A big thank you to Tech Will Save Us for sending their newest toy for us to review. All opinions shared in learn block coding while having fun with the Arcade Coder are ours alone.
What age were you when you learned block coding? I’ll wait while you count back…
Oh wait, you *haven’t* learned block coding and you’re not even sure what that is? Yeah, same here. Luckily, my kids can now teach me thanks to the new Arcade Coder from Tech Will Save Us. The Arcade Coder is designed to teach kids easy block coding, game design, and can help them learn to code animations.
Wanna know what’s even cooler? Your kids can also use those skills to invent their own games in the free game studio app. Yes, I said invent their own games. Can you imagine what kind of different life path you’d be on if you learned coding and could create coded games in your early elementary years? We’d all be billionaires, right?
I can’t promise Tech Will Save Us will make us all billionaire grandparents, but these days tech and coding is all but required in most professions, and this is a fun and easy way to teach your kids the basics, all while they are having fun and playing with a toy. And, hopefully once they learn they can teach their poor mama who could really use some coding help.
Learn block coding while having fun with the Arcade Coder
We’ve only scratched the surface of what the Arcade Coder can do, and already we’re hooked. It’s no surprise the Arcade Coder has already won a Parents’ Choice Gold Award, an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award, and honored as one of the “Best Toys” for 2019 in Good Housekeeping. It’s just that cool.
So, what is the Arcade Coder?
It’s a 12” x 12” board with 144 LED illuminated buttons you can press to your heart’s content {which my littlest enjoys doing for long periods of time without any instruction at all}. But, for older kids, I love that there is no coding required straight out of the box.
Kids can jump right into exploring the ready-to-play games that are on the Arcade Coder at shipment and learn how the games work beforehand. Then, when your child is ready, you add in the free iOS game studio app for iPad and connect it via Bluetooth, and it opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
Why an extra board? Can’t they just learn coding on the tablet without the Tech Will Save Us Arcade Coder unit itself? Yes, technically the board isn’t required. But, there’s something special about the joining of tech and toy to make even the youngest kid interested in coding thanks to the Arcade Coder.
Maybe it’s the tactile nature of the board that is fun to manipulate and press buttons to watch the board light up, or maybe it’s the fact that they can code on the app and then play without a screen for hours. Either way, I’m a fan of making something very tech-y and advanced such as coding into a screen-less wonder that can keep the whole family entertained for hours.
Want more Tech Will Save Us fun? Check out our review of the Music Studio Collection that teaches kids how to create and record their own music.
To buy: shop Tech Will Save Us to purchase the Arcade Coder for $159.99.