Did you know that next week (12-20 August 2017) is National Science Week? Do you have any activities planned? To celebrate we have partnered with Parent Direct to share one of our favourite STEM toys, which is an early coding activity.

Coding is something Caspar started learning in his Cycle Three Class (9-12 years) and he has also attended a few coding workshops. But what about for younger children, what can we do to prepare younger children for coding? The Code and Go Robot Mouse is the perfect pre-coding, early coding toy! Our Code and Go Robot Mouse (as pictured) is c/o Parent Direct. 

The Code and Go Mouse is for children from 5 years. Most five year olds would still need some help to set it up and to read the instructions but could do the coding part on their own. Children up to nine to ten years old would find the robot mouse useful and interesting if they are new to coding. This is an activity the child could use or play on their own but beacuase of the problem solving component, it's really good for group, team work or even for the adult to do with the child. 

Coding is about so much more than the actual instructions programmed, it's about problem solving and most importantly critical and logical thinking!

The aim is to program the mouse to find the cheese. You can set the course up to be as easy or as difficult as you like. The mouse works perfectly on the floor or table surface but you can also use the tracks and make an obstacle course or maze as pictured. Activity cards are provided to give the child ideas or courses to try. 

The child can use cards to map out the course and to help program the mouse. You can see the cards (pictured above) relate directly to the buttons on the mouse. Once the child has the path mapped out, they can use the buttons to program the mouse. This is a hands-on way to learn coding! There is lots of movement and activity built into this type of learning too. It's a good fit for introducing Montessori children to coding. 

Programming the mouse is a lot of fun and there is always lots of laughter. It took Otis lots of playing around and experimenting to correctly program the mouse, so there were lots of funny mistakes made along the way! And there are huge claps and celebration when the mouse successfully finds the cheese. The mouse and cheese concept is really cute and the mouse makes the best little squeaking sounds.

Is coding important to you? Basic coding impacts all of us who use the internet and it is starting to be considered a core skill. But even if it's not, the thought processes that the child uses in coding is useful in so many areas of their learning such as maths and science and almost all STEM activities. 

Thank you to Parent Direct for our Code and Go Robot Mouse. If you are in the US you can find the Code and Go Robot Mouse here. 

I hope you enjoy National Science Week 2017!