Unfortunately, I overlooked the fact that we need a usb keyboard. So we can't get it up and running today. I guess it will be next weekend's project.
Anyone else heard of this thing? Played with it?
Showing posts with label Simon computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon computers. Show all posts
Sunday, March 01, 2015
Raspberry Pi….
We got a Raspberry Pi for our budding computer geek to explore. I am clueless as to what to do with this thing, but super excited to try it out. Reminds of when I first met Tom and we would spend our dates at the Computer Show & Sale or CompUSA picking out parts to add to our computers.
Monday, February 02, 2015
Simon is most definitely my computer kid.
Yes, Ben knows his way around computers fine and all, but doesn't have much of an interest in it beyond games and schoolwork. Simon takes it to a different level, wanting to understand why things do what they do. He really gets it too! He has had two Lego Club meetings… they split the time and do assignments in Scratch (scratch.mit.org) half the time and Lego projects the other half. He took off with Scratch after the first meeting. He figured out on his own how to look inside other peoples' projects and modify them for his own purposes. While his projects are still pretty rudimentary, he is definitely understanding how to make things do that he wants and he has what is certainly required of anyone who is going to work with computers -- no fear of screwing it up. He jumps right in and experiments!
We have been working SO hard to help him find his "thing"… and have been pushing this and cello since he enjoys both. We've made a huge deal about how he's really good at this, hoping it will encourage him to continue even if he gets frustrated. It has boosted his confidence a thousand-fold and I've even heard him call himself smart for the first time ever. I think he finds it a relief to be good at something other people don't know a whole lot about… even his big brother. It's one of the few things he is self-motivated to learn and practice…. so we're going with it!
A teacher friend of mine told me about another educational site called code.org. I jumped on there last night and found an activity where it walks them through ten puzzles to change and learn the code involved with making a Flappy Bird game. At the end, they get to make their own version of the game.
I didn't get very far before my computer was taken over… Tom's too. Simon was ALL OVER THIS.
Jonathan does whatever Simon does, so the two of them spent half of the SuperBowl making Flappy Bird games together.
Simon has also taken an interest recently in our Snap Circuits sets. We've had the basic one for years and all the kids love it, but have always needed help to interpret the instructions. This time, I showed Simon how to read the numbers that show the order you need to assemble for circuits and he took off with it on his own! Here he is with the first one he built by himself. This was the first project in the book.
He has since moved on and been using the basic set and the deluxe set Jonathan got for Christmas and has made TONS of projects this past week, including one with an LED display where you can change the number by removing circuits. I love watching him experiment!
It's exciting to see your kids find their gifts! :) And it's especially exciting watching Simon because he struggled so much with school for awhile there…. and also isn't interested in sports at ALL…(which puts him in the ridiculous minority among his classmates who it seems already all play four sports at age 7). We always knew his interests and strengths would be something sort of different from a lot of other kids and wondered what he would eventually gravitate toward. It's neat to see something take root and his confidence skyrocketing! :)
ETA: This came home from school today. :)
Yes, Ben knows his way around computers fine and all, but doesn't have much of an interest in it beyond games and schoolwork. Simon takes it to a different level, wanting to understand why things do what they do. He really gets it too! He has had two Lego Club meetings… they split the time and do assignments in Scratch (scratch.mit.org) half the time and Lego projects the other half. He took off with Scratch after the first meeting. He figured out on his own how to look inside other peoples' projects and modify them for his own purposes. While his projects are still pretty rudimentary, he is definitely understanding how to make things do that he wants and he has what is certainly required of anyone who is going to work with computers -- no fear of screwing it up. He jumps right in and experiments!
We have been working SO hard to help him find his "thing"… and have been pushing this and cello since he enjoys both. We've made a huge deal about how he's really good at this, hoping it will encourage him to continue even if he gets frustrated. It has boosted his confidence a thousand-fold and I've even heard him call himself smart for the first time ever. I think he finds it a relief to be good at something other people don't know a whole lot about… even his big brother. It's one of the few things he is self-motivated to learn and practice…. so we're going with it!
A teacher friend of mine told me about another educational site called code.org. I jumped on there last night and found an activity where it walks them through ten puzzles to change and learn the code involved with making a Flappy Bird game. At the end, they get to make their own version of the game.
I didn't get very far before my computer was taken over… Tom's too. Simon was ALL OVER THIS.
Jonathan does whatever Simon does, so the two of them spent half of the SuperBowl making Flappy Bird games together.
In this one, Jonathan had moved on to another puzzle game where you have to add lines of code (move forward, turn left/right) to make the red Angry Bird move to get the green Piggy. He was pretty good at it!
He has since moved on and been using the basic set and the deluxe set Jonathan got for Christmas and has made TONS of projects this past week, including one with an LED display where you can change the number by removing circuits. I love watching him experiment!
It's exciting to see your kids find their gifts! :) And it's especially exciting watching Simon because he struggled so much with school for awhile there…. and also isn't interested in sports at ALL…(which puts him in the ridiculous minority among his classmates who it seems already all play four sports at age 7). We always knew his interests and strengths would be something sort of different from a lot of other kids and wondered what he would eventually gravitate toward. It's neat to see something take root and his confidence skyrocketing! :)
ETA: This came home from school today. :)