Evidently Fingerlings are what a 5yo wants
A late birthday gift arrived for Maggie the other day, one of the Fingerlings. I’d heard the name before but never knew what they were until a couple of days ago.
For those not in the know Fingerlings are little sensor-laden robo pet that kids can’t seem to get enough of.
This thing has audio sensors, multiple tactile sensors, a gyroscope as far as I can tell. It can tell when you’re petting it, holding it, rocking it, blowing on it, and respond. And it’s not left Maggie’s side since she got it and renamed it from Kiki to Zoey.
Maggie know what this was from YouTube Kids I think. She knew the basics of operation and the only thing I gathered from the manual she didn’t seem to know was the blowing it a kiss.
It’s fascinated her so much she’s been asking me about the sensors, speakers, how one would go about modifying it to make it louder, and now wants to disassemble the thing. I’ve attempted to discourage the disassembly until we can locate someone with a dead fingerling who wants to donate it to us as I don’t think we’ll get it back together.
I don’t think I’ve seen a toy more suited to fostering an interest in robotics than this, and it’s not marketed as such. It does have her asking questions though. Maybe it’s just my kiddo.
I’ve only been annoyed by it once, and this involved it not shutting up when on a table. The kids kept kicking the table so it kept chirping away with its Fingerlings monkey laugh.
Maggie’s mad her Fingerling “Zoey” a bed and sleeps next to it at night. She turns it off so it will save battery, although I think probably it’s not using any power when it shuts down, who knows. We’ve discussed that when those batteries go I’ll have to get some more, but we’ll hold off on ordering them until the Fingerling doesn’t work.
