Botley™ the Coding Robot Activity Set

Meet Botley, the new coding robot from Learning resources. Botley is designed to help children as young as 5 learn the basic skills of coding.

It encourages Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) by engaging them through play. It also has an advantage of unlocking advanced features as they progress.

Lets have a look at whats in the box…

• Botley the coding robot
• Easy-to-use remote programmer
• Detachable robot arms
• 40 coding cards
• Six boards
• A sheet of stickers for customisation
• A variety of accessories to create obstacles and activities for Botley: Eight sticks, 12 cubes, two cones, two flags, two balls and a goal

Lydia has never done coding before, so when we received Botley I was looking forward to see how she would get on with it and I was pleasantly surprised. Botley is good to go straight out of the box (after popping in 5 AAA batteries in the remote and Botley).

Daddy Knight was also very keen to have a go at coding Botley and had a quick go before he started setting basic challenges for Lydia. He  laid 3 tiles in a straight line on the floor and explained to Lydia what the buttonson the remote do and that she had to stop on the orange tile at the end.

In no time at all Lydia and her 12 year old brother, Leo, was setting up courses and coding them into the remote for Botley to follow. We also set up a course where Botley had to guide a bolder around, placing it into the circle and then going back for the other bolder to do the same.

We love the little sounds Botley makes in his fun robotic voices when he’s moving around. If he is stationary, he beeps at you so you still know he is there, which is very cute.

The coding cards are designed for the child to set up their own sequence of where they want Botley to go before programming it into the remote. It acts as either a reminder of what they have pressed so they can plan Botley’s activity, or use it with problem solving so they can plan what they need to do before programming the sequence into Botley. I like the idea of these as sometimes its good to actually see what you are doing instead of figuring it out in your head, which can get really frustrating for them.

Here is a little snippet from the booklet with some ideas you can do to start off with. There are 10 basic challenges to get your imagination flowing and then you can have lots of fun creating your own obstacle courses.

I also like that there is no tablet or screens needed to play with Botley. It’s just you and your brain and being able to actively think about what course you are going to make up and how you are going to code it. Botley works best on hard flooring.

Botley retails for £79.99 and can be purchased here.

**I was sent this product in return for an honest review**