Coding For Kids - Botley the Coding Robot Activity Set @Amazon $32.61 + FS

This doesn't look like much of a coding toy, as the top review seems to confirm.

any other suggestions that are actually worth it

This seems more geared to very young children, even the kids in the photo don't seem to be 5 years old.

I could see this being good for 4-6, maybe 7 years old...but I can tell my 7 year old would get bored with this quickly with having to set everything up then program it to run through the setup course.

Quote from Scrooge : any other suggestions that are actually worth it

If you have an ipad, I recommend Swift Playgrounds app. It's an official Apple app that teaches the Swift language as well as basic coding principles. And it's free.

You start out by coding a character to walk around.

We have this and my 4 year old has a blast with it. I would say any kid older than 5 would probably get bored. It teaches the basic idea of coding, coding a route for the robot to take with a remote.

Quote from Scrooge : any other suggestions that are actually worth it

Lego Mindstorms but it is relatively expensive.

https://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-MIN...00CWER3XY/

We got this for our daughter. Shes just turned seven and like others said I'm sure she'll grow out of this quickly, but for now she's delighted with it. It's very different from her other toys and it is cute and makes fun little sounds and things as you interact with it.

I'd still recommend it because as a very basic introduction to what coding is, I think there's a good value. It teaches the idea of what coding is in a very approachable, non - intimidating way. Beyond coding as a general idea, it also introduces the concept of loops and if/then logic.

Our daughter isn't sheltered from tech, she has a little tablet and a laptop at school, but she's largely drawn to things that mimic her favorite analog things like stories, puzzles, and coloring type activities, so this has been good for her. If your kid is already creating worlds in minecraft, you can probably skip this and go to something more advanced.

Basically, you can store up to 80 commands for directions, move forward or back, turn left or right. You punch them in a remote and hit send then the robot executes it.

The loops can be programmed into the code and it will take multiple loops as well. The if/then is limited to the object detection sensor, but in terms of how this works it makes sense.

The included stuff is to make obstacles or goals, move a ball around, avoid obstacles, etc.

It also has line following, but it's pretty much a one trick pony separate from the coding bit. Comes with 6 puzzel pieces to make a path and it turns around when you reach the end of the path. It will follow a marker line on paper too.

We have this for a 6 and 4 year old, girl and boy respectively. They love it and were actually playing with it yesterday. They challenge each other to build obstacle courses and make botley travel through it.

Quote from Scrooge : any other suggestions that are actually worth it

Dash and dot