With Christmas fast approaching, everyone seems to be thinking along the same lines. What can I get for my child for Christmas that’s not just fun

to play with but also has great educational value?

That’s why we’ve tested out the best educational coding toys out there and put together this guide.

1. Cozmo by Anki: £179.99 (Currently £129.99 on Amazon)

The Cozmo is super cute as a toy but super powerful too. He expresses feelings and emotions, has artificial intelligence built in, and he also recognises faces! The Cozmo App allows you to interact with the Cozmo in lots of fun ways. You can play games with him, feed him, tune him up etc., but the fun doesn’t end there. If you go to the Code Lab module of the app, you’re able to program the Cozmo too. Even very young children are able to work in the “sandbox mode”. For slightly older children, the “constructor mode” offers lots to challenge their intellectual curiosity. The true power of the Cozmo can be unleashed with the developer kit in the SDK mode.

2. Osmo Coding Family Games: Awbie and Jam (currently £99 on Apple)

This is a set of two games, Awbie and Jam (and you can play a third game called Duo by combining the first two). You could, of course, buy these individually as well. Both games require the Osmo base, which is sold separately. You would have to have an iPad to go with it too. What we love about these games is the beautiful, tactile pieces. We’ve used Osmo’s other games as well, but the cardboard pieces seemed to be a bit of a let down. These, however, feel substantial and also quite beautiful. They do say ages 5-12 but they work just as well with younger children who have an adult guiding them.

3. Lego Boost/ Lego WeDo 2.0 

I think Lego Boost is quite cool, and a lot of fun at home. You can easily buy it from a Lego store. My personal favourite would have to be WeDo 2.0 though, as it is aimed specifically at the educational market and the possibilities of what you can creat with it are endless.. I am a mechanical engineer myself and