Entirely possible HS. I wouldn’t mind 6th grade, but K is definitely too early, and I think 3 is still a bit too early for an hour a night, though, both my boys adjusted.
Totally agree boys need to be running around and doing their thing in the evenings. They get wiggly in class, yelled at, and then homework dumped on them after school. Doesn’t help with the wiggles does it? Buuuuut… then there’s the chatty girls. Maybe same phenomena? Would more playdates after school = less chattiness for girls?
I am having my 8 and 12 year old start businesses this year. Got a perfect one for the 8 year old that doesn’t take up much space, he’s passionate about, and can be mailed in an envelope. The 12 year old’s has more competition and requires more design. We’ll see how that one goes.
Intend to give my 12 year old a stock account, but haven’t decided yet how much we’ll let him play with stocks. I really want him to buy and hold.
LOL! Mine are also TV addicts, BUT they are LEGO addicts too. I think I’m going to start dumping the older two’s allowance into their college fund and make them work for their LEGOs instead. HAHAHAHA! My 6 year old can have her allowance until she’s 9. Since she can start going to Techshop at age 8, that gives her one year to figure out her business. Since she’s a bit of a fashionista, maybe embroidering or silkscreening designs onto dresses or purses for girls, or she can lasercut earrings or necklaces or something.
Absolutely! Kids have to be 8 years old or older to walk past the front desk. Best way to start is to have the kids take a camp (summer, spring break, or maybe even after school camps) which gets them SBU certification for certain machines. For example, Design and Build gives certification on (I believe), the laser cutters, one of the 3D printers, and the vinyl cutter (you can make shirts, silkscreens, sticky vinyl art, etc.). They also have electronics camps for programming the Arduino.
Different age groups are allowed access to different parts of the shop:
If you have a kid interested in sewing, there isn’t a camp for that, but he/she might be able to take the SBUs (you have to pay for this separately) and then use it during Design and Build camps (but ask the front desk!).
Biggest thing is that the kids must be supervised. So if this is your cup of tea, you should take the SBUs with them or without them and get a membership + kid add on or you can pay for a day pass for the two of you. If this is NOT your cup of tea, then you’ll want to put them into camps and afterschool programs where you’re paying for an employee to do the supervision. Either way, I’d get on their mailing list so that you get announcements of specials which can save you a lot of money. Sometime in February or March, they tend to offer 20% the summer camps.
There are also “workshops” where you are making a particular thing (like a leather puppet or mask or wallet or metal rose or something). Kids don’t need to have SBU certification for workshops, but they can’t control the machine themselves unless they do. Age restrictions will apply based on the machines being used.
Awesome! My oldest one is still not quite 7 yet. So I am looking at 2018 at the earliest. But it’s something I definitely want to expose her to. She likes to do lots of arts and crafts projects.
I’m sure she’ll have a great time. Put it on your calendar to get yourself added to the mailing list in January before that summer so you can get a discount on a class.
My boys did camps summer of 2015 when they were 8 and 11, and I think the older one did an after-school session before that when he was 10 or 11 (I don’t remember exactly). At the time, parents couldn’t bring kids in until they were 12–employee supervised camps/sessions were the only option.
Then last spring, the week before the 8 year old’s spring break, they lowered that age to 8 for parents to bring kids in to the shop. So I brought the 8 year old in during spring break and we worked on one of his school projects (he was supposed to make a tree with the branches of government and a description, so I had him lasercut it out of green and brownish plastic sheets and etch the text on. Very cute!) I also had both kids make earrings and necklace pendants for their respective schools (the oldest’s school logo is really simple, so those look better than the younger’s do, but it’s still a nice project, and the kids get admiration points from their classmates ) I’ve also had them etch names on wooden pens and pencils for teacher gifts-you can buy blanks here:
I haven’t yet taken the SBU for the vinyl cutter (the kids have, but I have to as well to supervise them), but once I do, they can make their own iron-on artwork for t-shirts.
Make sure you look at a finished piece to see what the resolution is and that you’re ok with it. I have no doubt that it’ll get better as time goes on, and that this is probably better than what my kids were using at the camp last year.
I sense you will be buying a lot of sparkly 3D printer thread
) I’ve also had them etch names on wooden pens and pencils for teacher gifts-you can buy blanks here:
Make sure you look at a finished piece to see what the resolution is and that you’re ok with it. I have no doubt that it’ll get better as time goes on, and that this is probably better than what my kids were using at the camp last year.