Skip to content

My daughter and I logged on to Code.org's "Hour of Code" site tonight, and she's already made it through 8 lessons (using the Scratch interface to control an Angry Birds maze) and produced the following JavaScript:

for (var count = 0; count < 4; count++) { moveForward(); } turnLeft(); for (var count2 = 0; count2 < 5; count2++) { moveForward(); }

As a parent of an elementary-grade kid, I'm always on the lookout for ways to inspire kid-engineering: the mindset of building anything you can imagine. Here's four great ones I've come across recently:

  • The Electric Loog Guitar (Kickstarter) - electric followup to last year's popular Loog 3-String Guitar
  • The Kano Computer (Kickstarter) - Raspberry Pi-based self-assemble starter kit for kids w/ Scratch programming + games
  • LittleBits Synth Kit (link) - Self-assemble music synthesizer
  • GoldieBlox (link) - pulleys and gears kit for kids

 


Began reading J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" tonight from the 75th Anniversary hard-cover addition (covered and illustrated as it was when read to me 35 years ago). So far, the idea of a baker's dozen of uninvited dwarves arriving for tea and cake with their personal appetites, instruments, and a smoke-ring blowing wizard has been met with captivation.

In all my years of story reading, from ancient Greek mythology to talking Dr. Seussian creatures, I've never heard such a wonderful, precious, time-travelling "What happens next, daddy?".

"What do you think happens next?" I asked. Someone fell asleep before the answer got too far from "they eat more cake; the dragon is at the end..."

This is a seriously incredible story. If you did not already kind of love Carl Sagan, and think of him as a sort of benevolent hippie grandpa, you totally will now. And the message here is seriously spot-on: The best way to honor the people who help...

This is a seriously incredible story. If you did not already kind of love Carl Sagan, and think of him as a sort of benevolent hippie grandpa, you totally will now.

And the message here is seriously spot-on: The best way to honor the people who helped you realize your dreams is to help somebody else realize theirs.

Via Joanne Manaster