20 best DIY and maker sites for kids

Hundreds of thousands of step-by-step projects from makers worldwide: cardboard, electronics, sewing, woodwork and more. If your kid wants to build it, someone has written it up.

Watch for: User-made; quality and safety vary. Public comments.

Make magazine's community and its free Maker Camp projects for kids, with build guides and videos for every skill level. Projects run from cardboard to code, and adults can help as needed.

Resources and guides for hands-on making from a nonprofit, written for educators and easy for parents to use at home. Its guides on setting up a home maker space are especially practical.

Open-ended projects like light play, cardboard automata and chain reactions, with tips for helping without taking over. Most activities use cheap, everyday materials and suit a range of ages working side by side.

Free 3D design and circuit simulation in the browser. Kids design parts and toys, then 3D print them at a library or school makerspace. Libraries often print for free.

Watch for: Under-13s need a parent or teacher account.

Thousands of electronics guides, from blinking lights to wearable projects, each with code, wiring diagrams and parts lists. Start with a beginner kit and one guide, and build up skills step by step from there.

Clear tutorials on soldering, circuits, sensors and microcontrollers for beginners, from an electronics company that sells the parts. Good for teens ready for real hardware, with clear photos for each step of every build.

Kits and lessons for building gadgets with sensors and motors. A step up for teens who have outgrown block coding. Many libraries lend starter kits, so ask before you buy one yourself.

Free guided projects in Scratch, Python, electronics and AI from a nonprofit, with many that need no hardware at all. Projects list time, skills and age, so it is easy to pick one.

A small programmable board with lights and sensors, plus free projects for gadgets, games and simple AI models. The board is cheap, rugged and easy for kids to carry around and test.

Easy crafts from paper, toilet rolls and household bits, sorted by season and theme. Great for preschool and early grade school. Many projects have short videos for kids to follow on their own.

Art and engineering projects from a designer that look good and teach design thinking, like paper circuits and spinning tops. Many projects work for a mix of ages working together at one table.

Art experiments and invention activities for young makers, focused on the process of trying things rather than a perfect result. Good for preschoolers and early grades who love mixing colors and mess.

Hundreds of simple craft ideas using common supplies, sorted by age and theme. Quick ideas for a slow afternoon. Most projects use supplies you already have, like paper plates and markers.

Watch for: Crayola products are promoted throughout the site.

Building ideas, videos and games from LEGO. A safe place for LEGO fans to find new challenges for the bricks they already have. The building challenges are free and easy to start.

Watch for: It is a brand site. Expect product promotion.

Engineering design challenges from PBS KIDS with cheap materials, like building a paper bridge or a balloon-powered car. Each video shows real kids testing, failing and fixing their designs.

A global nonprofit community of teen coders and makers with free hardware grants, clubs and hackathons. Teens build real projects with peers. Clubs often meet in high schools.

Watch for: Community chat on Slack. Teens only; talk about online safety.

A free online showcase where young makers share what they built and get feedback, run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Kids can enter anything from a Scratch game to a robot or a website, at any skill level.

Once a skills-badge site, now a place where kids describe a game and AI helps build it, plus a kid AI chat called ChatDino. A real look at AI-assisted making.

Watch for: Kids publish games to a public arcade. Try it with your child and check the chat and sharing settings.

Monthly build kits that come with every part you need, sorted by age. No hunting for supplies. Lines range from toddler play to electronics and engineering for teens.