How To Get Kids Excited About Coding With Wonder Workshop’s Dot & Dash

As a tech blogger, I’m fascinated by how quickly children learn how to use today’s gadgets and gizmos. Devices are all very intuitive these days which makes it easy for kids to learn how to open up apps, play games, connect with family or friends through text messages, email, or video, chat, and more. While all this technology is wonderful there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make it happen and much of it has to do with coding.

This post is sponsored by Wonder Workshop and The Motherhood & Dot & Dash were received.

This past summer Kora & Logan expressed an interest in coding when I found a few websites that teach kids how to code. They were excited to create some of their own games based off of templates and were amazed to learn that just by changing one command the entire game can change. That’s why I was excited about the new coding robots, Dot & Dash.

They were thrilled to see Dash & Dot from Wonder Workshop and within minutes wanted to play with them.

Dash & Dot are cute robots that draw kids in and make them want to interact with them.

Both Dash & Dot have a number of fantastic features. Here’s a look at Dash:

• He can drive forward, backward, spin, and move in almost any direction.
• His head can pan and tilt
• 12 LEDs in his eye can be programmed independently. When Kora & Logan figured this out they had fun making smiley faces, making creative patterns and more
• Kids can customize his personality by changing the color of the lights on the side, his eye animation, and his greetings.
• He can play different sounds and record voices too
• Sensor that allows him to detect how far away an object is in front or behind him
• 3 microphones allow him to detect sound and determine which direction they are coming from

Here’s a look at Dot:

• Dot’s eye can be programmed with different patterns and even colors
• Accelerometer helps detect when he is moved, shaken, tilted, rotated, dropped etc.
• Gestures can be used to program Dash or even used in conjunction with other devices
• Can be used as a remote control to guide Dash along
• Has a microphone and can respond to sound
• Various lights and a speaker can be used to customize his personality
• Sounds can be recorded and played back

Dash & Dot work with apps for every age group including:

Go – read the background story of Dash & Dot and learn the controls of the robots

Path – introduces coding to pre-readers by visual path drawing & icon based events (draw a squiggly line and watch Dash follow it, have him go a certain distance and a sound plays)

Blockly – visual coding tool ideal for kids 8 and up, can program the robots, and gives kids the opportunity to use conditions, loops, and events

Xylo – helps kids program Dash to play the xylophone

Kora and Logan were also amazed to find out that they can use the included Building Brick Connectors to add Lego bricks to Dash & Dot.

This took their inspiration to a whole new level. They had their cousins over and together the four of them worked to get Dash to race around our ottoman and sense Dot at the finish line who acted as the timer (complete with a Lego alarm clock on his head).

I was amazed at how hard the kids worked on this. They put their heads together and used Blockly to program Dash & Dot.

I was interested to learn that Wonder Workshop is the largest crowdfunded consumer robotics product ever. I can understand why, they are fascinating robots that encourage creativity and make coding enjoyable for kids. I recommend Dash & Dot to anyone looking for gift ideas for the children in their lives, they are inspiring, fun, educational, and Wonder Workshop is working hard to help kids go beyond the screen and bring abstract programming concepts to life

To learn more visit Wonder Workshop online