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.
Scratch Jr is not a new app, but I recently discovered it works brilliantly on my kids Amazon Fire tablets.
We've been exploring Scratch recently as they are celebrating their 10th anniversary in May. Scratch Jr is a prequel mobile app to the Scratch web application which many kids are using in schools these days. Scratch Jr is a fantastic app to introduce young kids to coding concepts and logical thinking.
Update: New Amazon Fire tablets announced for 2017 including a new 8" model.
We are big fans of Amazon's Fire tablets, especially in the hands of young kids. I was looking for inexpensive tablets for my younger kids to play Minecraft Pocket Edition multiplayer (previously they were sharing an old iPad 2 and couldn't play the game together!). The Amazon Fire tablets on a Black Friday deal was the perfect solution.
Unfortunately not all the apps we love make it onto the Amazon Appstore, although we think more apps should - we love that Scratch Jr, Minecraft Pocket Edition and Wonder Workshop's Dash & Dot apps are available natively.
To be fair, the tablets don't have a lot of memory (you can purchase additional memory cards) so I am perfectly happy for my kids to only have access to a few useful apps. This also means their screen time is limited, as they only access a limited number of apps.
The Amazon Fire tablets are a good option for younger kids with their smaller screen size and easier handling for small hands. The Amazon FreeTime is also geared towards a younger audience - read our comparison of the Fire Kids Edition and Basic Fire tablet.
What is Scratch Jr?
Scratch Jr is a programming language specifically designed with young kids in mind. It's based (and developed by the same team at MIT) on the very popular coding language, Scratch, which many kids use in school these days.Scratch Jr is designed for non-readers and suitable for kids from 3 years and up. Officially it's recommended for 5-7 year olds, but there is a lot of scope for parent and child exploration for younger kids all the way to older kids making some complex games and animations on their own.
Scratch Jr is an introduction to block-based coding. You code in a linear way from left to right. In Scratch, the code blocks snap together top down. Some features, cross over, like pressing the 'green flag' to run your program.
You can code characters to move, jump, spin and dance, change backgrounds, record sounds and even take pictures to make your own games, stories and animations.
Instead of playing a game or watching an animation, why not encourage your kids can make their own?
Getting Started on Scratch Jr
Scratch Jr is available as a free download on iOS, Andriod and Amazon devices as well as an app on Chromebooks. The video below gives a nice introduction to the app and the type of things you can do on it.
You can also visit the Scratch Jr website where you can learn more about the interface, paint editor and block descriptions. There are also a number of activities available online as downloadable PDFs to get you started.
The 'Official Scratch Jr Book' is a great resource for families looking for guided projects for the app. The guide book includes a number of sequential projects to create stories, games and animations. It's available as a digital download or hard copy. It highlights connections with literacy and mathematics and includes tips for grown-ups in every project.
Our Verdict
Scratch Jr is a must-have app to introduce young kids to coding concepts. Kids love creating their own games and stories and it's great they can record their own sounds to use in the app. My kids LOVE this feature!
You don't have to know Scratch Jr before you can move on to Scratch, they are similar but different in many ways. (Read more about Scratch) BUT Scratch Jr is perfect for non-readers.
It's a lovely app to explore with your child and learn new skills together. The coding environment is kid-friendly, intuitive and really easy to learn.
Kids can be left to explore the app on their own too - we especially like there are no ads or "additional" content kids can accidentally tap.
When families attend our monthly Coder Dojo with younger siblings, we almost ALWAYS recommend they download the Scratch Jr app and they're almost ALWAYS happy they've done so!
Also Read:
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At Tech Age Kids we've been testing and writing about kids coding toys for over 10 years. This post is our round up of the current optio...
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I asked my kids what they wanted to do, other than playing Minecraft, over a long weekend. Not that I didn't want them playing Minecraf...
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- gaming
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- girls
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- grace hopper
- grove
- hackaball
- hacksoton
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- halloween costumes
- hardware
- headphones
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- hexbug aquabots
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- high school
- history
- home
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- hot toys
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- html
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- in app purchasing
- indiegogo
- industry event
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- k'nex robotics
- kano
- keyboard
- kickstarter
- kids
- kindle
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- kit
- kits
- kodu
- kubo
- label printer
- languages
- laptop
- laptops
- last minute
- leap motion
- leapfrog
- leappad
- leappad 2
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- learning tablet
- learning tablets
- leds
- lego
- lego boost
- lego chain reactions
- lego mindstorms ev3
- lego power functions
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- lego wedo
- let's start coding
- lights
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- little kids
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- logic
- logical thinking
- loom
- machines
- magnetic
- make it
- makeblock
- makedo
- maker
- makey makey
- making
- mardles
- mars
- mars rover
- marty
- math
- maths
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- me arm
- meccano
- meccanoid
- meccanoid 2.0
- merge vr
- mews
- michael faraday
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- microbit
- microcontroller
- microscope
- microsoft
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- mobile
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- motors
- mover kit
- movie
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- mu
- mu toys
- munzee
- music
- my first robot
- national dog day
- nature
- new
- new year
- news
- news coding
- nikola tesla
- nintendo
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- ohbot
- ollie
- on the web
- opinion
- origami
- osmo
- outdoors
- ouya
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- papercraft
- paperwhite
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- parenting
- parrot
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- people
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- 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