--- title: Coding For Kids: This Kids' Toy Teaches Coding description: Kickstarter's latest craze is Cubetto, a $195 robot and game system designed to spark young kids' interest in coding. Here's how it works. 1 A... canonical: https://time.com/4262506/a-kids-toy-that-teaches-coding/ author: Julie Shapiro article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-17T10:18:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:22:38.514Z article:section: Ideas og:title: See The New Kids' Toy That Teaches Coding og:description: Kickstarter's latest craze is Cubetto, a $195 robot and game system designed to spark young kids' interest in coding. Here's how it works. 1 A... og:url: https://time.com/4262506/a-kids-toy-that-teaches-coding/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95a0b1f0652a3490/69888df3cd1bba2dac7001f9/learn-to-code1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: learn-to-code og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See The New Kids' Toy That Teaches Coding twitter:description: Kickstarter's latest craze is Cubetto, a $195 robot and game system designed to spark young kids' interest in coding. Here's how it works. 1 A... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95a0b1f0652a3490/69888df3cd1bba2dac7001f9/learn-to-code1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Kids' Toy That Teaches Coding  by [Julie Shapiro](https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/)  ## Julie Shapiro Mar 17, 2016 10:18 AM UTC  Getty Images  by [Julie Shapiro](https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/)  ## Julie Shapiro Mar 17, 2016 10:18 AM UTC Kickstarter’s latest craze is Cubetto, a $195 robot and game system designed to spark young kids’ interest in coding. Here’s how it works. 1 A series of colored blocks indicate directions for Cubetto to turn or move–green for forward, red for right and yellow for left. 2 Kids place the blocks in a sequence on a control panel, which instructs Cubetto to reach specific destinations (like the mountains) on a giant map. 3 Once Cubetto moves, kids can see their “code” at work. “It makes abstract programming accessible,” says co-creator Filippo Yacob. For more on these ideas, visit time.com/ideas ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4262506/a-kids-toy-that-teaches-coding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4262506/a-kids-toy-that-teaches-coding/"},"headline":"A Kids' Toy That Teaches Coding","datePublished":"2016-03-17T10:18:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:22:38.514Z","description":"Kickstarter's latest craze is Cubetto, a $195 robot and game system designed to spark young kids' interest in coding. Here's how it works. 1 A...","url":"https://time.com/4262506/a-kids-toy-that-teaches-coding/","keywords":["genius","american genius"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95a0b1f0652a3490/69888df3cd1bba2dac7001f9/learn-to-code1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julie Shapiro","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95a0b1f0652a3490/69888df3cd1bba2dac7001f9/learn-to-code1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"learn-to-code","caption":"learn-to-code","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/genius/","name":"genius"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4262506/a-kids-toy-that-teaches-coding/","name":"A Kids' Toy That Teaches Coding"}}]}] ```