easily portable, and break-resistant.

• Includes a stylus
• Easy erase button
• Reduces paper use
• Lightweight
• Some may find the screen dim
• May be difficult to replace the battery

"My daughter likes to use this versatile drawing tablet for her creative endeavors. It is lightweight and portable, and she finds the quick-erase button handy. It has been a good buy for mess-free art time and keeps her occupied when we travel."

4. Best For Developing Early Math Skills: Think Fun Math Dice Jr

Hone your child’s mathematical skills with this educational game for seven-year-olds that helps develop early math skills through fun and play. This tried-and-trusted math toy comprises a 12-sided dice, five six-sided dice, a scoring track, and a bag for easy clean-up and storage. All you have to do is roll the dice, first the 12-sided dice, then the other five dice, and combine the scored numbers by adding and/or subtracting to reach the scored number of the 12-sided dice. Then move one space along the scoring track for each dice used. This fun game on mental math challenges children’s brains, develops critical thinking, and makes a perfect group activity. It’s made of high-quality material and comes with a very clear instruction manual. You can also check out this review video to make an informed decision.

• Includes a storage bag
• Easy to learn and play
• Portable and travel-friendly
• Ideal for ages six and up
• Some may find the markers thin
• Game board may not lay flat

Over 8,125 satisfied customers on Amazon have said good things about the product.

5. Best For Problem-Solving Skills: Hlaola Magnetic Blocks

This educational toy for seven-year-olds helps them learn about shapes and colors while building critical thinking, teamwork, problem-solving skills, and coordination skills. It comprises 133 pieces, including 3D magnet pieces and several other accessories, enabling children to build different models ranging from houses to animals. The pieces are hued with a macaron-based color scheme on all sides. It includes a booklet with ideas on what to build with the blocks, but children can use their creativity as well. The set also includes wheels to construct moveable vehicles and a storage bag for easy cleaning and portability. With endless fun and playing possibilities, your child will stay engaged and away from screens, making it the perfect gift option.

• Rounded corners and smooth edges
• Safe ABS plastic
• Easy-to-grab design
• Nickel-plated magnets
• Meets CPSIA standards
• Some may not find the magnets strong enough
• All pieces may not be magnetic

"This magnetic tile set is quite intriguing for my kids—they enjoy creating various items with the vibrant shapes. The tiles have a strong magnetic hold, and I like how they encourage creative play. The plastic seems slightly flimsy, but the set has still been a good playtime addition."

6. Best For Honing Spelling Skills: Liwin Spelling Game

The educational toy for seven-year-olds comprises 28 double-sided word cards and 52 colorful lowercase letters to develop children’s left and right brains. Learning takes place through games, vibrant and vivid illustrations, and cartoons as they look at a picture and find the letters to spell it. This quality-tested toy helps enhance word recognition, cultivates an interest in learning, and also boosts eye-hand coordination. It also enhances reading and spelling skills, cognitive learning, color recognition, and concentration. The letters have a premium wooden core, and rounded edges, are non-toxic, can be easily grasped, and are safe for children. This wooden puzzle comes with a storage bag so that no pieces go missing.

• Builds vocabulary
• Easy to learn
• Promotes parent-child interaction
• Durable wooden letters
• Dashed letters for reference
• Some may find the cards thin
• Some may find the letters small

7. Best STEM Set: The Toy Pal Engineering Building Toys Set

The innovative STEM educational toy for seven-year-olds allows kids to build their own racing car, helicopter, airplane, robot, construction truck, motorcycle, and sling van. Comprising 163 pieces with plates, screws, nuts, wheels , connectors, and two wrenches, this seven-in-one toy has colored instructions and illustrations so that construction becomes simple for your child. This classic building toy boosts collaboration and teamwork, creativity and imagination, social skills through interactive play, and interest in learning. It fosters analytical thinking, eye-hand coordination, problem-solving skills, fine motor skills, and logical thinking. Made of safe and premium rubber, it’s non-toxic, BPA-free, and lead-free. It also conforms to the highest standards of safety.

• Flexible rubber
• Washable pieces
• Eco-friendly and child-safe material
• Includes a storage box
• Easy-to-follow manual
• Some parts may be hard to fix
• Some screws may fall off

The tried-and-true product has earned over 1,550 good reviews on Amazon.

8. Best For Honing Engineering Skills: Marom STEM Building Set

The STEM-based building set helps enhance your logical thinking, fine motor skills, and problem-solving abilities. To develop eye-hand synchronization, this building game by Marom comes with the feature of assembling the pieces with screws. You can create five basic vehicle models at a time – plane, helicopter, racing car, bulldozer, and motorbike – with this 150-piece building set, including 148 parts and two tools. Thus, this parent-recommended set helps introduce your little one to the world of construction and mechanical engineering in a fun way, improving their STEM skills . Most of them are flexible pieces, making them pliable, collision-resistant, and safe to handle. The construction toy set also comprises DIY wheels to build mobile vehicles that your child can play with.

• Instruction manual included
• BPA-free and non-toxic
• Easy-to-clean pieces
• Comes with a storage box
• May be hard to disassemble for some
• Manual’s print may be small for some

9. Best For Teaching Basics Of Circuits: Educational Insights Circuit Explorer Deluxe Base Space Station

The educational toy for seven-year-olds has everything you require to build a deluxe base station with towers, a planetarium with a dome light that changes color, and a spinning diner sign. It also features a voice synthesizer station with ten different space sounds, a powered space rover, a communication station with a rotating radar dish , a freewheeling space rover with headlights that light up, and two robots and six astronaut mini figures. Children learn the fundamentals of circuitry and construction, and as a bonus feature, pieces light up when kids connect the vehicle’s circuits. The pieces just snap together and are powered by real circuits, or kids can even be creative and connect them to make their own unique space station.

• Flexible to create multiple designs
• Easy to handle
• Engaging and intellectual
• Easy-to-understand manual
• Sturdy and durable pieces
• Some may find the base unstable
• May not include batteries

"Exploring circuitry with my kids has been an enjoyable experience for all of us. The set is fun and educational and sparks creativity in my budding engineers. I wish the instructions were clearer, but figuring out how to create robots and rovers was an exciting challenge."

10. Best Interactive: Kearui Robot Dog

The realistic-looking robotic dog simulates all the actions of a real dog. It barks when you touch its tail, and it can walk, bark, slide, yawn, sleep, and move forward and backward as it responds to both sound and touch. Children can interact with the dog through voice control, touching, clapping, and a magnetic bone to make the experience more life-like. Children can assemble the 35-piece robot dog on their own, which improves logical thinking, hand-eye coordination, creativity, and building skills. This educational toy for seven-year-olds is safe for children, as it is made of high-quality and non-toxic ABS plastic. The pieces are durable and strong, and the toy is made following all safety standards.

• Helps boost STEM skills
• Easy to carry
• Includes a screwdriver
• Some may find it small

11. Best DIY: Aotipol Electric DIY Drill Toy Set

The 232-piece building set has vibrantly colored pieces along with large nuts and bolts, a screwdriver, a wrench, an electric drill with two interchangeable bits, an instruction book with various designs, and a portable storage case. It enhances creativity and imagination as the child builds their own animals, cars, robots, or anything they desire. It includes a color manual with 42 designs that range from simple to complex. This tried-and-tested educational and creative toy for seven-year-olds supports STEM learning and boosts spatial awareness, innovativeness, fine motor skills, color perception, imagination, problem-solving skills, cognitive skills, and visualizing and planning. Made with ABS plastic, the components are non-toxic and BPA-free, washable, and safe for your child.

• Storage case acts as a base
• Easy-to-use electric drill
• Smooth pieces
• Improves hand-eye coordination
• Fade-resistant
• Some pieces may not hold together
• Some may find the set flimsy

How To Choose The Right Educational Toys For 7-Year-Olds?

Here are a few factors you should keep in mind when choosing one for your child so that it’s an enjoyable learning experience for them.

• Skill-based: Children at this age like toys that develop their social, emotional, and cognitive skills, encourage creativity and imagination, and expose them to new experiences. They also want it to be engaging and fun along with being a learning experience. Toys that offer mindless stimulation may no longer make so much sense to them. They would rather spend time playing classic games that develop competencies and give them a chance to interact with their friends. Team games, arts and crafts, music, all work very well with this age group.
• Keep them simple: Toys shouldn’t be too complicated but rather should enable a child to use their own imagination and creativity. Toys that don’t allow the child to take the lead while playing are really not doing much for them. Toys like construction models, science projects, and building blocks allow children to be creative and spontaneous, and develop their critical and logical thinking.
• Personal interests of the child: The interests of a child are what should decide the toy. Children of this age usually like toys that involve fine motor skills like wood work, drawing, or jigsaw puzzles , as well as large muscle activities like ball games or rollerblading. They also enjoy interactive games that involve simple science and math, nature, reading and writing, music, drawing, arts and crafts.
• Learning toys: Toys that make use of simple strategies like puzzles, word, match, and spelling games, mechanical models, science models, or models of the solar system are fun and engaging for children, and also provide a great learning experience. The human body, weather kits, binoculars, microscope, telescope, calculator are a good balance of enjoyment and learning.
• Safety: This is something that cannot be compromised as all toys need to be safe for children and should follow all safety standards. They should be made of non-toxic and child-safe materials, have no sharp edges, and feature all essential safety gear.

Why Trust MomJunction?

Priti Bose is an experienced writer who extensively reviews children’s products, toys, and gifts. She has done in-depth research and analyzed several products to bring you this curated list of the best educational toys for 7-year-olds. From tablets to writing pads and DIY toy sets, you will find all you need to assist your child’s learning. Moreover, her handy tips on choosing educational toys can help you pick the right toy.

Your seven-year-old needs the right toys for optimal stimulation, engagement, and learning. These include toys such as light-up terrarium jars that teach them about science and nature, writing tablets that promote creative thinking, and realistic robotic toys that improve logical thinking and hand-eye coordination. But, before choosing the right toy for your little one, ensure these toys teach and nurture their skill sets and provide fun so that they are not bored easily. Besides, ensure they are not too complicated for their age, pique the child’s interest, and are made of non-toxic and safe materials without sharp edges. You can explore our list of the best educational toys for seven-year-olds to learn more about the available options and features.

Infographic: Tips For Selecting Educational Toys For 7-Year-Olds

Toys keep children active and engaged, but they can also foster learning and skill development in a fun way. The infographic below provides suggestions for selecting educational toys that make learning fun. Since a seven-year-old child begins school, these toys can act as educational tools to assist them in learning about a variety of subjects and topics.

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

• Bridging the Vocabulary Gap: What the Research Tells Us about Vocabulary Instruction in Early Childhood https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234742213_Bridging_the_Vocabulary_Gap_What_the_Research_Tells_Us_about_Vocabulary_Instruction_in_Early_Childhood

Recommended Articles:

• Best Learning Toys
• Best Stem Toys
• Best Development Toys
• Best Building Toys
• Fact-checker

Tom Green PGCEi

Priti bose ma (english), poulami nag ma, pg dip., nisha bharatan b.tech, latest articles, 13 best stainless steel lunch boxes in india 2024.

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Engineers Pick the Ten Best STEM Toys to Give as Gifts in 2022

Children can build strategy, critical thinking and resilience during expert-approved play

Carlyn Kranking

Assistant Editor, Science and Innovation

With the holidays approaching, adults are lingering in the toy aisle or combing the internet, keeping an eye out for the perfect gifts for the kids in their lives. For those searching for educational fun this year, a team of engineers has selected expert-tested toys that promote science, technology, engineering and math skills.

Every year since 2015, the Inspire Research Institute for Pre-College Engineering at Purdue University has put together a guide to skill-building, mind-stretching STEM toys. Previously, it has brought children into the lab to test drive the games and puzzles, but the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors have led the engineers to pick the toys on their own for the past three years. Several of the toy-testers are parents, and they’ve used that to inform their rankings, curating a select group of activities, all released in recent years, that can serve children in future STEM pursuits.

“A lot of your child’s time is outside of the classroom and outside of formal learning environments,” says Morgan Hynes, the deputy director of Inspire and a professor of engineering education at Purdue. “It might just be at home playing with toys.”

While not all play has to be focused on learning—though experts agree any kind of play benefits children ’s development—some toys combine delight and STEM basics. Playing with these promotes fundamental skills that can help children approach mathematical or engineering tasks later in life. For instance, building blocks boost spatial awareness and their understanding of how objects influence one another in the physical world. Other toys promote creative thinking, brainstorming solutions or trial and error.

Hynes encourages parents to play along with their kids. Whether by walking children through the extra challenges in a game’s manual or discussing what future careers use similar skills, parents can enhance the toys’ educational power. And they just might have a good time while doing it.

“I'm a trained engineer, but some of these, they remind me of things I either forgot or never learned,” Hynes says. “So, I think there’s an opportunity for everyone to have fun.”

Forty-seven gifts make up this year’s complete guide, but here are the top ten selected by the Inspire team.

Kids First Intro to Gears

With Intro to Gears , kids can follow instructions to build four geared machines or use their creativity to make whatever they want. For the youngest children, simply placing the gears on the board and spinning them is an entertaining activity that will teach resilience: When a gear doesn’t spin, they’ll have to make some changes to the design to correct it. Older kids can create more advanced constructions by placing the gears at 90-degree angles from each other.

The instruction booklet walks young engineers through experiments to teach how gears of different sizes can change the axis of rotation. It explains where gears are used in real life and reinforces learning of ratios and mathematics in a hands-on activity.

“You can really feel it,” Hynes says. “You can see it and feel the difference when you are speeding something up or slowing it down and giving it more power. You can experience that in a physical way, which I think is fun.” (Thames & Kosmos, $39.95)

Join Ty and Karlie — the young engineers featured in the other Kids First early engineering kits — to build four awesome geared machines and learn all about how gears work.

Sensory Leaves Math Activity Set

Sensory Leaves are a fresh take on teaching math to young learners. The set has various boards that children place leaves on top of, whether by matching a pattern or in response to a prompt. Parents can supervise children through these activities to reinforce learning. “It's a great way to introduce young children to counting and sorting and categorizing and logical thinking as well,” Hynes says. “But I think what stood out… was that there were connections to science and biology.”

With six different shapes, the leaves show children how to identify various trees, including maples, redbuds and live oaks. The activities also help children recognize patterns, shapes and colors. Textured bugs on the leaves add another level to some of the counting challenges. And to top it all off, the pieces are made from recycled materials. (Hand2mind, $24.99)

This certified, recycled plastic set includes 6 different types of tactile leaf counters in 6 different colors and 3 different sizes. With 10 teacher-developed, double-sided Activity Cards, children learn early math skills, compare their counters to real-life leaves, think creatively, and so much more!

Switcheroo Coding Crew

Switcheroo Coding Crew consists of an electronic toy car, with three colored shells that kids can slide onto the vehicle to turn it into different kinds of trucks. Challenge cards lead children through storylines that encourage them to complete a task in the game board city, perhaps driving to a certain location to help put out a fire. Kids press buttons to code the car to perform its actions in a particular order—drive forward three beats, then turn left, for example. The game builds patience for trial and error, and it encourages children to identify problems and find solutions.

To think like a computer programmer is to step outside of how a human might approach a task and imagine what sort of prompting a machine would need to get the same thing done. “The earlier you get people familiar with the kind of logical reasoning that goes with computer programming, the easier it is in the future, if they choose to pursue that in a course or career,” Hynes says. “These toys break that down and allow children to demonstrate that ability.” (Learning Resources, $59.99)

Draw a coding rescue challenge card, snap on one of three vehicle shells (police car, fire truck, or construction vehicle), and code to solve the mission!

STEM Explorers Brainometry

Hynes refers to the Brainometry puzzle shapes as “Tetris blocks.” Though they’re not shaped exactly like the pieces in the famous video game, the triangles, squares, zigzags, L shapes, plus signs and T-shaped blocks of this set encourage the same sort of spatial reasoning. Brainometry also includes challenge cards that set criteria, like which patterns must or must not touch, for the structure a child is building. Kids can put together a structure that stands and balances or one that lies flat on the table or floor. Even at a basic level, Hynes says, stacking up the pieces can teach foundational spatial skills. (Learning Resources, $15.99)

Explore this set's 10 STEM challenge cards for critical thinking puzzles that turn shape pieces into the 2D and 3D building blocks of victory! Manipulate six different shape pieces into solutions that require a keen eye for stacking, sorting, and geometry.

Discover contains all the tools a child needs to build fantastic structures: Just add cardboard. Kids can bring new life to old, discarded boxes using this set of safe saws to cut the material, a folding tool and 120 screws to fasten cardboard together into new shapes. From a favorite animal to a flower, to a life-size tunnel or playhouse, the possibilities are literally endless.

“It really emphasizes the creativity in design thinking,” Hynes says. While building, kids can also hone their ability to take precise measurements and to stabilize a structure, among other crucial engineering skills.

What kids get out of this game is dependent on how much they put into it. But ambitious young engineers who want to build structures or toys will get a feel for the entire design process, start to finish. And for those with access to a 3D printer, the manufacturer, Makedo, provides directions on its website to print even more advanced pieces that will take a child’s creations to the next level. (Makedo, $45)

Hydraulic Plane Launcher

Using this kit , children construct a paper airplane launcher that works with hydraulic pressure. Kids can tinker with the design of their plane and the height of the launcher to see how those factors impact the height and distance of the flight. They fill a syringe with water and push on the plunger to send their plane soaring.

The set comes with a manual that lists challenges and experimental setups that children can test out. It also includes paper with markings that guide pilots in making various kinds of planes. The toy promotes curiosity about how planes fly and how the launcher works, and it encourages children to tweak their setup and improve their results. “That’s a great opportunity for them to make connections between the making of something, the testing of it [and] the redesign of it,” Hynes says. (Elenco, $32.99)

This Hydraulic Plane Launcher allows your little scientist to build a Hydraulic Plane Launcher and use the power of hydraulic pressure to launch paper airplanes.

Mega Cyborg Hand

Wearing this larger-than-life cyborg hand , children can pretend to be Iron Man while learning about a crucial innovation: hydraulics. This realm of technology uses liquid pressure to get big items to have soft, controlled movements. But in the real world, hydraulic components of machines are often hidden.

This toy pulls back the curtain and lets children understand the science of hydraulics. But first, kids have to assemble it—perhaps with some parental assistance—building fine motor skills and spatial reasoning. Once the toy is constructed, a child slides their hand in and puts their fingers through little rings that control the movement of the massive machine, which can dexterously pick up small items.

Plus, the kit includes a manual that talks about exoskeletons and how they can provide safety to people. “You can manipulate things with your body but also not put your body at risk,” Hynes says. “You have [an] exoskeleton take the risk for you.” (Thames & Kosmos, $44.95)

Build your own awesome, wearable mechanical hand that you operate with your own fingers.

Iggy Peck’s Big Project Book for Amazing Architects

Iggy Peck is an architect, and kids can be, too, as they complete the activities in this workbook . The projects encourage children to use items around the house to think like a builder—such as constructing a bridge out of marshmallows and dry spaghetti. Other pages have puzzles to solve or prompts for drawing and sketching.

The project book is a good companion to the original picture book, Iggy Peck, Architect , by Andrea Beaty, but it also is effective as a stand-alone gift, even for children who haven’t read the story, Hynes says. “The books [in the Questioneers collection ] are nice and get you excited about the ideas and following a storyline, but this [project book] was the practical, hands-on guide to go with it,” Hynes says. “All that stuff that Iggy was doing in the book, you can now do.” (Abrams Books, $14.99)

Iggy Peck's Big Project Book for Amazing Architects

Featuring art from the beloved New York Times bestselling picture book Iggy Peck, Architect , this activity book contains kid-friendly projects of all kinds and is perfect for young builders and creators.

Snap Circuits MyHome Plus

This toy gives children a glimpse into how electricity powers homes. Kids can learn the nuances of parallel and series circuits without any of the wiring or soldering typically involved—these pieces simply and safely snap together.

“You can actually build a structure that looks like a house, connect different lights and sensors to that, and create what would be an automated smart home,” Hynes says. With more than 50 projects, kids can bring electric lighting to the house, build a doorbell, add a home security system and use solar panels.

This is a toy a child can grow with, Hynes says. Eight-year-olds, for example, might be able to build some of the more basic constructions, and as they get older, they could use the same toy to attempt advanced circuits and still find a challenge. (Elenco, $129.99)

Build 53 exciting STEM projects that are based on electric circuits you would find in most homes. Learn how power gets to your home, how power travels inside your walls, what happen when you turn on a light, what happens when the power goes out, what are fuses, circuits breakers, and more!

This problem-solving game is a great way for older children to build logical thinking. The multiplayer Zendo has one participant assume the role of a moderator and put together a structure that follows a “secret rule” that only that person knows. Maybe, for example, no two pieces of the same color can touch. The moderator can answer other players’ questions about the rule. Then, those players must try to guess the rule and build a different creation that also abides by it.

To be successful, children must use inductive reasoning, coming up with a general conclusion based on a specific example. If they’re wrong, they need to make another practical guess. “It would be pretty rare to get it right on the first time,” Hynes says. But what this and other games in the guide teach is that going back to square one isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, engineers have to do it all the time. (Looney Labs, $44)

The classic puzzle game of inductive logic is back, purer, and clearer than ever! Beautiful crystalline pieces in three shapes and three colors are used to build structures marked by the Moderator according to a secret rule selected from a versatile deck of options.

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Carlyn Kranking | | READ MORE

Carlyn Kranking is the assistant web editor for science and innovation.

23 Best Educational Toys for 7 Year Olds in 2024

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The best way for children to learn is through play, and educational toys encourage the development of essential skills while the child is having fun. Carry on reading for the best educational toys for 7 year olds .

These educational games not only make parents happy (as their child is learning) but kids are happy too. Children get a sense of achievement when they have completed a level on their educational game.

Any toy can offer value to a developing brain, but educational toys and learning games are so much better, making them the best games for kids .

**There may be affiliate links in this post. You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page.**

Table of Contents

Best learning toys for 7 year olds

Selecting the best educational gifts for kids involves a careful balance between fun and educational value.

At this age, children are developing critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and a deeper understanding of complex concepts. Toys that challenge their intellect while keeping them engaged are paramount.

Ideal options include STEM kits that introduce basic engineering and science principles, puzzles that enhance spatial reasoning, and arts and crafts sets that foster creativity and fine motor skills.

Additionally, the best board games for 7 year olds are ones that encourage strategic thinking and cooperation. These toys not only entertain but also support the cognitive and social development pivotal at this stage of childhood.

Lego sets are not just fun for 7-year-olds; they also foster creativity and fine motor skills.

As kids build and customize their creations, they learn important concepts of engineering, spatial awareness, and problem-solving, all while having a blast.

Check our all of our favorite gifts for Lego lovers

Osmo - Coding Starter Kit

This innovative kit introduces kids to the world of coding through interactive games.

With Osmo, 7-year-olds can grasp coding basics, develop logical thinking, and enhance their problem-solving skills, making it an ideal STEM toy.

The Genius Square

This award-winning STEM puzzle game is a fantastic way for kids to improve their problem-solving abilities.

By racing to fill a grid using various shapes, 7-year-olds hone their spatial reasoning, critical thinking, and geometry skills, all while having a thrilling competition.

Guess in 10 Animal Planet

This engaging card game not only provides entertainment but also encourages learning.

Children aged 7 and up can enhance their general knowledge and critical thinking by asking smart questions and making educated guesses about animals, making it a fun family game with educational benefits.

Magnetic Tiles Building Blocks

These magnetic building blocks are excellent for sparking creativity and fostering STEM skills. 7-year-olds can explore engineering principles, geometry, and spatial relationships as they construct imaginative 3D structures with these versatile tiles.

Stunning Chemistry Set

This comprehensive chemistry set offers 45 engaging experiments, allowing kids aged 7-12 to explore the world of science.

Through hands-on activities like making volcanoes and launching rockets, children not only learn about chemical reactions and physics but also develop essential scientific skills.

100 PICS US States & Capitals Flash Cards

These flashcards provide an interactive way for kids aged 6+ to learn about the United States' geography.

By studying the states and capitals, young learners enhance their knowledge of U.S. geography and improve memory and recall skills, making it a fun and educational tool for both kids and adults.

Light Up Terrarium Kit

With this dinosaur-themed terrarium kit, children can create their own mini dinosaur habitat complete with real plants and fossils.

This hands-on science kit not only teaches kids about ecosystems and paleontology but also nurtures an appreciation for nature and the world around them.

Rapid Rumble

This educational category game is suitable for kids, teens, and adults.

By challenging players to think quickly and provide answers based on categories, it enhances general knowledge, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills while offering a fun and competitive experience.

Game Activity Cube

This versatile activity cube offers 9 brain and memory games designed for kids aged 6-12+.

It provides an engaging way for children to develop their cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, and memory retention through interactive gameplay, making it an excellent gift choice for birthdays or Christmas.

This interactive 3D puzzle map introduces kids aged 8-10 to the world's physical features.

As they assemble the map, children learn about continents, oceans, mountains, and more, making it an engaging educational toy that enhances their geography knowledge.

Designed for kids aged 6 and up, Math Whiz is an electronic math game that makes learning mathematics fun.

It helps children develop essential math skills through interactive quizzes and challenges, making it an ideal educational tool for young learners.

HEXBUG Nanotopia

This sensory toy offers kids aged 3 and up an immersive STEM experience.

With over 130 pieces and 7 Nano Bugs, it encourages creativity and problem-solving as children build their own mini robot environments, fostering early STEM skills and sensory exploration.

My USA Interactive Map

This smart talking US map poster is an educational tool that helps kids aged 5-12 learn about United States geography.

With interactive games and information about states, capitals, and landmarks, it's an engaging way for children to expand their knowledge of the USA.

3D Pen Set for Kids

This 3D pen set is designed for kids ages 6 and up, offering a hands-on STEM activity.

Children can create 3D art and objects, enhancing their creativity, fine motor skills, and understanding of basic engineering concepts, all while having fun and learning from home.

Skillmatics Brain Games

These reusable activity mats provide brain-boosting games and puzzles, making learning fun for kids aged 6 and up.

With the included dry erase marker, children can engage in various educational activities, from math challenges to word games, promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Magnetic Dart Board

This indoor game with 12 magnetic darts is perfect for kids aged 5-12.

It enhances hand-eye coordination and accuracy while providing hours of safe dart-throwing fun, making it a great gift choice for young boys and girls.

Science Can Human Body Model for Kids

This interactive human anatomy model kit is designed for kids aged 6 and up.

With 15 removable parts and a guide, it offers a hands-on learning experience about the human body's systems, fostering an understanding of biology and STEM concepts.

Snap Circuits

Tailored for ages 5-9, this STEM kit introduces kids to the world of electronics.

By snapping together circuits, young learners gain hands-on experience in electrical engineering, helping them grasp basic concepts while encouraging creativity and problem-solving.

Motor Machines

This extensive collection of STEM kits offers a wide range of DIY projects for kids aged 6-10.

From engineering to chemistry, these kits promote hands-on learning and critical thinking, making them ideal birthday gift ideas for aspiring young scientists and engineers.

Speak & Spell Electronic Game

This classic electronic game, suitable for ages 7-18, helps kids improve spelling and vocabulary skills while having fun.

It's an educational tool that fosters language development and encourages interactive learning.

Bubble Science

This bubble-making science kit, designed for boys and girls aged 5 and up, combines fun with scientific exploration.

With recipes to create bubble mixtures and various experiments, it introduces kids to basic chemistry concepts and the science of bubbles, all in an entertaining and hands-on way.

AmScope Beginner Microscope STEM Kit

This beginner microscope kit is perfect for young scientists, offering magnification from 120X to 1200X.

With plastic slides and an LED light, it provides a gateway for kids to explore the microscopic world, enhancing their understanding of biology and STEM fields.

What is an educational toy?

Educational toys for 7-year-olds are specially designed tools that merge play with learning, catering to the developmental milestones of children this age.

For parents and teachers, these toys offer a unique opportunity to foster intellectual growth, critical thinking, and creativity in a fun and engaging manner.

They cover essential areas such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), literacy, and the arts, encouraging exploration and discovery.

By introducing these toys, you can support your child’s or student’s curiosity, enhance problem-solving skills, and promote a love for learning.

These tools are not just toys; they are gateways to understanding complex concepts through interactive play, making them invaluable for educational development at this pivotal stage.

You will also enjoy the best books for 7 year old boys !

What are the benefits of educational toys?

The use of educational toys can help children learn many different skills they will need in their lives such as:

• Problem-solving
• Learning how to share
• Development of fine and gross motor skills
• Creativity and imagination
• Increases a child’s IQ
• Independence
• Positive self-esteem

We add educational games to our best homeschooling resources to enrich the learning experience and make it more engaging for our son.

By incorporating these educational games, we not only reinforce important concepts and skills but also foster a love for learning in our homeschool environment.

Additional games for kids of all ages

• Best board games for 8 year olds ,
• Best books for 9 year old boys
• Best toys for 6 year old boys .
• Best gifts for 7 year old boys
• Best toys for 9 year old boys
• Best homeschooling toys

Last Updated on 2 March 2024 by homeschoolof1

These all look great (and have given me some good ideas for my nephew’s birthday at the end of the month!)

Great suggestions here, our boys love science kits!

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Best Space Toys for 7-Year-Olds: A Guide to Ignite Their Love for Science

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I’ve got a secret to share with you. Do you know what’s out of this world? Space toys for 7 year olds! They’re not just playthings, they’re gateways to galaxies far, far away. They spark curiosity, ignite imagination, and set the stage for a lifelong love of science and exploration.

From rocket ships to astronaut figures, there’s a universe of fun waiting for your little explorer. I’ll be your guide on this space odyssey, helping you navigate the cosmos of choices. Whether you’re on a mission to find the perfect birthday gift or simply want to surprise your kiddo with a toy that’s as educational as it is entertaining, you’re in the right place.

Table of Contents

Why Space Toys for 7 Year Olds are Out of This World

As your friendly guide, I’m here to tell you, space toys for 7-year-olds are truly out of this world . It’s not just about how cool they look or how much fun your kids have while playing with them. It’s about the far-reaching benefits they offer as well.

Space toys open new avenues of learning . They introduce kids to astronomy, physics, and even advanced concepts like quantum mechanics in a playful manner. For all those parents out there, wanting to nurture a little scientist in their family, remember, every great scientist once played with toys that aroused curiosity in them.

One feature of space toys that stands out is their power to ignite imagination . A simple astronaut figurine can make your child wonder about the mysteries of the cosmos, what it’s like to float in zero gravity, or how to hop around on the moon. Providing a tangible connection to something as vast and abstract as space makes it more accessible and exciting to young minds.

Playing with space toys stimulates creativity as well. A spaceship isn’t just a spaceship in the hands of a 7-year-old; it’s the centerpiece of unique, thrilling adventures waiting to unfold. Whether it’s about battling alien forces or exploring new planets, space toys enable children to create countless stories, fostering their narrative abilities and inventive thinking.

Parents, you’ll also find something to cherish in space toys. They’re a delightful way of fostering parent-child interaction . You can assemble a space station together, stargaze with a kid-friendly telescope, or simply lie down and imagine lunar landscapes. It’s not just about play; it’s about enjoying quality time together, nurturing bonds while you also fuel your child’s enthusiasm for the cosmos.

So it’s pretty clear, space toys for 7-year-olds are packed with boundless educational and interactive benefits. They offer a playtime that’s as much about fun as it is about fostering a love for science and exploration. As mentioned earlier, the market is vast and it’s okay to feel a bit overwhelmed. But fear not; in the upcoming sections, I’ll guide you through the best space toys available to ensure your space explorer gets their hands on something exciting and engaging.

Sparking Curiosity: The Importance of Space Toys in Child Development

Space toys offer an avenue for children to delve into the fascinating world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). These toys go beyond just fun and games , they’re tools that can mold the young minds, instilling an early interest in the expansive Universe and the science that governs it.

Astronaut figurines, rocket ships, space stations – these thoughtfully designed toys bring the outer space down to earth! As kids embark on intergalactic missions in their imaginative play, they’re unknowingly refining important skills.

1. Cognitive Development

Children learn through play. Space toys encourage problem-solving, reasoning, and creativity . As kids figure out how to construct a rocket ship or navigate a space rover, they’re developing cognitive skills. This hands-on engagement makes learning fun and impactful for little astronauts!

2. Language Skills

Children often narrate their imaginative play. They’ll describe the far-flung planets they’re exploring, the aliens they meet, and the adventurous missions they undertake. This storytelling enhances their vocabulary, communication, and language skills, paving the way for stronger linguistic abilities.

3. Emotional and Social Skills

Space play often involves teamwork. Only together can they conquer the challenges of the cosmos. In the process, they learn to share, negotiate, lead, follow, empathize—essential social-emotional skills that form the foundation for successful interactions in their later life.

4. Parent-Child Bonding

Playing together with space toys affords quality parent-child time. It’s an opportunity for adults to ignite the spark of scientific inquiry in their young minds, addressing their queries, guiding them and watching them learn.

Now that we’ve discussed how space toys contribute to child development, let’s dive into the specific role-playing toys that can fuel your child’s curiosity, making them starry-eyed about the universe and beyond! There are a plethora of space toys out there, and I’ll guide you through some of the best on offer.

Exploring the Universe: Types of Space Toys Available

To truly reap the myriad of benefits that space toys provide, it’s essential to understand the various types of space toys available. From educational sets to intergalactic adventures, there’s a vast universe of options just waiting for your child to explore.

Telescopes and Astronomy Sets Nothing can compare to the thrill a child feels when they’re able to gaze upon the stars in their own backyard. Telescopes and astronomy sets allow them to do just that. These tools offer an element of realism and a truly interactive experience. They’re more than just toys – they’re educational tools that can bring the cosmos right to your child’s fingertips.

Space-Themed Games and Puzzles These may not seem like typical “space toys,” but space-themed games and puzzles are fantastic tools for cognitive development. They ignite imagination, challenge thinking, and enhance problem-solving skills. With fun, eye-catching designs featuring planets, stars, astronauts and spaceships, your child won’t even realize they’re learning.

Astronaut and Spacecraft Sets As it’s important to encourage pretend play, astronaut and spacecraft sets are perfect for this. They give children the chance to act out aspiring adventures and missions. It allows them to take on the role of an astronaut – fostering creativity, enhancing language skills, and promoting emotional and social skills.

Science Experiment Kits Each journey into space is an experiment of its own. Science experiment kits related to astronomy and space travel will give your child a hands-on learning experience. They’ll get the chance to explore various scientific principles and phenomena related to space.

One of the keys to harnessing the power of space toys is choosing items that align with your child’s interests and developmental stage. To make the best choice, remember to consider your child’s current abilities and comprehension levels as well as their willingness to learn and explore. With the right tools in hand, there’s no limit to the knowledge they can acquire.

The Best Space Toys for 7 Year Olds

Stepping into the world of 7 year olds, I’ll tell you that space toys are not just playthings but an opportunity to spark their curiosity. Here’s a list I’ve put together of the best space-themed toys that will engage and educate your 7 year olds.

Science Experiment Kits: A toy category that can truly captivate the young scientist. Kits such as the “Be Amazing! Toys Mars Mud Slimy” introduce kids to the fun side of science, all while developing observation and problem-solving skills.

Telescopes and Astronomy Sets: Nothing gets kids excited about space exploration quite like a telescope. The “NASA Lunar Telescope for Kids” is an excellent choice. It’s designed to be fun and easy to use, offering a clear view of the moon and its craters.

Space-Themed Games and Puzzles: Games and puzzles like the “Space Mission Game from Peaceable Kingdom” or the “Melissa & Doug Solar System Floor Puzzle” can keep their interest piqued while enhancing cognitive skills like critical thinking and memory.

Astronaut and Spacecraft Sets: LEGO never disappoints; their “NASA Mars Rover Perseverance & Ingenuity Helicopter” set is a kid’s favorite. This hands-on experience boosts creativity while educating them on past and current Mars missions.

Here’s a quick rundown:

With the right toys, 7 year olds can learn a lot about space and science. This age is ripe for fostering a love of astronomy, and these space toys are excellent tools to help guide them on this journey.

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Space Toy

Choosing the perfect space toy for 7-year-olds might seem like a mission to Mars, but it’s not as hard as you think it’s. Accurate knowledge and a bit of care can make the choosing process a piece of cake.

Firstly , always ponder your child’s interests. If your little scientist is more into hands-on experiments, a space science kit might be an excellent choice. On the other hand, if they’re into role-play, astronaut and spacecraft sets could become their new playground. Remember, the best learning occurs when kids are fully engaged and enthusiastic.

Next , consider the toy’s educational value. Are there opportunities for your child to learn while playing? A Telescope and Astronomy Set can nourish the young astronomer in them by providing first-hand experiences of stargazing and celestial bodies. Likewise, space-themed puzzles or board games can enhance their logic and strategic thinking skills.

Thirdly , check the age appropriateness of the toy. Don’t forget, the manufacturers label toys for specific age groups to ensure safe and age-suitable learning. For instance , a space toy marked for 7-year-olds is tested and confirmed for safety standards for that age range.

Lastly , don’t overlook the toy’s quality. A toy with minimum choking hazards, sharp edges, and toxic materials is the one you’d like to introduce to your child. Choose a toy that is sturdy, long-lasting, and easy to clean.

Below is a simple table to guide you through the process:

Take time to understand these elements when you’re on your next space toy hunt. Remember, the goal is to spark your child’s interest in space and science, and nothing does better than a well-chosen, engaging space toy. Always make them feel that the sky is not the limit; it’s just the beginning. Rather than wrapping up our thoughts, we encourage readers to dive into the universe of more space toy options out there, making the most of their child’s learning journey.

Conclusion: Elevate Playtime with Space Toys for 7 Year Olds

Choosing the right space toy for your 7-year-old isn’t just about fun. It’s a chance to inspire a lifelong love for space and science. By considering your child’s interests and the toy’s educational value, you’re not just buying a toy. You’re investing in their future.

Remember, it’s not just about age appropriateness. Quality matters too. A well-made toy will stand up to the rigors of play and continue to engage your child’s interest.

So, don’t just settle for any toy. Choose a space toy that’ll ignite their curiosity and keep them learning. After all, playtime’s not just about fun. It’s also about discovery and learning. And with the right space toy, your 7-year-old’s playtime can be both.

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Puzzles For 7 Year Olds – Challenging and Educational Fun

• ❤Underwater World – kids puzzles ages 4-8
• ❤Puzzles for kids ages 6-8 – Jigsaw Puzzle is a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle that is easy to assemble and displays beautiful artwork of a prehistoric landscape.
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• United States Puzzle for Kids set is an entertaining educational activity for kids to help stimulate and challenge their minds, and aid in development as they play and learn. A handy play set that promotes problem solving and memorization skills .
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1. What types of puzzles are best for 7 year olds?

Entertain Your Toddler

Last Updated on 12/17/2019 by Karen

Best Puzzles and Problem-Solving Toys for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles!

We love puzzles and problem-solving toys. My three-year-old is a thinker. She has more fun working on a puzzle or problem-solving than most other toys. And now her younger sister is following a similar trajectory.

Puzzles and problem-solving toys are the last category on our foundational toys list, but by no means the least. Kids need puzzles and problem-solving toys in order to work on critical thinking skills, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and well, problem-solving!

In this guide, I’ll walk you through some traditional and non-traditional puzzles, and lots of options for toys that encourage problem-solving and critical thinking.

I had a really hard time deciding what to put in this list because there are so many good options out there. I hope this guide can help you narrow down all those options and find the perfect gift!

As always, you need to be the judge of whether a toy is appropriate for your young child’s abilities and interests. I find it’s best to pick a puzzle that challenges but does not frustrate your child. This makes for us and our kids much happier.

After browsing our top puzzle and problem-solving toys, be sure to read my tips for extending puzzle play.

Disclosure: We use sponsored, or affiliate, links, which means that we could earn a small commission that helps fund our blog (at no extra cost to you!). All opinions are our own and we only recommend products we love. Thank you for your support and happy shopping!

Sea Life Puzzle   //   Safari Animals Puzzle   //   Farm Animals Puzzle   //   Dinosaur Puzzle   //   Things That Go Puzzle   //   Construction Vehicles Puzzle

Melissa & Doug Wooden Chunky Puzzle 

We have just started collecting puzzles ever since we first played with the massive collection at our local library. She loves these Melissa & Doug wooden chunky puzzles, and I do too! 

Not only are they solid wood, durable, and hardwearing, the chunky pieces are easy to grab and can be played with as stand-alone figurines. 

These Melissa & Doug puzzles are perfect for young toddlers because under the puzzle piece is a picture of the piece that goes there to help little ones put the right shape in more easily.

We started with the sea life puzzle, but I’ve got a few more I want to get this year and put links below in the order I’m planning to get them in. (Yes, these toy guides are just a glorified shopping list so that when birthdays and Christmases roll around, I’ve got my next thing ready to buy.)

If you are looking for more on your own, make sure to check that they are not the peg kind as some types with the peg in the middle have thin pieces that can’t stand up like these chunky pieces can.

 1.  Sea Life Puzzle    

2. Safari Animals puzzle

3.   Farm Animals Puzzle

4.  Dinosaur Puzzle

5.  Things That Go Puzzle

6.  Construction Vehicles Puzzle

I would recommend getting two animal sets. That way you can mix up the pieces and sort them as you talk about animal habitats for yet another way to play!

Our library has this puzzle rack for storing their puzzles. Fits up to 12 puzzles (both the chunky puzzle size and larger).

Wooden Wonders Balancing Block Play Set  by Imagination Generation

I wrote about this game in my complete toy buying guide . These are cute little animal pieces that you can stack on a hard surface, or on the wobbly farm block.

This one was challenging for Elena at 18 months, so she mostly played with them as individual pieces . She was disappointed that she couldn’t put them in the barn, though.

Kids will work on fine motor skills, critical thinking, and (the reason for this post!) problem-solving.

Here’s a few other options:   “Blockbeard” pirate set (though more difficult to play with individual pieces, like what do you do with the pirate heads? hmm….) Noah’s ark (2 of each animal, of course!) Lewo animal set (which we own and love!)

Tomy Hide and Squeak Eggs

Someone gifted us these ADORABLE little Hide and Squeak eggs and Elena loves playing with them. There is so much to learn and play with in this little half dozen egg set.

The eggs have different shapes on the bottom that fit into the matching shapes in the carton.

Each little chick inside is a different color and matches with the colored faces on the outer shell.

Plus, when you push down on the chick, it squeaks! Squeak, squeak! 

It was a challenge at first for Elena to even open the carton. Then she discovered the different shapes on the bottom. And finally, she played by matching the colors. Sometimes Elenawill play with these as actual eggs for pretend cooking. 

Elena was two when we got these, but I could see a one-year-old or younger wanting to play with this set as well.

Fisher-Price Stack and Roll Cups

This toy doesn’t look like much at first… just your standard nesting cups set right? WRONG!

These bad boys can be nested, stacked, or snapped together to make 5 different sized balls! The little smiley at the top has a bell inside and can be hidden inside one of the balls.

Get these for a baby and he will keep playing with them in new ways as a toddler.

I can already think of several different ways to play with these cups, especially in combination with other toys. Color sorting, pretend cooking and eating, matching games, rainbow drums, hide-and-seek games, um, yeah, I think these are a great foundational toy !

Alex Discover Button Art

Fine motor skills will get a workout in this button art set. Toddlers will enjoy putting the buttons in the holes. As they become more interested, they can create the art by matching the colored buttons to the colors on the cards.

The pegs are more vibrantly colored than they appear here. They kind of remind of those food pouch lids that I like to save for color matching games and water play, so already there is another use for the pieces in this set!

It is under $10 right now, so although the cards are more flimsy than I would like, it still may be worth it even for just the buttons to be used as manipulatives in a variety of counting, patterning, and sorting activities.

Russian Nesting Dolls

Yes, there are tiny pieces once you get past the fifth or sixth doll, but Elena just loves our two sets so much and we’ve gotten several hours of play out of them , so I had to put the idea out here!

I know matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls) are not the first thing you think of when I say “puzzle” or “problem-solving toy,” but they really are.

The dolls need to be nested in the proper order for them all to fit together. The tops and bottoms need to be matched correctly, and you have to match up the designs so they look like one piece. There’s a lot of problem-solving going on!

Additionally, they can be played with as standalone dolls. Elena has also stacked these in numerous ways (like just tops in pyramid style, or just bottoms like nesting cups), so I believe these would make a lovely heirloom gift for a child.

This particular set from Amazon had good reviews and a lot of people mentioned how large they were (tallest doll is 8″ high), so I think this would be a good set for a child to play with.

I do like the bit of culture these matryoshka dolls bring. Russian nesting dolls were originally meant to be played with but have evolved into an art form. There are some very elaborate ones out there!

I also looked for a less delicate plastic set and found these little nesting penguins  and these fun little robots . Check them out if your child is not into dolls.

Top Bright Wooden Shape Sorter

How cute is this! It’s a cement truck shape sorter! Plus it comes with a little truck driver!

A shape sorter is for sure a good foundational toy , as you can obviously teach shapes, but you can also teach colors if you have brightly colored set, and do some stacking with the shape blocks.

This sorter has the added bonus of imaginative play and can be pulled around on the string. You can spin the barrel and tip it to dump out the blocks. All in all, a fun, educational toy!

**Note: The blocks are wooden, but the truck is a mix of plastic and wood.

Melissa & Doug Keys & Cars Wooden Rescue Vehicle & Garage Toy

One of my nephews is obsessed with firefighters and police officers, so I’m considering getting him this for Christmas.

It’s a wooden fire truck, ambulance, and police car that can be sorted in the color matching garage. What makes this a unique problem-solving toy is the addition of keys to lock and unlock the garage doors!

The keys will keep little toddler hands busy and working on their hand-eye coordination and color matching. When they tire of that, there is always the rescue vehicles to play with.

Woo-ooh-woo-ooh-woo-ooh! (I’m 99% positive that’s how you spell the sound a siren makes.)

A similar toy is this M&D Wooden Doorbell Dollhouse .

Eric Carle Matching Game  by The Wonder Forge

Does your child like The Very Hungry Caterpillar ? This is one of Elena’s favorite books. We have also just discovered matching and memory games, so this would be game I think she would love.

The cards/tiles are a sturdy chipboard and feature art by Eric Carle (author of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The Tiny Seed, and more!). There are 72 tiles, so you’ll want to play with only 4 or 5 pairs to start with.

If you’ve never played Memory, basically, you mix up the cards and turn them all over. Then you take turns choosing two cards at a time with the goal of finding a matching pair.

For a young one, you could have the whole set face up and challenge them to find matching pairs or play I Spy .

You could also play Go Fish with these, though the chipboard could be tough to hold in one hand.

Afterwards, you can read an Eric Carle book and do a matching puzzle.

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and jumbo puzzle
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? book and simple puzzle pairs

I think these in combination with the matching game would make a perfect gift basket for an Eric Carle lover.

Grimm’s Water Wave Stacker

Grimm’s rainbow is a favorite among the Montessori/Waldorf people, but did you know there are other nesting sets in the “Elements of Nature” collection which are equally beautiful?

I decided to feature the water wave stacker because the shades of blue are so pretty and I like the ocean 🙂

These open-ended puzzle toys enhance a child’s creativity and imagination. The pieces can be laid on their side to make pretty patterns or stacked in different ways to create bridges or houses or fences for play with animal or doll figurines. It’s pretty amazing to watch a child play with these and get a glimpse into their creative brain.

I love how beautiful the Grimm’s sets are. They look like art pieces that I could display on a bookshelf in the living room. They are wooden and painted with child-safe non-toxic water-based paint and dyes.

Be sure to check out the fire flames nesting set  as well.

Grimm’s can be pricey, but Lewo makes a similar concept, but different style, colorful wooden puzzle set for less. Take a look if you’re interested.

Other Puzzles to Love

Here are a few  jigsaw puzzles that are adorable and perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.

The Petit Collage Beginner Puzzles are lovely, unconfined animal-shaped jigsaw puzzles. I love this forest babies set of four puzzles.

Crocodile Creek Birthday Bear is a traditional rectangle jigsaw puzzle with 24 pieces and a whimsical illustration. Below are more floor puzzles from Crocodile Creek.

OK, here’s my favorite. I like these Mudpuppy Pouch Puzzles because they store neatly away in a zipper POUCH! Such a great idea for puzzle storage. You could easily toss one in your purse for play at the restaurant when you need to keep kids busy and quiet. Each pouch has 12 extra thick chunky pieces. 

One Last Tip for Extending Puzzle Playtime

Sensory bin!

Almost anything can be turned into a sensory bin, right? Fill a container with your favorite sensory bin filler (dry beans, rice, popcorn kernels, nothing wet of course) and hide the pieces of a puzzle in it . Let your child dig and scoop to find the pieces and then put it together.

If you’ve got an older child who needs a challenge, why not mix up a few different smaller sets of puzzles and have them sort the sets!

Do you have any other tips for new ways to play with puzzles?

Building toys are also great for building critical thinking skills and hand-eye coordination. Check out our favorite classic building toys  and our favorite building toys for little ones.

I hope these toy guides and gift ideas help you find the perfect gift for any kid on your list!

For more on building a toybox of only toys your child will play with and love, read this complete toy buying guide .

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Discovery Play with Littles

2:01 pm ·

15 Powerful Problem Solving Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

I looked over to her table and she’s crying. Again. While everyone else is happily working away, she sat there, unable to move, just crying. 

Not asking for help.

Not trying to solve her problem.

Just crying.

I took a deep breath before heading over. We’ve already been at this for several months…isn’t it about time the problem-solving has kicked in yet?

One glance and I could tell what her problem was. She didn’t have her pencil.

Know how I knew?

It laid on the floor beside her. In plain sight.

As a kindergarten teacher, I don’t jump right in and solve problems for kids. It’s good for them to try to solve the problem themselves. This is something she struggled with. 

I reminded myself of the need for patience and empathy as I walked up to her. “What’s wrong, Amanda?” 

“I…can’t…find…my…pencil….” she sputtered out between sobs. 

“Ok, that’s a problem we can solve. What have you tried?” 

“I don’t know.” 

After a long time trying to first, calm her down, and second, come up with some strategies she could try, she finally found her pencil. At that point, everyone else had finished the project. 

What is Problem Solving?

Problem-solving is the process of finding a solution to your problem . This can be quite tricky for some young children, especially those with little experience in finding more than one way to solve a problem.

Why is Problem Solving Important? 

Problem-solving skills are used throughout childhood into adulthood. As adults, we solve problems on a daily basis. Some problems we solve without thinking much- I wanted to make tacos for dinner but forgot to buy the ground beef. What are we going to have for dinner now?

Other problems are significantly more complicated. 

Problems for kiddos can be problems with friendships, the inability to find something that’s needed, or even what to do when things don’t go your way. 

Kids who lack problem-solving skills struggle to maintain friendships or even begin to attempt to solve their own problems. 

Children who lack problem-solving skills are at a higher risk for depression as well.

What Are Problem-Solving Skills?

Problem-solving skills are:

• Breaking Down a Problem into Smaller Parts
• Communication
• Decision-making
• Logical Reasoning
• Perseverance

That’s a big list to teach toddlers and preschoolers. Where do you begin?

The Problem-Solving Steps

Sometimes kids are so overwhelmed with frustration that it affects their ability to solve problems.

Kids feel safe in routines, and routines help them learn and grow. After a few times of repeating this routine, you’ll find your kiddo starts to do this on their own. 

It’s important not to skip straight to solving the problem , because your kiddo needs to be in a calm state of mind to solve the problem, and also they need to know their feelings are valid. 

• The first thing to do when your kiddo is struggling with problem-solving is to validate their emotions.

In doing this, they will feel more understood and learn that their emotions are okay. There are no bad feelings, and we must learn how to manage our emotions. 

This might sound something like “Oh, I can see you are really frustrated that the block won’t fit on there right. Let’s take some deep breaths to help us calm down before we think about what to do next.”

• Next, work through your calm-down process . This may be taking some deep breaths together, hugging a stuffie, or giving your kiddo some quiet time to calm down their heart and mind.
• Identify the problem . This sounds like something you may have already done (before the meltdown) but it’s important to be very clear on the problem you’re solving. Have the child tell you their problem out loud.
• Move on to solution-finding . When your kiddo is ready, talk about what the problem is and three possible solutions. When possible, let your kiddo do all of the talking. This allows him to practice his problem-solving skills. It’s important to remind him that the first thing he tries may not work, and that’s ok. There’s always another way to solve the problem. If he’s prepared for this, solutions that don’t work won’t be such a frustrating experience. 
• After you’ve done that, test your solutions one by one. See what works. If you haven’t found a solution yet, go back and think of different ways you might be able to solve your problem and try again.

Are you tired of hearing “It’s TOO HARD!” followed by a meltdown?

Using this one simple phrase you’ll get in this powerful lesson, you’ll not only be able to help your kiddo not give up but you’ll:

>Activate their superpower of perseverance so that they can turn around a meltdown and keep trying

>Inspire them to use perseverance …even when it’s hard

>Teach them to recognize the warning signs of giving up , and how to turn it around by taking control of their choices.

Grab your powerful FREE video lesson to teach your kiddo one of the most powerful keys to perseverance.

Powerful Activities that Teach Problem-Solving Skills to Toddlers & Preschoolers

These activities below may look simple, but don’t let that deter you from trying them. A lot happens in little developing brains and these powerful activities help toddlers and preschoolers make connections and develop {many} essential skills-more than just problem-solving.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.  

Puzzles are fun and a great way to encourage cognitive development in children. They are great for spacial reasoning and strengthening problem-solving skills. They also develop memory skills, critical thinking, and the ability to plan and execute the plan. Toddlers will enjoy the simple puzzles, and preschoolers will do great with floor puzzles with larger puzzle pieces.

Doing Simple Chores

Doing simple chores is a great way to teach children problem-solving skills, and it strengthens responsibility and perseverance as well. 

During the toddler years , you may start with just picking up their toys, or helping you put their dirty clothes in the hamper. 

Preschoolers can take their dirty dishes to the sink (or load them in the dishwasher), collect the trash, dust, wipe baseboards, and do their own personal care items like making their bed, taking care of their dirty clothes, and putting clean clothes away.

Stacking Rings

When watching a toddler play with stacking rings it doesn’t look like much is happening, but playing with these toys is full of ways to encourage development. It helps with visual and spacial perception and planning ahead, but it also with balance control, crossing the midline, creative play, and gross motor skills. Not to mention it’s a great opportunity to practice problem-solving. 

Playing Hide-and-Seek

Hide and seek has many surprising benefits for kids. Playing hide and seek is like a treasure hunt that helps develop gross motor skills and encourages physical development, as well as problem-solving skills. It also helps young children develop visual tracking, working memory, and social-emotional skills.

Imaginative Play

Imaginative play (also called role-play) builds important skills. Through pretending to be in different situations, kids develop social skills, emotional skills, better communication, and problem-solving skills. Imaginative play is a great idea for young toddlers all the way to older children.

Free Play 

Many young children don’t have {enough} time for free play. Free play is important for healthy brain development , not only developing imagination, cooperation, physical skills, and independence but also providing a great opportunity to strengthen problem-solving skills. 

Playing with Wooden Blocks

Building blocks are a fun way for children to develop creative thinking, imagination, problem-solving, fine motor skills, and if working with others, cooperation, communication, and friendship.

Playing Memory

Memory games improve attention, focus, visual recognition, and concentration. It helps children recognize details and of course, strengthens problem-solving skills. 

Ask Questions

When I see my son struggling with something, my first instinct is to give him choices or at least lead him in the right direction. The better thing to do is to ask very open-ended questions that lead his process, not his thoughts.

Questions like “What’s one way to solve your problem?” are much more effective in teaching problem-solving skills than “Well, where did you last see your stuffy?” 

Read Books and Social Stories

Reading books is one of my favorite ways to teach any skill. It’s extremely effective at teaching, and it’s also an amazing bonding time with kids.

When we read stories, our brain reacts as if we’re living in the story. This is why reading books about skills such as problem-solving is so effective. 

Kids of all ages learn from the people they love . (Yes, even those older kids who you don’t think are paying attention.) Often as adults, we’re too busy going through our daily routine to think about talking about the way we solved the problem at work that day.

Talking about how you use skills such as problem-solving, perseverance, and integrity is a great way to set an example, and an expectation that this is how we do things, and it will provide encouragement for your kiddo to do the same.

Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are a great group activity that can strengthen your child’s logical thinking and problem-solving skills.

When Your Kiddo is Ready, Add These Activities

Preschoolers would benefit from all of the fun activities on the list above and when they’re ready, feel free to add in the following activities.   

Mazes are great for problem-solving and perseverance, but your kiddo will need to have decent fine motor skills to do these activities. Mazes are one of our favorite activities. We love to take our activity book of mazes in the car with us for road trips. 

Board Games  

Board games are a good way to strengthen problem-solving, teamwork, planning skills, patience, sportsmanship, and communication skills. They also strengthen family relationships by providing some intentional time of connection .

Any board game can also be turned into an academic game with just a deck of cards for whatever skill you’re working on. If you’re working on the alphabet, put one letter on each card. Before each player’s turn, they draw a letter card and say the letter’s name. (You may accidentally forget the name of a letter every now and then to see if your kiddo is really paying attention!) 

Allow Opportunities for Hands-On Investigations

Kids are tactile. They love to touch and explore things with their hands. This is a good activity for toddlers also, as long as they are out of the putting everything in their mouth stage. Hands-on exploration is great for language development, sensory exploration, and problem-solving.

Allowing kids to investigate with their hands allows them to see how the world works up close. It also gives them time and space to try to make things work…and problem-solve when it doesn’t go as they think it should.

The Most Difficult Way (and Most Important Way) To Strengthen Problem-Solving Skills

Watching our kids struggle is hard ! We don’t want to see them having a hard time…and most of the time we don’t want to deal with the impending meltdown. Standing back and giving our kids time and space to work through even simple problems is hard to do. It’s also the most important way to strengthen problem-solving skills. 

As parents, we’re like frogs in boiling water. When our kids are infants, they need us to recognize their needs and solve them immediately. As they get older, they can point to what they want, but we still have a lot of interpreting and problem-solving to do on our own. If we aren’t careful, we stay in this stage and don’t teach our kiddos the steps to problem-solving for themselves. 

The next most difficult thing? Allowing natural consequences to happen. (As long as your child is safe of course.) If your child saves their money for a long time to buy a new toy, but walks down the toy aisle and picks up something you know they’ll be disappointed with, let it happen. It will teach a valuable lesson that will last for years to come.

Another Essential Part of Problem-Solving

Perseverance is a big part of problem-solving. We are rarely able to solve problems the first time, and it’s essential that kids can find more than one solution to a problem. Studies have found that perseverance is actually the biggest predictor of success, even more than aptitude or raw talent. 

An entire module is dedicated to perseverance in our course for kids, Super Kid Adventures . Your kiddo will get 25 teacher-led lessons on character traits (perseverance, empathy, friendship, responsibility, and wellness) and activities that take their learning further. 

Want a free preview? Grab a FREE Perseverance video lesson that teaches your kiddo one of the most important secrets that help them use perseverance.

Want More? 

If you like this, you’ll love: 

The Ultimate List of Books that Teach Perseverance

7 Simple Ways to Encourage Independence in Young Children

How to Help Your Child Develop Self-Help Skills

Your Turn 

What are your favorite ways to teach problem-solving skills?

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a mama of two boys, a former teacher, and the founder of Discovery Play with Littles. Her mission is to make raising kids with character simple and fun. Join us for our best learning through play ideas, character growth activities, and family connection ideas so you can watch your child thrive.

Reader Interactions

As a SLP trying to guide parents as I work with their child. I would like to know what toys to recommend to my parents as I assist in guiding their child’s development in cognition and expressive language.

Perseverance is the biggest predictor of success, even more than raw talent or aptitude.

Grab a FREE lesson to teach your kiddo one of the keys to perseverance...which is how we talk to our brains.

They'll learn what to say when they encounter something difficult, and why it's so important.

PLAY is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. -Mr. Rogers

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22 Best Toys and Gifts for 7-Year-Olds

Searching for the perfect present for your 7-year-old? We’ve got you covered.

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CORNER CRUSH

In this game of memory and strategy, players can drop tokens into the rotating tower to score four in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. They can also play around the corners. The game features built-in storage. In this game of memory and strategy, players can drop tokens into the rotating tower to score four…

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• BIG G CREATIVE

COUNTALOUPE

In this slice-and-dice game of risk and reward, players roll the dice, count their seeds, and try be the first player to get rid of all the slices in their deck. But players must be careful, one rotten roll of the dice can ripen or squash their chance for sweet victory. In this slice-and-dice game…

• BANANAGRAMS

CRAFT-TASTIC LET’S LEARN TO SEW

The 34-page step-by-step instruction booklet allows kids to learn to sew as they complete 15 projects, including two scrunchies, a pin cushion, a stuffie, a pouch, a phone case, and more. The 34-page step-by-step instruction booklet allows kids to learn to sew as they complete 15 projects, including two scrunchies, a pin cushion, a stuffie,…

• ANN WILLIAMS GROUP

CRAYOLA PAPER BUTTERFLIES SCIENCE KIT

Create paper butterflies while learning about capillary action. Kids can watch as the colorful inks are absorbed into the wings. This kit features step-by-step instructions and enough materials to make 12 wicking paper butterflies. Create paper butterflies while learning about capillary action. Kids can watch as the colorful inks are absorbed into the wings. This…

• $19.99; $24.99 CAD

GUJO ADVENTURE: MARS SPACE EXPLORER

With building and role-playing combined, Gujo Adventure is a STEM authenticated line of building sets that will improve kids' problem-solving skills and narrative abilities while they enjoy a fun-filled play experience. With building and role-playing combined, Gujo Adventure is a STEM authenticated line of building sets that will improve kids' problem-solving skills and narrative abilities…

LEGO VIDIYO

Kids can dream big by directing, producing, starring in, and sharing their own music videos, using tracks from across the globe, led by chart hits from Universal Music Group's unrivaled artists. Requires verified parental consent on all content uploaded to the App feed. Choose one of the many songs in the App from a broad…

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MINIONS MEDIEVAL MAYHEM CHESS SET

Join King Bob as he battles the Minions while they create mayhem on this medieval-themed chess board. This chess set includes 18 pawns and 32 game pieces. Join King Bob as he battles the Minions while they create mayhem on this medieval-themed chess board. This chess set includes 18 pawns and 32 game pieces.

• THE NOBLE COLLECTION

POKÉMON TRAINER TRIVIA: AN ELECTRONIC GAME

Kids can test their Pokémon trainer trivia and battle it out to become a real Pokémon expert. Play in single or multiplayer mode and answer up to 1,000 questions. Kids can test their Pokémon trainer trivia and battle it out to become a real Pokémon expert. Play in single or multiplayer mode and answer up…

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STYLE SQUAD HYPE HAIR FLORAL FRENZY

Pick from more than 250 flowers and jewels to create the perfect look that stamps into hair in seconds. Layer and restyle in a click with the Hype Hair applicator. The pieces store easily to reuse again. Pick from more than 250 flowers and jewels to create the perfect look that stamps into hair in…

Line up cards numerically, but look out for the Trashed card. Inspired by the classic game Garbage, this reimagined card game includes wild cards and stop cards that change the course of gameplay. Line up cards numerically, but look out for the Trashed card. Inspired by the classic game Garbage, this reimagined card game includes…

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UNO TRIPLE PLAY

This game is a new, premium, electronic extension of the classic UNO game. Players are allowed to use whichever of the three discard piles are lit up during their turn, but if one of the piles overloads on a play, that player will have to draw 2-6 cards. This game will be available in the…

ZOMBIE CHASE

In this board game, players are trapped inside an amusement park with the janitor-turned-zombie, and the only way out is find a key in the dark, spooky shed. Players must be careful because they could get zombified at any moment. If a player gets infected, tehy must flip their playing piece inside out to transform…

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ARCKIT COASTAL LIVING

Kids can build a collection of colorful and contemporary beach house designs while learning about the coastal landscape and its ecosystem. The set includes 88 architectural building blocks and 25 cardboard pop-outs. Kids can build a collection of colorful and contemporary beach house designs while learning about the coastal landscape and its ecosystem. The set…

BLINGLE BANDS DELUXE STUDIO

This craft kit combines diamond art and jewelry making as kids place colorful gems onto a bracelet band to create custom, wearable designs. This set includes enough materials to make eight bracelets.

HEDBANZ BLAST OFF

Players compete by trying to guess what's on their head at the same time as the other team. If they don't guess quickly enough, the card will blast off of their head. Players compete by trying to guess what's on their head at the same time as the other team. If they don't guess quickly…

• $19.99; $26.99 CAD
• SPIN MASTER

PET TORNADO

Kids can hold one of the most destructive forces of nature in the palm of their hands! Shake this unique device in a clockwise motion and immediately a powerful funnel begins to form. Wonder abounds and curiosity is sparked! Printed right on the back is plenty of fascinating info about tornados. Kids can hold one…

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ROBO-MAX T-REX

Kids can build a 3-foot T. rex using more than 80 screws, hinges, and premium laminated cardboard construction pieces. The finished T. rex has light-up eyes, sounds, and 10 points of articulation for poseability. Kids can build a 3-foot T. rex using more than 100 screws, hinges, and premium laminated cardboard construction pieces. The finished…

CODING CHARMS

Kids can create beaded patterns to build keychain charms, then adults can iron the designs to fuse the beads together. Kids will learn about algorithms, sequencing, and other STEAM concepts. Includes enough materials to make 18 charms. Kids can create beaded patterns to build keychain charms, then adults can iron the designs to fuse the…

STEAM SPACE SCIENCE KIT

Kids learn about planets, stars, eclipses, meteors, and more when they create a colorful and full-scale solar system. Features 20 ready-to-go experiments with items from the box and with common household finds. Other STEAM kits include Paper Flowers, Liquid, and Gross which teach through water-based experiments. Kids learn about planets, stars, eclipses, meteors, and more…

MARIO PARTY SUPERSTARS

Mario Party returns with five classic boards and 100 classic mini-games from previous Mario Party games. Players race to get the most stars in this multiplayer video game for the Nintendo Switch family of systems.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ROCK & MINERAL GAME SET

STEM has never been so much fun! Kids can play rock bingo, mineral memory, gem-tac-toe, trivia, and have a full deck of playing cards that can also be used as flash cards. In addition to all the fun games, kids will also receive 25 rock specimens and over 150 rock, mineral, and gemstone specimens. The…

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SMARTIVITY PINBALL MACHINE

This kit contains everything kids need to build a fully functional pinball machine. It also features easy-to-understand, illustrated instructions complete with experiments to help kids learn STEM concepts. This kit contains everything kids need to build a fully functional pinball machine. It also features easy-to-understand, illustrated instructions complete with experiments to help kids learn STEM…

About the author

Hannah Sacks

Hannah Sacks was an editorial assistant at The Toy Insider, The Pop Insider, and The Toy Book. An avid reader, her first love is late Victorian literature paired with a huge plate of dumplings. When she’s not reading, she loves to attend concerts, cook elaborate dinners, and snuggle up with her two cats, Oscar and Percy.

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21 Good Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

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Read mentor text picture books to teach problem and solution text structure. Understanding the problem and solution story structures improves comprehension and helps readers make informed predictions. (As well as helping children see the creative possibilities in problem-solving!)

Of course, almost all stories have a problem and a solution –with the exception of a concept book. So really, you can search out problem and solution examples in any book, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction.

When children learn what to expect in a problem and solution story, not only will they be able to predict solutions, but they will also be better able to write their own problem-solution stories. I started teaching this early to my young kids, well before they were school-age because we want our children to become problem solvers. That is an important life skill!

While many picture books model the narrative story structure of problem and solution, these are my favorites to use with kids both at home and in the classroom.

PRINTABLE LIST

Mentor Text Picture Books to Teach Problem and Solution

Problem Solved! by Jan Thomas When Rabbit sees his messy room, he learns that he has HIS OWN PROBLEM SOLVING PORCUPINE! Which seems good at first. But, it turns into a disaster. Because to clean up the blocks, the porcupine flushes them down the toilet. And to clean up his shirts, he feeds them to the goldfish. How can Rabbit get rid of his not-very-helpful problem-solving porcupine?

A House in the Woods  by Inga Moore Little Pig’s den becomes filled with friends, but once Moose arrives, the den collapses. Oh, no! Problem. What will they do to find a solution? Together, the animals build a new house in the woods big enough to fit all the friends.

Enigma  by Graeme Base Bertie needs to find the missing magic show props that have disappeared from his grandpa’s retirement home. Each performer tells him what’s missing. Readers help find the items in the illustrations so that Bertie can find the culprit. Like all his books, Base excels in his detailed illustrations.

7 Ate 9: The Untold Story  by Tara Lazar, illustrated by Ross MacDonald 6 bangs on Private I’s door for help! Because there’s a rumor that 7 is eating other numbers because apparently, 7 ate 9. YIKES! But did 7 really eat 9? Pitch perfect tongue-in-cheek number and word humor will crack you up throughout this suspenseful, funny problem and solution story. (Also on:  Best Picture Book Mysteries .)

The Brownstone  by Paula Scher, illustrated by Stan Mack The Bear family is ready for hibernation but first, they need to figure out what to do about the noise problem. Their solution? All the animals work together to shift apartments so that everyone finds the best apartment for their specific needs. You’ll love the message and illustrations.

Pigeon P.I.  by Meg McLaren What a unique and delightful mystery story! A little canary asks Pigeon P.I. (private investigator) to help her find her missing friends. Then the canary goes missing, too. It’s up to Pigeon to solve the missing bird mystery. The author writes in the style of the old detective shows– punchy with short sentences. The illustrator captures the details, giving kids clues to notice as they read.

One Word from Sophia  by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail This picture book is a great way to teach kids summarizing and word choice as well as a problem-solution text structure! Sophia really wants a pet giraffe for her birthday. As a result, she sets out to convince her family, starting with her mother, a judge. However, Mother says that Sophia’s argument is too verbose. As a result, Sophie tries fewer words with Father. But he says her presentation is too effusive. Sophia continues with each family member until she reaches her last-ditch attempt and says the one word that works: PLEASE.

No Boring Stories!  by Julie Falatko, illustrated by Charles Santoso When a cute little bunny tries to join a group of animal storytellers (mole, weevil, crab, and babirusa), the group doesn’t want to add her to their brainstorming group. As the animals continue their story plans with relatable characters, an inciting incident, rising action, climax, and…. Only the group gets stuck with the ending. That’s when bunny reveals that she likes making up weird (not boring) stories. The group realizes that the bunny has the perfect ending idea. Reluctantly, they agree that she can be part of the group. At least until a “ bunch of adorable frogs and puppies show up next week… ” This book shows plotting as well as the creative strengths of writers working together.

That Fruit Is Mine!  by Anuska Allepuz This is a charming problem and solution story about learning to share and the power of working together. You’ll crack up watching the elephants’ many failed attempts to get delicious-looking fruit off a tree while simultaneously watching a tiny group of mice work together to get the yummy fruit, too. The problem is getting the fruit but only one animal group succeeds in a solution. Who do you think it will be? Great for prediction! (Also on:  Picture Books That Teach Cooperation .)

Great, Now We’ve Got Barbarians!   by Jason Carter Eaton, illustrated by Mark Fearing Mom says that if the boy doesn’t clean his room, he’ll get pests . . . which the boy thinks aren’t all that bad, right? However, things go downhill when barbarian “pests” start arriving. Because they eat everything, use his toys to clean out their ears, and steal blankets and pillows. So there is only one thing to do — CLEAN up his room. It’s a predictable but funny solution with the perfect forgot-to-clean-up twist at the end.

Walrus in the Bathtub  by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Matt Hunt The worst thing about this family’s new home is the walrus in the bathtub. And walrus songs are very, very loud. It’s a big problem. The family tries lots of clever things to get the walrus to leave the bathtub but with no success. So they decide to move. Again. That’s when the walrus shows them his list — “ How to Make Your New Family Feel Welcome ” — which, surprisingly, includes all the things that annoy the family. It turns out the walrus was just trying to be nice. As a result, the family stays with a few *new* rules. This story will make you want your own walrus in a bathtub.

The Thingity-Jig by Kathleen Doherty, illustrated by Kristyna Litten Wordplay, problem-solving, and persistence! One day Bear finds a Thingity-Jig (aka. a couch), which he thinks is wonderful as a sit-on-it, jump-on-it thing.  He asks his friends to help him carry it home but they’re too fast asleep, so Bear figures out some ideas to do it himself. He makes a Rolly-Rumpity! Which is a pack-it-up, heap-it-up, load-it-up thing. That isn’t enough to move the Thingit-Jig so Bear makes something else — a Lifty-Uppity. And then, a Pushy-Poppity. And at daybreak, he arrives back at home where his friends are waking up, with his special Thingity-Jig. Bingity…Bing…Boing…Bear falls asleep.

Someday is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma City Sit-Ins  by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich Clara advocated for justice and equality during a time when Black people weren’t permitted the same rights as white people. As a teacher, she inspired her students to believe that change was possible. Clara and her students went to the Katz drugstore and asked to be served — even though the store didn’t serve black people. She and her students returned day after day despite people yelling and throwing food. Eventually, the Katz store relented and started to serve people of all races. Clara and her students finally could enjoy a Coke and a burger without trouble.

Wangari’s Trees of Peace  by Jeannette Winter Based on the true story of Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, read how Wangari helped her country of Kenya whose forests were all but destroyed. She started planting trees which started a movement motivating other people to plant trees as well. This is an example of how narrative nonfiction book can also teach the plot structure of problem and solution .

Battle Bunny   by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, illustrated by Matt Myers When Alex gets a silly, sappy picture book called Birthday Bunny, he picks up a pencil and turns it into something he’d like to read: Battle Bunny. An adorable rabbit’s journey through the forest becomes a secret mission to unleash an evil plan–a plan that only Alex can stop. Not only does this mentor text model problem and solution, but also voice and revision.

When Pigs Fly  by James Burke One day, an exuberant pig declares that he will fly. His sister observes with disbelief and horror as one attempt after another fails. The brother pig is so disappointed that he decides to give up. That’s when his sister comes up with an idea — something he hasn’t tried before that will help her brother fly — a pretend airplane. The pigs’ expressive illustrations are absolutely perfect as is the message of persistence despite failure.

Piper and Purpa Forever!  by Susan Lendroth, illustrated by Olivia Feng Most stories have a  problem and a solution  but this story is a great example showing a little girl’s ability to creatively  problem solve  with a beautiful solution to her problem. Piper loves her beloved purple sweater, Purpa, and is so sad when she grows out of it. Will she be able to keep her sweater somehow?

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Picture Books to  Teach Perspective

Picture Books to  Teach Vivid Description

Favorite Book Character Costumes

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

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My grandson loves cars, RC cars, sports cars but I don’t find any books about cars, racing, car features, etc. It would be a ‘hook’ to get him to read more. Any suggestions appreciated.

Here is a list of vehicle books. https://imaginationsoup.net/picture-books-vehicle-loving-kids/ . My recommendation for car books is Professor Wooford McPaw’s History of Cars by Elliot Kruszynski.

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Problem Solving Activities for Toddlers

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7 Problem Solving Activities for Toddlers

If you have a toddler, challenges like tough homework problems or social dilemmas are still a long way off. But their brains are already working to build the cognitive skills they’ll need to solve life’s “big” problems later on. For now, problem-solving activities – even ones that seem simple to us – can help them boost their cognition, resilience, and creativity. Best of all? These “problems” are actually fun! Here are seven simple problem-solving activities for toddlers and preschoolers you can start trying right away!

Memory Games

Those little memory card games with matching pictures are great for building concentration, memory, and problem-solving skills in your toddler! Many sets might come with a few too many pairs for a toddler to handle without help, so start with just three to four pairs and see if they can match them up! As they begin to master that, you can add in more and more pairs until they’re working with the entire deck. If you don’t have a deck, you can easily DIY your own with online printables or your own drawings.

Shape Sorters

Shape sorters are a classic problem-solving toy for young toddlers. In addition to matching the shapes to the correct holes, they’ll also need to figure out why the shapes don’t always fit into the hole, requiring them to rotate the shape or make subtle adjustments to their grip.

Sorting/ Grouping by Category

Sorting activities are excellent for toddlers’ problem solving and cognitive development, so there’s no need to stop with shape sorters! Set up simple activities that allow them to sort by a variety of categories. This can be as simple as letting them unload the dishwasher silverware tray into the silverware organizer. Or ask them to gather up all the yellow items they see in a room.

Rotating puzzles is a great way to keep the problem-solving challenge fresh for your toddler. Even a familiar puzzle can present a fun, “new” challenge for your toddler if they haven’t seen it in weeks.

Hide the Teddy Bear

One cognitive milestone for two-year-olds is the ability to find an object that’s been hidden under two or more layers. Once they’ve mastered that, they’ll be ready for more advanced hiding games. Try hiding a teddy bear or other toy when they aren’t looking and then give them clues to find it. You can start off with basic directions and then progress to tougher clues or games of warmer/ colder.

Help Mommy/ Daddy

Toddlers love to help, and helping Mommy or Daddy with a problem can be a lot less frustrating than solving their own. For example, if your little one has been determined to put on their own socks lately but always ends up super frustrated, try mimicking the same problem yourself and asking for their help. You can coach them through the process (“Now we need to stretch out the opening of the sock!”), and because their emotions aren’t already running high, they’ll be more likely to actually absorb your tips. You can model how to stay calm through frustrating situations and help them build confidence in their ability to tackle the same problem later.

Constructive Play Toys

The ability to build a block tower of four or more blocks is actually considered a cognitive milestone for two-year-olds. For three-year-olds, a tower of six or more blocks is the expected milestone. That’s because building anything, even a simple block tower, is a true problem-solving challenge for toddlers. Blocks, train sets, and other building toys let your child work out how to balance, fit pieces together, and deal with frustration as they learn to master the challenge.

by admin | Nov 7, 2023 | Blogs , Educational Resources , Literacy and Learning | 0 comments

As children embark on their journey of growth and discovery, nurturing their problem-solving skills is paramount. The age of 7 marks a crucial period in cognitive development, where fostering critical thinking through enjoyable activities can set a strong foundation for future learning. Here, we present a collection of problem-solving activities for 7-year-olds, designed to captivate their curious minds while honing their analytical abilities.

10 Fun Problem-Solving Activities for 7-Year-Olds

1.   puzzle playtime.

Puzzles are a timeless favorite, offering a blend of entertainment and mental stimulation. Introduce age-appropriate jigsaw puzzles with varying difficulty levels. Encourage children to start with simpler puzzles and gradually progress to more complex ones, fostering patience, pattern recognition, and spatial awareness.

2.   Scavenger Hunt Adventures

Create thrilling scavenger hunts indoors or outdoors, incorporating clues that require problem-solving to unveil hidden treasures or solve riddles. This activity not only enhances critical thinking but also promotes teamwork and creativity as children collaborate to decipher clues and accomplish the mission.

3.   Building Block Challenges

Lay the foundation for engineering minds by presenting building block challenges. Provide specific instructions or let imagination take the lead. Whether constructing a bridge, a tower, or a fantastical creation, this activity promotes problem-solving through trial and error, spatial reasoning, and logical thinking.

4.   Brain Teasers and Riddles

Engage young minds with brain teasers and riddles tailored to their age group. Encourage them to think outside the box and unravel the mysteries behind these playful yet stimulating challenges. These activities promote deductive reasoning and enhance language skills in an enjoyable manner.

5.   Strategy Games

Introduce strategy games like chess, checkers, or simple board games that require planning and foresight. These games instill strategic thinking, decision-making, and the ability to anticipate consequences, nurturing analytical skills in a playful environment.

6.   Experimentation Station

Encourage curiosity through safe and supervised experiments. From simple science experiments to kitchen chemistry, allow children to explore cause-and-effect relationships, fostering a deeper understanding of the world around them while honing their problem-solving abilities.

Let your kids experiment in the kitchen or other situations and solve problems

7.   Storytelling and Problem-Solving

Merge creativity with critical thinking by engaging children in storytelling sessions with a twist. Prompt them to create stories where characters encounter dilemmas requiring creative solutions. This activity nurtures imagination while developing problem-solving skills in a narrative setting.

8.   Coding for Kids

Introduce basic coding concepts through interactive and age-appropriate coding games or apps. Coding activities not only enhance problem-solving abilities but also introduce foundational concepts of logic and sequencing in a fun and engaging manner.

9.   Arts and Crafts Challenges

Encourage artistic expression while fostering problem-solving skills through creative challenges. Provide limited resources and encourage children to think innovatively to create artwork or crafts within the given constraints, promoting adaptability and resourcefulness.

10.  Real-World Problem Solving

Engage children in solving everyday problems, whether it’s planning a garden, organizing a room, or even making simple recipes. Encourage them to brainstorm solutions, evaluate alternatives, and implement their ideas, empowering them to apply problem-solving skills in practical scenarios.

“The Misfits and the Rainy-Day Picnic” by Dana Lynn Romero : A Great Tool to Teach Problem-Solving Skills

In Dana Lynn Romero’s delightful tale, “ The Misfits and the Rainy-Day Picnic ,” the colorful world of the garden and its inhabitants comes alive, offering a perfect backdrop for teaching children problem-solving skills in an engaging and relatable manner.

The story follows the mischievous adventures of a group of bugs known as the Misfits, residing in the garden of Mr. and Mrs. Miller. When they stumble upon a grand picnic, excitement brews as they plan to gather their favorite foods to share with the entire group. However, an unforeseen rainstorm disrupts their plans, posing a challenge that demands quick thinking and problem-solving skills.

As the rain pours down, one of their own finds themselves in a precarious situation, prompting the Misfits to spring into action. Their unity and quick decision-making skills are put to the test as they strategize and devise a plan to rescue their friend. But their predicament intensifies when a cunning cat becomes an unexpected obstacle.

Within this adventurous narrative, Dana Lynn Romero subtly embeds valuable lessons in problem-solving. The challenges faced by the Misfits mirror real-life scenarios where unforeseen circumstances demand adaptability and creative problem-solving. Young readers are drawn into the story and encouraged to brainstorm alongside the characters and contemplate innovative solutions to overcome obstacles.

Teach your kids problem-solving skills through storytelling

Order Your Copy of “The Misfits and the Rainy-Day Picnic” Today!

By incorporating these diverse and engaging problem-solving activities into a child’s routine, caregivers and educators can play a pivotal role in shaping young minds. These activities not only stimulate cognitive development but also foster resilience, creativity, and a lifelong love for problem-solving. Embrace these activities as tools to inspire and empower the problem solvers of tomorrow.

Read “ The Misfits and the Rainy Day Picnic ” by Dana Lynn Romero to set off on a fantastical adventure. Get your book right away to prompt young minds into problem-solving mode.

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Best toys for 7-year-olds

What are the best gift ideas for 7-year-olds.

E very child has different interests, passions and dispositions, which can make finding the perfect gift for a 7-year-old tricky. Whether they're into sports, art, music, science or some combination of it all, the best toys for children are the ones that will engage their senses, spark their imagination and work their critical thinking skills.

From building sets that foster creativity to educational games that bring the whole family to the table, here are some wow-worthy picks the 7-year-old in your life is sure to enjoy.

Shop this article:  Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100-Piece Set ,  Lego Creator Mighty Dinosaurs  and  National Geographic Science Magic Kit

11 best toys for 7-year-olds

Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100-Piece Set

An incredibly open-ended STEM toy, Magna-Tiles, are magnetic building blocks that are excellent for kids of all ages. This set comes with 100 pieces of translucent tiles that players can snap together to build cubes, rocket ships, pyramids and more. The tiles don't just help inspire endless creations but also spark a child's budding imagination. Durable, safe and built to last for years, they're expensive but truly worth the investment.

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Lego Creator Mighty Dinosaurs

If you know a little one who's passionate about all things prehistoric, this Lego Creator set is just the right gift for them. The three-in-one set comes with all the blocks needed to build a triceratops, T. rex or pterodactyl. It also comes with detailed instructions for assembling the dinos and is designed for kids between 7 and 12 years.

National Geographic Science Magic Kit

This exciting science kit offers the best of both worlds by combining magic tricks with chemistry experiments. It's got everything you need to conduct 20 unique science experiments that double as magic tricks. Kids can create square bubbles, make snow appear out of nowhere, change the color of water or make a coin float. The detailed guide features kid-friendly instructions for each experiment as well as fascinating facts and insight into the science at work.

Razor E100 Electric Scooter

Electric scooters are more popular than ever right now, with more traditional ones taking a back seat. This model from Razor hits the sweet spot between price, performance and power, especially for younger riders. It can go up to 10 mph, which is fast enough to be thrilling but not too fast for young kids. The scooter comes in a wide variety of colors, so you can find one that suits your style. It also features a hand-operated front brake and twist-grip acceleration controls.

Elenco Snap Circuits Junior

The Snap Circuits Junior kit is a great way to introduce kids as young as seven to the world of electrical energy in a safe and fun way. This kit includes 30 color-coded parts and user-friendly instructions to help kids build up to 100 different electrical projects, including simple light switches, clap-activated music circuits, a flashing light and an adjustable volume siren. All of the parts in this kit snap together without the need for tools or soldering, making it safe for kids to use either by themselves or with minimal supervision.

Franklin Sports Blackhawk Portable Soccer Goal

This portable soccer goal brings soccer action to any backyard or training field in a matter of seconds. Fun and easy to both set up and pack away, this goal is perfect for one kid or a crowd. It's also exceptionally durable and weather-resistant, making it ideal for frequent action. All you need to do is add a soccer ball , and you're ready for nonstop fun. This one's super light as well and comes in four sizes.

Melissa & Doug World Map Floor Puzzle

Map puzzles can help children learn and remember their geography. This floor puzzle comes with 33 easy-to-assemble puzzle pieces and is a wonderful way to teach kids some basic geography. It lets your 7-year-old explore the world while learning the location, names and shapes of all the continents and major oceans. Designed in a wildlife theme, it also depicts what kind of animals live on each of the continents.

Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad

This tracing pad makes the perfect gift for young and budding artists. The kit comes with over 100 traceable images that children can mix and match to create their own designs, plus the backlight makes tracings easy to see, no matter the setting. It also comes with all the art supplies kids need, including a graphite pencil, colored pencils, tracing sheets and blank paper.

"A Quick History of the Universe" by Clive Gifford

If you know a little person with a love for reading or a passion for space, this cleverly illustrated book takes a whistle-stop tour of the universe, starting with the Big Bang and bringing us right up to the present day. It's packed with fun cartoons and facts and tackles complex concepts and mysteries of the universe in a simple and concise way.

Mattel Games Blokus

Blokus is a fantastic strategy game for the whole family. It takes less than a minute to learn and offers fun challenges for all age groups. Each player takes turns placing their pieces on the board, and each piece must touch another of the same color, but only at the corners. The game teaches young kids the art of strategy and critical thinking while building and developing their spatial reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Hola Music Soprano Ukulele Bundle

If your child enjoys music, the ukulele is one of the best string instruments for young kids to learn. It's not just perfect for their little hands but also a fairly easy way to enter the world of music or get started with their music lessons. This starter pack is well-priced for beginners and offers two free months of uke lessons, a strap, a tote bag and several picks. It also comes in a variety of bright colors so that kids can pick a favorite.

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Problem-Solving Skills

Problem-solving skills involve the ability to identify a problem and apply a systematic solution to solve it. Some toys are designed to equip young girls through the act of play with the capacity to think outside of the box when confronted with a dilemma. Creatto Light-Up Crafting Kit is such a toy. Toys that require persistence often induce kids to keep improvising until an issue is resolved.

Cause and Effect

We highly recommend toys that perpetuate the simple laws of cause and effect. Check out Liberty Imports Archery Bow and Arrow for such a toy. These kinds of toys instill the life lesson that actions bring change. It shows children early on that they can be directly responsible for their lives and the world around them.

Parents often devote a good deal of time and energy to teaching their girls about compromise and fairness. Lil’ Gleemerz Adorbrite Figure is one of the toys in our list that can help reinforce the importance of negotiation, taking turns, and dealing with disappointment.

Motor Skills

Arts and craft toys are great for helping girls develop fine motor skills because kids learn to use their fingers to fit the pieces together. We have a wonderful toy like that in this list Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad . Excellent motor skills prepare kids for more complex challenges in the future.

Creativity and Imagination

LEGO Friends Olivia’s Cupcake Café Building Kit is a creative girls’ toy. An active imagination empowers children to think “outside the box" and to imagine unusual solutions and resolutions to problems and conflicts. Look for toys that empower your girls to bank on their thoughts, feelings, and ideas, thereby boosting her creative prowess

The following are top-rated picks of the best toys for girls within the 7-year-old age bracket. The products that made this list are more than just cute and entertaining toys. The best toys should be healthy, engaging, induce curiosity, encourage interaction/cooperation, teach and reinforce values. We considered all of these factors while building this list.

Top 20 Best Toys for 7-Year-Old Girls 2024

1. crayola light-up tracing pad.

Every kid- boy or girl- loves experimenting with drawing. If encouraged, drawing is one of children’s favorite pastimes that can grow with them. Kids love practicing their drawing skills with coloring pens and storybooks, and then graduate to drawing on the computer as they get older.

Crayola’s Light Up Tracing Pad is an interactive tablet that can be used for coloring and tracing. The toy is designed to motivate girls to express the art in them with a graphite pencil, 12 short colored pencils, ten tracing sheets, and ten blank sheets.

While the manufacturer recommends this toy for kids 6-years and older, many customers testify that Crayola’s Light Up Tracing Pad is useful even for adults and kids younger than six. However, due to the risk of swallowing the small parts, this toy set is not recommended for children younger than 3-years-old.

The Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad features more than 100 traceable images to inspire creativity and there are more free downloadable templates online.

The tablet is ultra-thin with bright LED lights that give kids the freedom of drawing in the dark. The package includes every art tool a child needs to create her masterpiece, whether from scratch on a blank sheet or from one of the many traceable sheets that come with the device.

2. LEGO Friends Olivia’s Cupcake Café Building Kit

Girls that are interested in baking will enjoy role-playing with the LEGO Friends Olivia’s Cupcake Café Building Kit. The kit is packed with inventive gadgets, which include LEGO Friends Emma, LEGO Friends Andrea, a Zobo robot figure, a rotating cupcake server, a cupcake-dispensing machine, a mini play kitchen, a removable table and chairs, and 335 pieces.

With this toy, kids can do everything from erecting the perfect cupcake café to making cupcake deliveries around the tiny town of Heartlake City on a little scooter included in the kit. There’s even a cupcake vending machine for customers on the go, and two dining areas for eat-in diners. Role-playing encourages kids to use their imagination, and this is one of the best role-playing toys we can recommend for 7-year-old girls.

3. J Mark Kids Art Set

J Mark’s Kid Kids Art Set is an excellent painting kit for beginners. It is a disservice to classify this art set as no more than a children’s painting toy. The set is suitable for beginners- children or adults.

Painting allows boys and girls to communicate their feelings and emotions using different color themes. Give your girl a shot at art with this brilliant girl-themed painting kit. The paints are made with non-toxic chemicals that conform to ASTM D4236 Standards .

Painting helps build your kid’s hand-eye coordination and motor skills. A 2017 publication by Harvard Medical School states expressing yourself through art has been linked to improved memory, reasoning, and resilience in healthy older people. So, children who frequently engage in creative outlets such as painting will have less chance of developing memory loss later in life.

One of the highlights of J. Mark’s kids’ art set is the high quality of the paints. Each of the paints contains 12 mL or 0.4 fluid ounces of vibrant colors that help prevents fading. Also, not only are the paints 100% non-toxic, they’re acrylic and washable with a scratch-free easel.

4. My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things is a special book brimming with knowledge for your curious child. Shortlisted for the School Library Association Information Book Award and the Best Children’s Book in the Junior Design Awards, respectively, the book has plenty of facts in colorful illustrations about the planets, people, animals, and just about everything else.

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things is one of a series of educational My Encyclopedias on subjects such as planets, people, dinosaurs, and so on. The book is bound in a padded cover to weather kid-handling and has a ribbon bookmark for easy reference. We dare say there are two different types of parents; those who get their kids My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things, and those who don’t.

5. Botley the Coding Robot Activity Set

Botley the Coding Robot is a STEM toy by Learning Resources designed to introduce early learners to computer programming. Like Artie 3000 EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS on our list, Botley is a cute little robot that teaches early learners the basics of coding. But one of the features that makes Botley stand out is that it offers advanced coding logic that keeps on par with the improving skill of the learner. In other words, Botley will grow with your little girl before she eventually outgrows him.

These days, coding is standard basic literacy that no child should miss out on. More so, coding encourages creativity, math skills, communication, and even writing. Botley is an interactive toy but not app-based, thereby eliminating the need to connect to a computer or download an app.

We recommend Botley as every girl’s coding buddy to help her develop problem-solving skills while having fun. The robot comes with plenty of fun and games to stimulate a child’s intellect.

Your child can program the two-wheeled robot to do things by entering a code on the remote that comes with Botley. This is a fun way to teach kids the basics of algorithms, loops, and debugging, which are standard coding concepts.

Learning the basics of coding helps young minds understand how things work. The set includes a remote programmer, detachable robot arms, 40 coding cards, six double-sided tiles, 27 obstacle building pieces, and a starter guide with coding challenges.

6. Lil' Gleemerz Adorbrite Figure

Lil’ Gleemerz are interactive animals that are adorable and full of smart phrases. You can switch between 3 modes- hangout, party, and game mode, and three games when in game mode. This toy is so much fun and hard to resist.  Each little creature has several touchpoints that generate different responses when touched.

She understands when her forehead is kissed or when you rub her hair.  Parents are often turned off by the annoying sounds similar interactive toys make, but the Lil’ Gleemerz Adorbrite has a very cute voice that quickly wins over the parent and the child.

The bright lights in the tail keep children interested. With over a hundred reactions to coax out of her, there’s so much about this toy that it needs a guidebook (which isn’t included). The cute little thing actually sounds sad when the battery starts to die. Get two or more of them and they can interact with each other. What kind of creature is she? A lemur, we think.

7. VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX

The VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch is essentially a camera watch that tells time. Get your 7-year-old daughter this wearable tech to bring out the photographer in her. Among other things like the calculator and calendar features, the watch can help make kids health-conscious with its stopwatch feature. The Kidizoom smartwatch is made with durable materials, has a touchscreen, and is fun for kids to use.

This DX smartwatch comes preloaded with fun games so kids do not need to be connected to the internet to use it unless you wish to download more games and apps online. There are three built-in games to keep young girls occupied, together with an alarm clock, a timer, and a step counter. There is even a voice recording feature with 5 voice-changing tricks.

As far as smartwatches for kids go, this is the best. A free USB cable for recharging the watch and to upload photos/videos are included in the pack, and there are four colors of the KidiZoom watch for you to choose from.

8. LET'S GO! Bluetooth Karaoke Microphone

Yes, there are plenty of children’s karaoke machines on the market but LET’S GO! Wireless Portable Handheld Karaoke Microphone stands out from the crowd due to its extra features.

The microphone has a fun theme, is stylish, and is manufactured from durable materials that give it a premium build and look. How does a budget karaoke machine with noise-canceling technology, powerful sound, and Bluetooth connectivity sound to you?

The LET’S GO! Karaoke Microphone comes with an array of buttons embedded on it so that kids can get creative adjusting the echo, the volume, and the overall music. This toy promises a lot of fun and satisfaction as girls work on their confidence level while practicing to become the next Adele. The set connects with any Bluetooth-enabled device and works across Apple iOS and Android devices.

9. Creatto Light-up Craft Puzzle

Boys love building things; so do girls. Thames and Kosmos made this fantabulous building kit with special appeal to girls. If there was ever a toy to help girls hone their building skills, Creatto Light-Up Crafting Kit by Thames and Kosmos is it.

Made with quality but flexible plastic tiles that interlock faster and easier to produce LED-lighted 3D creations, kids will have fun stretching their imagination while working with this activity kit. Girls can create models like an elephant, fox, kangaroo, lantern, or whatever they imagine.

The kit has just two building components that can be woven together to form whatever the builder fancies. An illustrated handbook with a step-by-step guide is included to help kids build what they want. The guide also has a QR feature. Scan it with your mobile device to view video tutorials that will take you through the whole process so you can see where each piece goes when building any of the models.

Kids can show off their creativity in the form of bedroom décor. This crafting kit is all about creativity.

10. EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS Artie 3000

The Artie 3000 from Educational Insight is a brilliant STEM toy designed to introduce kids to coding. If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “girls can code,” then you know that the earlier kids get started with coding, the better. Artie 3000 is a coding robot that is perfect for play, classrooms, or homeschooling.

The future is already here, and it is leaning heavily on technology- AI (Artificial Intelligence) particularly. Artie is very efficient at making coding fun learning for beginners.

This toy is useful for kids and adult beginners as well. It works by steering you to design code, and Artie 3000 connects the lines to bring the work to life. The toy has an inbuilt Wi-Fi server which means girls can safely code without an internet connection. However, you will need a tablet or computer to control Artie.

More so, it uses a browser interface for control, which means there’s no need to worry about OS compatibility. You can download more codes on Artie’s website to boost your Python and JavaScript coding skills.

11. LOL SURPRISE! Glitter Globe Doll Winter Disco Series

Girls are naturally obsessed with LOL dolls. The Glitter Globe Winter Disco Series involves collecting the surprise globes until you have all 12 LOL Lils and Fluffy Pets. When you have a full collection, you can stack the dolls up in their balls to build the Snow B.B.

The experience of collecting and opening LOL dolls can be a lot of fun both for the parent and the child. Kids experience a rush of excitement as they unwrap the balls to reveal the surprise inside. Unfortunately, there’s the chance that you might get identical collections with each purchase.

Dolls allow kids to learn from their mistakes by making mistakes. Dolls encourage empathy and help kids learn to interact with others. LOL makes really cute dolls, and kids love the “LOL Surprise" of not knowing what they’ve got in the ball. The Lil Pets need to have their fuzz washed off with water to reveal a different color. The dolls are so cute, and you never know if your first purchase will have the rarest of the doll collection.

12. Liberty Imports Archery Bow and Arrow

Archery is a sport that engages the mind and body. It helps build muscle strength and hand-eye coordination, not to speak of the increased confidence that comes with practice. This Liberty Imports Light Up Archery set may be a toy, but it works like a real bow and arrow.

The set comes with three suction cup arrows for a safe landing, a shooting target, and a quiver to stow the arrows. The toy can be used indoors or outdoors. The bow glows with LED flashing light that adds to the “cool” factor, and the arrows themselves (there are five arrows in the set) are beautifully detailed.

This is a great toy to help kids develop sharper eyesight, build confidence, and improve concentration. The wall-mounted target board is smaller than the standard size, but it still has the correct numbering for standard dartboards.

This toy may not have been made with the most durable materials, but the price is light on your wallet and the design looks and feels rugged. If you have girls six years and older who would like to be the next Katniss Everdeen, Liberty Imports Light Up Archery Bow and Arrow Toy Set is the most fun toy we recommend for her.

13. FunzBo Snap Pop Beads

FunzBo Snap Pop Beads for Girls is a kit of colorful plastic beads that kids can have fun making jewelry with. This toy gives kids the creative freedom of working with their hands, and it might just inspire your 7-year-old’s interest in fashion.

The boost of confidence and satisfaction kids gain from actually wearing the jewelry design they crafted with their own hands is worth every penny spent on buying this toy. This is an excellent DIY jewelry making kit for young girls (and boys).

Ranging from headbands to bracelets to rings- kids can make a plethora of different kinds of jewelry from the 520-piece assortment of Snap Pop beads in the Funzbo Jewelry Kit. The pieces are surprisingly good quality that holds well together and pulls apart nicely. There’s no need to string the pieces together. They snap up easily.

The storage box may be smaller than you expect, but all the pieces fit nicely back into the case every time your child is done playing with them. Besides, the small size of the box means it won’t take up much space on your shelf. This is a great toy that helps kids get creative and build motor skills while having fun.

14. Alex Craft My First Sewing Kit

The projects- pouch, dog, book cover, elephant, and multicolored clothes- show this sewing kit is meant as much for boys as it is for girls. A research study by the National Association for the Education of Young Children shows that gender-neutral toys are better at helping kids in all aspects of human development. Use Alex Craft My First Sewing Kit to get your child started with a lifetime skill.

As the name implies, while this sewing kit is awesome for beginners, it may not be the best for people with advanced tailoring skills. The kit comes with two needles, 28 felt shapes, a plastic thimble, eight colors of embroidery floss, scissors, measuring tape, and more. There’s also a simple instruction manual to help kids take on basic sewing projects.

Every material needed for making each of the projects are in the kit. The pieces come in a carry case that closes securely and has a handle for sewing on the go. Bring out the designer and seamstress in your 7-year-old with this award-winning sewing kit by Alex Craft.

15. Monobeach Princess Tent

Kids love building a personal space. Maybe what makes them love it is the craving for privacy, or the feeling of security, or both. Monobeach Princess Tent is a big upgrade from the usual tents and blanket forts we grew up with. The tent is easy to set up, which means girls will spend more time playing princess and less time putting the tent up.

The poles are made from PVC, so they may not hold up nicely against rough-playing kids. The tent can comfortably fit as many as four toddlers at a time. The design and pink color are very girly, and the twinkling star lights around the tent reinforce the princess flair.

The PVC poles are sturdy enough to make the Monobeach Princess Tent a great children’s toy for indoor and outdoor use. Together with the fabric, the set comes with the poles, the star lights, and a set of batteries, including an assembly instruction manual to help make setting up the tent a breeze.

Made from polyester taffeta, the fabric is wear-resistant and easy to clean. On the whole, we recommend this toy as a beautiful house for little princesses.

16. My First Princess Make-up Kit

Pretend makeup kits like FoxPrint’s, under adult supervision, can be remarkably vital to a girl’s development. Every girl is going to ask about makeup, and that time may be sooner than expected. If you are looking to get your daughter(s) a makeup set, we recommend FoxPrint’s My First Makeup Kit.

This is a washable but real 12-pieces makeup set for kids. The kit includes a glitter lip gloss and two additional lip gloss, two lipstick, eye shadow, two nail polish, eyebrow pencil, three brushes, and a designer Princess cosmetic bag. Look no further for the proper toy to foster mother/daughter bonding.

17. I Am Confident, Brave & Beautiful: A Coloring Book for Girls

We love coloring books, and this one is particularly very empowering. I Am Confident, Brave, And Beautiful was authored by Hopscotch, a media company that is all about empowering girls to be the best they can be. This is an innovative coloring book designed to spark creativity, imagination, and build confidence.

The book is artfully illustrated to inspire girls to think outside the box and encourage meaningful conversations between kids and adults.

This book is a STEM learning tool with 20 coloring pages. As kids take their time to make sure their coloring stays within the lines, they build focus and a more patient spirit. Kids also reinforce their value using the self-affirmation on each page.

It can never be too early in a girl’s life to read the messages contained in this book. The affirmations in this book will put children in touch with their intrinsic qualities. Get your kid the My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things , and get her this book too.

18. 6KU Kids Scooter

Child-friendly scooters are one of the best outdoor toys for children. It is a fun way for kids to engage in outdoor physical exercise. There are many kid scooter brands in the market, but the 6KU Kids Kick foldable scooter stands out on several fronts. It sports a handlebar that can be adjusted between 26 to 30 inches to fit the rider’s height, which means you don’t have to worry about kids outgrowing them soon.

Another highlight of the 6KU Kick scooter is its Lean-to-Steer mechanism that helps children take curves in any direction by moving their body weight to the left or right without losing their balance. In addition to the three-wheel design, the deck is wide for easy access and a stable ride. Made with high-density plastic, kids can easily lift their 6KU Kick scooter, and it is built to be durable enough to weather regular use. More of its features include 3 LED lights on the wheels and a fast and reliable braking system.

19. ATOPDREAM Moon Star Projector Light for Kids

This cool lamp by ATOPDREAM fills the room with captivating heavenly bodies. The lamp projects the constellation onto the ceiling and walls. The stars and the moon are not stationary but keep moving around. This lamp fills a room with a warm and soothing night sky that makes bedtime a relaxing adventure, no matter the weather outside.

The “wow” factor is guaranteed the first time you turn on this lamp, washing the ceiling and walls with its enchanting constellations. It has two different light modes- starry sky mode and night light mode- and can automatically switch between multiple colors.

The top is covered with a detachable dome that can be used as a standalone light. The lamp can be powered with 4 AAA batteries or via a USB charger. This is a fantastic product that induces relaxation and helps get kids thinking about nature and the universe.

20. Disney Frozen Series Kids Watch

The Walt Disney Company is a much-loved global brand that is magical to young girls. For a 7-year-old who is confident she can tell time on an analog watch, what better brand to cement her pride than a Disney watch? Children typically start learning to read a clock at the age of six. To help them learn to tell time faster, get them a model with bold and clear numbers. This Elsa-themed Disney watch is just the right wristwatch with such features.

Unsurprisingly, the design is cute and girly. The watch’s face features the beloved Elsa of Arendelle from the movie Frozen and has bold numbers around the outer ring to help younger girls learn to tell time faster. Its strap is adjustable velcro, with a nice little extra piece that keeps the band gentle on her skin.

The watch is advertised as water-resistant up to 99 feet, although wearing it in the shower or while swimming is not recommended. If you are looking for the best analog watch for your Frozen-obsessed daughter, look no further than this Disney Kids’ Watch.

The Perfect Toy for Your 7-Year-Old Girl

At this point, we believe you are all set to pick the best toys on the market for your little girl. There’s no such thing as a perfect toy, but if what it offers more than compensates for where it is lacking, then you should consider going for it. We think you should make sure to surround your kids with a lot of different toys to give them a complete experience.

60 Thoughtful Gift Ideas for 7-Year-Olds

TheToyZone is an independent publication with no ties with companies mentioned on the site. We don’t accept free products in exchange for glowing reviews. Instead, we report our own findings to help you make an informed decision.

Here are four reasons you should trust us:

• We love our kids as much as you love yours, so we would never recommend a toy or gift we wouldn’t feel comfortable buying ourselves.
• We know kids can get obsessed with characters or types of toys. That is why we build lists around these 'obsessions' to inspire kids to try different types of play, fuelled by what they love the most.
• We are a team of independent reviewers. We don’t accept freebies sent by toy or gaming companies in exchange for a 5-star review.
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7-year-olds may still be little creatures, but the cognitive advances happening around this age can make them seem like mini-adults. They can suddenly do many things for themselves that they previously required help and want to demonstrate their new independence and knowledge whenever possible. I still remember the need to read aloud every sign I saw on the way to school and the importance of tying my shoelaces!

At age 7, kids’ ability to understand things like logical reasoning and cause and effect increases exponentially, so they love toys that challenge their problem-solving and instruction-following  skills, such as LEGO and science kits. At the same time, they still have very active imaginations, so role-playing toys and creative activities will still be a big hit.

Although most 7-year-olds fall into the same developmental stage, kids at this age are beginning to assert their independence. This means that a gift that causes one 7-year-old to jump for joy may inspire total indifference in another. That’s why I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible and provide you with a list with something in it for every 7-year-old. 

And as my selection is based on extensive research, you can be sure that whatever you choose will be a high-quality gift that does what it says on the tin! I’ve got a lot of fantastic gifts to show you, from coding robots comic books to 3D coloring puzzles to Barbie cars, so let’s not waste any more time and dive right in!

Gifts for Gamers

1. game & watch: super mario bros (nintendo).

If you grew up in the ‘80s or ‘90s, you might remember the Nintendo Game & Watch console. Well, it’s back, baby, but with an LCD screen and precision control revamp! While this is great for a nostalgic adult, kids also love the games’ simple fun and the console’s portability. And if you’re not ready to get them their own Switch yet, this is a great alternative!

2. Into the Game! (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #1)

Minecraft is a great way for kids to practice their creativity and spatial reasoning skills, but too much time spent staring at the screen isn’t ideal. So, lure them away from their onscreen adventures with this Minecraft adventure in the form of a book! The Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles follows five young Minecraft players who are transported into the game, where they must use what they’ve learned to survive.

3. Belkin SoundForm Mini – Wireless Bluetooth Headphones for Kids with Built in Microphone

Whether your kiddo likes to game on an iPad, PC or Switch, chances are the games aren’t silent. This wireless headphones set lets kids have game time without bothering everyone else, especially in tight spaces like the car. Featuring a comfy fit, kid-friendly controls and a safe maximum listening volume, these headphones are made with children in mind.

Gifts for LEGO Builders

4. lego creator 3in1 deep sea creatures 31088.

LEGO is an excellent gift for a 7-year-old as it offers layers of fun, from the building to the playing to the destroying and construction of something new. This set is perfect for ocean lovers, consisting of three deep sea creature builds! Once they’ve made the shark with his crabby friend, they can take this apart and build a giant squid or anglerfish with the same pieces.

5. LEGO Jurassic World Carnotaurus Dinosaur Chase 76941

More into dinos than sea creatures? Then check out this fantastic Jurassic World-themed set. This set is excellent as it offers many opportunities for play, including a pickup truck, a helicopter with a spinning propeller and, of course, a gigantic Carnotaurus figure! The set also comes with 3 minifigs representing characters from the movie, so it’s sure to set kids’ imaginations ablaze.

6. LEGO City Space Mars Research Shuttle 60226

What’s that common refrain you hear from almost half of all kids? “When I grow up, I wanna be an astronaut!” This set is perfect for kids as it lets them build a Mars research shuttle, a Mars rover, a heliborne and a storage drone. There’s everything kids need to perform their essential Mars research and return home as astronaut heroes!

Gifts for Kids Who Love Stuffed Animals

7. warmies microwavable french lavender scented plush sloth.

By age 7, your kiddo probably has a wide range of teddies and plushies, but do they have a sloth? More importantly, do they have a plushie that keeps them warm? This microwavable plush sloth is the perfect bedtime companion, especially for kids who get chilly at night. This sleepy guy is made from cotton and filled with all-natural grain and lavender-scented for a soothing night!

8. TeeTurtle – The Original Reversible Octopus Plushie

This Toy of the Year winner is unique, cuddly and adorable. It’s a plump and squishy octopus plush that turns inside out to reveal another octo in a different color with a different expression on its face. So you can decide whether to cuddle the grumpy or friendly version! And with so many cute designs, there’s something here for everyone.

9. Fingerlings HUGS Kiki

Everyone loves to hug their plushies, but this plushie hugs you back! Not only that, but Fingerlings also react to you in various ways, making sounds from kisses and laughs to burps and toots to even repeating what you say. Kiki is a sparkly purple monkey Fingerling, and she’s ready to hug it out, swing around and become your new best friend.

Gifts for Marvel Fans

10. mattel games uno ultimate marvel card game.

It’s always a good idea to bring a pack of UNO cards, whether waiting at the doctor’s office, the airplane boarding gate, or simply hanging out at the park. This version is perfect for Marvel fans as you play as one of your favorite superheroes. While the mechanics are mostly the same, each hero plays with special rules and powers in their deck!

11. Marvel Battleworld: Series 1 Mega Pack

From the creators of Funko Pop comes Marvel Battleworld, a cooperative, collectible adventure game centered around the characters that make the Marvel Universe what it is. As you play, you’ll crack open the mysterious Thanostones to reveal the characters inside, who may help you finally defeat Thanos! And once you’re done playing, you’ll have a fabulous collection of mini Funko-style Marvel figures.

12. Marvel Hasbro Super Hero Mashers Battle Mash Collection Pack

Are your spidey senses tingling? Perhaps they’re telling you it’s time for a game of Spiderman-themed Connect 4. It’s the classic strategy game we all know and love, but this time, you’re battling it between Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Try to get four disks in a row and find out if good or evil prevails this time.

Gifts for Barbie Fans

13. barbie color reveal glitter hair swaps doll.

The Color Reveal Barbie is an excellent gift for kids who love surprises. When you open the box, Barbie is glittery all over, but when she’s immersed in warm water, the glitter will swirl off to reveal a surprise outfit! Then it’s time to get to the salon to try some of the hair pieces from the mystery packages, which can also be mixed and matched with her pet friend.

14. Barbie Extra Toy Car with Fashion Accessories & Puppy

Barbie Extra isn’t like a regular Barbie – she’s trendy, over the top and just a little extra! This sparkly silver car is just extra enough, with its wing doors, star-shaped headlights and rainbow rims. Of course, the car has some extra fashion pieces that can hang on the pop-up clothing rack, plus a stylish corgi puppy with its own pet pool area at the back. 

15. MEGA Barbie Dreamhouse (with Color Reveal)

If you like the idea of a color reveal but want to go big, why not get this Mega Barbie Dreamhouse with five color reveal micro-dolls? The micro-dolls are super cute and perfect for this brick-built Dreamhouse with modular rooms that can be mixed and matched however you like! With all there is to build and play with, this house is where fun never stops.

Gifts for Kids Who Love the Outdoors

16. blast pad rocket launcher.

Kids love jumping on stuff, so why not lean in and let them launch some rockets as they do so? This rocket launcher is the perfect yard toy that allows kids to burn off some energy while having an absolute blast. Simply place the rocket on the stand, stomp on the Blast Pad and watch the rocket soar into the sky! Can you get it to 200 feet?

17. Kidwinz Original Compact 8×21 Kids Binoculars Set

This binoculars set from Kidwinz is the perfect gift for curious kids who love to spot birds and animals and see the world in a new way. With its soft rubber eye guards, durable construction and focus wheel that’s easy to use, this is built for kids. But it’s also a genuine, high-quality set of binoculars that offers 8X magnification!

18. Chalk & Chuckles Scavenger Hunt Game

Kids who dream of traveling the world will love this geography trivia game. Scavenger Hunt combines classic games like Charades, taboo and odd to create an epic game with exciting facts about worldwide countries. Accommodating almost any number of players, this is a fun and versatile game that’s great for game night, road trips, birthday parties and more!

Gifts for Kids Who Love Tech & Gadgets

19. wonder workshop dash – coding robot.

Meet Dash – the adorable robot companion that can teach your kid how to code. Using a free companion app, kids can program Dash to sing, dance, navigate obstacles, respond to voice commands and more. The app will take them through simple learning challenges that translate into actions by Dash in real-time and they will adore their new little robot friend!

20. Obuby Walkie-Talkies

Walkie-talkies are a fun way to play with friends and siblings, especially for kids too young to have unrestricted smartphone access. It allows them to stay connected across the house and yard, which leads to a world of roleplay possibilities. What’s great about this option is that it comes with three walkie-talkies featuring a flashlight and a safety alarm system.

Gifts for Boardgame Players

21. taco vs burrito card game.

Normally, you’re not supposed to play with your food, but this card game created by a 7-year-old encourages it. In Taco vs. Burrito, players pick, play and discard cards to craft the most valuable meal with weird and wonderful ingredients like hot yogurt and gummy bears. It’s hilarious and quick to play but also surprisingly strategic  — watch out for those tummy ache cards!

22. Connect 4 Board Game

We had a Spiderman version of Connect 4 earlier, but this is it if you want the OG classic version. Connect 4 may seem simple, but it’s highly engaging for kids’ developing brains as it challenges their problem-solving skills at just the right level. This edition also includes a pop-out feature that you can use to eject disks to make the game more complex and devious! 

23. Kids Create Absurdity

On the one hand, “kids create absurdity” is simply a true statement; on the other, it’s a hilarious award-winning game that will have the whole family rolling around in stitches. It’s a cross between a child-friendly Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples, so it’s all about filling in the blanks to create hilarious sentences – and occasionally clucking like a chicken! 

Gifts for RC Drivers

24. air hogs super soft, flippin’ frenzy rc car.

You could get an RC car that drives in a straight line or have a flippin’ excellent time with the Flippin’ Frenzy! This car flips over to reveal a different design and can do 360-degree turns and more insane stunts. And no matter how fast or intense the actions are, it won’t cause any damage thanks to the lightweight design and super soft tires.

25. VATOS STEM RC Building Toy

What’s cooler than an RC car that can do stunts? Maybe for your kiddo, it’s a race car that they build themselves out of bricks and mechanical pieces. Once built, it’s a sleek, detailed racing car with flexible rotating parts that move quickly when controlled via the RC. This 2-in-1 toy is both an educational activity and a speedy RC racer suitable for outdoor use!

26. Nintendo Luigi Mini Anti-Gravity Rc Racer

Does your kid love RC cars and the Super Mario Bros? If so, they’ll love bringing Mario Kart to life with this Luigi anti-gravity RC racer. With this little car, you can race in standard mode or flip into anti-gravity mode, just like in the video game. For the best Mario Kart experience, get a Mario version and race your friends!

Gifts for Music Lovers

27. jbl jr pop – waterproof portable bluetooth speaker.

Kids love music as much as adults, but most speakers aren’t designed with them in mind. That’s not the case for the colorful JBL JR POP, a compact Bluetooth speaker with a kid-friendly design and a strap they can attach to their backpack. This little speaker is ultra-portable, challenging to lose, durable and waterproof. You can even get cute stickers to customize its face!

28. Paxcess Electronic Drum Set

This electronic drum set truly has it all. It allows kids to rock out and let loose, but if you connect headphones, they can do it in their own world. And although it’s technically a toy, it is laid out like a drum set with foot pedals! But unlike an actual drum set, it is compact and easy to roll up and take anywhere.

29. VTech KidiStar DJ Mixer Black

If you think your little rocker would prefer mixing tracks to playing percussion, this kid-friendly DJ mixer is probably right up their alley. This DJ turntable lets kids mix tracks, record their own samples and sound effects to lay over them and more. It’s also got some fun rhythm games to help them hone their skills and lighting effects for when they’re ready to start the party!

Gifts for Puzzle Fans

30. fat brain toys f2002 jixelz up in the air.

Jixels are technically tiny jigsaw pieces, but the creations they lead to look more like beautifully detailed and slightly pixelated cutout images. What’s great about Jixels is that while you can follow one of the templates, you can also get creative and design your own weird or beautiful images. This set includes 5 templates of flying things and 1,500 pieces for infinite fun!

31. BEARUN 3D Coloring Puzzle Set

This is another creative take on the puzzle concept, expanding it into 3D. This puzzle set includes all the pieces and instructions for five large 3D puzzles, including a butterfly, a T-rex, the Eiffel Tower and more. What makes this set a step above is that you can also color the pieces for beautifully kaleidoscopic and creative results!

32. Melissa & Doug Solar System Floor Puzzle

For a more traditional puzzle, you could go for this 48-piece one from Melissa & Doug that depicts our beautiful solar system. One thing that’s not so traditional is that it is 2×3 feet in size, making it very striking and accessible for kids who struggle with fine motor coordination. It also features an easy-to-clean surface, protecting it from accidental spills.

Gifts for Little Scientists

33. awesome science experiments for kids.

Awesome Science Experiments offers kids a hands-on, accessible and wonder-inducing introduction to the world of science. The experiments all feature easy-to-follow steps, colorful photos and simple explanations of the processes at play. Kids will get to build things, make art and learn to think critically and employ the scientific method, all in a way that excites them and keeps them curious!

34. Educational Insights Circuit Explorer Rover Circuit for Kids

Circuits can seem complicated, but they’re just about making the right connections. The Circuit Explorer sparks kids’ imaginations and introduces them to the basics of circuit building without requiring them to touch any wires. Once the building is complete, kids will have a planet exploration set to play with, complete with a Space Rover, a communication station with a rotating radar dish, a power station and more!

35. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Microscope for Kids

Does your kid always want to look at things up close? If so, they need their own microscope. This one from National Geographic is designed for kids and features large focus knobs, a soft-touch eyepiece and a lab guide full of fun experiments. It also comes with six prepared plant slides, six rocks to examine up close and six blank slides to prepare with whatever you want!

Gifts for Sporty Kids

36. sport squad portable soccer goal net set.

All you need to play soccer is a ball, but goal nets make it feel more like the real deal, not to mention easier to keep track of scoring. This set is super lightweight and collapsible, making it perfect for bringing along to the beach, the park or on vacation. And whenever you feel like a game, they simply pop open.

37. Circle Society Classic Adjustable Roller Skates

These are the ideal roller skates for kids to learn on, thanks to their dual front brakes that help prevent falls. They are also very durable and feature smooth-rolling urethane wheels suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Plus, you can adjust the size as your little one’s feet grow! Kids will love zooming about on their skates, especially as they come in striking designs.

38. Kids Basketball Hoop with Stand

Basketball is a blast for all ages, but a full-sized hoop is a little out of reach for a 7-year-old. Although rated 8+, this one is pretty much the right size and as its height is adjustable, they’ll be able to use it for years to come. And don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s a toy — constructed out of heavy-duty steel, this thing is made to last!

Gifts for Bookworms

39. write on: my story journal: a creative writing journal for kids.

If your little one is showing the signs of being a budding storyteller, they’ll love Write On . This story journal is full of fun activities to bring out kids’ inner writers, from filling in the blanks to telling tall tales to learning the story behind their names. The activities range from personal to hilarious to downright ridiculous, but they’re all fun and get the creative juices flowing!

40. Dragonbreath #1

The hilarious Dragonbreath series by Ursula Vernon is a genius blend of comic book-style panels and traditional text. The comic sections make it less intimidating for young readers, but it’s still meaty enough to provide plenty of entertainment as a bedtime storybook. The first book introduces us to Danny, a dragon who can’t breathe fire but, on the plus side, can’t feel fear either!

41. First Cat in Space Ate Pizza: 1

First Cat in Space Ate Pizza goes complete comic book, so it’s great for kids who are outgrowing picture books but aren’t quite ready yet for purely text-based books. As the title suggests, the story is ridiculous in precisely the way that 7-year-olds love (think rats eating the moon and toenail-clipping robots) and features a unique and evocative art style, too.

Gifts for Young Artists

42. origami for beginners.

From simple snakes to complex creations, origami is for everyone and this is the perfect kit for introducing kids to the Japanese art of paper folding. The step-by-step illustrations make each project frustration-free and kids will soon be turning out everything from frogs to bunnies to swans. Plus, the patterned neon paper and included sticker embellishments make it extra fun!

43. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Rock Painting Kit

Does your little artist need a new type of canvas to paint on besides paper? Give rocks a try with this National Geographic rock painting kit. Kids have everything they need for creative fun with 15 rocks, 10 paint colors, transfer decals and many googly eyes. They can also follow the included tutorials to make rocks resembling snails and frogs.

44. Lulu Jr. My Comic Book Making Kit

We’ve shown you some great comic books for kids, but why not let them create their own? This kit includes everything kids need to write and illustrate their comic book pages, which they can mail using the pre-paid envelope and receive back as a professionally printed book! The kit also guides kids through creating their characters, panels, words and artwork so they don’t feel overwhelmed.

Gifts for Little Fashionistas

45. rainbow loom® loomi-pals™ mega set.

When I was a kid, there was an absolute craze for these things, and it looks like they’re back with a vengeance. With the Rainbow Loom and thousands of colorful bands, kids can have endless fun weaving rubber bracelets and embellishing them with adorable charms. These are the quintessential friendship bracelets that kids go wild for, so don’t blame me if you start a trend!

46. Make It Real: Fashion Design Sketchbook: Blooming Creativity

If your kiddo draws clothes every time they pick up colored pencils, perhaps they’re a mini fashion designer in the making. If so, they’ll love this fashion design sketchbook, which includes templates, a style guide, stickers and more. Of course, they can always go freestyle and create their own unique designs, but this book is excellent for providing fashion inspo!

47. Alex Spa Sketch and Sparkle Tattoo Pens Girls Fashion Activity

Let your body become your canvas with this awesome temporary tattoo kit. Unlike other temporary tattoos, you draw them with gel pens and stencils instead of pressing them on. This makes it a much more creative activity, and you can even draw freestyle if you like! It also means you can use the same design repeatedly after they wash off in the bath.

Gifts for Anime Lovers

48. skater kiki’s delivery service 2 tier round bento lunch box.

Everyone who has watched Kiki’s Delivery Service falls in love with her adorable black witch cat, Jiji. This little bento box is a great way to showcase your love of the movie and is super practical. Featuring two tiers and a fork that pops into the lid, it’s great for keeping foods separate. It’s also BPA-free and highly compact, though it fits a surprising amount!

49. Naruto 25-Piece Shoes Charms

Kids who wear Crocs love expressing their individuality by adorning them with shoe charms, and these Naruto-themed ones are guaranteed to make anime fans jump with joy. Well-made from quality materials, these will stay securely attached with no fuss. And with 25 awesome pins included, kids will love mixing and matching on any given day!

50. Pokemon Electronic & Interactive My Partner Eevee

If your kid loves Eevee or Pokemon in general, do not skip over this adorable interactive toy. This little Eevee companion makes sounds and movements and reacts to your voice and your touch! She’ll say hello back and react in up to 50 ways, which your little Pokemon trainer won’t get enough of.

Gifts for Young Photographers

51. sineau digital camera.

Tired of your kid constantly grabbing your phone to take pictures? Solve the problem by giving them their very own digital camera. This camera is kid-friendly, affordable, easy to use and difficult to break. It comes in three cute colors and offers features like fun frames to lay over your pics. And kids will love that they get free reign to play with it!

52. Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 Instant Camera

If you want to give your kids physical photos without the hassle of getting them developed, a Fujifilm Instax Mini is perfect. The automatic exposure makes it easy to use as there are no settings to fiddle with and kids will get a kick out of seeing their pictures print in real-time. Plus, they’ll end up with keepsakes to last a lifetime!

Gifts They Can Use in School

53. vaschy kids backpack.

Vaschy is your one-stop shop for kids’ backpacks that they can use for years. The wide range of cute designs means there’s bound to be something your little one will love and there are also two size options. Thanks to the chest strap, kids have a lot to carry around, so these offer a generous capacity without putting too much strain on their shoulders. 

54. THERMOS Funtainer Insulated Straw Bottle

A water bottle is a back-to-school essential, but so many of the options around these days leak or break within weeks. Not so the Funtainer from the trusted Thermos brand, built to last for years despite drops, dings and scrapes. It also features a hygienic-covered straw that simply pops open and keeps drinks nice and cold for up to 12 hours.

55. LIHIT LAB. Punilabo Stand Up Pencil Case

If your little one requires a new pencil case, consider this cute stand-up option. This genius pencil case stands up on its own and pushing it down on the bottom transforms it into a handy pen stand. Of course, kids will love the cute animal designs and you can choose from 10 different ones to get their favorite!

Gifts for Their Room

56. lumipets silicone nightlight.

A nightlight is a great way to help kids feel safe in the dark, especially when they’re as sweet and friendly-looking as this little polar bear. This cordless nightlight also has the benefit of being made of soft and safe silicone, so they can cuddle it if they like! The different color settings and sleep timer options are ideal for any occasion.

57. OUTREE Kids Hanging Seat Hammock, Cotton Child Swing Chair

Swinging is something all kids love to do and what’s great about this swing-cum-hammock is that it’s warm and comfy enough to just hang out in, too, mainly thanks to the included blow-up cushion. It’s also suitable for indoor and outdoor use, and as it only accommodates 100 lbs, it’s strictly not for mom and dad! 

58. Aooyaoo Glow in The Dark Stars Wall Stickers

Another magical way to softly illuminate your kid’s bedroom at night is with glow-in-the-dark star stickers. These enchanting wall stickers easily stick onto any flat surface; you can simply peel them off if you change your mind. Whether you want to recreate constellations or design your own shapes, you can lay them out wherever and however you please!

Gifts They Can Wear

59. meriwool kids’ beani.

Keep your kiddo’s head warm and cozy with this Merino wool ribbed knit beanie for kids. It is breathable and sweat-wicking and protects against wind, sleet and snow, so it’s perfect for getting active outdoors or simply for daily wear in winter. Plus, it’s one-size-fits-all design is so versatile that parents may even try to steal it!

60. Swatch Flik Flak STRIPY DREAMS Watch

If your kid has just learned to tell the time, they’ll love being able to do so all the time with this snazzy watch. As well as being super stylish, the Flik Flak watch from Swatch is also perfect for kids as it is shock-resistant, waterproof and even machine washable. Now they’ll have no excuse for not being ready in 15 minutes!

Frequently Asked Questions About 7-Year-Olds

🙋 what would 7-year-olds want for their birthday.

All 7-year-olds are different and probably have many things they love that you can use as inspiration for a gift. Maybe they’re into Pokemon, love rocks, or perhaps all about outer space – whatever it is, they’ll love a gift that fosters their interests.

More generally, 7-year-olds love to play with toys, whether it’s action figures, RC cars, or rocket blasters. They’re also at an age where their logical minds are developing fast, so games and activities that work those problem-solving muscles are a great option. 

At the same time, they still need outlets for their creativity and pent-up energy, so crafts and outdoor activities are also fantastic!

🙋 What should I expect from my 7-year-old?

At 7, your child is likely in first or second grade and is in a life phase where they’re like little information sponges. You can expect pretty speedy advances in cognitive ability, with kids starting to understand much longer sequences of  ideas and comprehend things like cause and effect. 

7-year-olds are also improving at social skills like sharing, but a stronger sense of their opinions can lead to more disagreements and fights . 

Kids still need a lot of guidance at this age, but letting them work things out for themselves is a good way to help them develop their abilities and self-confidence. At 7, they’re probably asking many questions, so don’t just shut this off, but engage with them when you can!

🙋 What are 7-year-olds learning?

7-year-olds are near the beginning of their elementary school journey and are going through exponential growth in learning in most subjects. In particular, their reading and writing skills are probably advancing, as well as their arithmetic skills. In addition, they are likely learning certain practical math skills, such as telling the time and units of measure. 

In science class, 7-year-olds probably learn about seasons, the human body and animal life cycles. Of course, learning doesn’t only happen at school and 7-year-olds are constantly building their understanding of the world based on the things they see around them.

So… What Gift Should You Get?

You’ll have to make that decision yourself because the best option for the 7-year-old in your life depends on their unique interests and obsessions. For example, are they a Minecraft-head , a LEGO-lover , a Barbie girl or boy , or mad about music ? If so, we’ve got you covered. You could also opt for a more practical gift if they need a new backpack or beanie for school. 

Did you end up picking something that wasn’t on this list? If so, let us know, and we might include it next time.

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