Family time is an important part of life, and as the New Year draws near, you may make a New Year’s Resolution to focus more on spending quality time together as a family. It is important to create new memories together while sharing new experiences, so we have collected some ideas on how to spend some time together, while developing key STEM skills with your children.

As you may know, STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and is a key part of education today. These skills allow children to be more inquisitive, resilient and able to tackle problems, as well as giving them the skills they need for the future job market. Learning in this way doesn’t have to be boring however, and there are many activities that you can enjoy as a family that will practice these skills. Parents – you might find yourself loving them too! We have included some STEM activities that you won’t need many resources for, as well as recommending some brilliant STEM technology that is sure to give you hours of entertainment.

Use What You Have In The House

STEM learning doesn’t have to be pricey, and in fact, utilizing what you already have available may just increase children’s ability to problem solve.

For example, a fun challenge would be to get some eggs, and challenge your children to build a parachute for it out of things that they can find around the house. Supply them with things like tape or scissors that will help them construct it but let them find the rest themselves. Once they have their final product, test it by dropping it from a window, or over the banister.

Use STEM technology

If you are looking to purchase one piece of STEM technology that will give your family hours of fun, then choose a coding robot – these little things can do so much! Take the Sphero BOLT for example. This coding robot is fully programmable and highly advanced. It is encased in an indestructible shell and has a long lasting, rechargeable battery. The bot can be connected to the Sphero Edu and Sphero Play app on iOS, Android and Amazon Fire OS and comes with a quick start guide with ideas to get you started.

One great way to entertain the kids, while developing both their STEM skills and their creativity, is to dip them in paint (don’t worry, they are waterproof and wipe clean), and code them to move around on the paper, creating some interesting art work – check out the video down below to see an example of this!

You could also create an obstacle course with material from around your home and compete to see who can code the robot so that it moves around the course in the fastest time.

While we may be spending more time inside just now due to poor weather or lockdown restrictions, it doesn’t mean that time has to be boring. The possibilities are truly endless. Have you and your family spent time on some STEM activities at home? Comment your experiences down below – we love to hear from you.