How to Get Your Kids Interested in Robotics

If you want to give your kids a head start, you can set them up early with toys that emphasize building and engineering. For example, wooden blocks, Mega Blocks, Magna-Tiles and LEGO are fantastic options for introducing kids to structural support and design elements.

It’s important that you spend time playing with your kids with these new educational toys. But you should also provide them the opportunities to play independently and with other children to strengthen different aspects of your child’s skills and imagination.

While your children are working with you, they’ll learn more complex and skilled ways of using materials. When they play with other kids, they’ll have the opportunity to foster cooperation and team-building skills. And working alone will help them gain confidence in their ability and their own creative power.

Kids are naturally curious, so one of the best ways to get them interested in robotics is to expose them to media that demonstrates fun robotic possibilities. You can look for shows that feature robot-building competitions, go to robot exhibits at museums and science centers and check out social media channels that focus on robotics.

At home, include a few toys, like remote-controlled cars, that let your kids have fun with a ready-made robot. You can also find other STEM toys to encourage scientific thinking and play.

Find out if your kids are ready to start building robots themselves by getting an age-appropriate robotics kit. It’s crucial that you don’t get overly ambitious and buy something too complex for your child; their interest may wane if they feel they cannot fully understand or complete the project. You want the robotics kit to pose a challenge, but you don’t want it to feel impossible.

Use your best judgment when deciding whether you and your child will work on the kit together. If you sense your child wants more independence, give them space to try, fail and reconfigure their kits on their own.

Robotics is a growing field, and there are many opportunities for kids to learn and work together. You may be able to find robotics-centered summer camps, school robotics clubs and community robotics competitions.

If there isn’t a robotics club or competition in your area, you could try starting your own. Since many people recognize that robotics can lead to a career, it’s often possible to find sponsors for engineering activities. Local businesses or organizations might be willing to help with funding or supplies.

Remember: if you’re doing this for your kid, make sure your child shows a strong interest before your take steps to add involved robotic activities into their life.

Just like adults, kids want to feel like their achievements are truly their own. If you get too heavy-handed in pushing your children towards robotics, they will likely resist you, even if they might have been very interested at the start. No one wants to feel backed into a corner or confined by someone else’s dream.

And, if your child doesn’t show an interest in robotics, take the time to appreciate where their interests do lie. Children are inherently curious and creative, and their interests don’t need to cater clearly to a certain career path to be worth time and energy.