Preschoolers as young as four can learn important concepts without a screen by playing with the mTiny Discover Kit from Makeblock. The mTiny system centers around the building blocks of coding, but effectively gets kids familiar with social/emotional, music, math, and problem-solving skills. It all happens through the little mTiny smart panda robot the child controls with the included remote, and through the code they create using the included cards. They lay the coded tiles in a sequence like puzzle pieces, tap each in order with the remote, then finish/run what they created. mTiny then moves and emotes through sound and expressive LCD eyes. There are over 300 sounds and dozens of cards for them to mix and match.
Play to Learn
Each "program" the child creates begins with an input card and ends/runs by taping the go card. In between can be any combination of the included 81 coding cards. They also work with the 24 themed map cards for additional play value. The map cards are what the mTiny moves on, with each coding card corresponding to a map card. For example, "Move Forward" moves mTiny one map tile. Below is an overview of the included coding cards.
- Input and Go: Start and end a string of coded tiles
- Facial Expressions: Happy, Silly, Angry, Sad, Scared, Dizzy, and Sleepy
- Repeat: x2, x3, x4, and x5
- Loop: 2, 3, 4, 5, and Infinite
- Loop Parentheses: Encapsulate a code sequence to repeat
- Musical Notes: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, and four melody cards
- Shape & Line: Insert a colored market into mTiny to have it draw the shape
Additional Details
- 10 preset emotions
- Over 300 sound effects
- Up to two hours of battery life
- Eco-friendly ABS plastic outer body with food-grade silicon ears
UPC: 193122007207