
Teaching a 3-Year-Old to Program Without a Computer Screen - HugoDaniel
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/geek-life/tools-toys/teaching-a-3yearold-to-programwithout-a-computer-screen
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acrive
Not only. In Italy there is a toy that explain the BCD (Binary coded decimal)
with colored tiny balls.
[http://www.quercettistore.com/prodotti/rami](http://www.quercettistore.com/prodotti/rami)
About 30 years ago.. Sorry but this not happen only in Silicon Valley.

~~~
mathgeek
I don't think this is coming out of Silicon Valley:

play@primotoys.com

+44 (0) 740 0549 759

Unit T, Reliance Wharf

London

N1 5ET

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0xcde4c3db
> My main objection to pushing STEM down to the diaper set is that it all
> seems to involve screen-based learning tools, and I am sure that little ones
> don’t need more screen time.

This thing seems pretty cool. On the whole, we probably need to have more of
an awareness of how important tactile and spatial factors are in child
development. But the top selling point, according to this reviewer, is that it
protects your child from the "screen time" bogeyman? Spare me.

~~~
hightechlowlife
Scientific research quite strongly links excessive screen time to
psychological problems in children. You can be spared from science, if you'd
like, but it does no good to ignore real problems just because you want to
stick your head in the sand.

Edit: And for the bogeyman's sake, if you'd like the "proof", that's what
Google is for. This isn't some fringe view. It's about the same as asking me
for proof that smoking is damaging.

~~~
joepvd
Correlation != causation. Is screen time per se that would create some issues
with kids, or is it the lack of real communication between parent and kid?

I love to sit down and actively watch (i.e. point, name, discuss) a show with
my 3 y/o son. When not excessive, I feel this is good for both of us.

~~~
mathgeek
> When not excessive, I feel this is good for both of us.

While I also agree that it doesn't feel wrong to experience something on a
screen as a family, we should always be wary of "it feels good/right" as a
reason for believing that something isn't bad for you in the long run. That's
a slippery slope that has led to plenty of negative trends recently. It's far
too easy for people to latch onto things that are good in moderation and let
those things slip into over-saturation.

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benkuykendall
This write-up doesn't explain how to program the device, but this page does
[http://docs.primotoys.com/docs/cubetto-
manual.html#introduct...](http://docs.primotoys.com/docs/cubetto-
manual.html#introduction)

Basically, you program a sequence of commands FORWARD, LEFT, RIGHT. There is
also a special command FUNCTION that executes a user-specified sequence of up
to four commands.

Does it allow the FUNCTION command within the definition of the function? If
it does, there's a lot of non-trivial stuff with recursion to do

For instance, a stack overflow

commands = [FUNCTION]

function = [FUNCTION, FUNCTION]

~~~
salgernon
So, basically a Big Trak, which had the same features.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Trak)

Big Trak also could fire it's "laser" programmatically.

My kids love it today - age 3 and 7. (Ok, I bought it used, since my parents
had long ago donated mine to goodwill. Still, 35 year old toy works great.)

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scrumper
$180 on a toy for a 3 year old? No. We would absolutely play with this at our
local library if they had one though. I love the screenless programming idea,
embedding those concepts early.

~~~
beachstartup
it's a robot for urban tech-focused dual-income families with probably 1 young
child, their first (which means everything they buy is top of the line).
honestly they probably could have priced it at $199 or more.

witness:

[http://www.toysrus.com/products/luxury-
strollers.jsp](http://www.toysrus.com/products/luxury-strollers.jsp)

[http://www.thebump.com/a/25-hottest-baby-
products](http://www.thebump.com/a/25-hottest-baby-products)

do you know how much these kinds of people spend on their babies? it's
astronomical.

~~~
maaku
stupid people will be stupid. news at 11.

~~~
thejosh
yes how dare they spend their money on their first born!

~~~
maaku
If they want to spend money on their first born, there are far better, more
rational ways to do it. $199 in a 529 plan turns into $2k by college time.
$199 in used clothes or legos will go a lot further at that age.

~~~
beachstartup
at some point you need to come to grips with the fact that some people are
just wealthier than you, and don't really care about that $2k in 18 years
because they or their parents, or grand-parents, or great great great grand-
parents already solved that pesky 'lack of money for the kids' issue.

you're projecting your own financial situation onto others in the demographic
buying disposable $180 doo-dads for their kids.

it's like getting mad at the rain.

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DLarsen
So it's Robot Turtles IRL? My kids dig Robot Turtles and would have fun with
this.

~~~
cableshaft
For those who don't know, Robot Turtles is a board game that teaches
programming concepts aimed at young children that you can pick up at Target or
Amazon for like $25, for those of you who are balking at the high price of
these robots.

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thehoff
[http://www.primotoys.com/](http://www.primotoys.com/) looks like the direct
site.

I thought $180 seemed like a lot but it does look like you get a lot of stuff
(including a simple robot).

A toy lawn mower, a wooden toy train set, a toy truck, and maybe another one
or two toys is already pushing $100, most of which end up in a bin to be
barely played with after the first day.

~~~
thehoff
Hrrm, I misread. Looks like the $ doesn't go as far as I thought (for $180 you
get the playset, not the world kit). Interesting concept but on second pass
this is a little steep.

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swiley
To everyone complaining about the price: It's pretty difficult to build a
robot that does much of anything for under ~$40. And this isn't just a robot,
it has All these pieces that communicate with each other.

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jschulenklopper
Not sure if it's suitable for children 3 year old (mine are older already),
but CS Unplugged, [http://csunplugged.org/](http://csunplugged.org/), is an
inspiring collection of free (!) learning activities teaching Computer Science
topics through games and puzzles using cards, strings and pencils and some
paper. CS concepts like binary number representation, different types of
algorithms, data compression and error detection are taught without
programming code or the use of a computer.

There's a nice write up on this in an article in the Communications of the
ACM: [http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/3/183598-reaching-a-
broad...](http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/3/183598-reaching-a-broader-
population-of-students-through-unplugged-activities/abstract).

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rfonseca
Kinderlab Robotics' Kibo Robot
([http://kinderlabrobotics.com/kibo/](http://kinderlabrobotics.com/kibo/))
also features a tangible, screen-free programming language where the
instructions are wooden blocks that kids put together in a sequence. They are
a funded startup shipping mostly to schools and museums, and the whole thing
is backed up by a long line of research first at the MIT Media Lab, and now at
Tufts. Previously, the founders created ScratchJr. Worth checking out.

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kenbellows
I love the concept of building more hands-on toys to teach STEM concepts
without requiring use of a screen, especially when dealing with kids. If
nothing else, screens are expensive; blocks of wood, less so.

I'd really like to see where this goes, some videos of kids playing with it,
some studies done to determine if the kids get out of it what the founder
(Filippo Yacob) thinks they will.

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simplexion
This is hilarious! Are they actually targetting 3 year olds? This device would
be destroyed in moments of my 3 year old getting hold of it.

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_chinchillin
Are they alternative methods of teaching logic? I myself find code drab and
cant stand it

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kozukumi
Love the idea but way too expensive. Why? I would get this for £30 maybe £40.

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cdnsteve
Sounds great except the price. $179? Ouch.

