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Keep your kids’ neurons firing with these science- and math-centric toys and games.
Kids can program this palm-sized drone to fly in wacky patterns or do tricks—somersaults!—using basic commands in Scratch, a child-friendly coding language. If they’d rather just use a controller to capture footage with the HD camera, a DJI-powered piloting system ensures safe, stable flights.
$99
Your younglings can learn about electricity and get filthy at the same time. Fill the MudWatt with dirt from the backyard and ketchup from the fridge, then watch electrogenic microbes in action as they feast on sugars and expel electrons that light up the attached LED.
$40
Backgammon has been helping kids (and adults) hone their math and problem-solving skills for millennia. This rainbow-hued set, encased in a gorgeous beechwood box, is a fun and elegant way to learn addition, subtraction, strategy, and probabilities.
$89
Paired with a smartphone, these DIY robots use object recognition to chase humans and pets around the house. When a bot’s cardboard chassis gets worn, kids can fashion new bodies for the digital brains out of anything—Legos, carrots, or their own cardboard cutouts.
$55
Melted crayons have long played a role in grade school science experiments. Now the Crayola folks make a proper chemistry set with 16 out-of-the-box projects and 34 more that use household ingredients, from erupting volcanoes and glow worms to three types of slime.
$25
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