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National Day of Unplugging: Magnet Movers!
- Patria Lincoln Posted On Mar 4, 2019 | Science
March 1st is National Day of Unplugging. Time to put away the technology, enjoy some time as a family, and engage your kids in all kinds of activities that will help them see how fun it can be to unplug! Science experiments are a great way to entertain kids while learning through play. Magnet science is a favorite of many children, and the new Magnet Movers set has everything you need for a multitude of experiments and play setups.
The Magnet Movers set comes with a magnetic wand, chips, and many other magnetic accessories. Little ones will love using the wand and other accessories to experiment with magnetic attraction. In addition to using the set on it’s own, there are so many other fun ways to play.
Magnets in a Muffin Tin
When you add the magnet accessories to a muffin tin or cake pan, you are putting them on a magnetic surface which makes experimenting with magnetic attraction and movement all that much more amusing.
Magnets on a Mirror
Use a large mirror as a new surface for playing with your magnetic wand and accessories. The reflection of the magnets in the mirror provide a new type of sensory experience.
Magnets on the Front Door (or the garage door)
Did you know your front door and/or your garage door is probably a magnetic surface as well? Try adding the magnet pieces to the door. See if the attraction is strong enough to hold them to it. Use your magnetic wand to move them across the door.
Magnets and Magnetic Tiles
If you have a set of magnetic tiles, try adding them to the fun. Make towers or tunnels with your tiles, then decorate them with the magnetic chip pieces. Use the magnetic wand and see what happens.
Magnets in a Jar
Fill up a glass jar with magnetic chips. Kids will love watching as they move the chips around from outside the jar with just their magnetic “magic” wand!
Magnets in Rice
A sensory bin filled with rice never disappoints. Kids love the feeling of running their hands through the rice, digging through it, and scooping and pouring it into containers. When magnetic accessories are added, it gets even more entertaining for little ones. Dig through the rice, enjoy some sensory play, and use your magnetic wand to search for your magnetic chip pieces!
Fishing for Magnets
Create a rod, or use the Magnetic post from the Magnet Movers set, as a fishing pole to go magnet fishing! Place all of the magnetic chips in a “pond” using a large bowl or tray, and try and catch them all.
Magnet Mazes
A recycled piece of cardboard and a marker are all that is needed to make some exciting magnet mazes for your little ones to explore. Use the magnet wand to move the magnetic pieces through a maze from the other side of the cardboard!
Other Magnet Movers Experiments
The Magnet Movers set includes a set of instructions for many of its own experiments. Watch what happens when you drop the ring magnets onto the magnetic post. The same magnet poles repel, creating a floating effect!
There are so many ways to play and experiment with magnets, and it’s the perfect way to spend part of National Day of Unplugging.
Top 10 Black Friday Toys! Looking for the best learning toys to give your little coders, scientists, doctors and explorers this holiday season? Look no more! Here are the Top 10 Learning Resources toys to buy this Black Friday! Check them out on Amazon or at our website!
We also have a very special announcement! 4 of the items on this list are Toy of the Year Finalists!! Please vote for your favorite at
Beaker Creatures™ Liquid Reactor Super Lab
TOTY NOMINEE FOR COLLECTIBLE OF THE YEAR!
AGES 5+
Extract, Identify, Explore!
Botley™ the Coding Robot Activity Set
TOTY NOMINEE FOR MOST INNOVATIVE TOY OF THE YEAR
AGES 5+
Meet Botley, the code to fun! As the newest member of the Learning Resources family, Botley is here to introduce coding in an easy, friendly way. Children as young as 5 can learn to code with Botley, and with his advanced features, he’ll grow with them for many play filled years to come. Botley is ready to use right out of the box – he’ll have kids coding in minutes. And that’s not all, Botley is 100% screen free and includes a 77-piece activity set – the only robot to offer that!Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog™
TOTY NOMINEE FOR INFANT/TODDLER TOY OF THE YEAR!
AGES 2 AND UNDER
Our hedgehog lost his quills, and only your little ones can help him get them back! Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog helps kids build up hand muscles and fine motor skills as they replace the chunky, peg-shaped “quills” within the holes that dot the smiling hedgehog’s back. The learning doesn’t end there—Spike's colorful quills also lend themselves well to lessons in counting, sorting, and color identification skills. Kids can arrange the quills by warm or cool colors, work on sequences and patterns by alternating colors, or count up the quills with the help of numbers printed on the hedgehog’s back. Once playtime is over, Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog is a snap to clean up—each piece is made of plastic that can be easily wiped clean, and the quills stow snugly inside the hedgehog’s body, which adds simplicity to storage too.Gears! Gears! Gears!®Machines in Motion
TOTY NOMINEE FOR CONSTRUCTION TOY OF THE YEAR
AGES 4+
These machines really move! With the Gears! Gears! Gears! Machines in Motion from Learning Resources, kids engineer their own playtime fun with the help of creative, open-ended building activities. Using the included instructions, kids can build their own versions of numerous different interactive machines and vehicles, many of which incorporate special parts including a wrecking ball, chains, pulleys, and wheels. Turn out a tank with its own helicopter propeller, or craft a complex contraption that spins with the twist of a lever. Puzzle Globe
AGES 3+
Spin your way into geography with this Puzzle Globe, which highlights landmarks and animals! Each puzzle piece (continent) fits into one hole on the globe to make it easy for little ones to place. All 7 continents are represented (6 continent puzzle pieces plus stationary Antarctica).Pretend & Play® Doctor Set
AGES 3+
Features enough medical tools for the whole junior surgical staff to operate! Made from sturdy plastic, this set features a battery operated stethoscope, and realistic sounding cell phone. Provides the perfect way to ease children’s anxieties about doctor visits. Plastic carrying case has a place for everything and provides great storage.Count & Color Choo Choo
AGES 2+
The learning express is pulling into the station! Send number, color, and shape recognition skills chugging down the tracks with the Count & Color Choo Choo from Learning Resources. Driven by a friendly conductor figure that plugs right into the engine, this fun interactive train set pulls a load of learning lessons thanks to its cargo of removable blocks that come in different numbers, shapes, and colors. Kids can sort the blocks by shape and color, count up the total number found in the train, or build fine motor skills while loading the blocks back into their rightful train cars.Pretend & Play® Calculator Cash Register
AGES 3+
This award-winning cash register is the perfect addition to any pretend store! Encourage beginning math and calculator skills while providing lots of opportunities for imaginative play. Features a built-in solar calculator that helps familiarize children with the use of a calculator. They’ll also learn currency denomination and have fun handling life-size money. Large buttons on the keypad are easy for little hands to press and the cash drawer makes a “cha-ching” sound when it opens.Crashapult™ STEM Challenge
AGES 5+
Introduce kids to angles, trajectories, and other early physics fundamentals with the Crashapult STEM Challenge from Learning Resources. This hands-on activity set challenges kids to build and complete high-flying obstacle courses designed around core STEM concepts. After setting up their catapults, kids send the launch balls flying off walls, over obstacles, and toward the set’s included hoop target, funnel, or goal cup. Along the way, they’ll have to use their own trial-and-error, engineering, and critical thinking skills to make the adjustments to placement and force necessary to successfully complete the included challenges.New Sprouts® Deluxe Market Set
AGES 2+
This deluxe market set combines some of our best New Sprouts® food items from an amazingly realistic T-bone steak to enticing fresh produce. Unlike other play food our New Sprouts® are easy to grip and won’t collapse. Can’t decide what New Sprouts® to get? This set is a sure bet for hours of inspired play. Happy shopping!
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Celebrate Astronomy Day with Kids
Each year Astronomy Day is celebrated worldwide. The stars have fascinated humanity for literally centuries, and even to this day captures the imagination of kids of all ages. Celebrate this event with them this year and don't worry if you don't own any expensive telescopes. These DIY activities use real life discoveries to inspire your little astronomers!
Track the Phases of the Moon
Bone sticks from across Europe and Africa dating back as long ago as 35,000 BCE that tracked the moon’s phases. Use a simple number line with your kids to track the phases of the moon over the course of a month, from full moon and back again. Do it for several months and see what patterns they begin to observe.
Depict a Celestial Phenomenon
A celestial phenomenon is a astrological event that involves one or more objects. The earliest example depicted was discovered in Germany in 1999. The Nebra Sky Disc dates back to 2000 BC and it depicted a star cluster, phases of the moon and the rising sun.
Use a black paper plate, or even just black paper, and encourage your children to depict their own star formations. If they can’t stay up to observe them at night, project some indoors with this Shining Stars Projector.
Astronomy to Keep Time
The Chinese astronomers kept detailed observations beginning about 600 BC, for the primary purpose of timekeeping. Their records allowed them to predict eclipses, and include the first record of events such as supernovas and comets.
On the other side of the world, the Mayans developed their own astronomical tables for predicting the phases of the moon, eclipses, and the appearance of the other planets. They used these and the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and constellations to establish the Mayan calendar.
All of the above astronomy was without a telescope, and you can still observe these astronomical events with your kids today. Check out this astronomy calendar and pick a full moon, eclipse, planetary event, or meteor shower to observe as a family.
Try this simple astronomy experiment to help kids as young as preschoolers understand what makes night.
Just because ancient astronomers did all of this without a telescope doesn't mean your little ones have to! All of the above activities can be done with the naked eye but if you feel like shooting for the stars check out Learning Resources Big View Telescope. How will you celebrate Astronomy Day?
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Why Young Children Should Learn How to Code From apps to board games, hands-on toys like Learning Resources’ Botley™ the Coding Robot, classes at school, and even dedicated summer camps, it feels like we’re surrounded by coding! Coding is definitely a hot topic and it’s becoming a big business. But can little kids really learn to code? And even if they can, should they?The answer is a great, big, YES! Even if you don’t think your child is destined to be the next Sheryl Sandberg, there are big time benefits to learning to code and kids can start as young as preschool. In fact, like most things, learning to code is actually easier when kids are younger.Some people think that knowing how to code will soon be as important as knowing how to read. We’re not ready to go quite that far, but an understanding of computer science – the way computers and apps work, will be pretty key in our kids’ futures. Whether they work in coding or not, understanding the basics of how software is programmed will help kids use it more efficiently, even if it’s just to search for the latest video from their favorite YouTuber.
That said, there are more concrete and immediate benefits to an early introduction to coding, the biggest of them being logic. Learning to think logically – also called computational thinking – plays a critical role in your child’s mental growth. Coding teaches kids to identify a problem; find a solution; break that solution down into single, actionable steps; and identify any problems, or errors along those steps. This is the same, sequential though process used to solve a math problem, understand a scientific process, and write a story.
Speaking of, believe it or not, learning to code encourages your child’s creativity! Because there’s not just one solution to every problem, coding enables your child to come up with their own way to think about and address a need.Teaching kids to code also promotes curiosity and innovation. What problems do your kids see? What are some of the many ways these problems might be solved? When they see a problem, rather than looking up an answer, coding encourages kids to find and try their own, out of the box, solutions.
And, of course, learning to code prepares kids to use and manage the technology they’ll use every day, for the rest of their lives, including to test at school.A simple search will reveal tons of different ways to introduce your child, even your very young child, to coding. Botley The Coding Robot, provides a hands-on, screen-free introduction to coding, enabling kids to build and program, or code, their very own robot to follow all kinds of commands, including navigating an obstacle course, capturing a flag, breaking through a ‘brick’ wall, and more. The Let’s Go Code!™ Activity Set is a fun, physical way to get your kids started with coding. Kids step, hop, spin, and more, to complete the mazes they code with the included coding cards.
No matter how you choose to introduce or practice coding skills with your kiddo, you can feel good about the fact that coding is exercising their growing brains, essentially helping them learn how to learn.
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