Awesome Projects and Engineering Activities for Kids 

Encouraging your child to learn and explore different career options and just learn about the world around them, you can include lots of fun engineering activities right from your kitchen table and encourage your child to use inexpensive household materials to become better problem solvers through engineering activities for kids.

My daughter recently graduated as a Civil Engineer.  Looking back to when she was young, much of her playing and interests surrounded building, shaping, sorting, and experimenting.  We always had a collection of “useful trash” that could be used to build something.

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Awesome Engineering Activities for Kids

Providing fun engineering activities for kids can help your children become logical thinkers as they figure out how things work while also having tons of fun.

Just as there are different types of engineers, there are lots of different ways to encourage your child to think about engineering without even realizing it.  Children are naturally inquisitive, so helping them play and learn about the basics of engineering doesn’t have to be difficult or challenging when you look at it from your child’s eyes.  It’s just a whole lot of fun.

Project Ideas for Kids – Engineering Books for Kids

If you are looking for specific stem (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) or engineering project ideas for kids that go above and beyond paper cup phones and toothpick towers, there are tons of resources that will inspire and encourage your child to learn.  Whether they are interested in becoming an electrical engineer, or just enjoy the engineering design process, these books have tons of awesome steam activities for the homeschool parent, classroom teacher, or rainy day activities to do at home.

Learning about science sparks different kinds of activities when you combine that with an engineering challenge and stem activities.  Working through what could be seen as just a fun activity can encourage critical thinking and a basic desire to learn more.  Simple engineering projects can turn into much deeper exploration and learning and the best way for kids to make important steam connections.

​You may need to start a collection common household items that can be used in these engineering activities for kids and engineering experiments.  Little bins with common household items that can be use by little hands can make these projects readily accessible and a frugal fun way to delight kids with learning.

Here are four fantastic books with great engineering activities for kids.

1. Awesome Engineering Activities for Kids: 50+ Exciting STEAM Projects to Design and Build – Christina Herkert Schul  Author

Spark creativity and curiosity with fun engineering activities for kids ages 5 to 10 in this ultimate guide to amazing projects.

Encourage your child to get excited about engineering, learn how things work, through these 50+ fascinating STEAM exercises, complete with step-by-step clear instructions, colorful pictures of the projects, and simple explanations of why the experiments work.

This book by Christina Schul includes:

• Engineering activities for kids that they can do themselves—Make engineering for kids easy and fun with projects that use common, inexpensive household materials so they can play and learn anytime.
• The lessons are based in STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math – to show kids how these things are everywhere, and help them become better problem solvers and logical thinkers.
• Kids will learn all about the basics of engineering with a brief guide to the different types of engineers, an explanation of what they do, and what kids need to know to become one.

2. Future Engineer Awesome Engineering Experiments for Kids: Amazing Engineering Experiments and How they Work, Fun Engineering STEM Project Activities

• 25+ Engineering Experiments on air pressure, Newton’s laws of motion, heat transfer, surface tension, chemical reactions, magnetism, windmills, and climate change.
• Mind-Blowing Engineering Experiments like an Air-powered Fast Car, a Screw Pump, an Air Cannon, a Nail Magnet, a Candle Carousel, and so much more!
• Behind the scenes information for why the experiments work. These engineering activities for kids will provide hours of inquiry based play and learning.

3. Real Engineering Experiments: 25+ Exciting STEAM Activities for Kids

STEAM-powered experiments in engineering for kids ages 8 to 12.  In this engaging book, learn about the amazing world of engineering for kids and how it works together with science, technology, art, and math. Whether you’re experimenting with structures, materials, mechanics, or electrons, this book offers step-by-step instructions and full-color pictures that help you answer questions like “what can we use magnetism for?” and “how do catapults work?”  Each interesting project can be a teaching tool to learn more about the design and process of planning and building.

4. STEM Starters for Kids Engineering Activity Book: Packed with Activities and Engineering Facts

Engineering is what brings machines to life. Little learners can discover more about engineering at home by reading the simple explanations and doing the beautifully illustrated activities on each page.
This full-color activity book filled with marvelous mazes, puzzles, quizzes, and more. It will help parents and teachers kickstart a lifelong passion for STEM subjects and inspire children to explore and learn.

Kids Engineering Toys

​If you give kids some basic tools and materials, they will likely figure out a way to use them in an engineering project without even realizing it.  Common items like craft sticks, a pool noodle, blocks, toothpicks and marshmallows, measuring cups, water and sand, can spark your child’s imagination and curiosity.  Providing your child with the gift of creativity can encourage them to become little engineers with simple supplies and fun activities.

One of the classic engineering activities is building Rube Goldberg machines with paper towel tubes, tape and some marbles.  Creating a cardboard tube marble run takes problem solving, planning, trial and error and some more problem solving to get the marble to go through the entire maze.

Really, when you think about engineering activities and kids engineering toys, you can include building, water, electrical circuits for kids, robots, and so much more. These toys can be played with over and over again and the creativity of your child can expand them into other uses and functions as they grow and learn. What might start with simple craft ideas can turn into a complex stable structure the next time they play with the same items.

Kids Engineering Kits

Engineering kits can be a perfect gift for the holiday season, a rainy day, or every day fun.  From robots, circuits, building, marble runs, and structural building projects, providing your child with a number of tools and supplies to get started can encourage them as they enjoy fun kids activities that are actually helping them learn and grow in their understanding.

The beauty of purchasing an engineering kit is that all the needed supplies and instructions are all together in one box!  This can save you time trying to find parts and pieces for a specific project.  Once you have a kit, be sure to keep all the parts and pieces in a bin or box so it’s ready for the next use.

There are so many lovely kids engineering kits for different ages and interests. Find one kids engineering kit your child would enjoy or be interested in and start with that. As they develop and grow, their interests may change. Keep encouraging them to explore and learn.

Engineering Kid Projects

No matter your child’s age, they can explore and learn from the earliest years of building with blocks, as they navigate balance and structure.  As they grow, the engineering kids projects may turn into building bridges with a train set and then making mud pies and turning those into bricks and letting them bake in the sun.  It might even include trying to build a dam with rocks and sticks in a river or stream.  The more kids have the opportunity to figure out how and why things work a certain way, the more they will understand the principles behind some basic engineering concepts.

Engineering kids projects can be complex and defined, but they can also come from a place of discovery and interest.  As your child expresses interest in the flow of water, you may want to add to their learning environment with some more water experiments and projects.  If they are really interested in building, they may really enjoy an erector set to build more complex creations.

​Awesome engineering activities for kids can be found and created all around you.  Encourage your child to explore and learn about the world around them and how things work.