As we get closer to the Holiday season, the task of sifting through gift ideas. There are numerous gift ideas out there to pick for the kiddos in your life. From the latest tech, to the shiny new games, there are endless options out there to choose from. This year’s holiday wish list includes the things for young coders and for those who need that spark to code.

STEM Explorers Pixel Art Challenge

For Ages 5+

At Youth Code Jam, we love pixel art challenges, and unplugged activities in general. With STEM Explorers Pixel Art Challenge, your young kids can create their own 2-D pictures as they solve more than 40 screen-free STEAM challenges. Follow coordinates, color by the number, and the coding prompts to reveal pictures animals, flowers, and more! This educational toy helps kids build essential skills including sequencing, critical thinking, and inspires early coding.

Botzees Coding Robotics - Botzees Classic

For Ages 4+

Control Botzees’ every movement, including its lights and sounds, with coding commands or controls in the app. With Botzee, your child will learn basic coding commands, such as values and loops with their interactive coding app. In the app, you will also be able to view the building process from all angles. This is just a fun toy to play with all around!

PYXEL A Coder’s Best Friend

For Ages 8+

Pyxel is a rechargeable, interactive coding robot pet that helps kids of all coder abilities to become adept at coding. Whether your child likes to use block programming or is a Python expert, they can enjoy this fun robot! To make PYXEL walk, make sounds, express emotions, and change colors, your kids will use a tablet or computer to code the robot. There are also instructions and how-to tutorials to help your child if they become a little lost or need a little help.

Elegoo Smart Robot Car Kit

For Ages 13+

The Elegoo Smart Robot Car Kit uses an Arduino board, and will help teach programming, hands-on electronics assembling and robotics to your younger and older teenagers. The robot is composed of a microcontroller, sensors, motors, LEDs, a reset button, and many pins that your kids can use for input/output. In addition, the kit also includes 24 kinds of module parts, including auto go, obstacle avoidance (via an ultrasonic sensor) and a line-tracing module (via infrared photoelectric sensor). The robot kit comes with an infrared remote control, but can also be controlled via phone/tablet (Android or iOS). This is definitely a fun one for the kids who are into building and tinkering.

Coding Board Games by Youth Code Jam

Berriables

Age Range: 7+

Berriables explores the use of variables in computer science by declaring and then actively changing them throughout play. In a computer program, a variable stores information, like a score or a value or a color. In computer science, the value of a piece of information may change during the running of a program. This game explores the use of variables by declaring and then actively changing them throughout play.

Boolean Express

Age Range: 9+

Boolean is a card game that teaches conditional logic. Logic helps computers make decisions. In this game, players will evaluate statements that contain logical and comparator operations. A Boolean value has only two possible values: true or false. In this game, you’ll evaluate the statements on the logic cards based on the playing cards drawn.