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Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.

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Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family. There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for? We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.

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Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.

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Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.

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STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.

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Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.

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We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware. Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions. Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.

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We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them. Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available. Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.

MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making

We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun. The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something. We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.

BBC micro:bit for Everyone


The BBC micro:bit is a small programmable electronics board with a LED matrix, built-in sensors and input and output pins. In the UK children in Year 7 (the first year at secondary school) are all being given a micro:bit to keep. But what about everyone else? Well the micro:bit is becoming commercially available so others can get hold of them too.

I've had lots of opportunity to try out the micro:bit and it's a great bit of hardware. The programming environments are still developing and I think there's lots of capability that's only just starting to be tapped.

Getting Started with the micro:bit - Hardware

Tech Will Save Us are one of our favourite kid-tech companies and they were involved in the design of the micro:bit. They are now selling the micro:bit in kits along with accessories that will allow you to get the most from it. The micro:bit is available for pre-order for delivery in July. Tech Will Save Us are based in the UK but ship world wide.

The basic micro:bit kit includes a USB cable for programming from a laptop and a battery holder. Note that you can also program the micro:bit from a tablet via Bluetooth (USB is faster though.) The micro:bit can be powered from USB so you only need the battery holder for untethered use once it's programmed.

Tech Will Save us have also put together a micro:bit Bundle which includes a micro:bit along with components and materials that can be used to make cool projects.


If your child was one of the lucky year 7s who got a free micro:bit then the you can get the micro:bit Project Pack which doesn't include a micro:bit.

The kit includes:
  • 6 × crocodile clips (these can clip on to the input/output connections on the micro-bit)
  • 10 × jumper wires
  • 1 × buzzer (you can control the tone generated by the buzzer by programming the micro:bit)
  • 2 × packs of Sugru (awesome colourful solid glue stuff, it's an insulator and good for keeping stuff where you want it and decorating things.)
  • 1 × roll of copper tape (conductive and great for paper and card craft)

Tech Will Save us also have some micro:bit project ideas for you to try out.

In my experience of using the micro:bit with kids in workshops and coding clubs, it's adding other electronics to a micro:bit that really gets kids excited about what it can do.

Accessories

Other micro:bit accessories (unofficial) including cases a very handy motor driver board are also available.

Protyping system

Once kids have mastered the basics with the input and outputs via crocodile clips then can go further and access more pins. For this you need an Edge Connector Breakout Board which the micro:bit slots in to. 

Kitronik, another of the micro:bit partners, have put together a micro:bit prototyping system which bundles the Edge Connector Breakout Board with a mounting plate, breadboard and other accessories to give a convenient setup for working with electronics components. 

One of the year 7s at our Coder Dojo has been bringing one of these along and it's a great way to take the next step with the micro:bit.

Sets of micro:bits

If you want to buy a set of micro:bits for a club or to give to kids you know then you can buy a set of 10 micro:bits from Kitronik at a slightly lower unit cost.


Getting Started with the micro:bit - Software

Code can be created in a variety of browser-based graphical and text-based editors on the BBC micro:bit site where you can also find lots of projects to try out.

Microsoft have just made a separate version of the block editor available as the Programming Experience Toolkit and from a quick first trial it looks like an improvement over the other editors. You can switch to JavaScript too. One of the key improvements is that it's simpler to get the compiled hex file on the micro:bit - for me, this has been the main pain point with using the micro:bit with children.

There's also a micro:bit app for Android and one for iOS. On phones you can access APIs for taking photos and generating ring tones. This opens up another set of scenarios for the micro:bit.

Another option to check out is using Sniff with the micro:bit. Sniff is a text-based language that has concepts based on Scratch so it will feel familiar to kids experienced with Scratch.

Support for the current Scratch 2.0 isn't available yet. But if you've got a Raspberry Pi then you can use Scratch 1.4 to communicate with the micro:bit as shown in this Scratch Pi Games Controller project.



24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: BBC micro:bit for Everyone
BBC micro:bit for Everyone
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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
https://www.techagekids.com/2016/06/bbc-microbit-for-everyone.html
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