Tiger Parent Alert: Summer math program?….

[CA renter]

It’s easy to fall out of it because life gets busy and there are always excuses. I think a lot of us really have to push ourselves to exercise.

[cvmom]

We also have a requirement that the kids do at least one sport. I think it is working/has worked, older kid really seems to have the value of exercise internalized and now does on his own.

[moneymaker]

If one doesn’t have the money for instruction and still want to give child math skills, just download Mathematica 9.0, free for 30 days. Might be particularly useful to kids that want to build robots.

[NotCranky]

[quote=moneymaker]If one doesn’t have the money for instruction and still want to give child math skills, just download Mathematica 9.0, free for 30 days. Might be particularly useful to kids that want to build robots.[/quote]
Back on this thread and missed that post, thanks, we will lool into it, the robotic connection is interesting.

[NotCranky]

My oldest kid(12) is in OCD mode with the iPad and laptop. I have restricted his time and he has been sneaking on. My wife correctly wants to let him use it more this summer, but have it be guided into more constructive hours. Left to his own he will spend all day on games.

So she found “scratch”, anyone familiar with it? Any other self guided programs that have some merit? https://scratch.mit.edu/info/faq/

He also has his own Mind Storm robot, so we have been letting him find sites to work with that.

[Coronita]

[quote=Blogstar]My oldest kid(12) is in OCD mode with the iPad and laptop. I have restricted his time and he has been sneaking on. My wife correctly wants to let him use it more this summer, but have it be guided into more constructive hours. Left to his own he will spend all day on games.

So she found “scratch”, anyone familiar with it? Any other self guided programs that have some merit? https://scratch.mit.edu/info/faq/

He also has his own Mind Storm robot, so we have been letting him find sites to work with that.[/quote]

Yes, actually I started to try to get my 9 year old using scratch… It’s not that easy for a 9 year old, but there’s plenty of exercises on it.

Also, supposedly, there are folks that run Scratch on a Raspberry Pi, and can use it to control hardware over GPIO, but I haven’t investigated much into that.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

RGB-LED Lesson 2 (Scratch GPIO) – Getting Started

You or your wife or both might need to spend some time to figure stuff out yourself, but I think there are plenty of internet stuff available to guide you through it…

You can buy a raspberry pi from amazon. It will set you back about $30-50.

My kid has a hard time just “programming” without seeing/touching something physical, which is why I wanted to get get the hardware stuff working….(It’s on my todo list…)

The other thing I was thinking about was getting a programable drone. (Ok, maybe I’m just making an excuse for myself to get one one)

[NotCranky]

Scratch looks interesting , Flu. My second grader said that scratch was used in the “code” class some of his classmates took after school. He had heard about the bubble factory from them. Anyway all three boys have accounts and we goof around talking about our “technology club”.

I think we will get the raspberry pi 2. If we can’t do a lot with it on our own, my kid has little techie friends whose families have careers in computer tech. We can get cues from them. Just want to get the kids hands and mind’s on this stuff now.

You probably know this, The “redstone” operations in mine craft are pretty good. Lot of logic / control circuits. Not too bad for “games”.
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Redstone_circuits

[nla]

My daughter discovered hopscotch. It’s an Ipad app for kids that interested in learning how to program. It’s very basic though but it can be fun for a 8 to 10 years old kid.

[Author]

Posts