Thank you for KidStuff PR for sending me in touch a Maze O – a STEM Game for Kids and the Mighty Maze Maker, in exchange for my honest opinion.
I’m excited to show you all this amazing STEM game for kids that challenges the preschool mind to engage and problem solve all the while using their little minds to engineer and think creatively. The perfect STEM game to add to your collection at home.
I am a huge advocate of my toddler and preschooler playing with engaging toys that provoke thought and challenges for her to think through. STEAM activities for preschoolers is on the top of my list of things we do and from time to time I definitely love a good STEM game for kids too.
The moment my little one spotted this box sitting in our home she was excited to try it out! We opened up the box and I showed her how the pieces fit together and I let her explore. If you follow me through any of our STEAM Activities we do then you know I’m a huge advocate for letting them explore before we do. She immediately picked up on the pieces locking together to make a puzzle – at least that was her idea and perception. I let her go!
Then we started to use the handy- dandy picture cards to build an elephant…I of course had to direct her…but the latest fun she’s been having is making mazes on her own. We got a marble and would figure out how to get the marble out and if the piece was blocking her way etc. I looked over a bit ago and she had engineered a new maze and had gotten her “toy” orange (aka ball) from her kitchen and was pushing it through the maze. This child amazes me! I firmly believe we should give our preschoolers the means in which to use their imaginations to engineer, create and problem solve.
Thankfully some brilliant parents became inventors – Jessica and Daniel Friedman. These computer science and computer engineering pros used an early 3D printer to create pieces to form a maze for their son, as he was too young to correctly draw a paper maze. They called it Maze-O. What’s the ideal age for playing? Maze-O CEO Jessica Friedman replies, “young children, starting around age 2 can begin to put pieces together. By 3-4 years old they can be deliberate about forming passageways and branches that lead to dead-ends or to exits.
Maze-O can be found on Amazon:
The primary-colored tiles become ramps, turns, and branches as little fingers combine up to 52 pieces however they imagine. It’s an endless labyrinth of possibilities. Follow the activity cards, or strike out on your own. Then have action figures find their way out, or send a car on a dizzying drive! The whole family will be a-mazed!
If you are looking for additional reads and resources for teaching STEAM to your preschoolers be sure to check out this: Crazy Cool STEAM Resources
You can see more of our fun activities –> STEAM Activities for Preschoolers:
Coffee Filter Science Easy Experiment for Toddlers
Coding Activities for Preschoolers
We are a husband and wife team, pairing our strengths together to teach our preschooler in the most fun and engaging way we possibly can. The mister is a high school educator at Northlake Christian school in Covington Louisiana and over the Innovation Center, which is all things STEAM. I am a SAHM that blogs pretty much everything we do in our little paradise, from what we eat, to where we travel to how we teach our little one. We hope you are inspired to incorporate STEAM into learning with your children.
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