Learning Resources Botley the Coding Robot

Product Information

Key specs: Recommended Age: Ages 3+ | Batteries included: No 2 AAA batteries required. Reasons to buy: Turn off the lights and see Botley 2.0’s eyes light up. You can even change the colour! Or programme by colour and watch Botley 2.0 put on a cool light show and dance to the beat.

A game suitable for two to four players aged 6 and above, it’s also something that the whole family can enjoy together. With all that said, AAA batteries are pretty common and inexpensive to find and, to its credit, Botley did last well over 6 hours of straight testing without even so much as a low battery beep. How durable is Botley? With all that said, there are some limitations to this robot in terms of education. For one thing, there is no ability to move on to more advanced, but still young child friendly, coding methods like Scratch. While it makes the experience screen free, we think it would open Botley up to more advanced challenges and extend its educational value quite a bit for older kids. Overall, therefore, we think Botley is pretty reasonably priced for a beginners robot that will (hopefully) be the first step in your child’s journey of STEM exploration. What age is the Botley Robot appropriate for?

The code to fun!

Botley can be made to “talk” with special control combinations. For example, making him turn left 2 times followed by 2 right turns will make him say “wheee”. Try it out. Botley is surprisingly entertaining. The robot doesn’t talk or interact, but once, when it rolled under the couch right after it was turned on, my daughter couldn’t stop laughing about it. We had a hard time getting the robot from underneath the couch, but my daughter figured out how to do it after flipping through the instruction booklet.

As your kids become more familiar with the robot and its code you can work creatively to introduce even more advanced coding concepts, such as loops and object detection. Coding toys can help improve your child’s logical thinking and problem-solving skills, whilst also instilling important life skills of perseverance and persistence. As they grow up, children can progress to more intermediate and challenging coding projects as their confidence grows. Coming in at about 3 lbs and sized to fit in an adult palm, Botley is a small, friendly looking robot and can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks. My son liked Botley the coding robot when he was little - slightly more expensive than some but he still plays with him now sometimes at 5 nearly 6.” (Tried and tested by Mumsnet user littlestpogo)

There are also several online coding apps that are free to use and a great introduction to coding. Scratch is a popular choice amongst Mumsnet users and is regularly used in the school setting too. Why is coding important for kids? Engage and inspire young learners in STEM with our next generation of coding robot, Botley 2.0! 100% screen-free, Botley is the ideal introduction to coding; no smartphones or tablets required! Learning Resources also offers a variety of printable including mazes and obstables to print out and use at home or in your classroom. You can find these here.

Whilst it may look like a basic coloured ping pong ball in a choice of five different colours, Sphero is actually a super intelligent robot with a motor and gyroscope hidden inside. There has been a huge increase in the popularity of tech toys and coding toys in recent years and with good reason. Not only are they great fun to play with, but also provide significant educational benefits for our children, teaching them how to code, sparking their imagination and encouraging a genuine interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). Many of our machines, devices and gadgets are controlled by computer programs – including smartphones, laptops, game consoles, washing machines, watches and aeroplanes!Botley je roztomilý barevný robot s možností dálkového ovládání, speciálně navržený pro nejmenší. Děti jej mohou naprogramovat tak, že na dálkovém ovladači zadají program, a poté Botleyho požádají, aby program „spustil“. Při hře s Botleym se tak naučí základy programování, mezi které spadají algoritmy, smyčky a ladění. Je to tak jednoduché, že to zvládnou i pětiletí. Společně se základními pojmy programování se děti zároveň naučí řešit problémy a kreativně myslet. Pro jakou věkovou kategorii je Botley určen? The Coding Robot Crashin’ Construction Accessory Set– With a number of add ons to help turn Botley into various construction vehicles. It comes with six STEM activities and challenges Soon they will be navigating routes for Dash to follow around the house, performing specific movements and actions or even playing a song using the xylophone accessory (sold separately). They can even record their own voice, prompting Dash to speak when he approaches an obstacle or an unsuspecting parent gets in their way! If you’re after a coding game that the whole family will enjoy, Turing Tumble is a really popular choice amongst the Mumsnet community, with users not only singing its praises but admitting to enjoying it almost as much as the kids.

Soon your kids will have this durable and waterproof ball rolling around obstacles, navigating predetermined pathways and even following directions on a map. For younger children being introduced to coding toys for the first time, Botley the robot is a fun, interactive and hands-on coding toy for beginners that is screen-free and ready to use straight from the box. Botley is a coding robot designed for children. He can be programmed to do a variety of tasks, including moving around and responding to commands. He is also affordable and easy to use, making him the perfect robot for young children. With hands-on programming that becomes increasingly more challenging as your child grows in confidence, children can learn to code basic movements and actions for Dash using a compatible mobile or tablet. After some practice, they can progress through hundreds of missions that come preloaded and ready to go.

3. Best robot coding toy: Wonder Workshop Dash Robot

Computers are controlled by computer programsor ‘code’ – sets of instructions that tell them what to do. When people create these instructions they are coding or programming. At the most basic level, Botley teaches kids critical thinking and problem-solving. In my opinion, these are the most versatile (and necessary!) skills that coding teaches kids. It’s not all about kids becomingcomputer whizzes and programmers in the future. You can read about all the benefits of learning to code here. These are really visual aids with drawings of each possible code you can input, such as directional arrows, loop, collision direction, light and more. Each card is color coded to correspond to the relevant button on the remote, which really helps kids who confuse left and right or still have a hard time reading arrow directions.