Lightbot Jr : Coding Puzzles for Ages 4+

It is an introductory programming game to teach a little kid understanding the concept of coding. We first did the free version-Lightbot code hour. It took him a while to understand the concepts. After he learned it, he asked more levels to play. I purchased both versions, Lightbot and Lightbot Jr. My 4 year old passed all levels in Jr. by himself in one hour. I am pretty amazed that he really learned the conceptsq and mastered the skills in new levels. The lightbot is more advanced for him. I like that since it will keep him busy quite a good amount of time.

This is an astonishingly awesome little game that does an amazing job teaching young children how to program. It is straight-out accessible to 1st grade but still fun in 4th grade. The only complaints you will hear from the kids is that they'll cry if it's over. The best part is that the app found very clever levels that slowly grow in complexity while illustrating well what the commands do. The game also isn't mad at you if your program made a mistake. Quite the contrary. Kids will find it entertaining to try out what happens when they program the robot to do silly things that don't solve the challenge. The only suggestion to the app developers is that they really should think of ways of prolonging the fun. More levels? A second round were you get bonus points for shorter programs? A third round where the robot fails if it runs a command that doesn't work?

I volunteer in my 1st and 3rd graders classrooms once a week teaching computer programming and this app is wonderful. The best part of it, compared to other apps/websites, is that it encourages testing because it doesn't frown or tell you are wrong when you run an incomplete program. I was impressed that the 1st graders were able to work through all the puzzles up until loops (still not sure if teaching loops as recursion is the most applicable and/or ideal). The other nice thing is that it is easy to use in the classroom where kids just grab a random ipad because there are unlocked puzzles at each level group, so they can mostly remember where they were and pick up from there and you don't have to fuss with logins, passwords, saving, etc.

I bought and loaded this for my son on 3 Dec 15. It would load the splash screen and play about 8 bars of music before shutting down the program. I reloaded with no luck. Save your money.

Go buy Lightbot. That one starts at the same basic level as this one, but takes the concepts farther than this one. There is just no need for this app. If you don't want to get into conditionals and such, it is better to have that option! Unnecessary app.

I teach 5th grade students python and use this game as a primer to teach problem solving. The iPad game has a lot more content than the flash game and it steps up the difficulty at a much friendlier pace (for students) than the other lightbot games on the market!

Did not engage my 6 year old. She played for only a minute or two before losing interest. You set up sequences of commands for a robot to light some squares and then play them to see if it works. This is not much in rewards for success or guidance for failure and many very similar levels. Good if your child finds the problem interesting, but many in the target age range will not.

A terrific app that my 4+ year old daughter and I have played with every night since we downloaded it. A total win.