Last night, I pledged a Kickstarter campaign that reached its funding code in 17 hours! Now, the makers of Cubetto hope to stretch their goal further in order to develop sooner than expected more maps and more stories for their wooden programmable robot. As I’m writing this, the third wave of early bird price is still available.
Cubetto combines Montessori learning principles with computer programming concepts inspired by LOGO Turtle. The Cubetto Playset consists of a friendly wooden robot, a physical programming console with a set of 16 colorful coding blocks, a nicely designed map and activity book to get children ages 3 and up started.
Why do I care so much about Cubetto?
It’s because Cubetto brings together all the elements I look for in a STEAM education toy. At the heart, the Cubetto Playset teaches preschoolers the fundamentals of programming, logical thinking, writing algorithms, debugging in a physical, hands-on way. In reality, it does more than that! This is what inspires me the most as a mom.
The story maps provide a backdrop for the children to imagine adventures for their robot.
The creators of Cubetto work hard on designing a playset that feels familiar to young children. The story maps provide a backdrop for the children to imagine adventures for their robot or to even imagine themselves doing the adventures accompanied with their robot.
The kids also get immediate feedbacks, which is critical in learning. The kids see right away if their coding works or not. They discover new patterns. The pretend play with the immediate feedback encourage kids to experiment and to learn while they are having fun.
The gender-neutral wooden robot is a blank canvas for the artist. It’s another way for kids to express themselves.
I can’t wait to receive my set for the beginning of the next school year. If you’re looking for a proven way to teach your boy or girl age 3 and up how to code, this video tells you more about why it’s a good idea to pre-order your Cubetto Playset right now.
