Cubetto

Cubetto+ Playset, ages 3 to 6 This is programming with nothing to read and no screen to stare at. A child lines up colored wooden blocks on a board, each block an instruction, presses the button and watches the little wooden robot carry out the plan across a map. When it ends up in the wrong place, the bug is sitting right there on the board to find and fix, which is the real lesson of coding. The catch is price: retailers list the Cubetto+ kit at close to $285, a lot for a preschool toy. It earns that for a family with more than one young child or a classroom, and the rechargeable wooden build is made to survive years of handling.