As a Dad with a 5 year old, I’m trying to find ways of helping her develop a healthy interest in science and computers. When she was around two, I introduced her to the game Robot Turtles. At first, I made lots of little sounds to keep her laughing and I made sure to count out every turn. She loved it and I thought it was fun to see her advance in little ways.

Tips for playing Robot Turtles With Your Kid

While your goal is to get your kid interested in programming, they like the closeness.

Take advantage of that by in turn, enjoying the special time with your kid. Make lots of sounds. Pretend to get things wrong and let your kid help you get them right.

The turning arrows on the cards may be confusing at first

The thing that was the hardest was helping my child understand the arrows on the cards. She wanted to move the turtles in terms of global directions, where the cards have relative directions on them. I helped her by arranging the stacks of cards on a cutting board. If she chose a card that rotated the tuttle, I rotated the entire cutting board with it. She could then see how her rotation would affect her next choice.

Kodable

Now that’s she’s 5, I tried her out on the Kodable app. She started right away and got through many levels without confusion. I credit Robot Turtles to giving her a head start.

Kodable looks to be a great resource for her. It takes Robot Turtles to a new level and actually introduces further computer science concepts. I love that I can watch her progress on the website.