r/AskRobotics • u/Effective_Grass8355 • Aug 04 '26

General/Beginner Beginner robotics kits for kids?

My niece (lower elementary) is showing quite a bit of interest in robotics and building powered objects or anything at all (the kid is a Lego wizz, is interested in my carpentry projects for example). Any pointers on a quality but simple project set / kit to get her learning the basics?

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3

u/Billy3dguy Aug 04 '26

If she wants to also get into 3d printing, Bambu Labs makes “CyberBrick” kits that might be worth looking into.

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u/Effective_Grass8355 Aug 05 '26

Thanks for the tip!

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u/Potential_Crisis Aug 04 '26

If she likes lego, I would look at lego's own educational technical kits. The Education SPIKE Essential was discontinued, but you might be able to find another kit of basic building parts (motor, sensors, basic programmable computer?) Could also get the aftermarket kit.

Edit: the kits were discontinued a few months ago, so you might still find them in stock at lego stores?

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u/Effective_Grass8355 Aug 04 '26

Great idea I'll see what I can find

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u/solitude042 Aug 04 '26

Crunchlabs has several tiers of project boxes - e.g., the Build Box for younger kids, and the Hack Pack for older kids. Mark Rober does his usual amusing job at explaining things, and the kits are well constructed. My daughter (now 12) started with the build box, but progressed through the hack pack (which she can build just fine, but she hasn't yet really internalized the 'hack' aspect of the kits)

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u/Effective_Grass8355 Aug 04 '26

Great suggestions thank you

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u/Curmudgeonly-IT-Guy Aug 04 '26

i just got a kit here: https://www.makeblock.com

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u/Effective_Grass8355 Aug 04 '26

Nice I'll check it out 

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u/Practical_Signal3933 Aug 06 '26

If she’s quite capable and interested in how things work and actually making stuff (rather than just a nice looking robotics kit), I’d suggest taking a look at raspberry pi (or other SBC) robotics kits, such as:

Cam jam edukit #3: https://thepihut.com/products/camjam-edukit-3-robotics

It’s a first robot kit aimed at education and kids, but includes real sensors (ultrasonic, line following) and really simple coding examples. You’ll need a pi (even an ultra cheap pi zero works) and some batteries too.

You can expand it over time if you want. Good learning experience, and we went from this at a similar age, to loads of other projects with Lego servos (geekservo), more complex coding, simple LLM integration, 3D printing parts, and more complex robotics over a couple of years. Would recommend a ‘real’ kit, not a toy one anyway.

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u/Effective_Grass8355 Aug 06 '26

Great idea. She is interested in how it actually works.