My son loved Dash & Dot [robots] for years, but around 3rd grade, his interest in coding started to fade. I was bummed because he had always loved coding and working on problem sets with his friends and then suddenly lost interest. In hindsight, I think that he just needed a bigger challenge and to try something new.
That's where Let's Start Coding came in -- their trendy sets are packed with challenges that allow older children to have both a hands-on experience with various physical components, as well as a more advanced coding environment. My son is back to a place where he loves to code again, and I can't recommend the Let's Start Coding brand enough!
My son has outgrown the drag-and-drop coding phase and has been ready for a bigger challenge. At the same time, Lego Mindstorm was a bust because it was too advanced for him. Let's Start Coding is brilliant because they recognized the gap between sets for your children and then overly complicated full-on coding environments. For instance, we started with the Let's Start Coding Code Piano.
He didn't have to make the leap from drag-and-drop coding to writing an entire class from scratch. Instead, [the coding software and examples] gently introduced him to "real code" that had a nice design and good variable naming/comments so that he could gain exposure and make edits to the code. It's easy to jump in to do cool things. My little future tech mogul rocked out with his little Code Piano and had fun advancing his coding skills. (I think that I'll always have fun memories of hearing the piano sounds coming from his room for hours on end while he had fun!)
I'm thrilled that Let's Start Coding relit the fire in my son to get back into coding. I wish that I would have found these kits sooner. I also wish that I would have identified sooner that he was just bored with his robots because they were too easy. The Let's Start Coding was perfectly suited to his developmental stage and has made coding fun again!
