Teach your 3-year-old to code, even if you have no programming experience
If a child can put together a jigsaw puzzle, they can learn how to code.
The fundamentals aren’t complicated: kids just need a good teacher. They need a hands-on project, and they need to learn the basic concepts and skills from a young age.
Today we’re launching the answer to all three: KUBO, an educational robot that can teach your kids to code using the TagTile programming language we invented. It’s as simple as a puzzle. We’re now live on Indiegogo — early backers get a $50 discount!
Whether you’re an engineer or have never typed a line of code in your life, you can teach your kids how technology works and how they can have a hand in creating it. By learning to be a creator at a young age, children build a foundation for the rest of their education, including skills like critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration.
There are three critical components to teaching these 21st century skills:
The technology, KUBO robot
Most educational technology is built based on engineering principles — but we approached KUBO with teaching principles in mind, designing it around research on the need for active learning, the benefits of creating with physical objects, and how immediate feedback can help build a bridge to knowledge, plank by plank.
The KUBO robot greets kids with a smile, and lights up as it reads instructions in sequence. Programming an action for KUBO is as easy as running it over a line of puzzle pieces. This enables it to teach coding concepts in an easily understandable, tangible environment. KUBO is durable, small enough for children to handle, and it requires no assembly apart from snapping on its head.
The programming language, #TagTiles
Our new programming language, TagTiles, has been designed to teach kids about algorithms, functions, loops, and more — while at the same time keeping lessons simple, hands-on, and screenless.
Lay out a sequence of actions for KUBO to perform—go straight, turn right, turn left, go straight — framed by function tiles, then let KUBO read the instructions. Place it on the play tile afterwards and watch it go.
TagTiles allows KUBO to teach other subjects as well, including image-based language. For example, children can combine TagTiles to spell out a word, and then have KUBO read the word to check their spelling based on a leading image TagTile. If a letter is off, KUBO flashes red and backs up to look at the letter out of place until the spelling is correct.
The community, KEDU
In addition to letting children explore and experiment, we wanted to make it possible for people to share the best KUBO lessons, experiments, and challenges. We know parents and teachers will find ways for their kids to play with and learn from KUBO that we ourselves wouldn’t think of, and so we wanted to create a knowledge-sharing platform where users can post their best ideas.
KEDU is that platform, collecting ideas for KUBO from teachers and parents for others to use with their own kids.
Raising tech-savvy creators ready for the 21st century
Most parents and teachers aren’t engineers, but their children will have to be literate in technology and also be able to work alongside the machines that are automating so many jobs. This education has to start when they’re young, before the stereotypes of coding as nerdy discourage many from exploring and learning about technology.
KUBO, the TagTile programming language, and KEDU bring the complexity of coding down to a level where everyone can have fun with it, while also learning how to effectively communicate with it. This will allow any parent or teacher to easily bring children up to speed, and prepare them for the jobs of the future.
Get KUBO now, at the lowest price we’ll offer.
