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.

Which Programmable Robot for Homeschoolers and Learning at Home?

Let's take a look at the best programmable robot options for homeschoolers and families that want to learn at home. There are now loads of programmable robots for children and beginners which is fantastic, but a little overwhelming for those trying to choose the right option for their kids and family.

In this post we'll focus on programmable robots where there's no building or minimal building involved. (We'll look at buildable robots and robotics kits separately.) Building robots is awesome, but sometimes you want the focus to be on the coding and working with the robot.

Meet the Robots

We'll look at each robot in more detail below, but first let's meet the robots that we recommend for homeschooling and deep learning at home. 




As well as teaching kids about robotics and coding, robots are fantastic for including in cross-curricula activities. Lots of robots can play music, explore a map or help explore physics and maths concepts. 

Which Robots for Homeschooling?

We're also narrowing the field down to the robots that offer an educational curriculum or at least support materials that teach kids about coding and robotics. We know this is important to many homeschooling families and also to families with children who are interested in robotics at a level beyond what they are taught in school.

We've chosen robots that will appeal to girls and boys. We've also favoured robots that can be used with multiple age groups and abilities so that mixed age siblings can learn about programming robots at the same time, or take turns with the same robots.

We've included some robots that can be used outdoors. Homeschoolers and weekend educators often have more flexibility about where and when they work with their robots and outdoor robots are great for taking advantage of that freedom.

Wonder Workshop Dash & Dot


Dash & Dot are a fantastic pair of robots for young children that are best used together. These robots are packed with personality and support guided play through the Wonder app and guided activities as well as free play and a starting point for science and creative projects

There's also a Dash & Dot Playbook for Swift Playgrounds which teaches kids to program these cute robots using the latest programming environment from Apple on the iPad.

Wonder Workshop run regular competitions for Dash & Dot owners which offer additional challenges for families or groups of homeschoolers. 

More details:

Edison 2.0

Edison is a small orange robot that is compatible with LEGO. Edison is inexpensive so it's a great choice on a low-budget or for homeschool club with a group of children working together with one robot each. 

What makes Edison really suitable for home education is the included activity materials. 

The Edison activities have a really nice progression from working with the robot in offline mode, through to programming it with a graphical editor and then moving on to adding LEGO to create more complex robots controlled by Edison. 

In addition to the graphical coding there's also support for text-based Python. This means that Edison offers plenty of progression and can be used to support family members at different stages. 

Once children have worked through the structured learning at each stage there's plenty of scope to apply that learning in projects that interest them. 

More details:
OzoBot is a tiny robot that can follow lines and read coloured codes, it can also be programmed using a block-based language. OzoBot is very practical if you don't have a lot of space. 

We've found that OzoBot is brilliant for cross-curricula projects, you can add costumes to OzoBot and create awesome mazes for the robot to explore. 

There's not a full curriculum available for OzoBot but there are some materials to get started and there's a growing library of OzoBot lessons submitted by educators.

Look out for the new OzoBot Evo which adds sound and social interaction features.


Sparki


Sparki from: ArcBotics is a complete robot packed with sensors and outputs including a screen for display and a gripper which can move things around. Sparki has a full robotics curriculum with activities suitable for different age groups and starting points.

Sparki uses high quality components including accurate geared stepper motors for precise movement. 

One of the things we really like about the Sparki materials is that they explain what the components are and how they work.

Sparki is fantastic for learning about robotics concepts such as sensors and motors and how they work. You can start simple with Sparki and go really deep into learning Arduino (a very popular electronics programming platform used by hobbyists and for prototyping.)

More details:

Parrot Drones and Mini Drones

Fancy something a bit different? How about programming a flying quadcopter? Parrot make a large range of drones including mini drones suitables for age 8+. 

They have recently set up Parrot Education to support and encourage use of their drones in education. The Parrot Airborne Cargo and Parrot Jumping Race miniDrones can be programmed. 

We've got an older Parrot mini rolling spider which we've programmed a using both Tynker and Tickle graphical drag and drop apps. Lots of fun! Tynker offer a paid course to teach kids to program a drone. Parrot Education also have a growing range of educational activities for use with their drones.


Sphero SPRK+

Sphero is a ball-shaped robot and comes in entertainment and education flavours. Sphero SPRK+ is designed for education and can be used at home, it has a transparent shell so you can see the electronics inside.

The Sphero SPRK Lightning Lab app teaches coding and STEAM skills through guided activities. The Lightning Lab gives lots of material for families to work through and also allows free programming.

Sphero SPRK can be used indoors and outdoors so it's a great option for taking learning outside. It also works with some of the entertainment apps for Sphero so it can do double duty as a tech toy.

We're really pleased that the SPRK Lightning Lab is available for the affordable Amazon Fire tablet as well as iOS and Android.

More details:

    Tips for Homeschooling with Robots

    • Not all robots come with good reusable storage for their accessories. Good plastic storage boxes with room to store robots plus their accessories and worksheets are really helpful. 
    • Think about charging or batteries ahead of time. Have a routine for keeping robots that you use regularly charged or having spare batteries to hand for those that take batteries. It's a pain if kids are all fired up but your robot won't go!
    • Robots can be used across the curriculum to add a bit of extra engagement. 
    • There are lots of toy robots that provide a taste of coding in a fun format but don't offer a deep educational curriculum. They can be great for encouraging kids who are more reluctant to dive into technical topics. And you still have a great tech toy. 
    • There are also lots of awesome robots that have amazing potential in a family that has experience with robotics. We recommend that you master the basics first with a robot that offers a curriculum and then move on. Unless of course one of the adults in the family is a robotics expert in which case, go for it!
    24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
    Name

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    Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Which Programmable Robot for Homeschoolers and Learning at Home?
    Which Programmable Robot for Homeschoolers and Learning at Home?
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    Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
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