A long, long time ago, I registered both kids for the Silicon Valley Code Camp Kids’ sessions. Unfortunately, Cameron had woken up with pink eye the day before and even though she expressed great interest in going, when Sunday morning rolled around, she was just too wiped out to want to go. Dylan, on the other hand, was up by 6am and ready to go by the time I woke up!
So, the two of us trucked over to Foothill College in Los Altos (near Stanford University) for a 9:15am session on the Raspberry Pi.
This was the only session we were going to be able to make it to given that we had 2 birthday parties (and an Ikea delivery) on the calendar as well. I almost decided to ditch the whole event (we’d spend more time on the road than in a session), but Dylan was extremely eager and so I’m glad we went. He is always such a joy to hang out with–so many interesting observations, so much enthusiasm-and it was nice to have some one-on-one time with him.
In the car, we talked about observing everything, Stanford (how it is an older and beautiful campus), the Google and Yahoo founders (who are all Stanford grads) and UC Santa Cruz.
The session itself was an hour and 45 minutes long! But, the time passed in a blink of an eye. We paired up with a 12-year old girl who was both very polite and equally interested. The kids set up the external monitor, logged in, edited a prepared program and watched their changes appear on the screen.
I just bought a portable laptop desk for Dylan and Cameron to use at home–it’s very small and can be rolled around and even lowered down to fit beneath my own little kitchen desk. I’m hoping this will provide more spontaneous opportunities for them to get on a computer and experiment. And, as I may have mentioned before, it is not a hope or an expectation that any of our kids will be software engineers (or engineers of any kind), but it is my hope that they do understand that computers can be creative tools as well.
I am hoping to register them again next year and I hope Cameron will be able to make it! As it was, I think the Pi session would have been too much for her to sit through this year anyway….
