Within two weeks of the five-year-old starting kindergarten, our entire county switched to hybrid learning. The kids attend school two days a week and spend three days with home learning packets. I admire the dedication of the teachers who put together these packages, but our five-year-old is not a fan of worksheets. We decided to add enrichment activities with “hands-on” educational activities tailored to her interest in hopes of holding her interest. One strategy, scavenger hunts through local state and national parks is a hands-down favorite. We’ve also added educational toys to make learning fun. Here are 4 of the newest toys we’ve discovered for our hybrid schooling journey.

4 Toys To Help With Hybrid School

Magformers are a long-time favorite at our house. Their latest, the 61-piece Backyard Adventure set is another hit. These unique magnets are designed to “stick together” from all sides, making it easy for kids to design both flat and 3-D creations. This set, which includes several of the classic Magformers bases and magnets, along with furniture, a tree, and a boy, girl, and robot figure, is one our five-year-old never tires of playing. She sits for at least an hour absorbed in her building. That’s a serious testimony to the Magformers attraction as her attention span is minimal.

Because all Magformers sets are compatible, she can create large custom designs, like “mansions” and barns. She was thrilled to discover the flower lights up and includes it in all her creations. While she likes to “free-style” her projects, if you need building inspiration, an idea booklet is included. For anyone struggling to get your child interested in Stem Activities, Magformers offers quality, long-lasting products that truly are the “Intelligent Magnetic Construction Set for Brain Development.”

Science experiments are always a hit at our house. The downside of science experiments? Finding an experiment, then discovering we don’t have the necessary equipment and supplies. Thanks to Ooze Labs Big Box of Science from Thames and Kosmos, you’ll have everything you need to perform “Slippery, Slimy, Goopy, Oozy, Awesome Chemistry.” The set includes five test tubes, a rack to hold the tubes, and the ingredients for five experiments. The plastic tubes are big, sturdy, and ideal for little hands. They don’t break when dropped-a huge plus-and can be reused for other activities after the enclosed experiments are completed.

Experiments include
* Let it Snow– A special, non-toxic snow powder is combined with water to create a mixture that expands hundreds of times of the original size, producing a light and fluffy material resembling snow. 
*Let it glow! Create slime that stores light energy and later glows in the dark.
*Let it flow! Make oobleck — a mysterious oozy substance sort of like quicksand; rigid and solid when force is applied but runs like a liquid at other times. 
Let it grow! Use the crystal solution to grow a delicate crystal feather.
Let the colors show! Make color-changing slime that changes from green to blue depending on the temperature.

These easy-to-perform experiments use non-toxic materials and, although the set is designed for ages 6+, our five-year-old was able to do the experiments with adult help and supervision. A 20-page instruction manual expands the STEM fun with 10 additional experiment ideas that use common household materials.

If you’re a dessert lover or enjoy cooking, the Groovy Glowing Candy Lab by Thames and Kosmos is an awesome addition to any curriculum and a “sneaky” way to introduce STEM principles. Kids will explore chemistry, learning about mixtures, solutions, luminescence, and pigments, and physics, with lessons in lights and electromagnetic waves. This kit, created for ages 6+, was simple enough for the five-year-old to use with adult supervision.

We started our science lessons by preparing glowing gummy candy in one of their two new flavors, fruit punch. The gummies took a few minutes to create, were ready to eat after being refrigerated for 10 minutes, and tasted good. We continued our lesson by creating glowing ice cubes using the additional flavor packet, tropical pineapple. The secret behind the safe, natural glow? B-2, or riboflavin, which shines under the included blacklight flashlight.

The kit also contains a candy mold, and a 16-page booklet explaining the three experiments that can be prepared from the included ingredients along with others using at-home materials. Our next experiment will be glowing hard candy!

Fortune favors the bold. At least that’s the advice you need when playing Lost Cities Roll and Write Game. This game involves problem-solving and math skills to complete six expeditions and receive the highest number of points. Designed for ages 10 and up and two to five players, the concept is simple. Each player is given one game sheet (everyone also needs a pencil or pen, not included.) Players take turns rolling the 6 included dice (3 with the numbers 1 through 9 and 3 with special symbols.) The player who rolls the dice chooses one of the numbered dice and one of the symbol dice, records the score on his game sheet, and tries to advance to the top of the sheet.

The other four dice are placed in the middle of the table. Other players are allowed to choose their own combination in each round also, allowing the game to move at a fast pace. A short instruction manual explains the game in detail, including how to lead expeditions, how to refuse dice, and how to use the artifact box and bonus bridges. While it sounds complicated, the instructions are easy to follow. (If you are a visual learner, several people have created Youtube videos on how to play.)

Are your children homeschooling or hybrid learning this year? What toys do you recommend to enhance STEM Activities and keep your child interested in school?