The easiest way to pledge to our Mochi campaign and receive your guaranteed Mochi set is by creating a Kickstarter account.

Log into your account using your email, and select a reward on the right hand side (“Rewards” tab on mobile), such as Mochi Inventor’s Kit which includes Mochi & 12 Adventure Packs for $349.

Then you can easily and securely fill in your payment information. After the campaign ends, we’ll send you an email survey to confirm the shipping details before sending Mochi your way this Christmas!

You can also go through the same process as a guest.

If you just love our campaign, we would appreciate any amount of support. Just click “Back This Project” and select the amount you would like to contribute.

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Our story books and story maps come in Adventure Packs: themed map, accessory piece, SD card with themed songs/sounds/feedback, and hardcover book.

After this campaign, we’ll continue to offer Story Packs in sets (of 1, 6, 12). The price will not be as enticing as our current prices exclusive to Kickstarter.

We want to make our price points are as accessible as possible while acknowledging the significant investments we make in creating high-quality, original content & curriculum for this age group.

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YES! We guarantee Christmas shipping delivery for our early backers.

If for any reason, Mochi does not ship your reward, we will refund your money 100%.

If you are not 100% satisfied with your Learn With Mochi experience, you can return your product within 30 days of shipping and receive a full refund, no strings attached (shipping costs excluded).

As part of our guaranteed Christmas delivery, backers of the Mochi Inventor’s Kit will receive their Robotics Kit and first 6 Story Packs ahead of December 25, 2019⁠—no matter where in the world you are. The latter 6 Story Packs will be shipped in 2020.

This is done to ensure that all backers get their Mochis for Christmas (since BIG packages are more likely to get stuck in customs during the holidays).

Thus, backers of the Inventor’s Kit can continue to expect new, exciting adventures in their mailboxes and doorsteps for both Christmas 2019 and into the new year—two times the surprise!

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Yes!

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The blueprint is a large, 100% recyclable paper poster that your child can lay across the floor for a hands-on engineering experience. When complete, children can even tape this handiwork in their rooms to show off what they’ve built! Your child is going to learn software with Mochi. Now they’ll learn the hardware side of things too—in our no-sweat, 12-step assembly experience made just for kids! Now Mochi is more than your child’s very first programming kit… it’ll be their first building experience with a blueprint too! As soon as we reach $200,000, everyone will enjoy an even richer Mochi experience for the fantastic price of FREE! Please share with your neighbors & friends, so we can gift this experience to every backer with a Mochi Robotics Kit.

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Our team has a proven track record for delivering on crowdfunding projects. When our founder Mark Pavlyukovskyy used Kickstarter to launch his first project—the Piper Computer Kit—more than four years ago, the team shipped almost 2,000 DIY computer kits to 1,300 backers around the world.

When Christmas finally arrived, they took turns sleeping around the clock so that there would always be a team member ready to answer questions, send spare parts, or troubleshoot any problems for their incredible supporters.

When you back Mochi, you can be assured you’ll receive the same dedication to customer support and exceptional product experience.

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The complete Mochi Story Library currently features 12 books: Planets, Colors, Numbers (123s), Letters (ABCs), Shapes, Animals, Words, Fruits and Vegetables, Earth, Time, Biology and Good Habits. To see snippets of each adventure, please visit our homepage at www.learnwithmochi.com, where we provide page previews from each book.

Forthcoming books in the Mochi series will include seasonal and holiday specials (Mochi’s First Birthday, A Very Mochi Christmas, Mochi’s First Day of First Grade) in addition to advanced topics such as Computers, Technology, and History.

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Mochi was originally developed to foster early childhood literacy and creative/computational thinking in our own children, ages 3-6. We’ve designed the experience so that children as young as 3 can engage in creative, self-directed play.

But even children ages 6-8 receive tremendous value from the Mochi experience, as they are just starting to read by themselves and can explore a whole world of self-reliance, discovery and engagement.

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The goal of Mochi is to foster children’s creative and cognitive abilities. That they do it through computational thinking (a highly relevant 21st-century skill) is a bonus!

After all the positive response to our first Kickstarter campaign—for a computer kit for children older than 7—we realized that children as young as 3 were able to engage and learn the basics of coding as well.

From birth to age 6, children’s constructive, creative, and motor abilities progress at an astounding rate. Exposure to high-quality learning experiences early on are particularly essential because they lay the foundation for all future personal and professional development.

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We already know that bits and bytes will be the defining building blocks of the 21st century. We also know that children love stories.

Mochi harnesses children’s innate love for stories to introduce abstract programming concepts in a fun, low-barrier way. From tactile programming blocks to auditory narration, visual feedback to functional play, everything about Mochi is designed to let curiosity lead the way.

The coding challenges encourage little learners to start seeing technology as a functional tool to enhance what they already know and love, rather than programming for programming’s sake. Along the way, our tiny tinkerers build confidence in their ability to co-create real-world stories and events.

This healthy, screenless, hands-on introduction to the technology is what we believe our youngest children need to succeed in our rapidly changing, globalizing world.

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Yes! The answer is absolutely yes—over and over and over again until we were sure we formulated the appropriate mix of hands-on, fun, guided and self-directed learning for ages 3-6.

From idea to consumer-ready product, we engaged a team of over 40 professionals across pedagogy, engineering, design, market research, and development for a full year. Mochi has been tested in every learning setting across all age groups, from toddlers to elementary school students. The product is safe, environmentally friendly, and made to last for years to come.

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Kids can absolutely play Mochi without parental guidance! We’ve designed the experience so that children as young as 3 can engage in creative, self-directed play. For example, audio blocks that read aloud each story ensure that no concept is too complicated for our children’s growing brains and curious hands.

That said—for children on the younger side—when they are first introduced to Mochi, we recommend a supervised learning experience to guide them through the foundational elements.

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Groups of up to 5 can comfortably play with one Mochi at a time.

Because Mochi is both story-based and hands-on, multiple children (or siblings, parents, or grandparents) can use Mochi together to explore different modalities of play. For optimal ownership of the learning process, however, we recommend no more than 3 children per Mochi robotics set.

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Study after study has shown that screens are extremely addictive and lead to developmental problems in young children. We created Mochi to be a screen-free, multimodal learning experience to rival the screen. This way, our children can have healthy and safe play experiences while learning the basics of coding in the process.

In addition, screenless play protects our children’s eyes. It is safe, immersive, and hands-on. Learn about the developmental effects of screen addiction on children on NPR, CNBC, The Economist, The Atlantic, NYT Parenting and The New York Times.

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The hardest part about teaching coding is breaking down abstract concepts into tangible ideas. By using physical items, Mochi is able to teach difficult and abstract ideas through simple steps you can touch and manipulate. Through thousands of hours of research, we’ve shown that physical, hands-on learning is the best way for kids 3-6 to easily understand abstract ideas.

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In developing Mochi, we thoroughly investigated the value of screen-based solutions—especially because online products are superbly cost-effective and can show infinite combinations of rewarding content.

But in the end, we chose to go 100% screen-free because there is absolutely NO evidence to suggest that digital learning is superior to hands-on, real-world, interactive inquiry-based learning. Growing minds are particularly susceptible to screen addiction, and that is no exception for ages 3-6.

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The Mochi play experience is structured to foster learning through inquiry, specifically through hands-on tinkering and DIY. Our coding-specific learning sequence is centered around the computational thinking pillars of programming, logic, and problem-solving.

Examples of coding-related skills your child will learn through our guided learning sequence include action/causality, algorithmic thinking, prediction, parallelization, functions, loops, queues and sequences, conditionals, abstraction, decomposition, debugging, automation and optimization.

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There are currently 12 books in our Mochi Story Library. The core kit comes with 1 book. However, there are 11 additional story books that teach new concepts and coding skills in ascending levels of difficulty. Topics range from colors, letters, numbers, and words, to animals, biology, and astronomy.

Our books are sold as Story Packs. Each Story Pack comes with new interactive audio files (sounds, songs, and feedback), a high-quality machine-washable fabric map, the accompanying full-color storybook, and new coding blocks that introduce additional concepts.

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Yes! All content across all books are made to be accessible to children ages 3-6. In addition, audio blocks that read aloud each story ensure that no concept is too complicated for our children’s growing brains and curious hands.

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Each book from our Mochi Story Library takes roughly 1-2 hours to finish. Kids typically spend 30 minutes on the story portion, followed by 1-1.5 hours of coding and creative playtime.

In subsequent plays from the same story pack, kids can create their own adventures and let their imaginations take them as far or near as they desire, often lasting 1-3 hours per session with siblings or in group settings. As a result, each story pack from the Mochi Story Library comprises over 20+ hours of guided and original play, for many years to come.

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Mochi does not perform the same steps in every story. In fact, we are extremely distinguished in our guided learning sequence, which serves as an open-ended curriculum to encourage creativity and exploration of specific, structured concepts.

Each book in the Mochi Story Library becomes progressively more challenging, so that early books guide children through basic movements and action/causality, while later books introduce advanced computational concepts such as loops, recursion, and parallelization.

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Mochi is designed to be an open-ended play experience with increasing levels of difficulty.

As children progress through each adventure in the Mochi Story Library, they practice computational thinking and learn coding skills such as abstraction, classification, algorithmic design, repetition, recursion, debugging, and decomposition.

Above all, Mochi aims to foster a spirit of inquiry in our young user base.

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The Montessori method is a child-centered educational approach focused on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play.

While screen-based or web-based software learning presents unlimited opportunities for scale and accessibility, nothing beats the effectiveness of hands-on, physical learning. Mochi engages all the senses to engage kids in self-directed, autonomous play and discovery.

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Yes! We are always excited to connect with educators, teachers, and childcare professionals who may be looking to incorporate a STEM-based, unplugged activity in the classroom. For more information, please contact our B2B solutions team at [email protected].

We look forward to understanding your classroom needs and working together to bring hands-on coding and screenless play to children everywhere!

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Mochi does not discriminate by providing different experiences for different users. We find through early product testing that Mochi is best enjoyed as a guided learning experience (i.e. with the assistance of an encouraging adult) for children with special needs.

In fact, we recommend all users begin with a guided experience with an adult nearby, allowing children to develop autonomy and agency to graduate to self-directed play only after they begin showing signs of initiative and a clear grasp of action/causality between the coding blocks, the programming board, and the Mochi robot.

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Not at all! Mochi bear’s robot is programmable for many things. In fact, there are literally HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of ways to help Mochi go!

Coding commands are not limited to movement either. Some are abstractions such as the concept of “starting over”, calling a function, or even engaging in a read-aloud.

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Nope! Mochi comes ready to play out of the box.

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Not yet, but we’d love to make it happen! For educators and parents who are interested in bringing locally-adapted versions to their classrooms and homes, please contact our multi-lingual, multi-national, and multi-talented team at [email protected].

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Mochi interacts with kids through real-time feedback loops.

First, kids choose their adventure from the Mochi Story Library. By following along the story, kids can receive prompts for re-enacting and re-imagining what that story would look like in real life. Next, kids can customize their Mochi bear and robot in their own image, using pre-made accessories or their own creations. Each story comes with a unique theme, so kids can decorate their Mochi to that theme.

Finally, kids re-enact this story by placing coding blocks into the control board, which tells Mochi bear where to go, what to do, and how to do it. During this phase, the Mochi robot and programming board provide interactive feedback such as songs, sounds, and observable movements on the Story Maps to encourage creative play and engagement.

The programming challenges become increasingly more difficult as kids move beyond the fundamentals of coding.

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Many products exist to address coding and computational thinking for kids, but Mochi is unique in our approach as a content-first product. At its core, Mochi is a tech-enabled learning library. We let the quality of our curriculum and Story Library lead the user experience.

99.9% of the world’s knowledge is still locked in books—much of this knowledge is not accessible to early childhood learners who can’t yet read. With Mochi, our goal is to unlock this vast library of knowledge so children can explore using hands-on code—the most universal 21st-century language.

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Although the name of our product is similar to that of the Japanese confectionary, all aspects of Mochi are designed to look playful and fun, not yummy!

All humor aside, the definitive answer is no. Hundreds of hours of initial product testing among users of all age groups indicate our coding blocks do not pose a threat to children in any way—beyond sparking their curiosity for how they work.

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Mochi runs on AA batteries, both in the programming board and the robot (Mochi’s transportation of choice). Each charge can last for up to 6-12 hours of playtime, depending on the intensity of engagement.

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There are no charging dangers to children, as there is no charging mode.

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Mochi does not come with any plugs or USB functionality. To play with Mochi, everything you need comes ready within the package itself, so parents do not need to worry about hooking up cables, plugging into the right ports, or other such technical hassles.

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Yes. Mochi’s Bluetooth system only connects between the robot and the programming board. (There is a possibility of connecting Mochi to your mobile phone or tablet to communicate with the robot, but we do not have plans to enable this feature as it defeats the purpose of screenless play.)

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Mochi uses magnetic sensors to identify blocks placed on the programming board. Read more about hall effect sensors here!

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Mochi is made of 100% sustainably sourced materials, including hypoallergenic cotton (plush), sustainably grown birch (board and robot).

After thousands of hours of user testing across all age groups, we are confident behind our statement that Mochi is extremely durable, made for years of long-lasting, memorable play.

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If you have lost or broken certain parts, or are looking for replacement parts, please contact us at [email protected]. We are happy to help!

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No. Learn With Mochi takes a strict stance on data collection: we do not do it.

Since we work with kids’ products and serve a very young age group, we are strictly committed to our users’ privacy and do not collect any data about playtime or how individuals engage with Mochi.

That said, if you would like to volunteer to provide feedback on your Mochi experience, we welcome all feedback! Please contact us at [email protected].

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Our R&D team is led by Dr. Mihran Vardanyan, an Oxford-trained astrophysicist who specializes in learning algorithms. His work focuses on applying the most effective pedagogical methods to learn advanced concepts, such as AI.

Dr. Vardanyan’s research has been cited widely in the Journal of Advanced Astronomy and the Royal Astronomical Society among others. He is also the father of three young daughters between the ages of 0-6. With his background and research leadership, you can be sure your child’s Mochi experience will be holistic, intuitive, and pedagogically sound.

From the education sphere, Daria Zhao leads product development and creative content for Mochi. A former fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, Daria has also advised The College Board and is a regional ambassador for Dartmouth Undergraduate Admissions.

Finally, we are proud to have a globally distributed, gender-balanced team representing 14 different time zones. Working out of offices around the world, our team is proud to create an inclusive, globally accessible STEM curriculum to democratize the way we teach technology.

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Sure! We love our Mochi bear and welcome any suggestions to make him even better for kids around the world.

Please send any suggestions, drawings, or comments to our Creative Director, Daria, at [email protected].

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