Display screen-free coding: the xylophone maze

My youngster is 3 years outdated. I used to be in search of a sport that we may play collectively and can be her first programming-like exercise. I wasn’t eager to show her something particularly however quite provide her the choice to discover what coding or algorithmic considering tasted like (equally once you would give your youngster a sheet of paper, brush, and paint to play with). I evaluated some pc sport choices however I needed to seek out screen-free, unplugged options, particularly since she has not been used to work together with a pc or display in any respect.

There are a lot of attention-grabbing screenless coding robots on the market too, however I used to be imagining constructing one thing from the supplies we had at dwelling as an alternative of buying a separate toy. Then I stumbled upon the concepts of coding a Lego maze and the coding card game which gave me the concept for inventing the xylophone maze.
Assist papa discover her daughter
You’ll construct a Lego Duplo maze, place papa and her daughter on the far ends, and assist papa discover her daughter by following the directions performed on the xylophone.
The sport is for at least 2 gamers, will be performed from fairly an early age (2-3), and will be tweaked to make it difficult for older children, even adults, too.
All you want is a xylophone with coloured bars, a bunch of Duplo blocks, a board and two figures. The colours of the Duplo blocks must match the colours of the xylophone bars.

Directions
- One participant must take the position of the robotic. They’ll play the papa who’s in search of her daughter.
- The opposite participant, aka programmer, performs the xylophone.
- The programmer can instruct the robotic by hitting one of many coloured bars. The robotic then strikes to one of many neighbouring blocks which have the matching colour. The programmer should be cautious to play a observe that may be a legitimate possibility. The robotic can solely transfer one block at a time.
- As soon as papa reaches her daughter, gamers can change roles.
The problem will be simply adjusted to the wants and pursuits of the gamers. Listed here are some concepts:
- The xylophone bar will be performed a number of instances to assist the robotic determine which block comes subsequent.
- You’ll be able to add roadblocks and Duplo blocks with colours that don’t exist on the xylophone to create detours.
- You’ll be able to create a music (“Twinkle twinkle”) by purposefully inserting the blocks for the way in which out.
- The robotic should not have a look at what colour bar was hit however quite fastidiously hearken to the sound solely.
- There will be extra robotic gamers launched. Not all strikes will make sense to each of them, let’s see who reaches the top block first!