Kids Learn How to Code Offline with Cubetto

By Mark Myerson on Jul 7, 2017, 9:00 am EDT under Product Reviews

Every parent hopes that their kids will succeed in life. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have to become a billionaire or a sports star. But to be comfortable, they do need a good career. In their lifetime, coding will be as important as reading and writing. Cubetto is a fun offline toy that helps lay the foundations for coding skills. It involves no screen time, and it takes your kids on fun adventures across a world map. Plus, Cubetto follows the Montessori method.

– Wooden design takes things back to basics, with no screen and no WiFi

– Multiple adventures to enjoy, and your kid can create their own mini games

– Teaches the principles of programming without a computer

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/primotoys/cubetto

Code Offline

As a 21st century parent, it’s always difficult to strike the right balance between digital fun and proper play. Your kids love Barney, but you can’t let them just sit in front of Netflix all day. When you consider their education will mostly take place on screens, offline time becomes even more precious.

With Cubetto, you don’t have to sacrifice digital learning in favor of active play. This cute wooden robot follows a trail of colorful blocks laid out by your little ones. Basically, your child is steering a robot using visual code — but they will just call it fun.

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There are three main elements to the Cubetto kit: the robot, the interface board, and the coding blocks. To control the robot, you place directional blocks into the board. It is a very similar system to the LOGO programming language developed by MIT back in the 1970s.

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The instructions send Cubetto across a story map, which you lay out on the floor. It looks like the coolest game of snakes and ladders you have ever seen, and each mat comes with its own story book. As Cubetto drives across the map, your kid goes on a reading adventure.

[tweet_box]Cubetto is a fun offline toy that helps lay the foundations for coding skills[/tweet_box]

There are six adventure packs to choose from, each set in a different environment. For instance, your child can travel through Ancient Egypt and discover hieroglyphics, or wade through Swarmy Swamp to meet the exotic wildlife.

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Aside from these quests, Cubetto is happy to join in with other games. For instance, you can program the little bot to play a round of mini golf. You can also tape on some pens to make him draw patterns, or create a felt-tip maze for him to navigate.

code offline Cubetto

Fun Learning

From the education angle, Cubetto hits several sweet spots. First of all, the whole setup is designed to adhere to Montessori principles. It’s non-prescriptive, child centered, social, and great for building resilience.

Secondly, Cubetto genuinely covers key aspects of code. Through playing with the robot, your kids will learn about algorithms, sequencing, debugging, and recursions.

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Finally, the robot comes with 120 curriculum-mapped lesson plans. So far, it has been used in classrooms across 96 countries.

“A coding toy for girls and boys aged 3 and up. It takes coding off the screen, and into the real world with a programming language you can touch.” — Cubetto on Kickstarter

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