Ok, my daughter is 4.5, but looking for an interactive toy that teaches the beginning of coding.

An other stem toys yall love? She has TONS of magnet toys and we build legos together all the time (just finished the Disney castle and working on Christmas themed ones...so impressed with her ability to follow the instructions and get by with minimal help from me...but yea the Disney castle took a few months).

Watching this thread. My oldest is getting to the age where she can do this stuff too

Not necessarily coding but we do several 25-50 piece puzzles with my 5 year old.

There is a board game called "robot turtles" that teaches some coding concepts but it does require an older player to be the DM and execute the sequences the player lays out.

Havnt seen much on the coding side for toys. I have seen some cool hydraulic toys though. Might have to build with her but they look like great stem teaching toys.

4M Mega Hydraulic Arm Robotic Science Kit https://a.co/cNpfQiH

Elenco Teach Tech "Hydrobot Arm Kit", Hydraulic Kit, STEM Building Toy https://a.co/a3Qp88q

Limited-time deal: Smartivity Hydraulic Crane 3D Wooden Model Engineering STEM Building Set https://a.co/1gWPz9P

Thames & Kosmos Mega Cyborg Hand STEM Experiment Kit | Build Your Own GIANT Hydraulic Hand | Amazing Gripping Capabilities | Adjustable for Different Hand Sizes | Learn Hydraulic & Pneumatic Systems https://a.co/dWU80Wd

My oldest one loved the bee-bot and the mouse robot when she was that age.

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Code-Robot-Mouse/dp/B01B14XK00/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?crid=3RRSV19OR3BB5&keywords=mouse+bot&qid=1668295792&sprefix=mouse+bot%2Caps%2C151&sr=8-4

I've bought three things off this thread already. I actually get to contribute to the Christmas gift selection this year!

Thanks for the suggestions!

We had one called code-a-pillar, I think

My daughter loves Botley the coding robot.


https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Botley-Coding-Activity/dp/B077MRB975

I was just about to post and ask about the Botley robot.

What about the Miko robot?

Miko 3 Personal AI Robot STEM Toys For Kids - Miko

Very cool stuff here, but I have a question that I've actually been curious about prior to this. I've seen "coding" toys, even a "Coding for Babies" board book at the library.

Is this something that your kids had shown interest in, in some regard? Or is it more about engaging them in new things to see if they do have interest in it?

My nearly 5 y.o. likes playing with blocks, but hasn't shown interest (or even the focus) in building specific sets. We've got some critical thinking games (like this) and she can do these in short spans before losing focus, but could read and draw for hours.

I guess my question is - Is this for a specific type of kid? Is this for a specific type of parent?

And what do these 5 year old "coders" graduate to next beyond these initial introductions?

A good question.

My 5 year old loves puzzles, working on projects in the garage, etc with me. I want to see if she's really into that line of thinking, and since I love stuff like that, it can be something fun for us to do together.

My main regret in life is doing Business School instead of Engineering. I want to make sure my kids aren't scared of stuff like that. Plus, with the advancements in the world, I pretty much think everyone will need this kind of thinking somehow to be successful in 20 years.

So it's partially parent driven, but I don't think it's mutually exclusive with being something fun for a kid like her to do.

Well reasoned. Thank you for the explanation.

https://slickdeals.net/f/16282405-osmo-coding-starter-kit-for-ipad-3-educational-learning-games-35-99-f-s-amazon

Thanks for this thread. It helped me figure out a couple gift ideas for my 9 year old son.

I got my nephew the Sphero Sprk+ a few years ago and he seemed to like aspects of it.

The new version is called the Bolt:

With these, they're fun even without the coding part. You can use a phone or tablet to control the little ball and it's super easy, my two year old can even kind of do it and thinks it's fun.

But you can also create things that sort of teach the concepts of coding and logic. You can set up like a course on the floor, and they have to "code" the robot to navigate it from scratch (like, go straight for two seconds, then turn right for two seconds, etc) and then see how close they get to the target and then try again. My nephew thought it was pretty fun.

There's a lot you can do with them, but even if they never get any further than just controlling them like an rc ball, they're fun.

One option that's a slight variation of this topic. I recently visited some friends of mine who had a Snap Circuits kit for their kids. I think the age said 8+ on that kit, but their 5 year old was fine with it.

Think duplo sized electrical components that snap onto a grid, letting you make simple circuits. The battery blocks are just a pair of AAs, so you cant get into too much trouble.

Saw these on sale at Amazon today, but don't have any of them.

https://amazon.com/deal/43cd121d?showVariations=true&ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dlpg_uKzL4nGlovYZf

if she has a device my kid is 6 and has learned to code (by himself) entire video games and educational movies through the app CodeSpark.

Scriffer said:

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A good question.

My 5 year old loves puzzles, working on projects in the garage, etc with me. I want to see if she's really into that line of thinking, and since I love stuff like that, it can be something fun for us to do together.

My main regret in life is doing Business School instead of Engineering. I want to make sure my kids aren't scared of stuff like that. Plus, with the advancements in the world, I pretty much think everyone will need this kind of thinking somehow to be successful in 20 years.

So it's partially parent driven, but I don't think it's mutually exclusive with being something fun for a kid like her to do.

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One of my regrets in life is doing Engineering instead of Business School...