Any one has experience with Lego WeDO - http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/lego_education_wedo_robotics_construction_set/2096?

Esp for 4 or 5 yo with no prior robotics experience?

TIA

Can he work independently on Lego City or Lego Creator series (50-100 pieces) ? If so, then he should have no problem build the wedo robot. Operation on the computer is quite intuitive, but it took more than an hour for 6-7 yo kids in a GT class to learn all the programming and how to tweak the control parameters for different robot moves.

DS4 can build 500+ piece Lego with little assistance; hopefully, building the robot isn’t be a big issue.

I was wondering if he could handle the programming part of WeDo.

The programming part of WeDo is based on simple icons, so my DS6 figured it out very quickly. You definitely don't need any prior programming experience. Our only issue was that he wasn't very interested in most of the builds that came with the standard kit, but he was very interested in the car, ferris wheel, and crane designs that came with the expansion set that we bought soon afterwards: http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/product/lego_education_wedo_resource_sets/2273

The programming is visual block based. Just use mouse to drag the blocks together. There are motor blocks for output control and sensor blocks for input control. The instruction is short and it is much simpler than building 500+ piece lego. Most importantly, it is a trial-n-error engineering approach for all kinds of creative variations of design.

My 5 year old built that drumming monkey. He liked it a lot. Our lego store has classes for about $10. I'm going to have him do one or 2 more before I buy him a set. I'm sure a 4-5 year old could use the program even if they don't get it to do exactly what they want.

In your opinion, do you think it's worth the $200 price tag?

P.S. no lego store within 150 miles of where we live.

We just bought the Lego NXT robotics set a few months ago for our DS who is 7. He absolutely loves it! I didn't even know that the Lego WeDo existed until I just saw this post. If I knew about it I would have gotten it for him when he was about 4 or 5. I know that Lego stuff can be a bit pricey but we are always completely satisfied with their products.

Just an update.

We got DS5 WeDo for Christmas.

He spent the whole weekend buiding and rebuilding the 12 standard models. He thought it's the coolest thing that Lego can move.

This is going to form a major part of our science this year for Homeschooling. I am really excited and cannot wait to get it!