Common Sense Media Review
By Amanda Bindel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Fun programming logic for kids, great resources for parents.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 6+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Kodable
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 4 parent reviews
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
KODABLE follows the adventures of the Fuzz family as they adventure through space, navigating mazes, dodging asteroids, and collecting coins. To help the heroes complete their journey, kids play through levels where they solve problems with sequential steps, conditional statements, loop commands, and more. To help them get through each level and collect coins, kids use programming logic to drag and drop commands. Kids play through one level at a time, unlocking the next as they go.
Is It Any Good?
Gamified learning is a great approach for teaching the logic of programming here; the story and characters are fun and colorful and will appeal to both boys and girls. What really sets Kodable apart from other early programming apps for little ones is the materials for parents. Parents with programming experience may not need the resources, but for parents who need some help understanding loops and conditional clauses, the curriculum is a welcome bonus. The ideas on how to build programmer-thinking off-screen are nice, too. The seven-day free trial is a great way to check out whether this app is a good fit for your kids; check it out and see if it inspires them (or their parents) to dive into the language and logic of programming.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how to use Kodable together. Take advantage of the rich resources included for parents to understand what kids are doing and learning and look for ways to play through the games together.
Talk to your kids about how coding works and how people wrote the code behind the games we play and the apps we use. Who are the people working behind the scenes to make computer programs and games? How is building a game different from playing one?
Once kids have mastered Kodable, they can move on to Hopscotch and MIT's online application development tool, Scratch.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects : Math : patterns , sequences
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , logic , problem solving , strategy , thinking critically , Tech Skills : using and applying technology
- Pricing structure : Free to try (seven-day trial, then $6.99/mo., $49.99/year)
- Release date : April 30, 2020
- Genre : Education
- Publisher : SurfScore
- Version : 11.3.17
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 9.0 or later
- Last updated : May 13, 2020
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate