We were kindly gifted this Pixel Kit by Kano for purpose of review (currently on sale for $49.99 on their website). All opinions and images are our own and completely genuine.
Coding can be such an exciting experience for kids, but it can also be a frustrating one. My 5 year old loves teaming up with his Dad to learn how all things computer work. He really does have an inquisitive mind when it comes to STEM learning and that is something I definitely want to support. We were really excited to receive this Pixel Kit from Kano as I felt it was a kid-friendly way to enjoy coding. It didn't disappoint!
The product comes nicely packaged with an awesome instruction manual.
The instructions given are so clear and well illustrated that my 5 year old was able to build the Pixel Kit independently. What a great way to start, he was so proud of his creation and couldn't wait to get it all lit up!
The look on his face when he turned it on and saw all the pixels lighting up! I love that the product enabled him to be so involved in the building of the actual unit!
He spent some time just exploring all of the different functions and buttons. He was so excited to see the lights change pattern and color.
Then we worked our way through the manual, testing out the various modes. My son's absolute favorite was the Sound Visualizer. Making noise causes the pixels to change color and it also creates different patterns on the unit. He thought it was awesome to sing and bang the table, causing a pretty epic light show! So cool!
Other modes include Perlin Noise which maps the sound into a cool light display, and Particle Flow which involved using the joy stick to control a flow of lights which were also based on sound.
You also have the option to switch the unit to Game mode. We were even able to share our childhood classics such as Snake and Breakout! It was so much fun playing Snake with all the different color pixels. Dad was struggling to share at this point!
As if that wasn't enough, it was then time to get hooked up to the laptop and explore the coding activities through the Kano app. This obviously required some support from Dad, but we were really impressed with how kid-friendly the whole process was. You start off by setting up a profile and getting the unit hooked up.
Then the app walks you through a series of simple coding challenges. Once again, Kano have done a great job of making these tasks fun, engaging and achievable for kids. My son easily gets frustrated when he doesn't understand an activity, but that didn't happen at all.
The coding works with a simple drag and drop system. As you code on the laptop, the actions occur on the pixel unit. This instant cause and effect was such a motivator for my little guy. The first challenge was simply learning how to get the pixels to light up and playing around with the colors. The learning was so hands-on!
Another great little part of this product is the way it kept my son motivated. After each coding challenge he was awarded points and would progress to the next level. For younger learners this is a really nice touch.
One coding challenge that my son enjoyed was the bouncy ball animation. The app walked him through how to make the different frames and he thought he was pretty special having made his own bouncy ball animation on the pixel unit!
Unsurprisingly he wanted to go back to a challenge which involved the microphone and him getting to make lots of noise! For this one he had to set volume limits and choose colors for these limits. When he made a certain amount of noise the pixel unit would flash a different color. Let's just say things got pretty noisy!!
We are all genuinely very impressed with this product. For my son it was exciting, educational and unique. His Dad loves all things computers and coding and was really impressed with the design and quality of it all, especially how clear the instructions were for building the unit and carrying out the coding challenges. For me I was happy to see my son getting such a huge sense of achievement from a STEM activity. He was able to get a good understanding of how coding works, and got a great grasp of the link between actions on the computer and outcomes on the unit. And this was achieved with a reasonably priced product which will grow with his skillset over the years to come. Winner!
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