I thought this problem for a while. Sometimes I heard people complained companies like Lego discriminate: their toys are more for boys than girls, so Lego came up this Lego friends series which is geared more toward girl, as they ranges from bakeries, beach house, to rain forest rescue, and they have a lot girl figures.
I think I fell into this trap too. I think some of the tech toys can be helpful and stimulate my daughter’s interest on STEM, but I did not follow through. She is 5 and will be 6 in a few months. So recently I did something different, I bought a quad copter (while she cannot play it, it could stimulate her interest), and the snap circuits 100. I can still sense her natural tendency is still social science, as I saw that’s her favorite in brain pop Jr. But I will give it some time and hopefully she will fall in love with IXL too 🙂
Note: brain pop jr. And IXL are 2 kids education websites.
Another related topic is the “hour of code” initiative, I feel the awareness of coding or programming is reach all time high in school these days. Still remember my first computer program in basic language, when I was in middle school (about 13 or 14). Of course now we have so much wonderful material and resources such as Kahn academy, raspberry pi etc. It’s much more fun and hopefully can be integrated into science and math curriculum as well. Personally I think that’s more fun than standardized tests. Don’t get me wrong, I think fundamental training is still important, but creative work or education are also important. This takes time and effort, I am hoping more stakeholders (educators and parents) can buy into this in the future 🙂
Refer to Scott Hanselman’s blog post “The 2015 Christmas List of Best STEM Toys for your little nerds and nerdettes” here. Btw, I also got the Snap Circuit SC-300 for my nieces (10 and 8 years old).