Learning Resources Coding Critters | A Review

*Ad Gifted. All Opinions are my own.

We all want our children to learn but it is sometimes hard to remember that they all learn in different ways. With so much pressure on them at school and even at 4 years old coming home with a whole weekends worth of homework to do each and every evening the last thing they want to do is sit down and do more reading or writing or learning. One of the best ways to combat this is to allow them to learn through play. Alyssa has always had an amazing imagination and will disappear for hours on end with her toys into her own little world. She even came home from school the other day, walked into her room and said, “Hi everyone. I’m home.” She wholeheartedly believes in her imagination and the world and characters she has created. When Learning Resources got in touch and asked if we’d like to try out their new coding toy, I didn’t hesitate. Coding is going to be a vital skill of the future and if she can learn through play then even better!

Coding Critters come in 3 different choices; Range & Zip – Dogs, Rumble & Bumble – Dinosaurs and then Scamper & Sneaker – Cats. Each set comes with the adult coding pet and a small magnetic one too. The sets are for ages 4-10 and come complete with multiple accessories and a story book to help children to learn how to code.

The Learning Resources site says ‘Meet the Coding Critters: your first coding friends! These playful puppy pets bring early STEM concepts to preschool learning through 100% screen-free coding. Kids code along with their new pets’ storybook adventure, and help the brave Ranger and mischievous Zip have a playtime they’ll never forget! Each storybook coding challenge unfolds in the Coding Critters’ fun pet playset – can you code Ranger to play hide and seek, fetch a ball from the tennis ball launcher, or catch Zip after a ride down the slide? In addition to following along with the storybook’s coding challenges, you can also use the pet playset to design your own code games and more! The Coding Critters also double as cute interactive pets – press Ranger’s nose to activate Play Mode, where you can feed, pet, and take care of your new puppy robot pal! You can even make him dance and sing a silly song!”

I loved the fact that this was screen-free and that Alyssa was able to have fun and interact with this pet. She has wanted a dog for a long time and whilst she claims ownership over grandma’s dogs, it’s not quite the same. She did need help to initially play with this, being at the younger end of the age range but she definitely mastered the basics and I had no problem joining in with her as it was fun to play with and lovely to watch her squeal with delight when she managed to get Ranger to do something!

These Coding Critters have an RRP of £40.00 which I think considering how long the toy will last is pretty good value. I think aged 10 might be a little old but I definitely think aged 4 to at least aged 7 this toy will be a great one for any coders of the future. You can see the whole Coding Critters range on the Learning Resources website.