Coding Critters Review | Screen-Free Coding for Kids

Coding Critters Review | Screen-Free Coding for Kids

Children who are growing up in today’s modern society, will come in touch with coding sooner rather than later so it’s a great idea to introduce the concept to them through play when they’re younger.

Did you know that you can actually teach children coding without a computer or tablet? Coding Critters from Learning Resources are interactive pets that introduce 100% screen-free programming for kids in a fun way.

There are three sets and pets to choose from – a cute cat, an adorable dog and a sweet dinosaur. Pick your child’s favourite and get coding! Each coding robot teaches early STEM concepts through basic coding and activities, featuring challenging coding games too. Perfect for at home or in the classroom.

The sets are designed for kids aged between 4-9 years old. My two older daughters are 5.5 years old and 3.5 years old and they both love their new coding toy. My oldest daughter got the hang of it straight away and my younger daughter is enjoying learning how it works.

In the set, you get 10 coding paw prints to use to guide you when you’re coding, 3 cardboard playset decorations, playset items to use for coding games (ball, sea-saw, house, slide and puppy!) and a full colour story book with coding challenges and ideas.

Children code along with their new pets’ storybook adventure, and help the brave Ranger and mischievous Zip have a playtime they’ll never forget!

Each storybook coding challenge unfolds in the Coding Critters’ fun pet playset – can you use programming to code to Ranger to play hide and seek, fetch a ball from the tennis ball launcher, or catch Zip after a ride down the slide?

You can of course make up your own challenges too! It’s really easy to set up and use. You put some batteries in (3AAA – not included) and get started. Press the direction buttons on the Coding Critter’s back to input a coding sequence up to 30 steps.

Our favourite is to code the big dog to go and get the puppy! So sweet!

You can also use the critters as interactive pets. Press the dog’s nose to activate Play Mode, where you can feed, pet, and take care of your new puppy coding robot toy or make him dance around.

Coding Critters are available from the Learning Resources website here, RRP £40. It’s a great toy set that help develop STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) skills and teach coding through play.

This set was sent to us for this review. As always, all my reviews are 100%  honest and all thoughts and opinions are my own.