Ozobots and Cupcakes – Coding over Brunch!

We had a great time over winter vacation learning the basics of coding with our Ozobots! In case you have never seen or heard of them before Ozobots are the award winning smart robot, designed to teach kids & techies alike about robotics, programming & coding! My 2 girls are obsessed, it’s been their favorite toy since we got to open the boxes, and they were thrilled to be able to have a bunch of friends over on the first morning of winter vacation for a little Ozobots and Cupcakes party.

Full disclosure: while I was not paid to host this party I was given product to demonstrate with and then keep. All opinions, however, are mine and mine alone.

Of course in order to have friends over for the first morning of winter vacation you have to have cupcakes. I took plain white frosted cupcakes from the store (Target) and spelled out the Ozobot logo with Wilton candies. They were a huge hit with the kids, needless to say. We also had donut holes and croissants along with juice and milk.

It’s amazing how something so small, that literally fits into the palm of your child’s hand, can be such a powerful, and fun, learning tool. Both of my girls attend a STEM magnet school so they were already exciting about coding when we first learned about Ozobots but trust me when I say that you need NO prior knowledge about robotics or coding to enjoy these little guys. I know that because although today’s generation may be knowledgable about what the word coding mean, I really didn’t have the first idea about it.

There are 3 different ways to play games with your Ozobot – Draw and Play, Print and Play, and Digital Play. The kids had a blast using markers and white paper to draw their own paths for the robots to follow. The look on their faces when the Ozobot would follow the turns or change colors like they had drawn was magical. It made them so much more interested in learning how the robot knew to do those things.

I had also printed out in advance several of the print and play games from the Ozobot website. It was hilarious to watch them use some of these games like a magic 8 ball. They were asking the Ozobot all sorts of silly questions and then letting it loose on the “maze” to see which path it would take to tell them the outcome.

 

When our time was up no one wanted to leave. One of the lucky ladies at the party got to take home her very own Ozobot, a very merry early Christmas gift! Luckily for everyone else at the party (and you, too) Ozobots can be purchased online on their website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Toys R Us.

If you have any questions about Ozobots please leave me a comment and I will reply as soon as possible. Learning how coding works is going to be just as important to today’s generation as learning how to simply use a computer was to mine and I am so excited that both of my girls already have a passion for it and that we’ve found a product that makes it so much fun.