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My Top Toy Pick for 2015: Dash & Dot

November 25, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Dash & Dot provided for review purposes. I fell in love with these robots all on my own, though.

Friends, today I’m SO excited to show you the toy that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I was a little kid. I want you to meet your kid’s first robot friends, Dash & Dot.

Dash & Dot are from Wonder Workshop, and they are programmable robots that your child can play with and learn coding with all at once. Dash & Dot work with the help of a few different (free) apps you can download from the Wonder Workshop website (they work on phones but I recommend using a tablet so you have more room to play). I’ll go over the apps in a bit more detail briefly, but for now I want to emphasize that Dash & Dot are ready to play pretty much right out of the box. They make adorable little sounds and offer a “hello” greeting when you turn them on, and I can tell you that this “sign of life” from the robots as soon as they came on had my 2 girls hooked and wanting to play. It also earned them instant cuddles. 🙂

Our robots did have to get plugged in immediately, not because they were out of energy, but rather because updates had been made to the program since they had been packaged. I took that as a very good sign, because updates mean improvements!

So to get started with either robot, the app I would choose first is Go. This app gives you a basic feel for some of the fun things each robot can do, like different fun sounds or color changes. I think it’s a great app for younger children and a great warm up app for the older ones.

Path is the app that my kids seem to want to play with constantly, though. In this app, you start to build some programming for your robot through a series of challenges. Dash is perhaps the most fun with this app because Dash is the robot that moves. The challenges seem to build on one another so that the learning continues in the midst of all the fun.

I think one of my favorite moments to witness using this app was when my oldest daughter had to build a program to make Dash take 3 right turns. Once she got it figured out and successfully ran the program, Dash concluded his path by shouting, “All right!” He celebrated her success, and he also made a joke. Darah instantly got it and fell into stitches on the floor. That’s just one example of the truly thoughtful design behind Dash & Dot.

We are still pretty new to Dash & Dot, so we haven’t yet spent much time looking at a third app called Blockly, but my husband checked it out and seems really pumped about it. This app seems geared for an older set (ages 8 and up) and gets even more into the details of programming. It sounds as though you can really start to get your robots to do some more sophisticated actions, which is really cool!

Another thing I’m really loving about Dash & Dot is that this is a toy that my children want to play with together. They don’t always want to play the same things since they are almost 3 years apart in age, but they both love these robots. I think Dash & Dot are actually best when played with in a group setting of some sort, be it with a sibling, a friend or a parent, because as you play more and more, you will get into some problem solving issues, and it’s great to have more than one mind working out a problem together!

The listed ideal age recommendation for Dash & Dot is 5 and up, and I think that’s accurate, unless you have a younger child with an older sibling like we do, and in that case, the younger child can certainly play, too! My little one was drawing paths and running simple programs for Dash on the very first night we had him!

You can purchase Dash and Dot as a combo set for $199.95, or you can order them separately (Dot is $49.99 and Dash is $149.99). Dash is the one that moves about, and I definitely saw the kids playing the most with that robot. But when I asked Darah which robot she liked the best, she said, “Dot!” and I when I asked why she said, “Well you know, Dot can’t move around mom, but that doesn’t stop her from being awesome. She can do really cool stuff!” And right she is. Still, I would highly recommend buying the pair because they are so very much fun together (they give kisses! True story!).

So there it is, friends. This is my very top toy recommendations for kids 5 and up this year. Dash & Dot rock my world. They going to teach me about coding, too! #neverstoplearning

Ozobot Review: Introduction to Coding for Kids for Under $50!

November 23, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · 1 Comment

Thanks to Ozobot for the review product. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I recently read that 65% of the jobs that people who are currently children will have don’t even exist yet. Say what?!?! It’s just a tad overwhelming to think about how in the world to prepare our kids for work that hasn’t even been created yet.

But one thing I do feel confident about is that it is critical for our children to understand how technology works. I’m not talking about how to find Netflix on the iPad, either. I’m talking about having a basic understanding of what goes on inside a computer so that it can play Netflix in the first place, or run the game you like to play. I’m talking about coding.

I think this is a foundational language (yes, language!) that today’s children need to learn in order to be better prepared for the jobs of tomorrow. Will computers still run the same way that they do now in 15 years? Most likely not, but I know that when I was growing up, understanding how to play on an Apple IIe was a gateway for me to feel comfortable on a Dell and an iMac and beyond. The same is true for our kids. Knowing the basic language of computers will make them more comfortable to adapt and thrive as technology shifts and changes.

So how do you help a young child learn how to code? There are actually a surprisingly large number of options out there, and I’ll be highlighting a few of them this holiday season. I think perhaps the most budget-friendly option I found (that is amazing…there are other budget-friendly options that don’t wow me) is the Ozobot. You can get an Ozobot Starter Pack for $49.99.

The recommended minimum age for this awesome little robot is 6. Obviously you would need to make a judgment call based on your own child’s interests. After playing around with it a while myself (during which time I learned quite a bit, which was fun!), I think it’s going to be perfect for my oldest in about 8 months, when she turns 7.

You can find this adorable, customizeable, tiny robot at places like Barnes & Noble, Toys R Us and Amazon. Curious how it works? Well, it’s coding language is color-based! It comes with a booklet that shows you the color sequences that you can use to give the robot different instructions. Little ones can use some of the provided materials to create a course for the ozobot to run on, or they can draw their own (markers are included). They can also use a tablet and the free Ozobot app to play more fun games!

The starter pack comes with over 20 activities for your ozobot to perform, as well as code on reusable stickers and ozobot skins with sticker sheets so you can create a customized look for your bot. A USB charging cable is also included.

What an amazing, budget-friendly option for parents who want to get their kids starting with the world of coding. I’m really impressed with this product, and I’m looking forward to learning right alongside my kids! To the future!!!

The Best STEM Game I’ve Found: Magic School Bus Science Explosion

November 22, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · Leave a Comment

Special thanks to The Young Scientists Club for sending this game our way for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

This week we started playing a new game, The Magic School Bust Science Explosion game, and it really wowed us! The content could not keep the attention of my 3-year-old (nor is it intended to) but she did stick around thanks to the promise of an erupting volcano! 🙂

There are actually two games included (a different board is on each side!) and you use the same playing cards but in a different way for the 2 games. We played the side that required you to collect different cards that matched the category card you had (for example, famous scientists, or weather). Each card you collect has really great information on it, without being too overwhelming.

As you collect cards, you get to move around the board and add baking soda to your beaker. After you collect 5 cards in a category, you get to cause the volanic eruption!

I’m totally adding food coloring to the vinegar next time to increase the dramatic effect. 🙂

You can play with 2 players or with 4 players, and I think in the future I’ll reserve this game for a time when my oldest and I can play just the two of us. With the 3-year-old otherwise entertained, we can spend more time exploring the great information cards and learning while we play.

After seeing the game for myself, I’m not surprised that this game has one awards from Parents’ Choice, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio and Creative Child. I think it is absolutely perfect for ages 6-9 (that’s my own age range, not the official one!) and it really does foster learning scientific concepts all while having fun. Every kid will want to be the one to make that volcano explode, and will keep playing the game until that happens. This game retails for $29.99.