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.
We've been using both Amazon Alexa (Echo and Dot) and Google Home since each came out. This comparison focuses on families with children using a voice assistant.
As a family we're deep into both the Amazon and Google infrastructures, and yes, we love our tech, so it made sense for us to give both devices a try and we've been using them side by side since Google Home was available (we've had Alexa since it came out in the UK.)
What is a Voice Assistant?
A voice assistant is a device that can respond to voice queries and requests. A common list of features is:
- Respond to general information questions
- Manage shopping and task lists
- Play music
- Control home automation devices
- Set alarms and alerts
- Integrate with a calendar
- Support games and educational and informational apps
Both Alexa and Google Home are designed for adult use but of course children are going to be drawn to them.
Note that there are also conversational toys for children with some of these features.
Parental Controls
Neither device has parental controls or is designed for use by children. We're expecting that this will change over time. The devices need to be usable in households with children. You can't stop your kids talking (believe me, there have been times when I've tried!)
Alexa does have a pin to protect purchases so you can make sure that kids can't buy stuff on Amazon - just remember not to use the pin when they're within earshot!
Be careful with third party skills and actions which may not be password protected.
Google Home allows you to restrict explicit songs in Youtube and Google Play (subscription required.) This doesn't restrict songs you have paid for may and may not be okay depending on your music collection.
I have to admit that there are some songs that we listen to as a family that might not pass filters (but they're good songs!) We prefer to be the ones to decide what our kids can listen to. I don't think hearing Hank Green sing an occasional swear word is going to cause long-term damage. If something really inappropriate comes on I just stop it (it's not like you even have to get up!) I guess this gets trickier with older kids that are left home alone, but every request is logged.
Be careful with third party skills and actions which may not be password protected.
Google Home allows you to restrict explicit songs in Youtube and Google Play (subscription required.) This doesn't restrict songs you have paid for may and may not be okay depending on your music collection.
I have to admit that there are some songs that we listen to as a family that might not pass filters (but they're good songs!) We prefer to be the ones to decide what our kids can listen to. I don't think hearing Hank Green sing an occasional swear word is going to cause long-term damage. If something really inappropriate comes on I just stop it (it's not like you even have to get up!) I guess this gets trickier with older kids that are left home alone, but every request is logged.
Both devices avoid swearing but you can certainly ask questions and get responses that some parents would consider inappropriate. My personal take on this is that younger kids should be supervised when using the devices and older kids should be told that their questions will be stored online so that they understand the privacy implications.
Just tell younger kids that they can only use the devices when a trusted adult is present. If they break the rule then that's a discipline issue. Both devices recognise their wake words when they're talking so it's easy to stop them if something inappropriate (or more likely, irrelevant comes up.)
In practice, this hasn't been an issue with my kids but they're more likely to ask for the digits of Pi than anything inappropriate.
I'm sure we'll see more parental control features in both devices in future because there's a strong demand for it.
Wake Word
To talk to Alexa, you just say her name (you can configure this to be Amazon or Echo instead.)
To talk to Google Home you say either 'OK Google' or 'Hey Google'.
The reason that the wake words are limited to specific words is that recognition of these words is done locally and audio is only processed after hearing a wake word.
We've found that it's very natural to say Alexa and then start talking. On the other hand, 'OK Google' is a real mouthful and I'm slightly disconcerted by my kids saying the name of a company many times a day. (They don't use google as a verb like us older folks, they say 'search it up.')
It sounds daft, but this is almost a deal breaker for us.
My kids talk absolutely non-stop when they are playing multi-player games (we're always bemused by the idea that devices make kids anti-social!) and we get very few false positives from either device. Alexa is more likely to be triggered accidentally but the blue light and beep makes this very clear.
My kids talk absolutely non-stop when they are playing multi-player games (we're always bemused by the idea that devices make kids anti-social!) and we get very few false positives from either device. Alexa is more likely to be triggered accidentally but the blue light and beep makes this very clear.
Design
When you say Alexa's wake word a blue ring lights up on top of the device to show that it's listening. Google Home also has lights on top but in our house the devices are in an area that gets a lot of daylight and we can't see the lights at all.
Alexa's light is really useful as the kids know that she's listening as they talk.
Success in Understanding
Both devices do a good job of understanding my children aged 8 and 10. We've been tracking and trialling voice recognition for a long time and it's come a very long way.
Google Home probably has the edge over Alexa for understanding. But both systems are usable. Note that we have UK accents and the devices if anything we'd expect the experience to be optimised for US accents.
Voice recognition is obviously trickier with little kids who don't speak clearly yet, but we're impressed with the results for slightly older children. It might motivate little kids to try and speak more clearly.
Google Home probably has the edge over Alexa for understanding. But both systems are usable. Note that we have UK accents and the devices if anything we'd expect the experience to be optimised for US accents.
Voice recognition is obviously trickier with little kids who don't speak clearly yet, but we're impressed with the results for slightly older children. It might motivate little kids to try and speak more clearly.
Voice and Personality
Both devices use a female voice. Google Home has a much more technically realistic voice but both of my children prefer Alexa's voice. It has more warmth and personality.
Alexa's responses are also packed with humour and character. Google Home feels a lot more corporate.
Jokes and Singing
As far as kids are concerned, quality of jokes is a key features of a voice assistant.
Both devices have a repertoire of terrible jokes. My kids prefer Alexa's jokes as they understand more of them. Google Home seems to have more jokes that they just don't have the background knowledge for.
When asked to sing a song, Google Home sings a selection of short songs as herself. Alexa sings Auld Lang Syne which pleases my Robbie Burns loving 10 year old and would be great at new year, but seems rather odd in the summer! We've had different responses from Alexa in the past. Let's just say there's room for improvement for both devices.
Story-telling
Google Home's responses to "tell a story" are very clever and meta. We've not discovered any actual story-telling.
Alexa does tell stories. She has a collection of short stories. The ones we've heard are suitable for children (though not specifically for them) and explore some interesting concepts.
Alexa also has story-telling skills and there are some really good options including interactive stories.
You can also listen to audio books with Alexa. You can play Audible books (which have audio recorded by a narrator) and you can also play text-to-speech enabled Kindle Books. This is pretty cool. We've been listening to the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy audiobook.
We were surprised to find that Google Home doesn't have a read aloud feature yet and also doesn't have audio books because Google Play doesn't sell them. You can cast audio from a device, but that kind of breaks the voice assistant idea for us.
Shopping List
We use the shopping list feature in Alexa a lot. My kids add things to the list if they notice we've run out. It makes them independent and means I don't have to remember everything.
I can then access the list from Alexa or the Alexa app to find out what's on it when I do a shopping order for delivery. The shopping list doesn't order things from Amazon it's just a list. This works well for me, I regularly shop with a supermarket for home delivery and I order some items from Amazon.
You have to go into the app to delete items from the list but that's not too bad as I'm at a device when I'm placing a shopping order anyway.
We've been happy with the Alexa feature so hadn't really explored Google Home's shopping list. There's been a recent change which means that the shopping list goes to the Google Express app. Google Express is Google's shopping service which is only available in some areas in the US and not at all in the UK. It used to link to Google Keep which would have been much more useful for us.
Success in Answering Questions
My kids tend to ask Alexa first and if they don't get a good enough answer they'll move on to Google Home.
These are just examples and the responses could change at any time (or be different on repeated asking.)
These are just examples and the responses could change at any time (or be different on repeated asking.)
Question | Alexa | Google Home |
What is the Terra Blade form Terraria? | No answer | Good answer |
What is your favourite colour? | Range of fun answers | She likes the Google colours |
What is Pi? | Gives lots of digits plus a ‘wowser’ and ‘this goes on for ever’ | Pi is 3.14. (Not really the level of accuracy they were looking for.) |
Which album is Pinball Wizard from? | Sorry I don’t know that. But can play the song and then you can ask ‘what song was that?’ and the answer includes the album and band! And can then play songs from the album. | Tommy by the Who |
This is pretty representative of the kind of things my kids ask. Google Home often returns better answers to general knowledge questions that require factual answers. But Alexa is the winner on giving entertaining responses to their less serious questions.
My kids tend to ask Alexa (we have an Echo and a Dot) first and then might also ask Google Home depending on the response they got.
My kids tend to ask Alexa (we have an Echo and a Dot) first and then might also ask Google Home depending on the response they got.
Games and Apps
Both devices can roll a dice which is quite a useful feature. Google Home adds a dice roll sound effect which is nice. Both devices can roll multiple dice and give you the total. Lots of kids magazines and annuals have printed board games, now you don't have to go hunting for a physical dice.
They can both flip coins too. Again, Google Home adds a sound effect. Now you can solve family disputes easily!
Google Home supports Akinator which my kids love (it tries to guess the person or character you are thinking of by asking yes/no questions.) Unfortunately, it's not available for devices with British English so we couldn't try it.
We asked Alexa to play a game and she offered to enable the Memory Flow skill. This tests recollection of a list of words, adding another word on each turn. This is pretty neat.
There are lots more games available as Alexa skills and Alexa offers new one when you ask to play a game. This is a really interesting way to play games. My 10 year old loves Yeti Hunt where you have to move around and listen to clues to hunt a yeti.
Google Home offers a Crystal Ball 'game' which gives a random yes/no answer to a question. Mildly entertaining. There's also a quiz game but this is tricky and also quite US-centric.
Google Home also offers an RPG game called 6 swords which sounds interesting but isn't available with a British English device. It does work on Alexa with linked accounts which means that we can play it, but each player needs their own linked Amazon account.
Gaming using voice assistants looks really promising. There's a lot more content available for Alexa at the moment.
Music
"Alexa, play Pinball Wizard. ... Alexa volume up ... Alexa repeat" - My 8 year oldBeing able to play music is important in our house. When we play board games and card games we like to have music on.
With Alexa we can access Amazon Prime music (well we can when it's switched to my account) which gives us a reasonable choice of music. We can really easily take turns choosing specific tracks or asking for a track by a particular artist. It's so easy to switch songs without disrupting our game and everyone feels that it's a fair way of doing things (we don't all have the same taste in music!)
We haven't found a good way to work with music on Google Home. My partner has all of his extensive library of music in Google Play but we haven't found a good way to access this music via Google Home without paying for Google Play account. My partner is not willing to do this to get access to his own music! You can set up specific play lists and access those and that may be a good approach for some families. It doesn't work well for the way we use music. Neither does casting from an Android device - we don't want to be fiddling with devices when we're playing games.
You can use a premium Spotify account and other providers with both devices so your music experience will really depend on your media setup.
Chromecast and Fire TV / Stick
Google Home can be used to control a Chromecast device which is handy if you have one. We have a Chromecast connected to our main TV so we've been using Google Home to control Netflix, YouTube etc. Using Google Home to play YouTube videos on the Chromecast via the TV does give us another option for playing music.
Amazon have taken a different approach and added Alexa support to their latest Fire Sticks so you don't actually need another Alexa device to control them. This support has been added to existing Fire Sticks that have a voice remote. Yep, you guessed it, we have a Fire TV too. This means we can use Alexa on our other TV to control Netflix, Amazon video, YouTube and other media.
Verdict
We're loving having voice assistants. They're great for all those questions that kids come out with that you can't actually answer. Especially at the dinner table.
The alarm setting features make the kids much more independent. They have alarms set up on Alexa but this is because she came first.
We've focussed on the features of Alexa and Google Home that kids are likely to interact with. We'll do a fuller comparison of other features once we get access to multiple accounts for Google Home in the UK. Not having multiple accounts is a real blocker in our household. Multiple account support is available in the US for Google Home. Alexa has support for multiple accounts though we'd like full sharing rather than having to switch between accounts.
Whether you choose an Amazon Alexa device (Echo, Dot or Tap) or a Google Home will depend partly on which ecosystem you're more tied into.
It's also important to consider that both devices are gaining functionality all the time. This is great for us as it keeps pushing the technology forward.
At the moment we'd say Alexa would be our preference because of the way the kids interact with the device (they like Alexa), the wider set of skills that are available, Amazon Prime music and support for audio books. My kids definitely prefer Alexa's 'personality', it seems more, well, personable.
Google Home does provide better responses to some of the kids' questions. They were particularly impressed that it knows what a Terra blade is. Being able to control our Chromecast device is also handy.
For us, having both devices is the ideal at the moment.
Buy: Amazon Alexa US | UK Google Home US | UK
/fa-fire/ MONTH TRENDING$type=list
-
Considering a Fitbit fitness tracker for your teen? Let's take a look at the options and see which Fitbit makes the most sense for you a...
-
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...
-
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...
/fa-calendar/ RECENT$type=blogging$m=0$cate=0$sn=0$rm=0$c=3$va=0
- 2013
- 2023
- 3d printing
- 3DTin
- accessories
- activities
- adafruit
- advent calendar
- adventure games
- amazon
- amazon fire
- amazon prime
- android
- angry birds
- animation
- anki
- app
- app toy
- app toys
- appcessories
- apple
- apps
- arcbotics
- architecture
- arckit
- arduino
- art
- artificial intelligence
- astronauts
- astronomy
- augmented reality
- automaton
- awards
- battle bots
- battling robots
- bedtime
- big kids
- big tablets
- bigtrak
- bike
- binary
- birthday
- bitsbox
- black friday
- blockly
- blogging
- bloxels
- bluetooth
- board games
- book
- books
- boolean box
- breadboard
- bricks
- brixo
- buying guide
- camera
- cameras
- card game
- careers
- catroid
- celebration
- cellphone
- ces
- chemistry
- chess
- christmas
- circuit cubes
- circuit playground
- circuit scribe
- cleaning
- climbing
- code clubs
- code-a-pillar
- codebug
- coder
- coding
- cognitive learning
- communication
- comparison
- competition/challenges
- computational thinking
- computer
- computer games
- computer science
- computer vision
- computers
- computing
- 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
- energy
- engineering
- entertainment
- ereader
- ereaders
- esafety
- escape the room
- event
- ewriter
- exercise
- family
- family tech
- 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
- javascript
- 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
/fa-dice/ RANDOM$type=blogging$m=0$cate=0$sn=0$rm=0$c=3$va=0$src=random-posts
- 2013
- 2023
- 3d printing
- 3DTin
- accessories
- activities
- adafruit
- advent calendar
- adventure games
- amazon
- amazon fire
- amazon prime
- android
- angry birds
- animation
- anki
- app
- app toy
- app toys
- appcessories
- apple
- apps
- arcbotics
- architecture
- arckit
- arduino
- art
- artificial intelligence
- astronauts
- astronomy
- augmented reality
- automaton
- awards
- battle bots
- battling robots
- bedtime
- big kids
- big tablets
- bigtrak
- bike
- binary
- birthday
- bitsbox
- black friday
- blockly
- blogging
- bloxels
- bluetooth
- board games
- book
- books
- boolean box
- breadboard
- bricks
- brixo
- buying guide
- camera
- cameras
- card game
- careers
- catroid
- celebration
- cellphone
- ces
- chemistry
- chess
- christmas
- circuit cubes
- circuit playground
- circuit scribe
- cleaning
- climbing
- code clubs
- code-a-pillar
- codebug
- coder
- coding
- cognitive learning
- communication
- comparison
- competition/challenges
- computational thinking
- computer
- computer games
- computer science
- computer vision
- computers
- computing
- 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
- energy
- engineering
- entertainment
- ereader
- ereaders
- esafety
- escape the room
- event
- ewriter
- exercise
- family
- family tech
- 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
- javascript
- 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