Sunday afternoon I took the kids to
Tampa Hackerspace for Kid's Open Make Day. It was our first time going to one of those events. (I had taken Isaac to an event on Tuesday night a couple weeks ago, but this was open especially for kids.) They had a shelf full of things that the kids could do.
Isaac picked out a building kit and decided to build a crane. It took about 3 hours to build it and I think he was a little disappointed that he didn't get one of the electronic kits, but I think it was still fun and a good learning experience for him.
While I was helping Isaac, I bounced back and forth some to help out Janai with the projects that she picked out. The first one was a knitting machine - she made a sleeve out of yarn which she was able to take home. Maybe next time she'll make a matching one for her other arm. She also played with a couple electronic kits, including
LittleBits which were neat little magnetic pieces that would snap together in various ways to make a quick electronic gadget like a hand buzzer or a little flag waving machine.
We also checked out some of the other things that people were doing with the 3D printers there. One guy was actually printing out parts for his own 3D printer and he said that the design is big enough to be able to print out a duplicate of itself. I'm definitely getting more interested in the gadgets that are being put together at the Tampa Hackerspace.
