Does your kid love STEM? We featured some really cool STEM toys in our gift guide this year, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the Sphero Mini. If your child has an interest in robotics, this is a tremendous opportunity to explore with a small but mighty robot. It is small enough to fit in your pocket, but big enough to expand your mind. You are not going to believe how cool this is!
This toy is the world’s smallest app enabled robot ball. It has a little gyroscope, accelerometer, and LED lights. There is so much you can do with this little toy. You can play with it for almost an hour before it needs to be recharged. You can use the ball as a video game controller for games on your phone that are compatible with the Sphero Mini. You can operate the Sphero Mini using only your face when you’re using the app. You can download the Sphere Edu app and make a javascript program to control the behaviour of the Sphero Mini. Coding is so cool! It’s Bluetooth connected to the phone with a range of 10m and you can re-charge it using a micro-USB. The LED lights can be set to your colour preferences. It also comes with some cute accessories! You can buy interchangeable shells to change the colour.
This has to be on of the coolest toys on the market and has endless learning applications. Your imagination is the only limit. For example, the ball could be used as an engine to move a car made of Lego. You can use it to bowl using the included bowling pins, or to slalom around the cones provided. This is the perfect gift for your STEM loving child. Have fun learning to code and roll!
Disclosure: A sample Sphero Mini was provided for review, but all opinions are our own.