A Kano ‘Build your own computer’ Review!

When I was approached to review a Kano ‘build your own computer’ kit’, I was super intrigued. It looked pretty awesome and after doing some research on the product I was super excited for it to be delivered. We live in a digital age and I felt this kit would give my children a pretty awesome foundation for Computer science not only now at the ages of 6yrs & 9yrs, but when they get into secondary school too. I think any program around coding for kids is amazing. In this day & age, it is a skill that I would highly recommend. 

Coding for Kids

First things first…What is Kano? It’s basically a computer and YOU build it. Crazy right! You build your kano computer up piece by piece {much like lego!} and it’s so simple even my 6 & 9yr old children could assemble it. In fact….they did!!

Pop over to the Kano Website to see what everything in your box is, and find out on a super cool {and quite cute} scrolling tutorial of how everything fits together.

The Raspberry Pi {otherwise known as the Motherboard} is so small & lightweight. It’s SUPER powerful too and the kids loved referring to it as the ‘brain of Kano!‘.

Kano is so easy to set up!

You follow…{or in our case, the kids} the very simple and very well laid out visual instructions of how to assemble the computer. Ellie & Jacob both enjoyed {and thought they had levelled up in techno-land} after they assembled the ‘brain’ and speaker into what is the central part of what would soon be, their kano computers.

Now we needed to get her connected up to the internet with the use of the magic wand’ of the Kano kit. The wireless keyboard.

We had to use our TV in the front room due to none of the PC monitors in the house being compatible with an HDMI cable. So if you to purchase a kano kit make sure your PC monitor or TV can have an HDMI port.

Ellie {9yrs} took charge and followed the string of instructions to set up the computer to the internet. She’s a clever girl and with simple set-up instructions. Once the Motherboard was made and plugged in, Kano started talking and giving further instructions.

Creating code with Kano

Ellie started from the start and decided to make her way through the Draw section of the Kano computer. This was super exciting and my partner & I thought it was VERY clever.

I literally just left Ellie to it, she was so engrossed that I even caught her getting herself a wee note book and pen to jot things down in her own little book of coding’.

Ellie has only dipped her toes into the Kano world and before she knows it she will be able to program her own games, change features and so.much.more! It’s pretty exciting!

This coding for kids Kano kit is actually A-mazing. It truly is. For kids in this day & age, I am going to say EVERY household needs one of these, as you will be paving a path for your kids that will set them up for their very computer focused futures. Seriously. 

It’s only £119.99 too!! Absolute bargain for something like this. Fun and educational, a combination that I will always be a fan of.

PIN IT FOR LATER!

You can find out more about Kano by clicking here and checking out their Facebook & Twitter.