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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.

ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics

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.

A Young Rewired State Experience - Festival of Code

First posted on Growing Coders, now part of Tech Age Kids

First year experience


"In the summer my son attended the Young Rewired State week of coding. We had to travel a far way to get to his centre and on one of the days I worked in the same building where the young starters gathered. It turned out that I sat in the same workspace as them for an afternoon.

It was an incredible experience to be a ‘fly on the wall’ at this event. There were 12 or so 13 to 17 year olds sitting in a workspace interacting with each other, leading brainstorming sessions, helping each other with difficult code, sharing ideas, trouble shooting bugs. I was amazed.

There was a mentor present but he only guided and listened, giving very little instruction, allowing the young coders to develop their own solutions and use each others strengths to solve problems. The teens needed no persuasion, pleading or bribing to get on with the job at hand. They saw purpose in what they were doing and worked together as a team. Don’t get me wrong they were still teenagers, fooling around, playing pranks, having a laugh, taking breaks to watch the latest trending video on YouTube. This bunch of young coders inspired me.

I believe these kids have much to offer the adult working world, in terms of their skills, lack of inhibitions and desire to stretch the boundaries. They bring an insight to a world we are only starting to create. They are living the digital age. Our kids will be the creators and developers of the next generation. They will see a world that we haven’t dreamed of yet.

As a parent is was interesting to observe how these teenagers, who are often labelled by society as being disruptive and uninterested, work together to creatively produce a piece of work. It made me wonder – maybe it is not their disruption but our ignorance to understand, or inability to create opportunity, or even lack of resource to show them something different. Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't be trying to push every teenager into the same mould.

It has truly been a summer of greatness for my own teenager. His confidence in what he likes doing was boosted by attending Young Rewired State’s Festival of Code. He met others like him and has since continued to connect with them. It’s opened up a small work experience opportunity for him. He is more determined and clear about what is important to him. Simply incredible for a young teenager. And then school started… I will leave this post for another time.

But seriously just wanted to thank YRS2013 for making my younger coder feel important and not the geeky weird kid that sits in the corner of the class reading books."

YRS Hyperlocal


Since this experience, I have started volunteering for Young Rewired State (YRS) and opened a local YRS Hyperlocal in a city closer to home.  At the monthly meeting I have the pleasure of meeting other talented young coders and see their confidence grow as they learn and interact with like-minded peers.  Read about how I started a YRS Hyperlocal (YRSSoton): http://www.yrs.io/blog/how-to-kickstart-a-new-hyperlocal/

Tracy and I met at one of these monthly meet-ups. We share a common interest to help young people become creators and makers of technology and not just consumers thereof. We meet up once a month at our local university and learn to code websites and play games that teach coding skills, have fun with electrical circuits, 3D printers, quadcopters and much more; and provide opportunities for young coders to meet like-minded peers.

YRS Festival of Code


YRS Soton is really excited to be part of the Festival of Code this year, hosting the event for the first time.  We invite all the young coders in our area to join us for a week long hackathon, culminating in Birmingham for a weekend celebration of code. If you would like to find out more, check out: http://festival.yrs.io

24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: A Young Rewired State Experience - Festival of Code
A Young Rewired State Experience - Festival of Code
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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
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