STEM toys are HOT this holiday season and even younger elementary school students are getting in on the action. Botley the Coding Robot, by Learning Resources, is an early coding robot for children as young as five — making it the must-have for younger kids wanted to learn about coding.
Botley’s 77-piece activity set includes:
- a remote programmer
- detachable robot arms
- 40 coding cards
- 6 double-sided tiles
- 27 obstacle building pieces
- starter guide with coding challenges
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Botley is so amazing because he is ready to go right out of the box and children can start coding within minutes. Botley can be coded in with directions to navigate obstacle courses, follows looping commands and detect objects. Completely screen-free, with no phone or tablet is required, Botley has an easy-to-use remote programmer, which transmits commands- and off he goes!
With any sort of toy like this I ALWAYS suggest reading the instruction manual. Big Sis is 10 and read it out loud to us and within minutes the instructions were talking us through examples that we did right along side reading them.
The remote…really is EASY TO USE. Lil Sis is in first grade and 7 years old and even she was getting the hang of it very quickly. You program the commands then hit transmit and you are coding! Of course you can start small and work yourself up to more complicated codes. That is another great feature of Botley, it grows with your child because you can work on simple coding or work Botley through a maze while dribbling a ball along the way!
This is one of those toys that you get better at it the more you play it and thus it becomes even more fun! Big Sis loves trying to build mazes for Botley to go through and Lil Sis likes making him go across the room, turn around and then go back where it came from.
Botley is in such high demand for the classroom that during National Robotics Week Learning Resources partnered with DonorsChoose.org to help bring Botley to 1,327 classrooms around the nation! That is so awesome! After playing with it for a few weeks I can see exactly why classrooms would want to have a Botley!
PERFECT for promoting critical thinking and problem-solving skills with kids! I plan on taking Botley to my Girl Scout troop meetings in 2019 when we start discussing the basics of coding. This would make the ULTIMATE GIFT for a younger classroom as well! One that would be used all year long and for years to come! Learning Resources is one of our all time favorite toy brands. They make some amazing toys for STEM and my girls constantly want to play with these toys and Botley is now a member of our family LOL! My girls don’t know it but I have already bought several other Learning Resources gifts that are wrapped and under the tree ready for Christmas morning! Botley will keep little programmers entertained for hours!
