Ozobot: The tech toy you will want to add to your Christmas list.

Do you know about Ozobot? Don't worry, I didn't either until about a month ago. I saw the tiny robot toy on Tryazon and was so impressed with the concept that I applied to have an Ozobot party and share it with our friends. If you do a quick search for "top tech toys" or "STEM toys" or "2015 educational toys" Ozobot seems to be on everyone's list so when we were chosen to try out the Ozobot this mom was excited!

We were sent three Ozobots to try. The package includes your robot, the Ozobot a charger, two covers, practice tracks and information about registration and how to take care of your Ozobot.

 

 

I let my kids mess around with the robots for a while before their friends got here so we made sure we knew how they worked. They loved them so much they started trying to bargain with me to not give the two extra ones away - they wanted to keep them for themselves.  Once our friends got here we dove right into playing with the robots.  They were a real hit and kids ages 4 to 13 years old were able to both work together and have fun playing with the robots.

 

 

Coding without intimidation

For me the thought of coding or programming anything is intimidating. What I liked about the Ozobot was that by using color patterns the concept of coding was brought down to a level that any child or adult could not only do but understand.

 

Knowing the robot would be able to read red, blue, green and black you could practically had a marker to any child and get them started.  It did take a little trial and error in working the color combinations, darkness/shades and thicknesses to get the codes working. I was impressed how the kids we had working together stayed calm and worked through the problems to get their desired results.

 

 



 

Just the beginning

Our group was able to have fun with the print offs, codes and drawing their own courses. We downloaded the apps which were free from The App Store and the older kids were able to dabble in free draw and games section, but there is so much we haven't done yet.

 

The good thing about this toy is that you can buy it and get started right away (which is the hallmark of any good Christmas morning gift) but then once you have mastered a function you can download one or more of the apps or get on the website to learn new tricks.

 

 

Would I buy another one?

I think I will end up buying another one, especially if they continue this level of interest. Right now we are having some sharing issues with just the one and there are some games that if we had two they would be able to play together. It is not easy to find "learning" toys that keep 7 and 8 year olds interested for too long, or they figure out that they are learning but this one seems to pull it off.

 

Links for more information:

 

Ozobot Website

Tryazon Website