Suitability
Sphero is one of those special products which appeals to a wide age range. Little kids are captivated by the colourful flashing lights and cute behaviours. They also love being chased by the robotic ball. As they get older can start controlling Sphero with the app and getting into some of the built in games. And lastly, bigger kids can also learn to program with Sphero.
Controlling Sphero
Sphero is controlled with the free Sphero play app available for Android and IOS. The app connects via Bluetooth and lets you manoeuvre the robot by either using the virtual joystick or tilting the iPad which is more intuitive for little kids.
Sphero Behaviours
Sphero has several pre-programmed behaviours like 'Dance' - which causes it to do a floor stopping dance routine, 'Nutcracker' - which makes it imitate a little mouse, and 'Rolling Thunder' the mandatory 'Fart' action which as you can guess is a hit with the kids.
Programming Sphero
Sphero can be fully programmed using the Sphero EDU app with either it's visual scratch like blocks programming language or javascript text. You can program all aspects of its behaviour - motion, lights, sound with the ability to react to basic sensor events - crashing, freefall, landing. Its a great way to introduce kids to basic maths and physics while they play with angles, speed and simple logical contructs. What you make Sphero do is up to your imagination.