Learning Resources Botley The Coding Robot Activity Set

From the moment we got this, Botley has been a huge hit with the age attraction spanning from three year old and upwards, all the way upto adults in our home. The instructions are clearly laid out with the challenges ranging from the very basic, suitable for a three year old. To very challenging! - even the adults here, found the exact coding required to perform a task, pretty challenging! ▪︎A Complaint: I read someone comment that their Botley didn't rotate a full 90° (turning about 80° instead), when commanded to 'turn right'. I can only imagine they had a faulty bot, as it does turn a complete right angle when requested. Allowing you to code without having to worry about improper turns. ▪︎ The Remote: Don't be fooled by the simplistic, colourful and chunky designed remote. It's an attractive format to get the young interested into early coding, but this robot offers so much more whilst keeping the experience 'fun' and positive for the younger audience, all the while, learning essential STEAM skills which this bot will grow on as the experience of the individual grows with time. ▪︎The Extras: It comes with a large selection of apparatus, to push, roll, carry, swerve, avoid, navigate, follow and adhere to. It also has some hidden 'Easter egg' codes to make your bot perform some funny little tricks. Our youngest (age 4) treats him more like a pet, she commands him to come to him (obviously using coding), rewards the bot with a treat (from the bot's own "toys"; she blesses him when he sneezes (which he does when he's inactive for a few minutes), she chuckles with delight when the bot is coded by her to spin round and round (a coded series of left and right turns) as he feels 'dizzy' and responds with "woah, woah, woooah" sounds. A thought provoking and challenging kit that the whole family can participate in as after dinner entertainment that, with the aid of the instuctions, can direct you on a selection of age-specific levels of tasks, in order to find the ultimate coder. •• Note: Carry case purchased separately on Amazon. • 5 x AAA required. • Remote doesn't have an 'off' switch, which is rather annoying as it keeps transmitting a signal with lights and sounds when accidentally pressed in storage.

Botley is absolutely brilliant. I bought him as the xmas gift for my 7 year old son as I know they often use a similar bot at school to practice coding. My sister queried whether Botley would be too childish for a seven year old - but he holds up to 80 instructions so you can start to build some really complicated assault courses or set challenges for each other to knock down obstacles in a certain order. On xmas day everybody fought over him and even the grown ups found plotting the right course more of a challenge than they thought! The additional bits and bobs this set came with certainly helped make it more accessible for our younger cousin who owns the similar but simpler ‘Doc’ bot. What I really love about Botley is that you don’t need an app, tablet or phone to work him. Just a really simple remote control. We already have far too much staring at screens in this house so I didn’t want another toy that promoted that. Really pleased. Only strange thing - on the box is written in large letters ‘Straight to go right out of the box!’ But then in tiny print (requires 5 AA batteries not included’) !!! Which seemed a bit of a contradiction but luckily we had lots of batteries in the house or he wouldn’t have been as much fun on xmas morning!

My daughter is 8 yrs old , we got this mainly because she too focused on watching tv or playing games on her iPad. What am amazing little bot . From the time she’s opened it she been busy using her imagination and coding it to do all sorts of things . I could be happier in the moment to the joy she’s getting from playing . 10/10 for me

As a software engineer myself I really wanted to encourage my children to learn programming and Botly the friendly robot is a great and fun way for them to start. Its a fantastic product for kids to understand simple concepts of coding and you don’t have to be know coding yourself to help them, its very easy to use for everyone with detailed instructions and tips, highly recommended.

My daughter liked playing with it but the camera didn't work even after trouble shooting it. It also didn't turn 90 degrees on the provided coloured squares.

I bought this for my daughter’s 7th birthday and it’s been a huge hit with both her and her 8.5 year old sister. Simple and fun, but with the ability to work out more complicated programmes. I bought it when it was on sale on Amazon, which made it even better!

This is a great way of introducing coding to our 4 year old and he loves it, does exactly what it says on the box, is so much fun for the whole family and really gets out son thinking about making Botley do what’s needed to get around. Only slight negative I can think of is that there could be more of the mats that you put down as this helped out son to visualise how many “steps” it would take to get Botley from the start to the finish of a course. Even if they were available to buy as an extra accessory I think this might help the younger users. Other than that minuscule negative Botley is brilliant, fun and teaches coding in such a simplistic way that even I (someone who’s never done anything remotely computer based) can work it and enjoy it.

Fantastic for getting my 8 year old more enthused about coding. Lots of variety in the projects provided with Botley, and huge scope for making up your own problems to solve! Excellent for collaborative play / problem solving too.