Top Brands: Sphero - Wonder Workshop - Makeblock - Amazon Kids
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
NEWS$show=/search/label/news
Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.
REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review
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.
GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide
Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.
PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project
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.
STEM$show=/search/label/stem
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.
CODING$show=/search/label/coding
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$show=/search/label/electronics
We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware.
Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions.
Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.
ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics
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.
This is a round-up of current kids technology crowdfunded projects for January 2016. Many will be available to back into February. Check out our the Dec / Jan crowdfunding roundup post for more projects that may still be available to back.
It's been an interesting month with CES at the beginning, BETT the UK Ed-Tech conference and toy fair season getting started. UK Kid Tech is particularly strong this month, we love to see that!
Robots
CHiP Robotic Dog
CHiP is the new robotic pet from WowWee. It was launched as an Indiegogo crowdfunded project at the beginning of January (and appeared in our CES Kid Tech Roundup.)
It's interesting to see such a major player in the tech toys industry taking to crowdfunding to launch a new product.
CHiP uses a wristband which is worn for gesture control and also has buttons that can be used to interact with the robot.
CHiP is packed with tech for avoiding obstacles, interacting with its ball, learning new behaviours and interacting with humans.
The focus here is on moving towards a robot companion shifts towards being pet-like rather than toy-like. CHiP takes a step towards being an alternative to a real pet.
My younger son has been designing his own robot dog for a while and CHiP has some of the features he has planned (though not some of the whackier ones!)
CHiP uses a wristband which is worn for gesture control and also has buttons that can be used to interact with the robot.
CHiP is packed with tech for avoiding obstacles, interacting with its ball, learning new behaviours and interacting with humans.
The focus here is on moving towards a robot companion shifts towards being pet-like rather than toy-like. CHiP takes a step towards being an alternative to a real pet.
My younger son has been designing his own robot dog for a while and CHiP has some of the features he has planned (though not some of the whackier ones!)
Hardware and Electronics
Blaze is a small development board with a capacitative touch screen. Blaze isn't aimed at children, or even beginners, but it looks like a great option for capable teenagers and family tech projects.
A development board plus a mini touchscreen is a combination we've often wanted for projects. You can buy components separately but then it's more work to get software working together and to make a physical connection between components that weren't designed to fit together.
Blaze also offers GPIO so it can be used as the basis for working with other components.
It has its ow API but also has an Arduino compatibility API for those who are already familiar with Arduino and want to build on that knowledge.
The Blaze campaign doesn't have long to run so get in quick if you know a teen or family who could build cool stuff with this compact and full-featured board.
More hardware and electronics:
A development board plus a mini touchscreen is a combination we've often wanted for projects. You can buy components separately but then it's more work to get software working together and to make a physical connection between components that weren't designed to fit together.
Blaze also offers GPIO so it can be used as the basis for working with other components.
It has its ow API but also has an Arduino compatibility API for those who are already familiar with Arduino and want to build on that knowledge.
The Blaze campaign doesn't have long to run so get in quick if you know a teen or family who could build cool stuff with this compact and full-featured board.
More hardware and electronics:
- SCIO is a new electronics learning platform with online lessons and a hardware board. There's a $50 SCIO reward level that give you a board plus a 1 year subscription to the online video courses.
- The iQube modular electronics for kids project met its funding goal on Indiegogo on Jan 9th 2016. It is still available to back at various perk levels with delivery estimated to start in June 2016.
Coding
Fruit Coder is an app to teach girls to code. We've previously written about whether girls need separate tech toys.Rather than just making things pink and fluffy, Fruit Coder introduces a female coder role model and uses a story to introduce puzzles to be solved with code.
They have an approach to introducing more girls to STEM than we definitely support: "In other words, it's not about how many boys we exclude, it's about how many girls we make sure to tailor it to first."
The Fruit Coder campaign has quite a way to go to reach its $100,000 dollar target. The goal is to make the app free to play so pledges will go towards making the app widely available.
Grace and Alan are proper tech age kids who tinker with computers.
The book won't feature actual code. Instead at the end of each chapter there will be a link to an online interactive challenge which uses the skills learned in the chapter.
There's definitely a need for more fiction featuring technology. We love stories.
You can pledge for digital and / or physical versions of the book.
Books, Puzzles and Games
Fabulous Beasts is a balancing game using magical artifacts and technology to connect the physical and digital world. It's for 1 to 5 players and the aim is to build the most fabulous tower before it collapses and the game ends. It's a bit like "buckaroo" a balancing game which has always been a firm favourite in our house (Elbrie).
Update: This project got renamed to Beasts of Balance. You can read our review of the game.
There are beasts, elements and miracle pieces all make the game a whole lot more exciting than traditional balancing games. It's all about strategy and cooperation.
We love that the game pieces are 3D printed and also there is a Maker Edition of the game which you can colour yourself.
More campaigns:
- Puzzle Your Kids is a email subscription service that will deliver kid-friendly puzzles each week. The puzzles will be written by Eric Berlin who has written a series of kids puzzle books. We love puzzles! Great for developing logical thinking skills.
- The Boy and the Computer is an up to the minute graphic novel for kids which aims to inspire more kids to take an interest in STEM subjects. The author, Franchino, struggled to get his own kids to take an interest in computer science and aims to help kids understand why it's important.
- BEEP BOOP is a card game that involves building and battling robots. It's aimed at age 10+. There's a digital printable reward as well as the physical card game. We like the fresh robot part designs and love family strategy games, especially if they include robots.
Have you got a campaign you'd like us to feature in a future edition of the Tech Age Kids crowdfunding roundup. Contact Us.
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/fa-dice/ RANDOM$type=blogging$m=0$cate=0$sn=0$rm=0$c=3$va=0$src=random-posts
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- adafruit
- advent calendar
- adventure games
- amazon
- amazon fire
- amazon prime
- android
- angry birds
- animation
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- app
- app toy
- app toys
- appcessories
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- apps
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- battling robots
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- big kids
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- binary
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- blockly
- blogging
- bloxels
- bluetooth
- board games
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- bricks
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- cameras
- card game
- careers
- catroid
- celebration
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- ces
- chemistry
- chess
- christmas
- circuit cubes
- circuit playground
- circuit scribe
- cleaning
- climbing
- code clubs
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- communication
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- competition/challenges
- computational thinking
- computer
- computer games
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- conductive playdough
- connected toys
- construction
- conversational ai
- cozmo
- craft
- craft cutter
- creative thinking
- creativity
- crochet
- crowdfunding
- css
- cubs
- curiosity
- curious chip
- cyber monday
- dads
- data
- deals
- dens
- design
- design process
- design thinking
- digital parenting
- digital skills
- disability
- disney infinity
- dog tech
- dolls
- drawing
- drones
- duinokit
- earth day
- Easter
- ebooks
- eco
- edblocks
- edison
- edtech
- education
- egypt
- electricity
- electronic pets
- electronic toys
- electronics
- electronics kit
- electronics kits
- electtronics
- elementary
- elenco
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- engineering
- entertainment
- ereader
- ereaders
- esafety
- escape the room
- event
- ewriter
- exercise
- family
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- fathers day
- Festival of Code
- fiction
- fire
- fitbit
- fitness
- fitness tracker
- flotilla
- flow charts
- flutterbye fairy
- flying
- force awakens
- force friday
- future
- gadgets
- games
- games console
- games consoles
- gaming
- gift guide
- gifts
- girls
- giveaway
- glow in the dark
- grace hopper
- grove
- hackaball
- hacksoton
- halloween
- halloween costumes
- hardware
- headphones
- health
- hexbug
- hexbug aquabots
- hexbug project
- high school
- history
- home
- home education
- homeschool
- hot toys
- hour of code
- html
- humanoid
- ICT
- in app purchasing
- indiegogo
- industry event
- innotab
- innotab 3
- innotab 3s
- internet access
- interviews
- invention
- ios
- IoT
- ipad
- ipad mini
- iphone
- jacquard
- japan
- java
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- k'nex
- k'nex robotics
- kano
- keyboard
- kickstarter
- kids
- kindle
- kindle fire
- kit
- kits
- kodu
- kubo
- label printer
- languages
- laptop
- laptops
- last minute
- leap motion
- leapfrog
- leappad
- leappad 2
- leappad ultra
- leappad2
- leapreader
- learning
- learning resources
- learning tablet
- learning tablets
- leds
- lego
- lego boost
- lego chain reactions
- lego mindstorms ev3
- lego power functions
- lego technic
- lego wedo
- let's start coding
- lights
- lightseekers
- little kids
- littlebits
- logiblocs
- logic
- logical thinking
- loom
- machines
- magnetic
- make it
- makeblock
- makedo
- maker
- makey makey
- making
- mardles
- mars
- mars rover
- marty
- math
- maths
- mbot
- mbot ranger
- me arm
- meccano
- meccanoid
- meccanoid 2.0
- merge vr
- mews
- michael faraday
- micro:bit
- microbit
- microcontroller
- microscope
- microsoft
- middle school
- miles kelly
- mindstorms
- minecraft
- minecraft mods
- mixed reality
- mobile
- modular electronics
- monsters university
- morse code
- mothers day
- motion capture
- motors
- mover kit
- movie
- movies
- mu
- mu toys
- munzee
- music
- my first robot
- national dog day
- nature
- new
- new year
- news
- news coding
- nikola tesla
- nintendo
- nintendo switch
- ohbot
- ollie
- on the web
- opinion
- origami
- osmo
- outdoors
- ouya
- ozobot
- papercraft
- paperwhite
- parental controls
- parenting
- parrot
- pc
- people
- pet tech
- pets
- phone
- photography
- photon
- physics
- pi day
- picks
- pimoroni
- pinoccio
- pixel kit
- pixelart
- play
- playstation 4
- plezmo
- pocket code
- pocket money
- pokemon
- pokemon go
- poll
- pre order
- pre-teens
- prehistory
- preschoolers
- primary
- printable
- products
- professor einstein
- programming
- project
- projects
- puzzles
- python
- racing
- raspberry pi
- reading
- reivew
- remote control
- research
- resource
- resources
- retro
- review
- rights
- robot
- robot dog
- robot fish
- robot wars
- ROBOTERRA
- roboticals
- robotics
- robots
- role models
- role play
- romo
- romotive
- root
- rover
- safety
- sam labs
- samuel morse
- sandbox
- schools
- science
- scratch
- scratchjr
- screen time
- screenless
- screens
- sensors
- servos
- simbrix
- skills
- skylanders
- skylanders superchargers
- skylanders swap force
- smart pens
- smartphone
- smartwatch
- snap circuits
- social media
- solar power
- soldering
- sonic pi
- sony koov
- sound
- space
- sparki
- speaker
- speech sythesis
- sphero
- sphero mini
- spider
- star wars
- stars
- STEAM
- stem
- stikbot
- stop motion
- stop motion studio
- storage
- story
- strawbees
- students
- subscription
- subscriptions
- sugru
- summer
- swift
- tablet
- tablets
- tangible coding
- tech
- tech age
- tech craft
- tech is bad
- tech is good
- tech toys
- tech will save us
- technology
- technology will save us
- teens
- teknikio
- tekno
- teksta
- tenka labs
- tesla
- textiles
- thames & kosmos
- the extraordinaires
- tim berners lee
- tinkercad
- tinybop
- toddlers
- toot-toot
- top pick
- touch
- toy
- toys
- travelling
- TTS
- TV
- tween
- tweens
- tynker
- typing
- ux
- vehicles
- videos
- view-master
- views
- virtual reality
- voice assistants
- voice recognition
- vr
- vtech
- web
- websites
- wifi
- wii
- wii u
- windows 8
- wonder workshop
- wowwee
- writing
- writing. education
- xbox one
- xyzprinting