Tag: parenting
-
Blocking YouTube on the Home Network, With Claude
A long-standing thing at home: the kids who come over to play with my eleven-year-old bring devices, and they default to YouTube rather than actually playing together. Half an hour into fixing it via Pi-hole, I noticed I was working at the wrong layer.
-
Four Quick Links for Tuesday
Elmer Fudd loses his gun, African tales streamed from home by Unicorn Theatre, the Hive Pocket board game, and teaming up in Minecraft Dungeons.
-
Origami Foxes
Recording an origami fox tutorial for Tanooki's schoolmates during lockdown - tying into the maths topic on symmetry with a fun hands-on activity.
-
Don't Squish the Fish
Resuming morning notes during the UK lockdown - finding regularity and sanity in small routines while juggling three kids learning from home.
-
Spies in Disguise
A fun family cinema trip over the Christmas holidays - Will Smith and Tom Holland find non-lethal ways to save the world, and morning notes resume for the new year.
-
A New Spin on Playing Pokemon
Inventing simplified Pokemon card game rules with role-playing dice - teaching maths, scorekeeping, and managing bedtime expectations through creative gameplay.
-
Apple Watch Tickle Detector
Inventing a bedtime routine hack using the Apple Watch flashlight as a 'tickle detector' with three states - standby, scanning, and error mode.
-
Parenting with Old Technology
Using an old iPod Classic, iPlayer downloads and a conversion pipeline to give a toddler screen-free entertainment — without resorting to burning CDs like it's the late nineties.
-
Listening: Bryant Oden
Discovering the huge body of work behind 'The Duck Song' - Bryant Oden's Songdrops albums are packed with brilliant sing-along songs for pre-schoolers.
-
Adventure Time
Collecting Adventure Time comics with Tanooki - the outstanding 'Choose Your Own Adventure Time' storyline and reading aloud with questionable Lemongrab impressions.
-
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch)
A charming co-op game for the Nintendo Switch that's perfect for playing with kids - text-heavy dialogue, no time limits, and genuinely fun for adults too.
-
Brushing Teeth with Hey Duggee
Using the Hey Duggee toothbrushing song as a parenting hack to make brushing teeth fun.
-
Google Assistant and Porn Blocking on Raspberry Pi
Building a Google AIY Voice Kit with a three-year-old, then using Pi-Hole to block ads and inappropriate content across the entire home network.
-
Cooking With Link
How Zelda: Breath of the Wild inspired my son to get interested in real-world cooking through in-game recipes.
-
Distracting Kids with Mixed Reality
Using augmented reality apps to distract a poorly kid who was having trouble moving his neck.
-
Planetary Dev Log #1
Exploring low-barrier VR and AR experiences for kids, from Google Cardboard to WebVR experiments.
-
Raspberry Pi Pirate Radio
Broadcasting music and read-along stories to a Fisher Price radio over FM using a Raspberry Pi. A fun weekend project for controlling what your kids listen to.